LEECH

CHAPTER TWELVE - YASH (THEN)

FLASHBACK BEGINS

I won the elections. Yay.

I roll my eyes as I toss a half-eaten apple in the air, catching it and repeating. It's games period, which means I can relax a little without getting bugged by my little annoying classmates.

Srishti, Aisha and Bhavna were sitting to the side, gossipping among themselves in hushed voices. Side note, why did girls talk so loudly? They were trying to whisper, but everything was audible to me.

"The audacity of that guy to try to make my bestfriend vote for him." That was Srishti, and she was seething. I could feel her glare burning holes in my back. I tried not to laugh as I took a bite of my apple, chewing noisily.

Sanket exchanged looks with me. "Look bro, I tried to convince Aish. For a moment I think I did, but then she stole one glance at Srishti, shook her head and shooed me away." He mumbles, pouting at the prospect of being sent away.

I'd expected as much — Aisha's fiercely loyal and too stubborn for her own good — but it was worth a try. The votes don't mean anything to me.

Her's, though? It means the world. Now that I don't have her vote but I have everyone else's, this whole election seems pointless to me. I mean, I suck at leadership anyway. Srishti could have done it better.

"But why did you vote for him, Srish?" Bhavna's voice cuts through their conversation.

There's a small pause before Srishti continues. "Because I didn't want to appear self centred and full of myself."

"But Yash voted for himself."

Again a pause. "Because he is full of himself."

I snort, not even bothering to cover up the sound. Sanket shrugs. "She's not wrong."

"Stop eavesdropping on us, Yash." Srishti shouts, and I turn to stick out my tongue at her. I catch a glimpse of Aisha, who's sitting between Srishti and Bhavna, looking at me. She looks away hastily.

I smile. Progress is progress. I wonder how she'd feel if she found out that I forced Saurav to take back his proposal. She'll not be happy, I guess. She's too gullible, too soft, and she'll never ever do anything like that.

I tell myself that it was for Aisha, that I was just trying to save her from making a difficult choice. Who knows, if Saurav didn't retract his proposal, she might have even accepted it against her wishes, just so that she doesn't hurt him. But it's of no use convincing myself of my innocence when I know I did it because I was too selfish to share Aisha.

That's fine, right? Saurav is too impulsive and quick to get angry. He'd have always tried to make Aish feel small. She's too good for him.

She's too good for you too, a small voice whispers in my head, but I ignore it.

I don't even know why I'm thinking of all this. Zonals are coming up and I need to focus on improving myself and not on Aisha and how sweet her real laugh sounds.

I sigh. Hearing the girls shuffle behind me, I get up. I didn't even realise that I'd closed my eyes. Sanket has disappeared somewhere, probably to snack with sir. Now's recess. That traitor.

"Um, guys? Why don't you head up, and I'll meet you there? I need to go to the washroom." Aisha says.

Srishti and Bhavna exchange confused looks, but nod wordlessly and start walking away.

I just look at Aisha perplexedly. She's not going anywhere, just standing at her place and observing the two girls' retreating figures. After a few moments, she hops down the gallery stairs to reach my side.

My heart thumps strangely in my chest. Silly heart. You need to stop behaving like a caged bird every time she's nearby.

"Uhh, hi." She says.

"...Hi?" I don't know why that came out as a question. I'm such a fool.

"Well, I don't know what I'm doing but...congratulations." She says, holding out her hand. Then proceeds to glance with horror at her outstretched palm.

Before she can change her decision and take it back, though, I grasp it firmly and shake her tiny hand dwarfed by mine, before letting go. One day, I'd like to be able to kiss her fingers instead of this, but that day's probably never going to arrive, so this is what I've to sate myself with.

"Thanks, Aish." That's the first time I've called her Aish to her face, and I have no idea how she'll react.

She doesn't seem to notice it, though. Instead, she continues, "I'm sure that it doesn't matter, but for the record, if Srishti wasn't my friend, I'd have voted for you any day." She sighs. "Why am I telling you this? I don't know. Don't ask questions, please."

But my mind doesn't even register the rest of it. "Really?" I say. My voice sounds more like a breath than anything else.

"Huh?"

"You really wanted to put in my name?"

She looks up at me with her huge, doe shaped eyes for a moment, before breaking into a laugh. Real laugh. Pure music. "Of course, Yash. Why would I lie about it?"

"Oh." I say, because my brain is too cottony to think of anything else in response.

And that was when I found out that I'd never known true happiness my whole life, until then.  

FLASHBACK ENDS