Blue

Chapter Two

"Aditi, this is Roman and Roman this is, Aditi."
I finally had a chance to introduce my new friend with my old one. He had been in a vacation with his family. And my other close friend, Sara; being his girlfriend, was with him too. So they had left me alone for a couple of days; until yesterday. I made a new friend, Aditi. Or the other way around.

"Nice to meet you." Roman let his hand forward.

Aditi blindly stared at him. She didn't move, didn't blink away; just stared at him like he was an alien or something.

"Uh, Aditi?" I touched her hand; it was cold. Her face became pale and started sweating.

"Awkward." I said in a cheesy tone trying to clear the atmosphere building between us three; that I couldn't figure out.

Aditi looked paralyzed.

"Aditi?" I called again.

"This doesn't happen, usually." Roman smiled.

My inner Sherlock said something was going on. And my outer self said-

"You okay? What happened?"
She sat down and held her head between her hands.

"I'm okay. I'm just-just-. I just have a headache."

Okay. So, what do we say to comfort people?

"It'll be okay. You're gonna be okay." I said, rubbing my hand on her back.

"Yeah, thanks." She shrugged my hand off her back.

Not the touchy type, eh? Good, I don't like them either.

We got seated for our Maths class. I sat next to Aditi and Roman sat next to me.

"So, where's Sara?" I asked turning to Roman.

"She's home. She'll be at school tomorrow, maybe." He frowned. "We ended up in a weird note."

"What the hell does that mean?" I frowned a little too.

"She's a little pissed."

"Because...?"

"Apparently dirty jokes don't work for seduction." He sighed.

I laughed causing everyone in the class including my two friends and the teacher(who I don't know when got in) to look at me.

"Anything you'd like to share with us Mr. Pathak?" He gave me a sarcastic look.

"Not at all." I turned back to my book.

"Good." He went back to writing equations on the board.

"What was the joke anyway?" I asked Roman again.

He scowled.

"Ask Sara when she's back."

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I wouldn't say I was the smartest of all, but I didn't have to pull out a guide book to figure out that something was fishy between Aditi and Roman.

Aditi never talked to or about Roman. But I didn't ask her why. She'd tell me about it herself after she'd feel comfortable with it. And I didn't want to breach her comfort zone.

It was lunch break. Aditi and I were in the cafeteria with a table for our self. She was deep into her geography work and I was deep in thoughts about her.

She was so quiet at most of the times. The only times she talked was if she needed anything or during lunch breaks, if only she hadn't brought her damn work to our table.