I Need You..

Chapter 13

Pia 

"Hi'', it wasn't a long and musical 'Hi' that Pia always said. She could not bring herself to smile or talk. She could barely meet Rishi's eyes. The eyes that looked at her with expectations. Her exam didn't go as well as she had expected it to be. IIT seemed far away. She knew Rishi would get worried. "Hey! What happened? And how are you? Ah! We are meeting after a month! I missed you!" Rishi said, as he hugged her. They were standing in the corridor of B.S. Public School, which was their centre for the board exams. They had their chemistry examination within 30 mins. Pia did not talk to him after the entrance exam, she did not know what was about to happen and how he or her family members would react If they got to know about the mess she made. "Hey! Where are you lost? Are you nervous for the chemistry exam? Don't be!! I am sure you would have prepared well. Just trust yourself. Okay?" Rishi said as he held her by her shoulder. "Yes, okay" she replied. 

The bell rang and it was time for them to sit according to the seating arrangement "All the best! Bye!" "All the best, Rishi," Pia said with a weak smile. She sat on her bench, and after 15 mins, the question paper was distributed. She looked into it, the first question was easy, she knew it, the second was easy too, the third.. the fourth.. the fifth.. 'Australia!' Pia went blank, all she could think of now, was the fact that there was no possible way to stop her parents. That she would be in a different continent next month. That she would be alone, again. That she would lose the only friend she had. And that, nothing was going to be okay after this. "Hello!? Where are you looking? Focus on the question paper!" The invigilator's voice interrupted her. "Yes, sir, sorry!" She said, and tried to focus on the sheet in front of her. 

After a thousand failed attempts to concentrate on the exam, and 3 hours of continuous mental torture that she gave herself. She felt a little relieved as she exited the examination hall. She sighed and looked around, and saw Rishi standing with the question paper in his hand. He had a huge grin, which made it obvious his paper went well. "Rishi, come let's go out!" She said, grabbed his hand and pulled him. 

Rishi 

Rishi saw the wiggly ponytail after months! And it was no less than a beautiful sight for him. He could be pulled like this to anywhere in the world, and he would not say a word. She took him outside the school building and made him stand facing her. "My exam didn't go well..." "Oh! It's okay! Don't worry.. just focus on the next exam, moreover you know you are weak at chemistry! So.. it's fine. Don't be sad." "The entrance exam Rishi... it.. didn't go well..." Pia's eyes started welling up, she was looking at the ground, "I don't want to go.. Rishi... please... do something..." She looked up at him, he stood with a blank face. "I texted you that day, you said... It was good." "I lied to you... and to Dad as well... I just could not bring myself to tell you. I am sorry! I am so sorry Rishi!" Pia said, with some sobs in between. 

"Pia.. as I said earlier. You should go to Australia. You had a chance to prove yourself, and you ruined it. So just accept it!" Rishi turned and started moving in the direction of his bicycle. "Rishi.. I am sorry! But don't say that.. Rishi! Stop! Talk to me once!" Pia ran behind him, but he did not look back even once. He sat on his cycle and paddled his way back home. 

While he was cycling, Pia's words rang inside his head. 'She'll go to Australia!' Not meeting her in the past month, not being able to have a long and heartfelt conversation with her, not being able to listen to songs sitting next to her, not being able to dive deep into her beautiful eyes, not having her around, killed him. He had been surviving all these days, just by the thought that she would perform well in the entrance exam, and find a good college in India itself. She had told him that her paper went well, which gave him hopes, but the fact that she had been lying all this while, scrunched his heart! He felt annoyed.