Who he used to be

Chapter 5

That night Shreyansh stayed up late to make sketches of some characters to show Harsh and avoid any more suspicion. He made the characters to look like Harsh, Vamika and himself and thought of telling him that the plot would be a comedy which included a weird love triangle between them which was obviously fictional.

Next day, Shreyansh was really excited to show Harsh the drawings but ended up being slightly late. Harsh was astonished that Shreyansh who was the most punctual among the three was so late that he missed half the lecture. It was usually the other way round. During lunch, they decided to eat at the cafeteria as it the end of the month and they were short on allowance money. There, Shreyansh showed Harsh and Vamika the cartoon versions of themselves and said, “I’ve thought of a hilarious plot where Vamika falls in love with Harsh, but Harsh has feelings for me but I like both and we decide to have a threesome. And somehow miraculously, few weeks later Harsh gets pregnant and gives birth to a black baby and so Vamika and me accuse him of cheating on us and we both…” Harsh interrupted Shreyansh and said, “Bro you better keep such wild imaginations to yourself. You literally made me gay wtf? I am a straight male who is clearly into girls. And you know Vamika had feelings for me so it is also a disrespect for her. You really messed up dude.” Vamika said, “No, I’m not that sensitive, it was funny and I know Shreyansh did not mean it in the way you took it. Chill.”

Yeah, that didn’t go as planned but hey atleast Harsh won’t suspect Shreyansh of lying anymore, right? thought Shreyansh.
No, Harsh still thought about Shreyansh’s weird behaviour lately. Like yeah Shreyansh liked to sketch random shit in class but a comic? That’s something new. And also, the fact that he had a ‘lucky’ bracelet which happened to be exactly same as the one Harsh had given to Shreya years ago, when they went to the school carnival together. Shreyansh’s sudden disappearance the other day at the basketball court too and not to mention his ‘cousin’s’ felicitation award from Sunrise High. It all seemed too much of a coincidence. What if Shreyansh knew Shreya and they have some sort of relationship? Harsh had been thinking about this when it struck him. Maybe Shreya was Shreyansh’s ex? But that won’t make sense as to why he has the bracelet Harsh had given her. What if Shreya is Shreyansh’s cousin? But this also doesn’t make any sense. Why would she give a cousin all those things instead of dumping them just like she dumped Harsh or keep them for the memories. This was when Harsh came up with a crazy theory. “Maybe, just maybe Shreya was that ‘cousin’ of Shreyansh and she did not really mean what she said in that breakup text but had a really good reason for why she did so. And so did not have it in her heart to throw away the stuff that were connected to our memories but at the same time could not keep it with herself as it reminded her of me and ….. idk.” Harsh stayed silent and contemplated and then again spoke, “but if that would have been true, she would have at least tried to reach out and not cut me off completely and disappear. Never mind she’s just a selfish, self-absorbed bitch and I’m just overthinking.” Harsh paused for a few seconds and then said, “My heart has never made me believe that Shreya would hurt me like that, she must have her reasons, it’s just that my brain keeps bringing reasoning in between. I just said that in a fit of rage. But for now, I need to get the truth out of Shreyansh about their relation. Maybe I can try to ask him in a more discreet and cautious way. Yeah, enough for tonight’s overthinking. I gotta sleep. I can’t be late to Ms. Sinha’s lecture tomorrow or I’m dead meat.”

Next day, Harsh was up unusually early and got ready. He then went up to Tanya’s room to see if they could leave for uni together as this was one of the rare days that Harsh had gotten ready on time. But when Harsh entered her room, he found her still in bed. He shouted, “For god’s sake, the only day I got ready for uni on time, you have to be late?” “No dumbass, I called in sick.” Said Tanya in a hoarse voice. “What? Are you alright?” “Ughh, ofcourse not.” “Okay, but why didn’t you tell me? Have you had any meds? Food?” asked Harsh genuinely concerned. “I can barely get up how do you think I could get the meds and foods? And I didn’t tell you maybe because you were so busy playing Minecraft that you didn’t pick my calls. I know it must be on silent again.” Harsh apologized and promised to never ignore her calls and then went out to buy some medicines and food for Tanya’s breakfast and lunch before leaving for uni.