The Story Of Us

"Hello, Mumma? Yes, I have my umbrella 

No, you don't have to send anyone 

Yes, I'll directly return home—"

An exasperated sigh echoed at the station as Nia snapped her ratty mobile phone—or rather her mother's spare ratty old phone—and tucked it into the pocket of her jacket. Mothers, especially Indian mums could be so overbearing and overprotective, that it would feel like a blessing to be choked at times, instead of putting up with their miserable and ridiculous concerns. 

I am no kid; she huffed to herself and snapped her umbrella open. It was drizzling slightly, however, it would be better to remain dry unless she wanted another hour of a lecture from her dear mother, telling her how teenage life had made her reckless and disobedient.

 

Teenage life. How glorified it seemed to be when you were young, but no one informed you about the unending drama that tagged along like an obstinate lizard. Mood swings were commonplace, but what bothered her the most, was the sudden increase in her serotonin level each time she thought about a specific someone. The butterflies in her stomach had started whizzing about again as his name came to her mind. 

"Nia". Yes, that's how he'd call her. She dreamily looked up at the sky from underneath her umbrella. Big mistake. Clumsiness was one of her special talents. Her foot slipped and she nearly tumbled onto the wet floor when a pair of arms grasped her underneath her arms and pulled her upright. 

"Woah, are you alright?" She forgot to breathe for a second as she processed the familiar voice, her eyes widening as his scent wafted to her nose, sweat mixed with the smell of books and of course, the fragrance of mud and rain. She whirled quickly, nearly losing her footing once again, but he steadied her by keeping an arm around her shoulder. 

"Arhaan. Um hi, u here? I didn't see you" she rambled on until he burst out laughing at her cute expressions. She stopped and stared at him, his laughter making her feel warm to the core despite the chilly weather. It was a sound she could never get tired of hearing. 

"I called you at least twice or thrice dummy." He informed her. Nia scrunched her nose in an adorable manner and shrugged. Clearly, she had been too busy day-dreaming to pay attention. 

"Anyways, here is your umbrella, and uh-try not to slip again." He chuckled, as he turned to leave. 

She didn't know what got into her, but she had clearly lost her mind as she started, "Would you like to accompany me home?" He froze before turning to her, his expression unreadable. "Accompany you home?" 

Nia breathed in deeply, "Yes. You live near my house so I thought perhaps you'd like company while walking." He stared at her for a few seconds, as she fidgeted. "All right." He eventually said. Nia sighed, relieved that he didn't find her suggestion absurd, until he asked, "Do you mind sharing your umbrella?" 

She sucked in a breath again, she really needed to stop doing that unless she wanted an aneurism, and gave a shaky nod. Damn you umbrella. He approached her, towering over her short stature and ducked to her height. His back must be straining, she thought to herself. 

This is not awkward. Nia you can do this. You can handle it. He is a just another boy— 

Shut up, she screamed at her inner voice, trying not to hyperventilate. I need my friends, where are those useless buffoons when I need them. 

"Nia, shall we?" he asked, gesturing towards the empty road forward. "Um yeah, sure let's go." 

They trudged forward in awkward silence until he initiated a conversation. "So, what's up these days? Don't see you around much." 

Nia's cheeks heated involuntarily. He didn't see her around because she spent a considerable amount of energy avoiding him. "Nah, I just spend my time in the classroom during breaks these days", she waved her hand around trying to be casual. If he was unconvinced by her pathetic acting, he did not show it. 

They continued forward, trying to maintain a civil conversation without making the other feel uncomfortable. Nia constantly bit at her nails—as she often did when nervous—and glanced at his face as he talked animatedly. Halfway through the way, she once again swept her gaze over him and was stunned. The sun had come up slightly even though the raindrops continued to fall lightly. 

He had not been able to stay under the umbrella for too long, and as a result, his shirt was considerably drenched and stuck to his chest. He ran his hands through his jet-black hair and continued talking as she stared at the small dew drops on his eyelids, shining as slight sun rays fell on them. She gulped audibly as her eyes travelled to his chest which was nearly bare since his drenched white shirt clung to his body. The air around her suddenly felt too warm as sweat trickled down the back of her neck. 

