I'LL LOVE TO BE LOVED

THE HATRED

Aaditya set the GPS and we reached five minutes late.
  “Akul could have simply mentioned Arora’s mansion than explaining the address in five lines.” Aaditya complained in frustration. I laughed at him and looked out. That amazed me. All we saw was a huge gate with a path leading inside lined by beautiful flowers on the either side. We went inside and I was surprised to see what stood in front of me. Aaditya wasn’t kidding on the Mansion part. It was so beautiful, perfect architecture, one of the examples of modern marvel. The walls had the perfect balance of stone and wooden facade. Big glass windows that glistened under the sun and white shining tiles that made it difficult to walk as I feared leaving a foot mark.
The housekeeper greeted us as we were busy admiring the interiors, the floor, the chandeliers, the big windows, the paintings, the antiques, perfect furnishings, I was loving them all. The house keeper led us to the glass room and we found all our band members inside practicing the song. All seemed like a meme artist just with stuffs in their hands. And then I spotted Vihaan adjusting the mic stand and my heart was automatically filled with hatred. I was busy cursing him that I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and found Akul behind me with that amazing smile on his face. He greeted us with simple but sweet words, “You are late.”
 

“I don’t think those were sweet words Shravya. And besides Vihaan strictly asked you be there at sharp at 11.” Nikit interrupted Shravya in between of her story. She replied back with a big smile, “It was sweet back then.”
  “But seriously how you didn’t know the guy you had a crush on was so rich?” Nikit asked. Shravya giggled and replied, “I know right?”
  “So what happened next? You became the victim of Vihaan’s anger again?” Nikit asked.
Shravya continued her story.

I was dumbstruck to see Akul in front of me. Aahana shook his hands while I was still staring at him. He raised his hand to me. But my nervousness stood in front of me again. I left his hand stranded in the mid air after saying, “I know I am late.” Which sounded rude.
  “Okay. Everyone’s waiting. Let’s go.” He spoke and we all went in. Vihaan didn’t even look at us and spoke, “Let’s start now.”
I stood next to him and he explained me the music of the song. I had to sing first verse and chorus then his verse, our chorus, bridge was his part and at last our chorus again. That was all. I was really excited to sing the song.
  “Start, 1, 2, 3 and go.” Vihaan spoke. The music started and I got goose bumps. They sounded great. Vihaan gestured me to start so I followed his command. I didn’t even complete my verse that he shouted, “Don’t touch the piano.” I looked around and made sure he wasn’t shouting at me.
  “What? Why?” Aahana questioned him.
  “Akul don’t want that.” Vihaan spoke running to her and shielded the piano from her. Aahana’s eyes widen in shock. Akul too looked puzzled.
  “Why didn’t he shout then?” Aahana questioned.
  “I’m the leader here and it is my duty to see everyone follows the landlord’s orders. You would have known this if reached here in time.” Vihaan spoke with dagger eyes.
  “Yeah. It’s like closer to my parents heart. Last gift from grandparents. So please avoid touching it.” Akul spoke as if making up an excuse. Aahana nodded.
  “And you, will you mind singing a bit louder please. You are going to sing in front of the whole crowd and with this voice I wonder even the people in the front rows will able to hear you or not.” He yelled at me. Whosoever committed mistake I was the free target to be scolded. We started again. This time I smoothly completed my part and was waiting for him to start his part. He started, luring all my attention on him. That time I seriously felt why he was called as the rock star of our school. His voice worked as magic to calm my mind. His eyes were closed and he was feeling every word of the song. I was looking at him adoringly that he opened his eyes and pointed at his throat. I looked at him figuring out the problem that he yelled again, “STOP.”
I was still thinking what was my fault that he glared at me and shouted, “What is wrong with you?”
  “Huh! What did I do now?” I questioned in an arguing mode.
  “I don’t know what you did but I do know what you didn’t do, you missed our chorus. We have to sing the second chorus together and I made that very clear from the start but you are lost in your own world.”
I realized my mistake but accepting it in front of Vihaan wasn’t my cup of tea so my ego intervened and I replied, “It happens with everyone, one can forget stuff. Wait, it happens with humans but not with you, VIHAAN THE GREAT, you are God right?”
  “You want me to grab your neck again, don’t you?” I stared at him furiously and was going to reply that Reyansh spoke, “Enough of fights for today. Break time.”
  “Anything to get away from this psycho girl.” Vihaan commented and triggered my fight mode on.
  “You are psycho and rude and mean.” I shouted.
  “Yes I am and you especially bring that out of me, FAKE BRAVE.”
  “Fake Brave? Really. Listen Vi-ha-an............”
