The Zeroth Law

CHAPTER 17: THE BREAK-UPS

"Mitali is talking with the walls", Arpita came running into the room at three O' clock at night and gave us all a big enough reason to break our eye contacts with our books when we were pulling up an all-nighter.

"Again?" Kritika asked with a creased forehead and Arpita nodded. I went back to my book because I wasn't interested in knowing about some girl who loses her screws during exam period and it wasn't a novelty after she had done this six times already.

"She is having a conversation with God this time", Arpita provided climbing up on her bed, "her roommates are scared to death. They were all asleep with lights off but Shrunali woke up and had her hair scared of her head when saw Mitali with her back to her and murmuring something to the wall. That story gave me more goosebumps than The Exorcist series."

"I wasn't as much scared while watching The Exorcist as I was while watching The Grudge and 1920", Aisha chirped lying on her bed and her book resting on her stomach. Why was she staying awake with us if all she wanted to do was play with her hair and talk garbage? Everyone knows The Grudge and 1920 are overrated.

"What'd they do then, Mitali's roommates?" Shayoni asked with concern etched in her words.

"They called up her parents finally", Arpita informed, "it's been a havoc outside their room. Mitali has become like a celebrity."

"I hope her parents take her away", Aisha said with a scared voice.

"She is reacting to normal exam stress, you don't have to be so insensitive about it", I said coldly without looking up from my book, "some listen to music, some go out for fresh air and she talks to walls."

"And some become blunt-axe-tongued bitches", Kritika said, I think for Aisha's benefit because she was looking at me with her patented puppy eyes, "ignore her, it's nothing personal. She doesn't like anything that interferes with her studies during exam."

"Oh, well, it's last paper tomorrow so we will have our old Adira back then", Aisha said with a hopeful look at my face and I got to my feet with my book in my hand.

"I'll be outside, somewhere where your annoying voices won't follow me", I said with my eyes scurrying across the floor for some sign of my slippers below fluff of cushions.

"She has been an asshole cum bitch this season", Arpita said before I walked away and closed the room's door behind me.

And Arpita was right. I had been so much offensive and a jerk for past two weeks of exam that I was sure I would have grown up a penis by the end. But I couldn't help it. My inner dick would peep its head out everywhere around Aisha, and so I was assured everyday why my decision of staying away from Karan had been correct. I didn't think I was strong enough to handle the guilt of being a jerk to Karan on a regular basis. None of my roommates were yet knowledgeable on the said subject but I think they had guessed something was off. However, as experience had taught them, I knew they were waiting for exams to end to have the talk with me.

With Karan, however, it had been different. I had been avoiding him by reaching the exam hall with only two minutes left for the test to start and been running away the moment I would be done, which was earlier as I had lesser stuff to write than Karan. I think, even he was waiting for the last day to confront me, and looking at the track record of my confrontations, I knew very well I wasn't cut out to perform well on that front. I didn't know how I was going to tell him that he would be seeing me as much as we see Uday Chopra in movies; maybe I could slap him with this sloppy Uday Chopra reference and leave it for him to work it out. Whatever, the growing proximity of confrontation was giving me more chills than last paper of the season.