"Nia. Nia.NIAAA!!" Arhaan nearly screamed as she jerked back into reality. She smiled sheepishly at him, while he grinned back pleasantly. Had he noticed her ogling? Well, she hoped not, or she would die of embarrassment. 

He, however, gestured towards his left. "Your house." Nia was surprised that they had reached so quickly. Disappointment coursed through her, with a twinge of relief. Finally, she wouldn't have to be so self-conscious, but she didn't want to leave him so soon either. 

"So, I'll see you at school?" he asked, interrupting her gawking again. "Yes, yes, see you at school. Thank you, Arhaan." 

"My pleasure", he replied as he walked away, strolling towards his house with hands in his pocket. Nia nearly bore holes into his back, till he reached the corner. Then, very slowly, he turned his head back and looked at her. She blushed and averted her gaze as she rushed back into the house. 

"What took you so long?" asked her mum. Akshara mumbled an inaudible reply and went to her room, but not before keeping the umbrella outside to dry on the porch.  

Perhaps, she thought to herself, as she changed her clothes and snuggled into bed, that umbrella wasn't that useless after all. 

xxx

"This sucks." 

"I know." 

"I love chemistry but can someone please tell me why the hell does FeSO4.7H2O break down into FeSO4+7h2O? And then why does FeSO4 have to be further reduced to Fe2SO3+SO2+SO3? Why can't we just leave it at FeSO4+7H2O? Why waste our darn time?" Akshara slammed the book onto the table so hard, that the teacher looked up from where they were sitting on the front table, trying to correct the examination papers for the higher-grade students. 

"What is this racket you are creating in the class, Ms. Kohli? If this is the way you continue behaving, I will have no option but to give you a detention." Her chemistry teacher's baritone and monotonous voice drifted to her ears and she slumped down into her chair, irritated. 

For the past half an hour the entire class had been attempting an assignment and everyone except her had completed it, while she was still stuck on the second last question, despite having referred to the book numerous times. 

I wish I could bundle this sheet of paper and launch it at that dumb chemistry master's head. A second later though, she felt something hit the side of her head. "Ouch," she exclaimed, rubbing her forehead. She picked up the ball of paper and looked around the classroom angrily. Which idiot's job was this? Who was testing her patience in such testing times? 

Her eyes flew towards Arhi who was indicating at her to open the page. Oh, so it's my idiot's job, she thought to herself and smoothed the paper. 

Sanjana was busy talking to the boy sitting beside her and so she had all the privacy she needed as she read the chemistry formula he had written. 

Cu(NO3 )2 +H2 S⟶?? 

 To anyone else, it wouldn't make sense, but Nia knew what Arhi was asking. Cu depicted "See you", NO3 meant room number 3, and the subscript 2 was the date, I.e., tomorrow. H2S meant, during the History period. Nia grinned at him as she gave a thumbs up. 

He had also given her the answer to the last question, by shading the message blue. This inorganic compound formed a blue crystalline solid. She happily scrawled down the answer and presented the complete assignment to her teacher, who peered up at her suspiciously from her rimmed glasses. 

Shooting a loving and grateful smile towards her boyfriend of 1 year, she made her way to the math class. Math right after chemistry was a nightmare, and by the end of that hour, she was back to roasting people alive. More specifically wanting to. 

She didn't exactly have the guts to show her teacher the middle finger. Yet. 

"I am sick of this." She huffed and sat down on the bench. The canteen was way too crowded for her to concentrate on her physics homework. She wanted to cry and yell at someone. She hated this stupid chapter of Motion and was struggling to complete the definition of escape velocity when she sensed movement beside her. 

A second later, her pen was wrenched from her hand, and as she turned to confront her opponent, the unsuspecting guinea pig who had decided to rile her up, a straw was pushed into her mouth. 

"Drink," said Arhaan, and she slurped on the Oreo shake he had brought for her. She eyed his cheerful, but slightly concerned expression as his eyes skimmed through her notebook. 

"Okay, Nia, you do this," he began cautiously, eyeing her subtle glare and gulping in, "why don't I help you complete this?" he asked, trying to be casual, but she had gouged from his expression that her paper was a mess of words—forget words, her sheet looked as if she had just killed twenty cockroaches on it. 

