Chapter 8
A birthday party
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Lokesh did not want to devote much of his time in talking with Nitin. He said thank you and ended up with formalities and continued his chatting.
Nitin then ran his eyes around. Was anyone there to accompany him? No one. Great. Now I will bore myself here.
He went over to the menu. Junk food had been excluded from his meals about a year ago. Just one day won’t matter much.
“Watch where you are stepping, dumb!”
Nitin veered his head. He had been lingering on the pizza stall.
The girl had long brown wavy hair. Fragile and thin. Her dark black eyes dug into him.
She was Priya, possibly, the most famous female bully.
“I am sorry,” I said and was just getting way with my slice when—
“I am sorry,” Priya mocked.
Nitin didn’t want a fight there. Fleeing was the better option. He ignored her and moved away. But the key features of a bully seldom change, she followed her.
Nitin had come for the party for just one reason; he wanted to betray all of Vyom’s rules. The bitterness was still there on his tongue.
“Why are you making faces?”
Nitin looked up. A girl had spoken from her group.
“What?”
She giggled and submerged in her group.
Nitin realized it was his side effects of sketching. He would imagine and draw a face, taking his own customized face as reference. Though he didn’t look in the mirror for the reflection, he could draw the expression just by feeling it.
And whenever something kept on going in his mind, it would show on his face. Once, Mrs. Anura had been teaching polynomials, and Nitin was planning for drawing a stern mean-looking teacher that day. Mrs. Anura felt Nitin was mocking her.
A side door leading from the main hall was open. Nitin restrained himself for a time from not becoming a nosy. But he heard strange slurping noises. He decided to go in.
Later he felt he shouldn’t have. It was a hallway leading further into the house. A small orange bulb flickered far off in the five feet wide corridor. There were two people, quite close to each other, silhouetted. When Nitin squinted, he was able to see Lokesh and Priya.
Nitin gulped and withdrew himself that moment as light-footed as he could.
People just streamed from one place to another, mostly laughing. Nitin’s eyes had adjusted to the club-theme light. He went again to the pizza stall. His pulses tensed. How nosy he was!
He could have his meal here. No need for eating at home. Another breaking of the Rule. He turned back to leave. A girl bumped into him and they both tripped over.
What the…? Nitin was lying on that girl. He gathered himself up, a choke in his throat. All the eyes in the room stared at him. His nerves could have crackled had not the girl gotten up and addressed the crowd. “Sorry that was my fault. I didn’t see him.”
The long jet black hair swished and Nitin saw the shocked face of Priya. “You…”
Everyone had gone to his or her own business. The room again echoed with murmurs.
Nitin saw anger and regret in Priya’s eyes. He got the message very clearly. If she had known he had fallen over her, her story would have been different.
Nitin tried to stay easy and hide his nausea. He wouldn’t ever be able to look at her without that picture coming in his mind.
“How dare you!” Lokesh burst out, his plaster now covered with sketch pens. Nitin hadn’t seen him before.
“I am sorry,” Nitin used his polite and persuasive tone. “I didn’t see her coming. It was mistake. Really.”
By this time, someone had shut off the blaring music.
“I will kill you!”
Mostly by default, Bullies and bullies have always something together. During a free period some months ago, The Group had settled at the last benches and talked in hushed voices. Lokesh and Priya were directly behind him, and he had to listen to the forty-minute discussion about what they had chatted about yesterday on FB.
Nitin had always categorized crush and love differently.
“I told you sorry. It was a mistake.” Nitin was getting angry now. He usually didn’t. He got angry only with his father. Lokesh stood there like a bull shown a red curtain in his face. Nitin could even see his nose fuming.
Nitin thought it would be best to go away. It was time. And besides time, he didn’t want to start up a fight. “My conscious mind has nothing to do with it. I am sorry. And thank you for inviting me, it was a great evening.
Nitin felt the pulses of dozens of boys and girls now watching them with keen eyes. They didn’t even whisper to each other. He hadn’t realized how much their voices would be echoing.
“Leaving? So soon?” Lokesh put his good hand on Nitin’s shoulder. Wickedness glinted in his iris. Even the red colour showed, or maybe it was just the reflecting light from the ball they put in bars hanging on the ceiling.
“I am tired of explaining,” Nitin threw away Lokesh’s hand and glanced for some sign of Priya. She had left just after she tripped. But she might be hearing all this! Where is she now? Why doesn’t she some and explain?
Lokesh glared. His teeth clenched. “Trying to gain notice by falling on someone else’s.”
“What—no—I had no such intention!” Nitin barked this time.
Lokesh lunged. Nitin didn’t see that coming. He fell to the floor with a 54 kg sac. Feet shuffled behind Nitin’s head. Nitin reached for Lokesh’s hands, clutched them hard and rolled him over. He quickly got up—but too late. Lokesh swung his leg and kicked Nitin hard behind the knee. Nitin buckled. What followed was a floor-brawl. Nitin tried his best not to hurt the plastered hand—he wasn’t that bad to attack someone with a weakness. Lokesh moved whatever part he could move. He even punched with Nitin on his nose with the slung hand.
Suddenly, something inside Nitin moved along his spine and spread through his body. His mouth had a longing. A very deep longing. He flicked his eyes but Lokesh’s hand always appeared in the front. He gulped back. But he was thirsty, it didn’t matter if he wanted to drink water.
Finally, Nitin opened his mouth wide, and his teeth arching over, he bit the flesh of his opponent’s hand
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