Playing Her Lover

Part 8 - The Outing

CW: Mild homophobia

Indu was frustrated that day. After all the efforts she had put into her English essay, she realised that she had forgotten it at home, and Archana ma'am would not believe her when she said that she was done with it. She was scolded for 15 minutes straight, and though it was in hushed tones, the whole class knew what was happening, and Sameera had heard every single word of it. She was sitting there, silently smirking at the creative jabs that Archana ma'am came up with. All in all, Indu was happy when the period ended.

Lunch break did not give Indu a break either. Somehow, she found herself in the middle of Siddhu and Swara, with Mirzab right in front of her. Their incessant chatter gave little room to breathe. Even the usually shy Swara was speaking a little, though the two deeper voices dominated most of the noise. Siddhu had practically tried to lift Indu and drag her to lunch with them, completely disregarding his small 165 cm (5'5) stature.

"We've been sitting together for the past one week, I have no idea why we didn't do this earlier, like, this is FUN!" Mirzab was telling her, oblivious to the uncomfortable smile Indu had put on. Just then, the bright sun was suddenly covered by grey clouds, and the gods unleashed the rain. All four stared in amazement for a second, before shrugging it off. This was Bengaluru after all.

"It would have been amazing if we had access to the coffee room ka microwave. We could have had hot hot food in the rain" Swara lamented. The three others strongly seconded that opinion. "They should have one for the students too - at least in the canteen!" Siddhu said. "If not hot food, at least we'll enjoy with ice cream today" Mirzab was rubbing his hands together with a devilish grin on his face. Completely exhausted by what was, for her, five years' worth of socialization, Indu trudged to the Chemistry lab.

Even greater a horror waited for her there. They were doing their experiment in pairs. Lady Luck felt like she was at the other end of the universe - Indu and Sameera were the only ones left without partners. Sameera didn't put any effort into the experiment, busy staring into space. Indu was a hair's breadth away from going completely ballistic on Sameera and pulling that cute little ponytail completely apart. Thankfully the bell rang right away as Indu was about to pull her metaphorical sword out.

When the final bell rang, Indu could not be more thankful. She hoped that the ice cream that she would stuff herself with would provide some comfort. She walked onto Swara's bus and saw that the back seats had already been occupied by Sameera, Swara and Siddhu. They beckoned to her, but she winced in apology and sat on the first bench.
"She never sits in the back seat, don't worry. Her anti-social self can't ever handle too much." Sameera scoffed. She wondered why she got the urge to console Swara and Siddhu a little when she saw their faces drooping. Mirzab entered the bus, his marshmallow aura preceding him by miles. He stopped at Indu's seat and was pestering her to come to the back seat. Swara beckoned to him and gestured to stop from afar. Her principal thought was that the poor thing might have had a rough day, letting her recuperate.

The journey went smoothly, which was quite a rare thing in Swara's bus. They typically travelled by a different bus, and that one was so worn out, that the yellow outside had begun to completely peel off. They had had to stop and board BMTC buses and travel by other routes several times before. The bus stopped around a kilometre away from Swara's house. After Siddhu was done violently shaking Indu, who had fallen asleep during the journey, all got down.

"So we'll go to my house, change our dresses and then leave for Corner House?" Swara asked the group. Indu's eyes widened, and her hand went to slap her forehead - she hadn't brought anything to change into. Mirzab quickly opened the last zip in his backpack and revealed an extra set of clothes that he had brought with him.
"I always come prepared!" He proudly declared. Swara's head swerved sharply towards Mirzab, she stared for a second and allowed herself a small giggle.