Truly Madly Deeply (25 page)

“Farha, this isn't right!” Rahul moaned.

She wrapped her legs around him and urged his hands to embrace and hold her. Rahul felt steam blowing off his ears and tried to look away. A bolt of fire rushed through him, heating his body surprisingly under hers. Her lips worked furiously all over Rahul's face while she unbuttoned his shirt with her free hand. She guided his hands all over her body and let out a soft cry as they cupped what they were holding in their palms.

“Do it again… do it!” she cried in his ears, pulling his hair and licking his nape.

“Farha, this is not right… stop… Farha… please,” he tried to say, but his mumbles were lost in his own mouth. Whenever he tried to say anything, she locked his mouth with hers, clasping his hands to her smooth bosom.

“Just lie back and enjoy!” she told him, between rapid breaths.

Before he could contemplate, pushing her off, she had worked her way from his neck to his abdomen and then down to the waistband of his jeans. She unzipped him and touched him between his legs. Rahul tried to say something but whatever it was, it was caught between a sigh and a moan and then he became a mere puppet to her advances. He sighed once again, before closing his eyes and submitting to her.

As things tried to click in his mind on what he could
have done to escape this predicament, Rahul did not realise that something else was clicking too and that something was
Jay's camera!

***

Rahul felt guilt melt in his soul. Even touching a girl other than Seema was tantamount to the gravest of all sins for him and God alone knew what all he had done that evening. He met Raj, his only confidant under any circumstance. They sat on the first floor stairs of the building, slowly discussing the evening proceedings.

“I didn't want to. I'm feeling like trash,” he said, almost on the verge of tears.

“Don't think too much into it. Just forget it like it had never happened. No one's going to know,” Raj consoled.

“I can't do that. It's not about doing the act; it's about hiding it from Seema. I have cheated on her,” Rahul cried.

“If you want to involve Seema into this then just think of it as practice for the future,” Raj advised.

Rahul thought he was joking but when he looked at his small face, he was not even smiling in his usual cheesy manner.

“You won't understand,” he said and ended their meet a lot earlier than usual.

***

He thought of not going for practice but that meant letting down his house. So he went ahead the very next day. He was pleasingly surprised to note that Farha was absent.

“You don't worry about Farha; she'll join us directly on the day of the dance competition. She's done her job,” Nazia said with a gleam in her eyes. “She knows all the steps, and she'll be fine. You just practice and remember we've got to win this,” she added after a while.

Rahul somehow went through the steps he could remember but the haunting events of last evening refused to let him settle down.

The following night, his cell phone rang; he was expecting it and picked it up at the onset of his ringtone. His excitement crashed on hearing the voice.

“Hey sweetie pie, what's up?” Farha greeted in her bubbly tone.

“Listen Farha, whatever happened was…” he tried to say.

“Whatever had to happen, happened! Forget it, I have no expectations, so I'm not going to trouble you. Now stop thinking about that and talk to me!” Farha said.

“Farha…” he did not know what to say. Something was eating him from the inside and talking to Farha made it quicken its hunger.

“What? I'm sorry I could not make it today and won't be able to come even tomorrow. I know you missed me but just some days more darling, and I promise I will make it up for you!” she said.

“Listen…” Rahul protested.

“No, you listen, I have an exam tomorrow and I'm stuck at this problem. I thought of dropping it and moving ahead to the next chapter but it was marked as important during the revision lectures. Would you be kind enough to help me honey?” Farha pleaded.

“I'm expecting…” Rahul tried.

“No excuses, otherwise I will back out from the dance competition. You'll have a tough time searching for a replacement now!”
Farha threatened.

“Why are you like this?” Rahul almost shouted, not caring that his parents were sleeping in the other room.

“Because you're like that! Sweet and lovable. Muawah!” she kissed him, laughing loudly over the line.

‘Obviously, she was not having any problems with sleeping parents,' Rahul thought.

“Ok, tell me quickly,” Rahul requested but Farha took her own sweet time to search for her text book, notebook and pen which she had not gathered before calling him.

The next half an hour was spent discussing why k, the proportionality constant varies directly to this and indirectly to that and in
between Rahul trying to rebuff Farha's attempts at getting naughty over the phone.

“Thanks darling, I owe you one!” Farha said finally understanding what Rahul was trying to convey since the past twenty minutes.

“You're not at all welcome!” Rahul said irritated.

“By the way, I liked what I saw yesterday evening… did you like what you felt?” she toyed with him.

“No, I didn't… now, please…” Rahul began.

“Ah, how rude! Anyway, I won't take offence to that as you're too sweet. Won't you even wish me good luck?” she asked.

“Good luck!” Rahul said before disconnecting, and dreaded seeing what he was expecting.

He had not realised the soft beeps in the network signalling a call waiting on the other line. He cursed himself as he could not dial back seeing ‘Seema landline' displaying on his phone. Her instructions repeated in his mind and he wished her good luck from his heart, hoping that it would convey the same to her. That night, he could not sleep.

***

The practice sessions continued in the auditorium sans Farha, which in a way saved Rahul from embarrassment. He often found himself, practicing alone as Jay and Nazia usually bundled together at one end, made it clear that he was unwelcome when they were doing anything except dancing. Rahul noticed that Jay was a lousy dancer with no grace in his movements and Nazia, though graceful did not complement him. That made Rahul realise that the onus was again on him and his sexy partner whom he was trying very hard to ignore. He knew that the synergy of the group had to be maximised and the current situation would not aid their cause.

