Please read the previous chapter here
Author name : Gargi Dutta
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” If you want me to grovel, come and make me!!” Spat Shobhit.
It was evening and school had just goten over for the day. At the back of the school gym, Shobhit had found himself in a rough predicament. He was surrounded by several upper class men and it seemed like things were going to turn out in a way unfavorable to him.
” What did you just say Freshmen?”
The speaker was Kabir Sethi. A third year senior class men and the very unpopular school bully. Being the son of the mayor made it seem to him like he can bend any and everyone to his will. So when Shobhit refused him courtesy, lets just say, he didn’t take to it very kindly.
” You herd me.” Shobhit said quietly, ” I said it loud and clear!”
” Get him.” Kabir said to his henchmen.
Seven of the them lunched themselves on Shobhit.
” Quit it.” Came a sinisterly calm voice from somewhere.
Everyone looked around to see who it belonged to. There, at the top of the gym, stood a guy, his back turned towards the setting sun. It was only after their eyes adjusted to the light that they recognised him as, it was Kanishk. The haughty second year student who somehow was very popular among the girls in school, sometimes for his antiques of pissing of the female seniors in school.
“Almost too popular”..were the thoughts of Shobhit when he first encountered him at lunch break on his first day…All the girls in his class would go giddy and giggly and act stupid whenever his name was mentioned. The very thought made him sick to his gut. Some days later, he encountered him again and this time, it was in a soccer field between fresher and Junior year players of the club. The match ended in a bitter draw and since then Shobit had literally loathed him. A help from the school’s renowned pervert and Casanova was not what he was looking forward to right now.
” Stay out of it pansy boy!!!” he snarled.
Kanishk ignored him and addressed Sethi.
” If you don’t get outta here by the time I’m finished counting five, You’ll have a repeat of last year.” He told him coldly. ” You’re interrupting my nap.”
Back in Kanishk’s fresher year, Sethi had tried to do him in as well. Unlucky for Sethi, Kanishk had beaten the crap out of him and his possy. Sethi took the hint and scrammed for it, knocking his shoulder intentionally against Shobit’s. Shobhit responded with a quick punch on his face that broke Sethi’s nose. Bleeding, and swearing revenge, Sethi was finally gone. Kanishk retreated back to his comfy place of nap ignoring Shobhit’s continuous yells of ” Get back here!!!” and ” I didn’t need your help..” and ” If you interfere again, I’ll knock your lights off…” and some more stuff.
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Later that day, Shobit went out for a walk in town. It was only a little later that he realised he was being followed. It made him heave a sarcastic sigh.
” Talk about a busy day!”
He broke into a run and was sure that the followers were tailing him. He led them into a dark end alley and then turned.
” Took you long enough to get here boys…”
He stopped midway. His eyes tracing the things in their hands. They were not the school possys Sethi hung around with. This time, he was dealing with full fledged Gangsters with nasty weapons….
Half an hour later, and he was leaning against the alley wall, badly bleeding, and staring at several bodies that he knocked out, cursing at his injuries.
” At least, this night is over.” He told himself. But he spoke too soon. Before he could even stand up, thirteen more mobsters found him…They were accompanied by Sethi.
” You’re the Brat from first year who refused Mr. Sethi a courtsey.” Spat one of them.
” And what about it?” Shobit grunted.
” You little…!!!”
” Looks like I’m in serious trouble this time.” Shobit thought, amidst getting the hell kicked out of him. ” If only, I didn’t loose so much blood…”
Just when things had started to look really serious for him, the men hitting him started to scatter due to some comotion up ahead. There were people screaming and the sound of punches and kicks coming from somewhere. But Shobit was too far gone to care. He just wanted to sleep off the exhausion.
” Darnit..” He swore to himself.
and then there it was, that ssomeone who rushed to him and said in an echoing, concerned voice,
” Hey, Hang in there man..”
His vision was blurry and his ear was full of a faint buzzing sound. He was falling through a dark space……down down down….
When he opened his eyes, the lights blinded him and he shut them tight again quickly…Slowly, very slowly, he opened them.
He was in a hospital.
” I see you’re up.” Came a nastily familiar voice and Shobit prayed to god that the owner of this voice was not the person who rescued him last night….
Sure enough, Kanishk’s profile came to greater prominence and Shobit let out an enormous growl followed by an equally loud Swearing.
Kanishk gave him one of his sweet smiles and said,
” If you’re that energetic, you must’ve already recovered.”
” I didn’t need your help last night!!!!!” He said angrily.
Kanishk gave him a look and went to the window to pull the curtains off.
” I think you mean to say, last week.” He said kindly, smiling again.
The news blew a heavy deal to Shobit’s gigantic pride….
The two said nothing after that. Kanishk returned him his school bag and cloths and was at the door when Shobit finally spoke,
” Was I really out for a whole week?”
” Yeah.” Kanishk replied. ” But if it makes you feel any better, The nurse said, you’d be out atleast for a month, with the amount of blood you lost.”
” Damn!!!” Shobit swore to himself. ” This is pathetic!!!!”
” Wait till you get to school next Monday.”Kanishk intoned and Shobit felt a dark cloud waving over him. Maggie will know what happened to him and will knock his teeth off again…That girl’s been way too violent ever since she became friends with ” THAT PSYCHOFINE”….
He looked up at Kanishk and was about to say something when Kanish cut across him saying,
” No….. you don’t.” Kanishk smiled. ” You don’t need to say it.”
And Shobit sat there staring at him, and feeling more of loathing towards this man who saved his life, shattering his pride, than ever before. But at that moment, there was a mixture of gratitude mixed inside that feeling as well.
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The next author to be nominated soon