"Go ahead," she sighed dejectedly. He felt bad, calling out her mistakes while she was already exhausted, but he would rather she scream at him in frustration than getting scolded by the teacher. So, he decided to be a gentleman and sacrifice his share of the biscuits from the shake. 

"Here," he offered, and she gladly accepted it, nibbling and staring up at him with her doe-shaped eyes. She looked so adorable at that moment, that he had to cough a bit to hide the blush on his face. 

"Okay, so you have to change this definition a bit. Escape velocity is the minimum speed needed for a free, non-propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a massive body, in this case, it is Earth whose gravitational influence has to be escaped." 

A sudden, gentle breeze blew his hair and she wanted nothing more than to run her hands through them. She watched how he subconsciously waved his hand in the air, trying to explain the concept to her. 

"Nia?" he prompted, jerking her out of her daydream. She felt color rush into her cheeks at being caught and quickly wrote down the definition. 

"The escape velocity on Earth is 11.2 km/s, not 11.186," he observed as she wrote down. 

"But that's what the calculator said." She replied, slightly confused. Her heart started racing in the next instant as he leaned down a bit, calculating it manually. She forgot what she was about to say as she watched him, marveling at how he scrunched his nose while trying to solve a complicated equation, how his raven locks fell on his forehead, how he scratched the back of his neck with his pen, and she could probably go on forever. 

"Here," he said, handing her the paper. "You have to keep g=10." He elaborated. "But I like keeping it 9.8" she whined. He chuckled and shook his head. "You'll make the calculations longer." 

She pouted, causing him to laugh again. 

The damned alarm rang, signalling the end of the break. Well duh, all good things seemed to get over too soon. He helped her pack her things into her bag and walked her to class. 

"I'll see you after school, then." He spoke. Nia nodded, then gestured him to bend downwards. Giving her a questioning look, he complied and she shyly pecked his cheek. "Thank you." And with that whisper, she fled into class, giggling; he was left staring at her flustered and feeling equally shy. 

The bloody day finally ended and she met Arhi outside the gate, lounging against a wall. 

"Shall we?" he asked, gesturing towards her to start walking. She nodded and they fell into companionable silence as they made their way back home. They randomly chatted about their day, and the classes, as she cursed at her math teacher and he, in turn, told her about how hard P.E had been that day, with the coach in a sour mood, everyone nearly fainted by the end of the class. 

Halfway through their journey home, they noticed a small stall selling Kachoris. Their eyes lit up and she turned towards him. Silently communicating they agreed that a snack after the hectic day was a must. Nia offered to buy them, as she too wanted to spend money on him. After a small disagreement, he let her do as she wished to. He could never deny her anything. 

"Let's eat" she sang excitedly, bringing the plate in front of him and the rest of the journey was spent munching and Nia chattering about how delicious they were. 

Once they reached her house, Nia gave the last Kachori to him to eat and turned to go inside. 

"Nia, listen." He called. She turned, and a second later a Kachori was stuffed into her mouth. She chewed and swallowed, mock glaring at him before they both broke out into fits of laughter. 

"I'll see you tomorrow then. Take care." He parted, grinning like a man who had just found a patch of water in a desert. She felt herself smile at his antics and wave at him as he turned his back and left. 

Perhaps, she thought to herself as she kept her bag aside and climbed into the bath, school work wasn't that bad after all. 

xxx



It has been pouring for the last 3 hours. Seems like the weather is extremely awful," observed Arhaan as he drew the curtains close. Nia sat on the plush couch in his lavish drawing room, worrying her bottom lip. Her parents had called her thrice since the storm started, and nearly 11 pm striking on the clock was not helping soothe any of their anxieties one bit. 

Arhaan's parents had been out of town for the weekend and he invited Nia over for a study session since their exams were closing in on them. She had been at his place since brunch time, and their studying had long since dissolved into binging tv shows on Netflix. 

Around 8 pm, thunder had begun rolling and Nia had decided to wait for the storm to die down. But to no avail; it had gotten worse and she was forced to stay back. Not that she minded, but her parents were slightly paranoid and worried for her safety. Though they trusted Arhaan, they were not sure whether they should leave Nia with him overnight. 

Oh yeah right, your nineteen-year-old daughter is a damsel in distress who is camping the night at a Beast's palace, and not her boyfriend of three years' very humble home, she had thought to herself sarcastically. 