  “Nobody listens nothing and nobody says anything. Both of you opposite corners now.” Akul ordered. Both me and Vihaan shared a furious look and moved to the opposite corners. Our fights were unstoppable but when it came to signing he was unbeatable. I used to love his singing but hated him as a person. My rating for him degraded from hate to loathe. And finally the audition day was here.
We all were excited but mostly nervous. Selections were on and our band had to perform at last. Vihaan and me were asked to stand at opposite corners to avoid any fight. I was listening to the other band and knew our selection is for sure. And my instincts were right we were selected. All were happy but challenge was yet to come. We were celebrating our selection that principal and the music teacher came to us and said, “You’ve got a whole week to practice. Competition’s on Sunday, so work hard students.”
All was perfect till here but then he added, “Are the rest songs prepared?”
Oh yeah! That was a bummer. We all shared a horror look cause we had a hard time coming with a single song. I experienced my nearly death experience for that one performance and he was asking us about the remaining songs.
  “Remaining songs? How much, ‘rest' are we talking about sir?” Vineet asked.
  “At least two more. We can’t perform just one song in the competition. It’s about school's reputation. We believe in you guys. You have time, work on the songs together. We’ll judge your final performance on Saturday. Good luck" Teacher announced and walked out.
Within a second our celebration turned to stress.
  “Two more songs in 4 days. It’s a terrible situation.” Reyansh spoke.
  “This is really bad. They should’ve told us earlier.” Aahana added. Everyone were stressed including me but Vihaan was quiet, standing at corner thinking hard. Everyone were discussing over this that he spoke, “Okay band I know this is hard but we can work this out. We have 4 days if we exclude today but why to do so. Come on we can stay after school for an hour and work on our song and it’s music.”
All supported Vihaan but the problem was again the same we had to work together. He looked at me with irritation so I glared back at him.
  “What?” I questioned.
  “Only if we had a pre written song that unfortunately we can’t have because of some stupid reason that we are unaware of, troubles would have decreased.”
I knew he was talking about my song.
  “I’m not giving my song.”
  “Please, guys don’t start again.” Akul pleaded.
  “FYI, I wasn’t asking you to give your song.” Vihaan spoke.
  “You were talking about it.”
  “So what, I have my rights and don’t forget it’s not your song.” Vihaan argued.
  “I don’t care. I’ll write a new one.”
  “Oh hell you will. And I’m not helping.” He spoke back.
  “But its two songs. I thought.....” He didn't let me complete.
  “Think, but about songs, nothing else.” He spoke and went out with his team leaving Akul and Aahana with me. I looked at Aahana, she winked at me and moved out. I was thinking of the reason for her action that I found Akul standing behind me.
  “Stressed?” he asked and once again nervousness engulfed me. And I froze. He waited for my answer for some time and spoke at last, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
  “What?” I asked.
  “Shravya, do you hate me?” he asked and my mind shouted ‘No silly I like you, a lot.’ But I shook my head in disagreement instead.
  “Then why you never talk to me like you do with everyone?”
My heart was smiling really big thinking that he cared about me.
  “No, I just.....I just....I just...I have to go.” I spoke and ran out without noticing his reaction. And I was dying to know what was he thinking. We started working on our songs. Two days later I was ready with one song and all liked it but still I had to write another song.
Vihaan was grinning at me while I was struggling to write something. Whole band was working on the music while I was sitting at a corner supervised by Vihaan standing at the other corner. I was busy cursing him that I didn’t realize when he stood next to me, looking at my empty page.
  “So bad, not even a single word.” He commented.
  “Listen, I don’t have time to fight okay and I don’t want to waste other’s time also. So go back to your corner.”
  “Fake brave trying to be brave again?”
  “Will you stop calling me that?”
  “Not in this life.” He grinned.
  “Wish I was allowed to kill you right now.” I spoke with hatred.
  “Really? Just for your information, I am not scared of you. You are scared of me. Fake brave.” I was seriously irritated. My brain was not working and addition to that Vihaan was seriously annoying me.
  “Stop calling me that.” I shouted.
  “I won’t. Do whatever you want, I won’t stop.”
  “Seriously guys? In situation like this?” Aahana interrupted.
  “He is annoying me.” I defended myself.
  “Oh seriously I am annoying you. That’s how I felt when you refused to perform that stupid song of yours.”
  “That song’s not stupid okay. You are.”
  “Come on everyone know you are stupid enough to hide that in your diary even when we all need it.” He shouted.
  “Seriously? You need my stupid song to maintain school’s reputation. Bravo! Mr. Vihaan Arora.” I clapped my hands.
  “It’s not your song okay?”
  “Why it is troubling you. It’s not yours either.”
  “Well chorus is mine.” He spoke and then was shocking enough to dumbstruck me. I was lost for a sec and then I looked at Akul and he nodded in Vihaan's support. Then I remembered Akul scribbling the words of the chorus and Vihaan just giving a quick glance and grinning. I looked at Akul again with disappointment and then I quickly realized he never lied about writing the chorus by himself it was just my thought.
