PALLAVI WASN’T SURE why she was hell-bent on figuring out a way to help Atharva with his little problem at the dance club. The fix was easy. It could be spelled out in a few sentences and packaged as quick advice but the issue was finding the right way to convey it to him without letting him know she knew.

It must be subtle but also get him thinking.

She glanced at him. He was seated next to her, scribbling in his notebook as Professor Catherine talked about the biology of emotions.

Atharva’s hand paused and he met her gaze sideways. He brought his mechanical pencil to her notebook and wrote in his lean handwriting, You like my face, Shankar?

Pallavi rolled her eyes and swatted his hand away from her desk.

Last week, the class was asked to make groups of six for their second assignment of the semester. Surya and Yohan had immediately hurried to them, asking if they would like to join their team.

Surya was a technical genius, Yohan was keen on details and Atharva was a pain in the ass but hey, they fit better with their team than anybody else in the class. So, the girls had agreed. They sat together during the hour they were given to brainstorm, which continued till break time. They hadn’t bothered to move their seats back. Hours passed, days passed and the seating arrangement slowly grew into the new normal.

Now, Surya sat next to Rishika. Kritvi and Yohan sat on either side of them. In front of them sat Atharva and Pallavi, heading the group.

Pallavi had thrown a fit when Atharva had ‘accidentally’ knocked into her with his long legs but both refused to switch seats. He had snapped at her when she had smacked his ear while raising her hand to answer a question. ‘You move!’ and ‘No, you move!’ went back and forth between them like an unyielding ping-pong ball.

Their friends intervened the first time. They sighed the second time. Since the third time, they’ve been completely ignoring them.

Atharva and Pallavi gave in and accepted their fate. Not too happily, though.

Atharva’s pencil returned to her notebook. Whenever he scribbled notes, he didn’t do it in the page corners like a civil person. He wrote the message right in the centre of the blank page like the arrogant idiot he was. Should we really go to this meeting? he wrote.

No, you can quit being the assistant class rep instead, she wrote back.

So clever, aren’t you?

She risked a glance at him and found a smile teasing his lips.

Pallavi, for a moment, got lost in him.

His hair had grown since the first day she met him. It reached his nape now and she thought it didn’t suit him as much. There was a fading acne mark just a little diagonal to his left ear. He must have shaved that morning because under the sunlight that filtered in through the window, he looked shiny like a lucky penny on the street.

He was infuriatingly handsome. She didn’t really understand why the worst men were given the best looks. Was it a test? To make people choose between the both?

And she wasn’t even counting his rare blue eyes yet!

As if he heard her mind, he turned to her. Pallavi couldn’t avert her eyes in time. Their gazes met.

Those damn blue eyes. That citrusy perfume of his invading her senses. It whisked her away from the plain classroom and dropped her in a sunny beach, her heart at peace as she watched the clear blue waves crashing against the shore while sipping her iced lemonade. It was a portal. Sometimes it took her to a warm place and sometimes to an icy forest. It really depended on his mood.

Someone kicked her legs from behind.

Pallavi tore her gaze away from him and directed it at Rishika, purposefully ignoring the fact that she got carried away by Atharva like a girl in his fan club. What? she mouthed.

Her friend grabbed her shoulders and turned her back to face the class. That’s when she saw Professor Catherine looking at her.

“Pallavi, is everything okay?” Professor Catherine asked. “You seem strangely distracted.”

“No, ma’am,” she squeaked, embarrassment eating her. She could still feel the heat of Atharva’s gaze on her. She knocked her elbows into his, making his face that had been cradled in his palm slip.  “I’m just not feeling very well. I’m sorry, ma’am!”

The professor advised her to go visit the nurse later and take care of herself better. The class proceeded like it had never been interrupted but she couldn’t get over the shame of being caught red-handed doing something she really shouldn’t. What the fuck was wrong with her?

So you do like my face, Atharva wrote.

Shut up, blue eyes, she wrote back, breaking the tip of her pencil during it. She moved to the other corner of her seat as far away from the devil next to her.

Pallavi had been worrying about how to help him for too long now. Clever of Vybhav to pass on the burden to her. Now, it was all that ran in her head. So much to the point that she had begun staring at him like a fool in class.

