Paakhi

F O U R T E E N

Vandana eyed herself in the mirror with her heart beating in her chest. Letting out a nervous sigh, she pulled out a kajal from her bag. She had a feeling it would look good with the kurti she had donned today, but Heer; her friend seemed to think otherwise,

"Kurti and kajal? Seriously, Vandana?" she called out, "You're going to the beach with him, you could've worn jeans or something!"

Vandana let out a shrug, "I didn't know we were going to the beach, he just messaged me a while back about it."

Heer shook her head with a sigh, "Come on Vandana, you don't want him to think you're not into him, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...make some effort for him." She explained with an animated wave of her hands, "You want to borrow something from me? I might have a backup top or something in my locker."

Vandana had stopped being amused with Heer's diametrically opposite priorities and outlook to life ages ago, she and Heer could not have been any more different than they already were. While Vandana had always chosen her academics and been focussed on building up her resume, Heer had been busy participating in the college nukkads; often skipping lectures for weeks at a stretch. She had never admitted to it out loud, but the only reason she had joined this nukkad group had been to pursue this hot and attractive Sardar named Karanveer Dhillon pursuing his masters.

After her obvious and sustained efforts towards gaining some attention from the senior; who had only just started taking notice of her; how Heer managed to cram up notes at the very last minute and pass in the exams was something beyond Vandana.

But they had been friends from their very first day in college, and in their own way, they had both learnt not to judge the other's preferences.

"No, I'm good." Vandana informed her, and Heer did not push her further.

After applying the kajal to the water-lines of her eyes, Vandana applied a touch of lipstick and sprayed just a little bit of perfume along her neck. She and Shantanu would always exchange a hug when they would meet; which...wasn't very often; but she thought smelling fresh and fragrant would be a nice little touch to that quick hug.

Vandana had stopped being ashamed of admitting to herself that she truly enjoyed Shantanu's company, and those few moments of proximity they shared.

When she was satisfied with her look; she bid Heer goodbye; and rushed out to the main entrance of the campus. She eyed her watch and sighed; she was five minutes early; would he find it weird?

Oh what the hell. Why must a guy always wait?

She had just concluded her thoughts, when she found an auto pull up before her. Shantanu gripped the narrow, steel bar of the vehicle as he popped his head out and smiled,

"Hi, I'm early, aren't I?"

Vandana couldn't help but grin, "So am I."

Shantanu too studied his watch; before commenting, "Great. We get to spend an extra three minutes."

Shaking her head with amusement, Vandana slid next to him in the auto. Shaan looked beyond excited as he rummaged through his black, Adidas bag. A few seconds later, he pulled out two sheets of paper,

"I took a printout especially to show you." He beamed, and Vandana curiously grabbed the papers from his hand.

One sheet of paper held about twenty five numbers written one after another and the other paper, was clearly an Admit Card. It was Shaan's Admit Card.