Things continued pretty much the same way until the day of the dance competition, the only thing that climbed upwards in its graph was the extent to which Rahul missed Seema, the rest pretty much remained constant like the k whose explanation had cost him a chance to talk with his beloved.

On the day of the dance competition, Rahul reached early in the morning as their group was scheduled to practice the moves that they had learnt so far. He was a bit apprehensive about meeting Farha again. When he reached the auditorium, Jay and Nazia were already practising, so he decided to join them.

“Where's your partner?” Jay asked.

“I have no clue,” he answered.

“She came, I don't know where she's disappeared now,” Nazia said.

“I'll wait,” Rahul expressed his action while taking a seat.

“No, we don't have all day, please go and find her,” Jay shouted.

“Keep your voice down,” Rahul said, getting up from the chair he was occupying. Nazia again stepped in between them.

“Relax, Jay is right. If one of us goes, then we cannot practice together as it is time for teamwork now. You should go and find her. I guess she had gone to fill water in her flask,” Nazia informed.

Rahul was dreading this, but he threw a disgusted look at Jay and walked out of the auditorium.

He was still mumbling things about Jay to himself when he bumped into someone whom he had least expected to see.

She looked at him. Rahul sensed something amiss.

“Hey, how are you?” he asked, rushing down to hold her.

She moved back slowly.

“I had called you,” she said softly and saw a flash of guilt drive by his face.

“I'm really sorry, it was Farha…” he was not able to complete as the she-devil herself stepped in the scene on hearing her name being called out.

“Hey, there you are! I have been looking for you all over, made me wait for a long time, naughty boy! Now, don't just stand and stare at me like that. Come along now, we haven't got all day,” Farha said pulling him away towards the auditorium.

He found no words to tell Seema. She looked at him with
broken eyes.

“I'm in the auditorium,” he finally managed to shout when he saw her look away and almost run off in the opposite direction.

“Leave me!” he shouted at Farha, pulling away his arm from her hold after seeing Seema's reaction.

“We've to practise!” she explained.

“There is a way of saying and doing things. You can't just
barge in and drag me in front of her,” Rahul shouted at the top of his voice.

“I thought she didn't mean anything to you. You told me that you are single and hence we did what we did that day!” Farha
shouted back.

Rahul could not respond as the events of that evening came back to haunt him. What he did not realise was that Seema was standing behind the very wall he thought she had disappeared behind and in the morning silence; she could hear each and every word spoken between the two. Seema supported herself by leaning on the wall and took out the pictures from her pocket that had caused her to lose focus during her exams that could well be the reason of the first academic failure of her life.

She had avoided looking at them again, trusting her instincts, trusting her heart that said Rahul could never do such a thing. She was very sure that the photographs were doctored. She convinced herself that the face of the boy in question was not clear in the picture and hence it was definitely someone else. Most boys of his class or even hers were of the same height as Rahul. She had chosen to appeal against rationality and her hope was discarded that morning.

She looked at the images of Farha, her good-looking classmate; hugging, kissing and touching Rahul, whom she thought was the only guy worth being with. What she did not realise was that photographs showed only the visuals, the ones that were captured in the lens. She tore the photographs when she could no longer bear to look at them. She spat at the pieces and threw them in the dustbin of the first classroom, whose doors she found open to her right. She bit back the sob rising in her chest and clenched her teeth against the wave of hopeless pain.

“Why? Why, Rahul, why?” she shouted to the hard walls. She began to hate the despair she felt in her own eyes.

***

Rahul's mind was not where it should have been though his heart was where it was supposed to be. His dance moves lacked grace and he was lousy in response to the music.

“Concentrate on the steps, Rahul!” Nazia reprimanded him.

He grooved on, holding Farha's hand as it was the necessity of the step. Finally, they finished their first practice session and took their seats on the chairs kept aside.

“We'll do well,” Nazia said happily.

Jay and Nazia excused themselves as usual informing them that they were going for a quick coffee and would be back soon.

Farha came and sat beside him as soon as they went out.

“Are you angry with me?” she asked.

“Farha, it's better if we don't talk,” he advised.

“Please, talk practically. Don't act like a kid!” she said.

“I was better off without participating in this dance,” he lamented.

“Owww… c'mon sweetheart, I'm there with you. You're better off with me, come here, I will make you calm down,” she said, holding his forehead to massage his temples.

He jerked her hand away. She wrapped her hands around him and pulled him close.

“Yum, I love your smell!” she said, biting his ears.

“Get lost!” he shouted.

“No, come here,” she said sitting on his lap, her legs eagle-spread and her bosom fastened to his chest. She pulled down her top a little to display the swell of her assets to Rahul's ire. She began rolling her tongue over his protesting lips and he in turn, rolled away his head but she kept finding spots of his body, which were in the area of her assault.

And it was this assault that was being carried out when Jay stepped in the auditorium with someone Rahul could not bring himself to face anymore.

“Ahem, ahem!” Jay broke the flow of the assault with his heavy voice.

Seema's words had lost her voice long back. She wanted to scream but nothing came out of her gaping mouth. All that came out was a tear, a detached tear streaming down her smooth cheeks, heralding the oncoming of its brethren. Rahul pushed away the lissom figure on top of him as soon as he saw Seema, over her shoulder.