Pallavi needed to put an end to this.

Atharva and Pallavi walked to V S Hall, where the rules regarding the science fest happening during the month end were to be briefed to all student office members. They could just forward a PDF in the Whatsapp group but of course, they would rather waste their time and organise a meeting.

That wasn’t even the worst part. It was the fact that Atharva and Pallavi were stuck together for an hour.

Why, god, just why, she cursed as she dragged her feet towards the hall.

“How are you keeping up?” Atharva asked.

“Great, as always. Not that it’s any of your concern,” she said.

“As always?” he snorted. “Sure. Surya told me that you looked like a ghost the other day. I warned you that you were heading towards burnout. Do you even realise how thin you’ve become?

“When did you become my Mom?” she mock gasped.

He rolled his eyes. Even that looked hot (what the fuck?). “Don’t become a skeleton, Shankar. You’re already hard to look at,” he said.

“You don’t talk about ugly faces, you creepy robot,” she shot back. “Yours is like the plainest, most boring face ever. It’s like you were born in a math lab.”

“Is that so? I wonder if that’s why you couldn’t stop staring,” he said.

She shoved his shoulder, scowling.

He staggered sideways but let out a crisp laugh and joined her again. “I was just concerned, Shankar. If you’re not functioning well, I will have to do all your work too. I’d rather not, you know. I have plenty on my plate already.”

“I’m okay,” she said. “Cried some days because 24 hours didn’t feel enough but otherwise I’m doing good. I wasn’t at a point, but I caught myself and worked out a schedule. Thanks for your warning, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“That’s as much as you get from me.”

He shook his head, making wisps of black hair to fall on his forehead. “I can’t tell if you hate me or love me, Shankar.”

She paused. He paused too. “Hate,” she said, assuring him with a palm on his arm and a confident smile. “There’s no doubt about it. Trust me. Pure unadulterated hatred.”

“Sure,” he said, letting out a noisy breath as if she’d made a joke and walked on.

Then, an idea flared inside her head.

“But,” she said and he turned his head, eyebrow arching, “Since you helped me with advice that I never asked for, I owe you one. Ask me. Do you want expert advice on anything? I’m kind of an all-rounder.”

“No, thank you.”

She pinched his shirt sleeve between her fingertips. “I insist. I don’t like owing people anything. Especially you.”

“Yes, you only like being owed to, I know,” he said. “But you do owe me for that library incident or should I remind you?”

Pallavi grimaced at the reminder. “You owe me too,” she said. “But let me at least clear one of my debts. I’m sure there must be something troubling you. Or does your pretty face win you favours everywhere?”

He smirked and leaned towards her. She took a step back. “I thought I had the most boring face,” he said.

“Paradoxes exist.” Pallavi poked him away from her.

“You’re not making sense, Shankar. Are you really smart? Or did you cheat on your tests?”

“Shut up, blue eyes. I’m offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive my advice. I don’t offer it for free,” she said. “Oh, wait. You said Ignis Squad was not what you expected it to be! Why?”

He narrowed her eyes at her.

“Is this enough proof of my excellent memory?” she said, her chin tipped in victory. “Or should I revisit all the subjects I beat you in the last exam?”

“If you’re so clever, answer this. What’s the best way to shut you up? Duct Tape or Super glue?”

“Why don’t you try it and find out?” she sneered.

“Maybe I will,” he said, taunting her with his blue stupid gaze.

Oh, she hated him. Despised him. She could tear him into pieces. Burn holes in his favourite black t-shirt. Grow stubborn fungus in his precious dance shoes.

She fisted her anger in control and tried to calm herself. She had an objective. She can’t afford to miss this opportunity.

She waved him off. “Last chance, blue eyes.”

“Is that what you’re calling me now?” he drawled.

“Why? Do you like it?”

He gave her a blank look.

“Good. I was worried you’ll like it and I have to find something else you’ll despise,” she said. “It’s only fair.”

“You don’t like your father’s name?”

“It’s not mine,” she hissed. “Don’t change the topic. We have time. Tell me how I can be of help.”

“For now, maybe try to stop following me around or staring at me in the classroom. It’s getting creepy.”

She raised her hand, about to hit him when a professor walked past them. “What’s going on here?” He asked.

