Tenth Grade was Fun!

4. FINISHING OFF IN STYLE

Both of them stared at each other for what felt like hours.

"What are you doing with him?" Nikhil asks me, breaking the silence first.

"Dong saya dae." I squeak out below a whisper, without even thinking it through.

"Huh?" This time Ved asks, looking at me in confusion.

"Uh...I— um...I said I slammed into you accidentally?" I reply, trying to cover my slip up.

"Hmm. I know you read a lot of books but I never knew you had such a bad grammar. Stating something questioningly? Bad, bad Vicky!" Ved teases like we both do whenever we talked...even if it was for a span of sixty seconds.

I scowl at him playfully and get ready to give a comeback but Nikhil beat me to it.

"Don't insult her." He said in a deadly calm voice.

"Hey, I was just teasing man! Besides, it's kind of our thing. We both love reading and we like to do this. Don't we?" Ved retorts, directing the last part to me.

I was stunned that he even remembered our teasing talks and called it 'our thing' as I stand with my mouth slightly open.

I feel a warm arm wrap around my shoulders and starting to lead me away from Ved.

"You're bus's gonna leave you. It's too late already." Nikhil says as he leads me farther from Ved.

I look over my shoulder at Ved standing back with an unreadable expression on his face. I turn back to Nikhil, "But—"

"See you later?" Ved shouts from where he is and Nikhil's arm around my shoulder stiffens.

Grinning, I quickly turn and shout back a 'Sure!' and continue with Nikhil to my route bus. Even though Nikhil's house and mine are thirty minutes away, we come under different pin-codes, so we were in different route buses.

When I reach my bus, I turn to Nikhil, give a goodbye hug and get into my usual place in the bus near the window, beside Maya's which was near the isle.

As soon as I sat the bus was started, meaning...I was the last person to come, meaning...Nikhil was right about me being late. I see Nikhil standing outside the bus by my window with a wide grin on his face.

He fucking knows he was right!

I stick out my tongue at him for which he laughs and a wide smile stuck was on my as the bus drives away from the school.

***

Back at home that evening, I take a shower and change into my grey sweats and black t-shirt and go to the living room. Since it was first day to school and nothing much except the syllabus discussion was done, I picked up the remote, switched on the TV and started continuing Supernatural from where I left previously.

When I was halfway through the second episode, I heard the front door being unlocked and my mom entered with grocery bags. I pause the TV and help my mom with the bags into the kitchen.

"How was school?" My mom asks me as we put the groceries in their places.

"Oh about that! Ved actually changed his school. He's in mine now!" I tell my mom.

"Really? Wow! So, unlimited eye-candy now huh?" My mom teases back, wiggling her eyebrows.

Yes. That's right. My mom knows about my interests. With my dad staying about six months with us and going away to work as electrical officer in ships—mostly tankers—for six to eight months, my mom and I have only each other and we tell almost everything to each other.