The Mourning Moon

Chapter 33

College life! They said that the college life would be so exciting, filled with new adventures, new experiences, new friends, new everything. LIARS! College was nothing of the sorts. There were no new adventures, no new experiences, maybe few new friends. But nothing more. There was, however, a significant increase in workload. Those assholes forgot to mention THAT.

Ishita sighed, standing outside her class, waiting for her slower-than-the-slowest-sloth friends to arrive. She was tapping her foot, arms crossed over her chest, looking around for any signs of her friends' arrival.

"Um, excuse me," a timid male voice came from beside her.

Ishita glanced over and found a tall, well-built, average looking guy with black hair, doe shaped eyes and thin lips, standing beside her, with shoulders hunched over as he looked at her through his eyelashes. He was shaking like a leaf as if afraid that Ishita will, literally, eat him up if he misspoke or look into her eyes directly. She might eat him up if he misspoke but not if he look into her eyes.

"Yes," Ishita responded.

"Can you tell me if this is the Geology department?," the guy said.

"Yes, it is. You new here?"

"Yes."

"What's your name?"

"Jai Dixit. You?"

"Ishita Dutta."

"Thank you for help, Ishita."

"Your welcome."

"Ishita!"

Jai startled while Ishita sighed as she heard Somya's voice.

Somya hugged her from behind and said, "Sorry we are late, Ishi. We had to stop to buy some snacks for later." Then looking at the guy beside her, she asked, "And who is this cutie?," with a mischevous glint in her eyes.

"Um, I-I am Jai Dixit," Jai said.

"Hi, Jai. I am Somya." Somya, then pointing towards her left, continued, "This is Vivaan, my fiance. Standing behind me are Shreshth, the guy with long hair, and Ansh. And we are Ishita's best friends."

"Hello."

"Are you new here? We haven't seen you around before," Vivaan said.

"Yeah, today is my first day and I was looking for Geology department. Ishita helped me out with that," said Jai, nervously.

"Well then, dude, welcome to our college!" Vivaan exclaimed happily.

"And if you need any help, come to us. We would be happy to help you," Somya added.

Jai nodded, looking at the ground.

"Let's go inside," Ansh said. "The class is about to start." They entered the classroom and sat down in their seats. Jai was unsure about where to sit.

Noticing this, Ansh said, "Jai, you can sit beside me," pointing towards the empty seat desk beside him.

Jai smiled thankfully before taking his seat. Soon the class started.

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The classes were over and everyone left for home. Vivaan had brought his car and offered to drive Ishita, Ansh and Jai, home. But Jai's brother was going to pick him up and Ansh hated car smell. So they declined. Jai left with his brother and Shreshth and his friends drove off in Vivaan's car after Ansh went to the bus stop. Right now, Ansh was sitting in the bus, his head resting on the window sill as the bus drove to his destination. Today was disappointing. He did not get to spend alone time with Shreshth at all. It was like today his luck was not by his side. He sighed as he watched the sceneries outside the bus pass by. He looked away from the window and into the bus. The bus was mostly empty. Only few passengers were left. Soon the bus stopped at his stoppage. He got off the bus and made his way to his home by foot. It was at least twenty minutes walk from his stoppage to his home and he would always walk to his home, enjoying the quite atmosphere around him. He hadn't been able to do so after that fiasco with Avantika and truthfully speaking, he was still scared a little. But it has been a while since that happened and Ansh wanted to live his life normally as he had been doing before everything. So today Ansh decided to walk home.

As Ansh was walking home, he came across a vast field.

'What the hell!,' Ansh thought as he looked around himself.

There was no field on his way home. So from where did a field suddenly appear? He looked around and everywhere he looked, all he could see was a vast empty field. He turned around and again saw nothing but the field. He started to panic. 'What was going on? Where was he?' He brought his hand up to rub his eyes but stopped, his eyes widening in shock as he saw his palm was on fire. He looked down to his other palm to find it on fire too. Suddenly, the weather changed. He looked up, his chest heaving as he breathed heavily, terrified. The sky was covered in black clouds, small rain drops started falling down before pouring down heavily. He looked down at his hands, the fire was still burning. A moment later, the wind picked up speed. He felt the wind pulling him from behind. He turned around and saw a huge tornado approaching him rapidly. He wanted to move back, turn around and run but he felt something stopping him. He looked down and saw plants growing up from where he stood. Small sprouts started growing up into huge trees in a matter of seconds. Lightening crashed down.

Ansh fell down on his knees, having a full blown panic attack. Everything that was happening around him was causing his attack to worsen. He brought his still burning hand up to cover his head as he screamed in distress. A warmth suddenly engulfed him. He felt a body touching his body, arms engulfing him in warm hug. Ansh looked up only to see a pair of gentle brown eyes staring at him in concern. It was Shreshth. Ansh looked around himself and found that he was not in that field anymore. He was sitting in the sidewalk, a bunch of onlookers looking at him some worried, some curious and some for entertainment as they took pictures. Vivaan, Somya and Ishita were trying to keep everyone away from him and Shreshth.

"Ansh," Shreshth whispered.

Ansh looked a Shreshth, his eyes wide.

"Ansh, breathe with me, ok," said Shreshth.

Ansh nodded and took slow, deep breaths as Shreshth asked him too. Once he was calm enough, Shreshth took his hands and helped him to stand up. They walked towards the car, followed by their friends and drove off to Ansh's house. They reached his house and Shreshth and Vivaan helped Ansh walk up to the front door. Somya and Ishita following behind closely, carrying his backpack. Vivaan rang the bell. Ananya answered the door with a smile only for it to vanish when she saw the state her son was in. His face was pale and his lips blue. He was breathing heavily and had difficulty standing on his own.

"Ansh! Son, what happened?," she asked worriedly, as she stood aside to let her son and his friends enter the house.

Shreshth and Vivaan sat Ansh down on the sofa. Ananya hurridly went to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. She came to the living room and sat down beside Ansh as she helped him take small sips of water. She looked at Shreshth for answers.

It was Somya who answered. "We don't know what happened, auntie. We were on our way home when we got a video call. It just showed Ansh sitting on the sidewalk having panic attack. As soon as we saw that, we rushed over to help him."

"We tried calling you. But the phone wouldn't connect," Ishita added.

Ananya nodded. "Thank you. Thank you, all of you for helping my son."

"Don't mention it, auntie. We were only helping our friend," said Vivaan.

"We should take him to his room," Shreshth suggested, "He can rest there comfortably."

Ananya nodded. They helped Ansh to his room and laid him down on his bed.

Shreshth was reluctant to leave just yet. So he turned to Ansh's mother and asked, "Um, if it's okay with you, can I stay here for a while, ma'am?"

"Of course, Shreshth. I think Ansh would appreciate it as well."

Shreshth smiled gratefully. He looked to Vivaan who just nodded. After making sure that Ansh was ok, Vivaan, Somya and Ishita left. Shreshth stayed behind. He brought a chair near Ansh's bed and sat down.

Ansh glanced at Shreshth and said, "Thank you for staying behind with me."

Shreshth just gave him a loving smile as he held his hand.