When He Barged In Without My Permission

chapter 13: Quality Resentment Time

Part 2: Chahe tum kuch naa kaho, maine sun liya (when you don't say anything, I will have heard it already).

Chapter 13: Quality Resentment Time.

Akshara
'Akshara? Where are you going?' I froze in my tracks as I heard a voice.

I turned to see Ryan looking at me, an eyebrow raised, his eyes glinting. 'I um...' I stuttered, and Ryan walked towards me. 'Are you- bless your little heart- ditching me alone in detention?' he asked, a sly grin on his face.

Trapped.

Oh yeah.

'No!  No! I was just walking towards that area! You wanna tag along?' I asked, smirking forcefully at him. 'Of course I have to tag along, else Raghav will get into trouble.' he said, muttering darkly afterwards. We both walked towards the drama club room, sneaking glances at each other.

We opened the door and entered in, to find that the room was deserted. 'Wrong place?' Ryan asked, looking around. 'No. The drama club always meets here for practice sessions.' I said, shaking my head. 'Well, we'll have to sit and wait then.' he said, and he slouched down on a plastic chair.

I carefully set my bag down next to him and sat down too. I pulled out my phone and started texting Akshay.

Akshara: Hey idiot. Whatcha doin?

Akshay: hey Isabella! Nothing much, just hanging out with some friends.

Akshara: I thought I was your friend!

Akshay: I have a social life outside of hanging with you Shara.

Akshara: jackass. Get lost.

Akshay: gladly.

I let out a yawn, suddenly feeling sleepy. It was really boring in here. 

*****
It was an hour later, and even then the stupid drama kids hadn't arrived. I glanced at Ryan to see him bent over his phone, his dark hair flipping down to his eyes. As though he noticed I was looking at him, his eyes snapped up, glinting. I hurriedly turned away, whsitling.

Ryan let out a laugh. It sounded genuine. 'Hey, if you felt bad about what happened in lunch... I'm sorry.' Ryan said, placing his phone on the desk. 'It freaking hurt to watch people I consider my friends laugh at me.' I snapped, a little hurt. Ryan looked at me for a moment and then let out a sigh.

'And I'm also sorry that I stormed away. Really sorry.' he said. I nodded stiffly. What else could I say really? 'Hey, what did you want to tell Vismaara yesterday?' I asked.

He turned red.

I kid you not. He freaking turned red.

Ryan Fernandez was blushing!!!!

The. World. Is. Coming. To. An. End.

'You like her!' I gasped. Ryan shook his head, a panicky look on his face. 'You totally totally like my best friend!' I said, gasping in glee.

'Yeah so what?! You like my best friend na!' he spat. 'No! No I don't!' I said immediately, though my ears began to feel hot.

I couldn't like Raghav. He wasn't my type.

'Are you kidding! I've seen the way you look at him!' Ryan said, laughing. I got up and tried to put him in a headlock. 'Akshara and Raghav sitting in a tree!  K-I-S-S-I-N-G!' he sang out. I let him go with a huff of frustration.

'Real mature, dork.' I said. Ryan simply smirked at me. The door opened and the drama club filed in. 'Aah! Here are our volunteers for the day!' the drama teacher said, with an extravagant air of grace around her.

That's why she is the drama teacher you idiot.

'You can help us by sitting in that corner there, and working on these clothes. They need to be filtered into colours and whites. Here you go!' she motioned towards a huge laundry bag.

Ryan and I looked at each other and sighed.

*****
'So, since when do you like her?' I asked, as we sat on the floor, putting the laundry bag between us.

'Since forever. We used to live next door a long time back and I'd see her everyday when I was a kid. I've like her since then, of course she didn't know I existed. So I just kept it to myself.' he muttered, his facing scrunching in disgust as I opened the bag and the stench of dirty clothes wafted out. 

'Ugh. Who died in there?' he said, looking away in disgust. 'Your bad boy demeanor. You're such a softie!' I laughed as he glared at me.

'But you've got competition buddy! Lots of guys like her!' I said, pulling out some clothes. He groaned in annoyance. 'ugh I know. Even Raghav likes her!' He said, frowning even more as a torn apart hat ended up in his hands. 'Seriously? Like don't they respect their costumes?' he let out a laugh and then looked up to see me.

My face had gone pale I think. Raghav likes Vismaara? It sounded so impossible.

'He doesn't like Maara. Au contraire mon fraire, he hates her!' I said.

Ryan shook his head. 'He likes her a lot. That's why he's always hanging around you, so he can make her jealous! That's why there was the whole lunch episode!' Ryan said.

I felt my nostrils clench up a bit. I wasn't supposed to feel bad about that.

I mean ever since we were kids, and up till now , it is an acknowledged fact between Vismaara and me that all the guys usually go for her.

It was nothing new to me. And it shouldn't have felt so... Weird to hear that Raghav liked her too.

I think why I felt so bad was because, for the first time I felt a guy was trying to talk to me because he wanted to know me, not because he wanted to use me as a paddle to get to my best friend.

But I was used to it already. And I wasn't a bit resentful or  jealous about it.

But I felt weird. Like really really weird.

I was shook out of my thoughts when Ryan pulled out a particularly nasty sock that smelt like dead rats. As we separated the clothes, I could not help but wonder, how long would guys notice me only as a paddle to get to my best friend?

And for the first time in my 16 years of friendship with Vismaara, I began to resent her a little.

And I realized too late that I should've stopped it right then.

Otherwise things wouldn't have gotten out of control like they were about to.

Dun dun dun!  Foreboding???? What do you think???

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Ciao!