It had been long since they had dinner and with a sigh, she got up from her comfortable sitting place. "Arhi, it's no big deal, let's go sleep. My parents have accepted the fact that either I am going to stay here for the night or step out in the storm and get blown away like a kite. For your information, they prefer option 1." 

Arhaan rolled his eyes, but smiled at her and gestured at her to go upstairs while he locked the doors and switched off the lights. Nia made a detour towards the kitchen, grabbing a bar of chocolate, and skipped upstairs. She decided to sit and wait in his room since they would have to sleep in different ones. 

"Hey, shouldn't you be in bed?" Her boyfriend inquired, entering his room and chuckling at the sight of her hands covered in melted chocolate, a little bit of it on her cheeks. She grinned at him cheekily, pointing at the bed, "I already am in one." He shook his head good-naturedly and made his way to the dressing room to change into his night suit while she washed her face and hands. 

"Um…Arhi?" she asked hesitantly. "Hm?" he replied, obviously engrossed in changing his clothes. "I don't have a night suit, and this dress is uncomfortable to sleep in." 

He emerged from the adjacent room, and looked at her, contemplating. Nia had an idea but refused to share it. She was too shy to suggest that he lend her his clothes. 

"I could give you one of my sweatshirts…" he trailed off nervously, a red hue spreading across his cheeks. She laughed internally at the coincidence of their thoughts and nodded. He went to his wardrobe and pulled out a black sweatshirt, passing it to her. 

"Let me know if you need anything else," he said and she rushed back to the guest room, making quick work of divesting her dress and putting on the thick sweater. It reached her knees—curse her petite frame—and brushed her teeth with the spare brush. 

This was the first time they both were staying together without parental supervision and needless to say Nia couldn't help recalling the countless stories that she had read on Wattpad. Which trope would fit ours? She wondered and went back to Arhaan, to wish him a pleasant night. 

As soon as she entered the room, Arhi who had been reading a book under the lamplight turned his eyes towards her and froze, promptly stunned. 

"Woah," he exclaimed and this time both of them felt the heat fly into their cheeks. So much for being decent, she thought to herself. He cleared his throat, looking bewildered. "You look…you look beautiful," he complimented, and Nia worked hard to hide her joy. 

She went up to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Good night, Arhi." He took her face in his palms and kissed her forehead. "Night, little dove." She squealed at that and ran back to the room. His calling her endearments made something stir in the pit of her stomach. 

Sighing contentedly, they went to sleep. 

A few hours later, Nia woke up to the sound of another bolt of lightning. She was a light sleeper and the continuous horrendous weather outside did not help. Feeling thirsty, she got up from the bed and went to the kitchen to drink water. 

"No!" she heard a voice scream from upstairs. "What the hell?" she muttered and swiftly ran up to Arhaan's room. It was his voice, and she was concerned when she threw the door open. 

Arhi lay on the bed, sheets pooled beneath his waist, writhing. His eyes were clenched shut as he shook with every wave of thunder that struck outside. "Arhi," she rushed to him, trying to calm him down as he shifted restlessly. He was clearly having a bad dream, most likely. Without a second thought, she climbed onto the bed beside him and tried to shake him awake. 

"Wake up, Arhaan." She shook him hard, and he nearly fell off the bed. Coming back to his senses, he gasped and shook his head, as if trying to dispel whatever he had seen that scared him. His body was still trembling and he flinched when the noise outside increased. 

"Love, look at me," she turned his chin towards her and brushed the few drops of tears that had escaped his eyes. Up until now, she had no clue about his fear of loud noises, or possibly thunderstorms specifically. While a part of her wanted to inquire, she found it more important to comfort him. 

"Hey, look at me, I'm right here love." She cooed at him, as he clutched her hand and buried his face in her neck. "Stay, please," he whispered against the bare skin of her collarbone. She nodded, kissed his hair, and began to stroke the curls, lulling him to sleep. 

"Sleep, my heart" she whispered and gathered the blankets around them, leaning against the headboard and closing her eyes.  

Perhaps, she thought to herself as she kept her inhibitions aside and squeezed his hand for support, staying back wasn't that bad an idea after all. 

xxx