The Zeroth Law

CHAPTER 21: THE FIGHTING DUO

I was going through a great inner conflict which was at par with the one Subhash Chandra Bose must have gone through when he was deciding what to gift Hitler for their first meet. I so wanted to reply Rurdaansh's comment with something as offensive and witty but at the same time I also wanted the support of his giant like strong hands, literally not figuratively. So I decided to follow on lines of Netaji who had ended up gifting Hitler with a Gautam Buddha idol (or Mahavira, I am not sure which one it was, but it was an Indian monk, that I am sure about. I so have a special place reserved for myself in hell); I decided to go for peace offerings.

"Give me a hand", I made my demand and Rudraansh raised his brows at my audacity, "my foot's twisted in an odd way", I provided with defeat and looked towards my left foot along with him, which indeed was stuck to the ground in an angle I didn't know my ankle was capable to bend in.

"Isn't your brain capable of proper hand-eye co-ordination?" he stooped down to pick me up and I stumbled to my feet almost collapsing on him, "Careful", he said hastily as he supported half of my body weight easily given the giant size of his.

"Not when my brain's working on something more important to concentrate enough on my limbs", I murmured awkwardly as my hands clung to his upper body for support. I wasn't doing it consciously; it was an obvious response to the imbalanced level of fluids in my ears, according my Biology Prof of class eleventh.

"You must have sprained it", he said with his eyes fixed on my twisted ankle because we were standing closer than we ever had been in past one year and eight months, both emotionally and physically, "I think we need to show it to a doctor."

And the 'we' in his sentence made me happier than it should have. Had I hit my head too when I had fallen down? But then I knew why I was so, I was longing for familiarity a minute ago and Rudraansh's sturdy arms, though were new for me, weren't unfamiliar. I sighed. There was no point in pretending that I hadn't missed him too.

"I suppose", I said as I tried to touch the heel of my left foot on ground and received a sharp pain in response to my attempt, "I think hostel doctor is nearest right now", I said with a wince, "I will go and see him." Of course, I wasn't verbally going to tell Rudraansh that I had missed him or that I needed him by my side at this very moment.

"I will walk you there", he said without a shred of emotion in his voice but I didn't protest. I know it was as awkward for him as it was for me and I really wasn't in a position to act like a stuck up princess.

So I hopped on one leg with my hand clasped around his arm, which I was surprised to find was harder than I had expected since I haven't seen him work out, to walk out of the ground towards our hostel.

"Argh", I groaned when we reached outside playground gates, "crossing would be along the lines of swimming across the Panama canal", I said with my eyes on the broad road ahead of us flowing with traffic.

"Is that the best you can come up with?" he asked with a tiny smirk and I smiled, even when I didn't want to.

"I have been watching a lot of documentaries these days", I said in my defence with a hop, "so how do we cross?" I asked.

"You don't expect me to carry you in my arms, do you?" he said with a horrified look on his face and I grimaced, "because that would be too much stretch for the sympathy I am feeling for you."

"Right, sympathy", I said with a tough smile, "of course it's sympathy", I mouthed roughly to hide my disappointment.

I thought he must have missed me too, not in a gut wrenching way but still, we had spent as much time together as I and Karan had. Was my existence such a negligent factor that he would have to rely on sympathy and not friendliness to help me out? Did I have no impact on him, positive or otherwise, in all those months when I had helped him pass his tests or complete his assignments or played with him at Toons or fought him over Mrs Mujumdar's cakes or fought over who gets to sit by Karan's side for dinner or fought, just fought for no proper reason? His utter denial of my existence in his life pissed me off real bad so I became cold.