BLUE.
'Hey! Been busy all day it seems. You didn't come back to class until the bell rang today,' Meera says catching up to me. 'Yeah, it's been busy today,' I say and the exhaustion is evident in my voice.
Exhausted from crying.
To make sure I don't spill any of these in front of my best friend 'cause I don't want to deal with it right now, I bid her goodbye and give her an excuse of having to go home early. Her hand hangs in the air as I lose sight of her in the crowd.
***
'How is this possible? I left it right-', Sreyansh coughs in between his lines and I rush to bring a glass of water for him. He drinks the water and places the glass on his bedside table. Maya assigned him one of the three lead roles which made him even more anxious. So after freshening up, I came down to his house so he could practice in front of me.
I sit down next to Sreyansh on his bed and take away the script from his hands, breaking his concentration.
'Shway please!'
'You've been practising for a whole hour without a break and now you're coughing. Take a break 'cause you need to calm down,' I say and he groans, 'Not a Taylor Swift reference again.'
'She's the best and her songs are precise, always.'
Sreyansh shakes his head and falls back on his bed. He closes his eyes and I'm staring at him again. I pinch his nose and he wakes up from his meditation, startled as I laugh.
'You said to take rest and now you're pinching my nose,' he says rubbing his nose while I simply give him a mischievous smile. 'Let's go back-', I interrupt him immediately with a stoic 'NO'.
'So we keep sitting like this? Boring,' Sreyansh rolls his eyes.
'Tell me a secret,' I pitch to cut the boredom.
'Well... I haven't gotten any secrets like that. There is a major one though...', he trails off and smirks 'cause he knows he has perked up my curiosity when I say, 'Tell me! Tell me!'
Sreyansh gets up from the bed and sits down on his desktop. He ushers me to come over and I see he has opened a YouTube channel: The Anime Apocalypse.
'Yes, I know this channel! They are one of my favourites and I love the AMVs- Wait, hold up-', I notice that the page looks like the creator's view. I gasp and Sreyansh tries to hide his smile using his right hand.
'YOU are The Anime Apocalypse? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!', I almost scream and he shushes me.
'My parents also don't know about it so keep it down,', Sreyansh whispers at me and I just can't conceal the shock on my face.
'I love video editing and one day I was viewing this AMV and I thought, why not try it out myself and see how it works? The progress was slow at first but I started gathering a lot of followers after the "Sad Song" AMV I made,' he says and clicks on the said video.
'It is my favourite song as well,' I say as the music starts to play.
You and I
Are like fireworks and symphonies,
Exploding in the sky.
With you, I'm alive,
It's like all the missing pieces of my heart
Finally collide.
I notice him looking at me when I realize I'm humming and I rose blush. The close proximity I'm standing in with him makes itself noticeable and adds to the heat rising under my skin.
So stop time right here in the moonlight,
'Cause I don't ever wanna close my eyes...
Without you, I feel broke,
Like I'm half of a whole,
Without you, I've got no hand to hold~
Without you, I feel torn,
Like a sail in a storm,
Without you, I'm just a sad song~
It's when I'm mere inches away from his lips that I realise what I'm doing so I instantaneously pull away to see the astonishment on Sreyansh's face as clear as day.
That's when I remember how I have a boyfriend who's been lying to me, and my responsibility not to elevate our friendship more than what it already is. And then I recall what happened earlier today with the two seniors, reminding me that I will have to break things off with Utkarsh.
As the song ends, I step away from him. I don't have the courage to face him anymore as my eyes tear up. I come to the conclusion that maybe the root cause of all these recent problems is the wish. The wish to be popular. I wanted to catch Utkarsh Sharma's attention which made me want to be popular. But it cost me even more than I imagined.
Is it worth that much?
My train of thought is interrupted by a pair of hands turning me around. I keep my eyes focused on the floor. Sreyansh embraces me in a warm hug and my silent crying turns into a sob from the weight of overflowing thoughts and emotions.
When I'm a little calmer and quieter he pulls away and lifts my face, wiping off the teardrops. 'I'm sorry,' I say and clench my lips.
'What's going on Shway? There is something off and I've been feeling it ever since you came to the assembly hall in the second half. I know we don't talk much about each other's feelings or deep thoughts but I just want you to know that I'm always ready to listen,' Sreyansh says.
He takes my hand and leads me towards his bed. We both sit at the edge of the bed and he takes the glass from the side-table to fill it with water. Sreyansh hands the glass to me and I take it.
After the water manages to soothe my nerves a bit, I tell him everything. Literally, everything that has happened since yesterday till today evening comes tumbling out of my mouth. I still remember that Arushi di threatened me not to speak about the incident in the classroom today but I'm not afraid of her.
If she wants to bully me, fine. I don't care as long as I don't stuff all these things inside of me making me feel that I may explode any second.
By the time I finish narrating today's incident, a few tears have rolled down my cheeks, again. Sreyansh says nothing and quietly wraps his right arm around my shoulder and I place my head on his shoulder. He gently pats my hair until I'm quiet.
He brushes his fingers through my hair and a few minutes pass before he speaks up, 'Do you think it's worth it?'
'Worth what?', I ask, slowly lifting my head from his shoulder.
'It feels like your relationship with Utkarsh has brought you nothing but trouble these past few days...', Sreyansh trails off, unsure of how to frame his words.
'I have to break things off with him anyways 'cause-'
'Don't break up with him because Arushi and Rahi threatened you to do so,' Sreyansh says sternly.
'Not to forget, Utkarsh has been lying to me... about him and Kriti...' I trail off and wipe away the stray tears under my slightly swollen eyes. I get up and head towards the washroom to splash some water on my face.
When I come back to his room, I find Sreyansh lying on his bed with his eyes focused on the script in his hand. I look around his room when I realise this is the first time I've been here. The Chemistry tuition takes place downstairs and his, along with his parents' rooms are upstairs.
The walls are painted in a darker shade of blue and the ceiling, white but plain. I don't recall Sreyansh ever mentioning blue as his favourite colour but now that I look around his room, I figure out it is. Plus, he seldom wears an outfit without any shade of blue in it.
There's so much I don't know about this boy even if we've been friends for the past 4 years. And while I'm staring at him for the second time today, I want to know more about the things he loves, the things he hates, and the fears that he may have.
And I want to know why he loves blue, out of all the other colours on the spectrum.
***
Hope you liked this chapter!
Quick Q: What's your favourite colour?
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