Pallavi laughed nervously and brought her hand down onto Atharva’s shoulder. “I was just telling him I’m so grateful for him, Sir. He’s my assistant class representative. We are going to the meeting.”

The professor looked at Atharva, concerned as if he was a pitiful victim of peer violence. “Is that true?”

“Of course, sir,” Pallavi said.

“I didn’t ask you.”

Pallavi dug her nails into Atharva’s shoulder. He glanced at her and she dared him to accuse her. “It’s true, sir. She was just thanking me for being such a massive help. She can’t survive without me.”

The professor gave her a doubtful look but asked them to stop loitering around and get to the meeting hall soon. Pallavi and Atharva shut their mouths and walked straight to the hall.

“I hate you,” she whispered as he held the door open for her.

“How surprising.”

They entered the hall and Pallavi felt defeated. Her plan didn’t work. She had clearly overestimated their capability to have a civil conversation.

The hall had already filled up. They were only a few seats left. Pallavi found two spots and was about to sit her ass down when Atharva grabbed her arm so tight. “What now?” she hissed.

“I don’t want to sit in the corner,” he whined.

“Such a baby,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes and letting him take the seat between her and some other guy.

The meeting went on and on that even Pallavi began feeling her eyes droop. She had seen the other class representatives take down notes in their laptops and regretted not bringing her notebook. But even then, all the rules explained were self-explanatory. There was nothing ground-breaking.

She looked to the front row. Two people were playing chess in their laptops. In the parallel section, a couple of them were using their phones. Some were playing tic-tac-toe. God, she really wished she would’ve thought to bring a notebook. At least she would have picked a fight with Atharva and killed some time.

She glanced at him and found him sneaked his phone out. He was watching some dance reel on mute and the reel kept playing over and over again. Pallavi reached over and swiped up. The reel changed. A guy sat in front of his PC and talked about five must-watch animes this season. Atharva too? He thought Rishika was the only anime nerd around her. If Rishika knew he was the least bit interested in her world, she would adopt him as her disciple.

Atharva scrolled. Pallavi scrolled. They sat very still. It was only their heads that were slightly dipped to the side so they could watch the videos together.

Pallavi would see a corny video and like the reel for him. He would swat her hand away and unlike it. The next video popped up and with it but little did they know it would become their nightmare.

Atharva grinned at the video and tipped the phone to her side so she could watch it. It was a clip of a girl speaking with dramatic hand gestures. In yellow font, it was captioned ‘that one know-it-all girl in class who can’t shut up’. Pallavi found the suggestive smile on Atharva’s face irritating so she tried snatching the phone from his hands.

Tried.

Instead, Pallavi pressed the volume button.

A rat-like squeaky chatter in fast-forward erupted in the hall, making the Vice Principal go silent mid-speech and all heads turn towards them.

Atharva quickly locked his phone and slid it in his jeans. But the damage had been done.

All eyes were on them. Hushed giggles. Curious whispers.

A familiar pair of blue eyes locked on them.

“Stand up,” the Vice Principal’s voice rang in the hall.

If Pallavi had the option to take cold showers for the rest of her life instead, she would’ve gladly agreed. Because that hell seemed more predictable and certain than the hell she’d knocked the gates of.

Pallavi and Atharva stood up.

The Vice Principal assessed her but he lingered on his son, jaws clenching tighter.

Atharva opened his mouth but maybe she thought he would make things worse for them, or answer in the arrogant I’m-not-bothered-by-anything voice again so Pallavi found his hand and squeezed it tight, interrupting him.

“It was an accident, sir,” she said. “But it’s a fault of ours. We are very sorry.”

“Both of you,” he said, his blue eyes cold. “Meet me in my office after the meeting.”

She looked at Atharva, hoping he’d look at her the same way he did in the library. Don’t worry. I’ll handle it, she prayed his eyes would say. Afterall, it was his father. He must be able to get them off the hook.

But he was pale as a sheet, his palm in hers suddenly slippery with sweat.  

Pallavi’s heart sank.

Bye, bye, freedom, a quiet voice in her brain sang.

a/n:  i promise i didn't neglect this story. i just got a full-time hectic job. *cries in poor time management skills*