Playing Her Lover

Part 10 - Two Worlds

Swara had returned from her evening out. After freshening up, Swara reluctantly put her head on the glossy white table and pulled a textbook towards her. She opened it on a random page and read the heading - "Formation of A Company". Head still on the table, she read the first page. Vaguely, she made sense of the words on the page. Then she smiled, her mind wandering. "This much is enough," she whispered to herself. Her mind was filled with moments from that evening. She had been pushed out of her cocoon this time. It usually was extremely depleting when in the company of her commerce friends, to the point where she constantly made excuses about not being to come. She pulled her phone out, and immediately changed her wallpaper to a picture they had taken that day.

She pressed the contacts app and took a few deep breaths. 'It's okay, you are close enough to call him. Siddhu won't mind if you call. If anything, he'll give his usual puppy squeal,' she calmly told herself before pressing that number on her dialer. Her heartbeat picked up the pace exponentially, especially since she had never called any of her new friends before. 'It's okay if he doesn't pick up. It's okay if he doesn't pick up. It's okay if he -'

"HEYYYYY!!! SWARA!!!"

Swara jumped from her seat and almost threw her phone away at the shout.

"Swara, what happened?!" she could hear her father from the hall.

"Nothing ma! Just my friend!!" She called back to her father and turned back to her phone

"Hey Siddhu, am I calling at an awkward time?"

"No No, don't you worry - I barely study properly anyways!"

"Liar! Mirzab told me about your first unit test marks! You get full marks in Economics? Economics?!! How on earth does that happen?"

"Hehe..." Siddhu giggled. "So, how come you're calling me today? Mirzab was busy?"

"Nah, just felt like calling you only" Swara reassured him.

"Aah... I got it. You feel too intimidated to call up Mirzab, right?"

"Pfft! Mirzab and intimidating? How do make that connection?" Swara laughed, but her voice gave her away.

"AHA! I don't know a lot of things, but I recognise emotions like the back of my hand!!" Swara could hear him thumping his pillow in victory and a distant shout from his mother for that.

"Rama Rama, there's nothing like that going on between me and Mirzab...."

"Yet." Siddhu guffawed. Swara sighed in exasperation.

"So... Do you want to know anything about him?" Siddhu asked, in a sly voice

"What?! No!! I want to talk to you! I'll find out about him from him only!"

"Ooooh, healthy communication! Siddhu, you have chosen wisely!" He said the last line in a deep voice, imitating someone narrating a prophecy. Swara laughed, her whole face now red.

"Did you have your dinner then, Siddhu?" asked Swara.

"Aah... Not really. I'm.... not hungry." Siddhu said, his tone changing completely.

"WHAT?! Not hungry? Go eat at least a little bit Siddhu - or else it will be hard to sleep through the night. I hope you are doing that at least?"

"Okay, okay, don't worry, MOM!" Siddhu was smiling again, Swara could feel it. She smiled, her heart content.

On the other hand, Indu did not have that sort of happiness in her heart. She had woken up exhausted from crying well into the night. Sameera had not taunted her that day but had completely ignored her. Sameera too was forced to sit alone in class during lunch, but due to another group of kids sitting in class that day, she didn't so much as glance at Indu while nibbling at her chapatis half-heartedly. Indu was planning to do the same anyway, so she convinced herself that this was good.