Love at the time of dentistry

Chapter-8

The day had started just as any day for Siddharth, although he was a little tense about Manya's changed mood nowadays. He had talked to her about it but he had sensed her evasiveness on the topic. Something was troubling her which she was hiding from him. It wasn't something to do with her family, she always shared those problems with him, it was something else. He planned to ask her friends about it discretely, manya hadn't liked the last he had gone behind her back to talk to her friends about her. For now, he couldn't do much about it. He went about his intern duties as usual. In the afternoon, he had been called to the Dean's office to talk about his transfer offer. Being one of the top five university toppers, he had been offered to complete his internship in other colleges, some of them better than his. He had still not been able to decide whether to transfer or not, let alone which college to transfer. He didn't want to leave Manya alone for so long and live so far away from her, even if it was for a year. His parents had left the decision totally on him, so it was up to him only to decide whether to transfer to another college or not. He wanted to talk about this with Manya but hadn't been able to till now. He was running out of time now. The colleges wanted an answer within a week. He planned to talk about it and Manya's recent distracted state, with Manya today. After college ended, he didn't find Manya waiting for him outside, like she did always. He waited for almost an hour for her, then started towards his own hostel. Manya had never done this before; even if she was not able to meet him after college she always left him a message. There must be something really wrong with her nowadays.

The intern hostel was situated just in front of the P.G. accommodations. After reaching his room, Sid saw that his roommate was working frantically on his laptop. "What have you got there Mohit that's got you so busily working right after college", he asked. "The photos of the Valentine's Day party have come back and they are awesome, some of them are quite revealing, I must say", Mohit said practically salivating over the pictures. "What do you mean 'revealing'"? Sid came to stand behind Mohit to get a look of the photographs. "Revealing in the sense that I think I just found out our resident Casanova's latest victim", Mohit said in a tone which clearly said that he was hiding something really juicy. "Our resident Casanova?" Sid had no idea about whom Mohit was talking about, he had never heard any of his fellow batch mates been called a Casanova. "Ohho, I forget you live in your own la-la land, Arre bhai hamare Ronit sir, a classic Casanova. That guy could make any girl dance on his little finger with just a wink, he is my God", Mohit finished reverently. Sid had never had that much interaction with Dr.Ronit so he had not heard of his reputation before this. All he had heard about him was that he had been a gold medallist of his university from where he had done his under graduation and was now doing his post graduation in Oral Surgery from their college. He knew this much that the guy had quite in depth knowledge about the subject, in spite of being in the first year only. Apparently he had this whole other reputation also. "Who is this new 'victim' of his now?" Sid asked with only mild interest. He had to call Manya before she got busy in something else. "I don't know her name as such but I do know that she is a third year student and from what she looks in these pics, quite a stunner, have a look", Mohit turned the laptop towards him so that he could have a better look at the girl. He felt anger boiling in his gut when he saw the picture. It was of Manya and Ronit dancing during the game, they were looking into each other's eyes and from what it looked in the photo, quite lost into each other. It was just a photograph, it doesn't mean anything, Sid thought but he couldn't stop the anger from coming. Was this why Manya was being so distracted nowadays? This can't possibly be the reason. She loved him. "What makes you think, she is his victim?" he asked Mohit just to get what the other guy thinks. Apparently he wasn't aware that the girl in the photo was his girlfriend, well it wasn't his fault. He had not told many people about his relationship with Manya and she hadn't come to his room that often for Mohit to recognise her. "Well for once, they looked quite into each other throughout the whole party, they didn't have eyes for anyone else and everyone saw the way he lifted her so lovingly on his arms while dancing". "That doesn't mean anything, they were just playing the game, they won because of that, it doesn't mean there is something going on between those two". Siddharth was trying to dispel the disturbing thoughts from his mind but Mohit's confident tone was casting doubts in his mind. "I knew you would be sceptic that's why I left the juicy details for the end. Apparently after they got their trophy and came down the stage, Ronit sir kissed her quite passionately. That's quite some way to congratulate on winning", Mohit gave this last bit of news with a self satisfied smirk. Siddharth could feel his temper rising, he wanted to strike that smirk right off his roommate's face but he controlled himself. "Who saw them kissing?" "Oh, not many people saw them, they were hidden behind the stage but I was standing near the stage that time, to take pictures of whoever won, I saw them kissing with my own eyes", again that smirk came back. Sid wanted to hit something or someone badly. He didn't want to believe any of the things Mohit just told him, but his confident tone and Manya's recent behaviour were telling him just the opposite. Is it true, was Manya cheating on him behind his back? No, she can't do something like this, he knew her for so long. She wasn't capable of hurting him deliberately. There has to be some other explanation for this. He had to talk to her just now. He rushed out of the room then and tried Manya's number on his cell. She was answering her cell. He wanted to scream in frustration. So many thoughts were running through his mind right now and none of them welcome or comforting. He was near his bike, when he saw Manya entering the building just in front of his hostel. It was the hostel for P.G's. What was she doing in the P.G hostel at this time? Did she come there to meet Ronit sir? He tried calling her name but she was not that close. She had already entered the building by the time he ran after her. He asked the security guard sitting there about the girl who had just entered but apparently he had just now remembered his security guard duties and refused to divulge any such information. He told him that he had to enter the building. The security guard told him that he ought to know somebody in the building to gain entrance. "But you just let that girl go", he all but screamed at him. "Madam apne dost se milne jaa rahi thi, unhone entry ki hai" and the security guard returned to chewing his tobacco. Sid wanted to break his neck right then, the guard was being difficult on purpose. He liked to needle students just for the fun of it. "Accha bhaiya, mujhe bhi apne dost se milne jaana hai, jaa sakta hun?" "Naam kya hai dost ka?" He couldn't remember any P.G student's name just then so he just said Ronit's name. The security guard gave him a disdainful expression and asked to sign the entry register. After signing it, Sid ran inside but Manya was nowhere in sight. Not knowing which floor Dr. Ronit lived on, he opted for the stairs and stopped to check at each floor, which of the flats was his. As it was the evening hours, most of the flats were closed for their residents were enjoying their afternoon naps. He climbed till the top floor but couldn't find which of the flats Ronit's was. As he reached the third floor on his way down, feeling a little defeated, he heard some sort of a commotion from the corner flat on the third floor. Not wanting to invade someone else's privacy, he went towards it slowly, just wanting to check the source of the noise. What he saw there made his blood ran hot with anger and sense of betrayal. Manya was in Ronit's arms and they were kissing quite passionately. None of them had heard him coming until he spoke. He could see Manya was shocked and did he see guilt in her eyes or was it just a trick of the light. He couldn't believe his eyes. His Manu, in someone else's arms. He wanted to kill Ronit in that instance. He wanted to harm someone badly just then. He had to get out of there.