18

Chapter 9

Time was flowing slowly today for Nil. He was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. It has been 2 days since they finished their internal exams, but he wasn't happy about it. Particularly today he was not in his normal mood. He kept staring at the ceiling until the urge to express himself peeked out.

"It's been so hard days for me, mom."

"I know I didn't score well in one course this time and I know there are no good consequences for it."

"Your husband barely returns home and your daughter......." Words stuck between past and present emotions. Nil tried to compose himself and sat up near the edge of the bed. He looked into the mirror. That bruise was healing now, but he grabbed a black mask to hide it from the world.

"Nil car is waiting for you." He heard the calling of the driver uncle, who always dropped and picked him up from college at his dad's command. He let out a sigh and headed towards the car, hoping to have at least a better college day.

[Nisha's stay]

From one corner to another, Nisha was running to grab her stuff because she was late. Today Aarush and Nisha decided to work on their SciStart-Up idea before lectures. Riya had already left for her lectures, left with a message for her on a sticky note saying, "Last 5 days of freedom are remaining." It means after 5 days Nitu Aunty and Sunil Uncle will return home. Nisha let out a sigh on that note and headed downstairs with her bag.

As she was running late, she ran towards the bus stop and within 5 minutes she got on the bus, full of crowd and after 20 to 25 minutes later she reached at her college.

[Notification]

She glanced at the notifications bar and saw a message from Aarush saying, "Will be late today, but we can discuss the idea after lectures."

Little disappointed, Nisha sniffed and replied with 'Okay😊'. She put the phone in her pocket and with a slight glance at her surroundings, she spotted the same black car which caught Aarav's attention.

"Is that Mercedes-Benz S-Class?"

She never saw this car at college hours, and then she saw Nil getting out of it. Her eyes winded up as she saw him, and the same goes with Nil. As Nil thanked the diver uncle, he ignored her straight away as if they hadn't seen each other because, for him, it was embarrassing.

"Nil?" she tried to call him as he started walking. She ran behind him and as she approached him she said, "So Galaxy S24 wasn't just a gift from someone?"

"What?" Nil said, still ignoring eye contact as he walked.

"You know very well what I mean by that?" Nisha said while maintaining the same walking speed as Nil. She was constantly looking for answers and fell as she stumbled.

"Are you okay?" Nil approached her and helped her to stand.

"I would have if you had answered my question." She said while cleaning dust from her hand.

"Which question?" Nil said, still pretending to be innocent.

"Ahh...this is driving me crazy. What is wrong with answering it? I am not asking you like do you have a girlfriend or what.... and ...and"

"And?" Nil asked, hoping to divert the topic.

"Nothing." While avoiding eye contact for a second, Nisha said coming back to the point, "Don't change the topic."

"Are you really that rich?"

"Um... kind of. My dad runs a business overseas." Nil said.

"Wow! See, isn't that simple to just reply?" Nisha said, smiling while glancing at her dirty hands.