  “I seriously feel we can make a daily soap featuring you two. Can we focus on what we are actually here for?” Vineet commented.
  “Here I have the last song. I wrote it already.” Vihaan took out some sheets from his pocket and I got the idea he was just messing with me earlier when I was trying so hard to write the song. He looked at me and grinned. But that wasn’t annoying anymore I was shocked. I turned the pages of my diary and read the chorus again which was perfect for my song. And that was seriously troubling me.
We prepared hard and were approved by our teachers. A day before the competition I handed the passes to my family and ordered them to attend the function. Competition was to start at 6:00 pm but we had to reach the venue at 11:00 am and get ready there. We were informed that the drama club and the dance club both won the competition held a day prior, so stress was there but we were confident too.
On the day of the competition I was waiting for Aahana that Aadi asked, “Nervous?” I nodded and expected him to motivate me.
  “Well you should.” He spoke and turned his attention to television.
  “That’s all you have to say?”
  “Shh. Watching T.V here.” He spoke his eyes glued to television.
  “Hey Shrav, ‘sup Aadi?” Aahana entered.
  “Oh hey Aahana. Looking good.” Aadi spoke switching the television off.
  “And me?” I asked.
  “So, What are you playing?” he asked Aahana, completely ignoring me.
  “Nothing. I am the manger and king of technician. My work is to arrange mics and instruments and see that everything goes perfectly.”
Aadi looked at me with a questioning look.
  “Let’s go.” Dad spoke. Aadi wished us luck and soon we reached the destination. Whole band was already there and we were late again. Vihaan didn’t scold us and that was cool. We all went to the room allotted to us. We practiced for one last time in the auditorium where competition was suppose to held. That day Vihaan was acting strange. He didn’t speak a single word except about the competition and was frequently checking his phone. Later we all got dressed.
Aahana asked me what I was wearing and I remember myself answering black jeans and white shirt. We all had decided to include black in our dress code. Aahana gave me ‘I knew it’ look and took out a short blue dress with black sequin jacket from her bag which were mine.
  “What are my clothes doing in your bag, girl?” I asked.
  “I knew it you’ll dress like a nerd, which you are, so don’t ask me when I took this beautiful dress from your cupboard, just wear it. I’ve got the perfect accessories to go with it and yes, these heeled boots with look awesome. Make up is my responsibility. Girl, I am making you a pop star today. Trust me.” I was looking at her with a pinch of anger cause I hated what she was saying but in the end I lost to her and when she was all done I was not able to recognize myself. I mean not in a bad way but in a very good way. I was so excited to show my look to everyone but especially Akul.
We both got ready and went out to make sure everyone else was ready as well. All boys walked out of room and were looking awesome. And then, Akul came out. Black jeans, white T-shirt, white canvas and a black leather jacket. He was totally rocking the style. I was literally staring at him with my mouth partly open. He was adjusting the bands in his wrist and I was loving the swag. He looked up at me and spoke, “You’re...looking awesome. I mean you normally look good but today you seem different.” That made my day. I was smiling really big. I was just nodding on whatever he was saying. We all were busy complementing each other that Vihaan entered from the opposite end of the hallway today engrossed in texting and the best part was, he wasn’t ready.
  “Where were you Vihaan?” Akul asked him and that definitely startled him.
  “What?” he asked. He was seriously lost that day.
  “Vihaan, competition will start in 30 minutes.” Akul explained.
  “Yeah! I’m sorry. Give me 10 minutes I’ll be ready.” He spoke. Accidentally his eyes fell on me. He looked at me for a while and then spoke in hurry, “You look different. And it’s not a compliment. You know what I mean right? Joker.” He went away without giving me a chance to reply. Well soon the competition started. We were up against 7 teams and our performance was second last. We were backstage along with the rest of the bands waiting for Vihaan that I remembered I forgot my phone in the room itself so I ran towards the room but found Vihaan still standing in the hallway talking to someone. Well lucky for me he was facing his back towards me. I wanted to kick him hard for calling me joker earlier but his talks deviated me. He was definitely talking to his mom. All I heard was..
..But it’s important for me please.
....Mom you promised please come for an hour.
...it’s so not fair.
...yeah I can understand. You are so good at explaining everything. I always understand. Thanks for picking up my call and talking to me.
I knew his mom was saying something but he disconnected the call and slammed his fist on the wall, from my past experience that was terrifying enough for me and I got the idea that he was in anger. But the thing that was making me curious was that he was crying that day. I saw him wiping his tears. His mom was not attending the function, that was a problem but it’s not a strong reason to cry, at least for a guy who didn’t care about anything. Well he went in the room and I was curious to know why was he behaving like that.
First band was performing and still there was no sign of Vihaan.