Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 45. New day, new trouble?

Days passed and Shrishti was relieved to notice that Sharad's friends left her alone. After the Monday she had, if even a single one of them had come to talk to her, Shrishti was certain there would have been brawl in the college. And Shrishti was more than sure of that because not only her, even her friends were annoyed at Sharad's friends due to the harassment.

Then came Thursday with the announcement that there would be a party for first years on Saturday and it was compulsory for second years to attend.

'You are their seniors. Third years are seniors too but this is their graduation year, so we are allowing them to skip it if they want as we do every year.', one of their Professors announced, 'Which makes you all their direct seniors and the ones who are supposed to be their role models. So your presence is mandatory! Miss it and you will be punished.'

Whispers spread around the room as everyone looked excited. Shrishti looked down. She had missed this party last time. She was too annoyed and angry to attend. She had been recently engaged to Raghav and her rage about that had made her skip the party which had led to her being punished by the college and in her absence, Lekha managed to get a dance with Sharad and their romance had begun at that party. Shrishti pushed the thought away.

'You can of course bring a date to the party.', the Professor announced as he was leaving, 'You do not have to come alone.'

The whispers increased at the announcement and became louder once the Professor was out of the door.

Just then they heard a loud voice.

'Who is gonna bet with me that Shrishti would ask Sharad out to the party?' It was Pratik.

Shrishti rolled her eyes and did not even react to it. She just placed one hand on the hand of the person on her left and other hand on the hand of the person on her right. She was lucky that Daljeet and Arpit were sitting on either sides of her and with a single gesture she could keep them in their seats as both looked like they were rearing to go after Pratik. On Daljeet's other side sat Divya who seemed to have same thought as she had her hands placed on Daljeet's shoulder as if to keep her in place. And Shrishti was thankful for that, because between Daljeet and Arpit, Daljeet had lesser control on her temper. Arpit was surprisingly more rational than Daljeet.

Just then another voice spoke up.

'Enough! Stop accusing people of something they did not even do. You are slandering them!' It was Sharad. Shrishti's eyebrows went up. Did Sharad actually defend her? She did not see that coming. This was Sharad, the guy who avoided confrontation to the point that when Shrishti chased him he did not even have the guts to tell her to stop point blank. He was so worried about maintaining his perfect image that he refused to hurt even the girl who was harassing him for years. He may have thought it noble but she surely believed it was annoying, now that she moved on from him. If she ever became like this with Raghav, she hoped Raghav would outright reject her and shatter her dreams and hopes rather than keep his mouth shut and give her more hopes.

The next subject Professor came in before the argument could go ahead and Shrishti focused on the lecture. But once the lecture was over, whispers began anew. She heard them talk about her and she shook her head. So Pratik's words managed to invoke doubts amongst her classmates. Most sounded eager to see if she would go back to her old ways. She was going to disappoint them. As if her friends read her thoughts, Daljeet chuckled, 'They are going to be so disappointed. As if Shrishti would go back after promising to move on!'

Arpit also chuckled. 'They are fools! As if Shrishti would choose Sharad when she had got better options.'

Shrishti's eyes widened. What did he mean by that? She turned to look at him horrified as things finally clicked into place. The things he had been saying for a while suddenly began to make sense.