The Haunted Fortress of Bhangarh: Book 1

4. Feelings and emotions

Rudra was in a good mood the following morning. He didn't receive any unwarranted and disquieting dreams, and he could study properly the previous evening. By the time he reached the canteen before classes that day, he had conveniently misremembered each of the woes he held in his heart.

His friends were already plopped at their regular spot, and when he abandoned his bag on the floor and occupied the only empty chair encircling the table, it was to find him face to face with the enigmatic new girl yet again. He greeted all of them and passed an extra saccharine smile at Shravani, and the discourse switched gears towards the decadent cheesecakes the cook in their canteen came up with.

"You should really try it, Shravani," Surbhi screeched. "They are so damn yummy that you will keep coming back here to eat them."

Shravani cast aside the tome of Macbeth she had been perusing. "If you insist," she chortled, "I will go and get one."

She rose up from her chair, strolling towards the reception counter of the canteen, her eyes darting over the menu. There were a lot of options to choose from, and she was conflicted between the mango and the pineapple-flavored ones. Biting her nails, she was still pondering over her choice when she nearly jumped at her spot and gasped aloud since a whisper resounded in her ears.

"The red velvet one is the best."

She calmed her racing heart and carefully glanced at her side. Rudra was standing there with a smirk etched on his face, crouched down slightly to meet her level, and his hot breath fell on her nose and cheeks. Gulping, she took a step back and blinked furiously. "Red velvet?"

He stood back upright, smiling at the way she seemed anxious around him since she was fiddling with her red dupatta a bit harshly. "Yeah, try it."

She bobbed her head and placed her order with the owner, voicing it out as meekly and as feebly as a girl possibly could. "I will have the red velvet cheesecake."

"Make it seven. All of us are having it," he said, forwarding a currency note to the man behind the counter.

As the owner got busy printing the receipt and barking orders at the lanky boy who served food at the canteen, Rudra took his sweet time to take a close look at the girl's profile. The bushy hair, the cute nose, the rubicund cheeks, the fuller lips, and the way she continued batting her lashes. "I have really seen you somewhere." His brows creased. "And I am not talking about the traffic signal."

She giggled. "That's a really old tactic of flirting."

"I am serious. You look very familiar."

A meaningful smile developed on her face. "But I just moved from Chennai. There is no way we know each other."

He nodded his head slowly, unable to get rid of the tug he felt towards her, intensifying with each passing moment that he spent communicating with her. So familiar. So homey. So lovely.

She tucked her hair behind her ears, sensing his unwavering gaze on her. "Stop staring, Rudra," she murmured. "I am getting discomfited."

He grinned, lowering his voice to barely above a whisper. "Ah! Now that's something I can't control, given you are very, very beautiful."

Her breathing turned uneven, and she was incapable of meeting his gaze. Her cheeks were on fire, and she quickly hurried away from the spot after grabbing hold of a tray full of seven slices of cheesecake.

***

Ishita was over the moon that evening, for Rudra had affirmed his attendance at her birthday party. The last two times, he couldn't, and she was heartbroken on her favorite day of the year. She didn't know how or why or when, but she had surely developed a crush on her neighbor. They grew up together with him teasing her and tugging at her pigtails to trouble her until she turned scarlet in anger and ended up screaming her lungs out at him. However, when they drifted apart in middle school, she missed the friendship and the companionship. Soon, she comprehended the innocuous, tiny crush she had on him, and she had been vying for his attention ever since.