IN LOVE WITH MY BEST FRIEND

14

The bell sounded and Punit's heart thumped hard in his chest. It was fight or flight. As far as 'fight' was concerned, he was outnumbered.

In one quick move, he attempted to bolt through them to safe haven.

They smoothly botched his attempt.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa! Where do you think you're going, huh? Huh!!?" Sibal barked at him while the cronies held him in place.

"The bell... the bell..." Punit was sweaty and breathless.

"The bell. What bell?" Sibal teased him. He was inches away from Punit now.

"The bell. N-N-Need to get to class..." Punit struggled to stay calm.

"Or else what? Hmm?" Without any warning, Sibal slapped him and flung him hard against a wall.

Punit collapsed to the floor, reeling from the collision.

"Get up!" Sibal ordered and cornered him once again.

By now, other students had noticed the commotion and stopped to watch. None of them dared to raise their voice against Sibal.

Punit clambered on all fours, still dizzy from the impact. "Don't... hit me, please..." he managed to gasp.

"And why not? You're nothing but a wimp hiding behind your androgenic girlfriend. Do you know that?"

With that, Sibal and his cronies tossed him back and forth like a dead dog, landing a punch or slap wherever they could lay their hands on, and not even a single person stepped forward to stop this atrocity.

***

Ankita was disturbed. She looked lost as she cradled her guitar and stared blankly at Mr. Andrews ahead. Come what may, she couldn't concentrate on what her music teacher was explaining.

Her band mate Jyotsana noticed that she was extra fidgety today. It wasn't usually so. "What's up?" she elbowed and asked quietly.

Ankita sighed. "I don't know, man. I can't shake off this feeling that something's wrong."

"What exactly?"

Before she could lay out her concerns, a boy appeared at the door. He was breathless and panicky.

"Yes?" asked Mr. Andrews in surprise.

"Sir, Anki..." he stammered.

Ankita's sat up straight, her heart racing. Something was definitely wrong.

"Sir! Punit! Sibal and his gang are beating him up!" The boy shouted.

"Didn't you alert the staff room?" Mr. Andrews sounded annoyed.

But Ankita was out of the door with her guitar already.

***

A crowd of students had gathered around the boy's washroom. Ankita and her band mates Jyotsana, Bruno and Edwin shouldered through. "Move! Move!" she yelled and pushed through.

Her heart dropped when she saw it. Punit was on the floor, clutching his midsection as he struggled to stay on all fours.

"Punit!!!" she screamed and threw herself beside him.

Sibal and his cronies sniggered and backed off a little.

With eyes about to drop out of their sockets, Ankita peered into Punit's face. There were bruises on his cheek. His lip was cut and bleeding, and he was pale and breathless as if punched in the gut.

"What the FUCK did you do to him!!!?" she blasted at Sibal.

He simply jeered at her.

Gasps erupted from the crowd as Ankita twirled her guitar from her shoulder like a baseball bat and SMASHED it across his face. He dropped like a tree.

"Hey!" One of his cronies shot towards her.

She WHACKED him like a golf ball. "Bruno! Edwin! Jyotsna! Fuck them!" She screamed to her mates.

What followed was hell. The air was filled with THUDS and CRACKS, of fists meeting flesh and breaking bones.

Punit who'd recovered a bit looked up and saw Anki destroying Sibal. He was back down on the floor, his face swollen like a balloon. She raised her guitar above her head and SMASHED it hard over his hands several times, breaking her instrument into two. "How dare you!!!? How dare you!!!" she screamed like a lunatic and continued to murder him.

"Shit..." Punit hissed, clambered to his feet and pulled her off him. "Anki! Stop! You'll kill him! You'll end up in jail!"

"I don't care! Get off me!!!"

"Buddy, please!" He tugged her away sharply.

***

Moments later, Punit, Anki and her mates were lined up outside the Principal's office. Starting with Bruno, Mr. Shah, the Principal, was about to strike all of them with a fearsome cane.

Ankita shot towards him and blocked his path. "Don't you dare touch them!" she yapped.

"Stand back!" he barked.

"Pick on Sibal if you dare!"

Startling them all, he SLAPPED her across the face.

"Hey!!!" They reacted.

Ankita heaved as tears sprung to her eyes. She couldn't believe that she was just slapped. No one had ever slapped her or hit her. Never ever. Not even her parents! "How dare you!!! How dare you!!!" she retorted in a raspy voice.

Expecting a backlash, Punit had drawn closer to her, ready to stop anything that ever goes either way.

"Shut up and stand back in line or I'll pull your tongue out you little bitch!" Mr. Shah snapped hard at her.

She was on the verge of crying, but contained herself. No one has ever spoken to her like before. No one!

"You fucking coward! Bastard!" She wailed in a quaky voice. Censorship was no longer her concern. This man certainly didn't deserve it.

Suddenly, Mr. Shah lashed his cane at her, striking her hard across the arm. She gasped in pain and surprise.

"No!!" Punit jumped in between, shielding her from the blows that followed, taking all the hits aimed at her.

She wrapped her arms around him in a feeble attempt to protect. But he continued to pin her to the wall. "Leave him!!!" she screamed as a stray hit caught her on the fingers.

Mr. Andrews came running and quickly intervened. "Sir! I think you should call their parents instead. That would be the right thing to do."

Mr. Shah stood heaving for a moment before stomping away to his office.

There was an ungodly silence as Mr. Andrews turned to the students. He too was shocked to the core.

Punit still had Ankita trapped between him and the wall. She clutched his shirt and heaved as Punit tried to calm her with soft whispers into her ear. "Shh, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay," he chanted quietly.

"I'll inform your parents," said Mr. Andrews uncomfortably before disappearing into the Principal's office.

***