BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN: CHAPTER 5, MORNING SICKNESS(11 YEARS BACK)

in continuation to BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN: CHAPTER 4, I HAVE A HERO.DO YOU?

It was 7:45 am. Early morning and her old school was half empty.she had left this school and her friends  after eighth standard. Her dad was transferred to Bareilly. Since then she hadn’t had a chance to meet any of them.Though she had maintained a regular contact with her 2 best friends- Astha and Shruti and very surprisingly and coincidently- Ridhaan Vashisht through gmail and orkut.

Ridhaan had secretly noted her email-id from her diary on her last day.though he was unaware that Kavya was about to leave school. It was later that he discovered that Kavya had gone to Bareilly. Since then they had constantly maintained contact through mails and orkut.And it turned out that Ridhaan Vashisht was a gaiety as a friend.She had ,in someway taken a liking to him.

Kavya stood near Astha’s class talking to her old class mate Shrishti. She hadn’t informed either Astha or Shruti  that she would be coming to meet them.She had planned a surprise.

A boy , with his school bag on his shoulders turned around the corner of corridor.His gait seemed recognisable but somehow Kavya could not identify that person.

‘must be a new student.’ She thought.

He was walking towards her. His shiny jet black hair were falling over his forehand.He was tall and had breath taking physique.he looked at her with surprised eyes and nodded.

RIDHAAN! It was Ridhaan! How could she not recognize him?

 She smiled but he merely nodded and moved on.She felt distracted and hurt. Hasn’t he recognized her? How could that be possible? They had just had chat 2 days before!

She continued to speak to shrishti. Many other friends of her arrived in next minute and surrounded her but not Astha.after few minutes, Ridhaan came back, walking in his jhoom-like way. He came and paused his frame beside shrishti. This time, Kavya ignored him. Attitude! He was constantly observing her from the corner of his eyes. After few seconds, he stooped low to the level of shrishti and took out a strange sound from his throat near her ear.

“hey Ridhaan! Stop it”, shrishti mocked pushing him away. He laughed .

“why? Scared of abhijeet?” Ridhaan teased.

The sound of his voice aroused a strange sensation in her stomach. His voice was mature now. Different! like that of a man.

“is he doing a nautanki or he has a throat problem?” Kavya whispered to shrishti instinctively.

“why?” shrishti looked surprised by such question.

“he talks like this only?”

“yes”

After that Kavya had a hard time ,trying to keep her eyes under  control. Each time Ridhaan will speak, her eyes will automatically get fixed on his adam’s apple. As if trying to figure out , from where he is taking out this sound.

They both talked to same person but never to each other and stole glances in each other’s directions. Ego problem!

After five minutes , Astha arrived. She was over herself when she saw Kavya. She literally hopped to the place where Kavya stood.

“hii” they both hugged each other.

“why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” astha complained.

“it wasn’t final until today morning.” She explained. Astha pouted.

“you are so much changed yaar.long hair. I can’t describe how overwhelming I am at this moment!”

“you too! but keep yourself under control. I don’t want to be responsible for your heart attack.” Kavya teased.

Ridhaan and other friends of her, stayed around her only. Kavya badly wanted to start a conversation with Ridhaan but restrained herself. Her ego always came in her way .besides he didn’t say anything either. May be because they weren’t any friends when they were classmates and he did not wanted anyone to know about their friendship in school. It was unusual on Kavya part as well to be friends with Ridhaan Vashisht when they hadn’t ever spoken properly to each other face to face.

When shruti came, she didn’t exposed much of her emotions but she expressed briefly how much this meant to her. Kavya loved her.

It was 8:15 am, time for school assembly and Kavya had no idea where time flew by.She had thought about a lot to do once she meets her old friends. But all the pre-plans were forgotten.In that half an hour she did not get a chance to speak to Astha and Shruti privately and above all Ridhaan Vashisht’s attitude had captured her attention.He was watching her like he hadn’t seen her ever before. But not speaking.

“why you deleted your orkut account?” finally Ridhaan asked her directly. He was referring to her orkut account that she had created barely 4 months ago and deleted 2 days back due to her oncoming exams.

This once again sent shivers down her spine.She considered this for few seconds . “long tale, tell you sometime on gmail.”

Ridhaan nodded. Just then Abhishek came and whispered something in his ear and they both left together. Without a bye!

Soon Kavya said bye to all her friends and hugged them. It was time to leave. It was the most beautiful, wanting and dreamlike morning of her life. Though she and Ridhaan had not shared a conversation of more than a line directly, still the only thing that overwhelmed her about morning was seeing Ridhaan. She didn’t realize it at that time. His eyes, hair, smile, way of walking and everything about him clung to her head like a drug for next few months. She came back to Bareilly whole way smiling to herself.

 

“he is so tall now and he still had his tie loose. Waoo!” Kavya whispered to Suvercha in class. Sydney ma’am was explaining structure of stomata in detail.  Kavya was not in the least interested in understanding stomata. She was playing rewind button in her head since morning. Ridhaan, Ridhaan and Ridhaan. He was the only topic of discussion among their group since morning. Kavya mimicked his walk twice in morning. Not even a minute passed when she would not discuss a thing about Ridhaan with her group.All girls of her little group smiled to themselves.

“no wonder! He was such a astonishing player of Lawn Tennis.when he use to play a shot…….waoo…! so energetic!” Kavya went on.

Suvercha sat in silence, only nodding to Kavya from time to time.

“you like Ridhaan?” suvercha asked suddenly. Kavya gasped and looked at Suvercha.

“no way yaar! No. he is just a friend.” 

But this one statement drowned her thoughts.

‘Does she like him? Ridhaan Vashisht, whom she had always hated for being a flirt, overconfident moron and  attention seeking nut. Can she really like him? But he was always handsome , capable of causing sensation among girls.He is nice person to talk to. Understanding, Possessive, caring,helping, intelligent and humourous. ’ Kavya pondered for next five minutes.

Soon bell rang .

“yes. Yes, I like him!” Kavya declared to Suvercha.

TO BE CONTINUED..............