Heart wrenching adoration, Part-15

The shrill ring of the school bell marked the end of our chemistry period during which we slogged through numericals relating to mole. Even though, chemistry was  one of my most favorite subject, yet somehow the sleepy faces of my classmates and friends got to my head too and I couldn't help a yawn or two in between.

"Ok kids! Study the concepts that we covered today, properly and solve all your back exercise questions related to mole...that's your assignment." Mrs.Latika Nair, our Chemistry teacher instructed us before going out, though I doubt anybody heeded her.

Her soft, mystical voice was lost in the post oh-so-boring- period imbroglio as everyone, especially boys shouted about boorishly while girls immediately broke into chatters, forgetting books, pens and papers to savor a few moments of fun before the arrival of the next teacher.

I looked about at the ensuing bedlam and found everyone up and about, except NK, who was still pretty much immersed in the chapter that we had just learned and was not able to tell a word from the other by the expressions on his face.

"Hey Nk! What's wrong? You look distressed." I asked, prancing over to his bench.

"Nothing yaar! This mole thing is so awfully troll!" He joked pitiably, making me feel sorry for him.

"Seems like you aren't able to grasp it?"I hedged.

"Grasp?I'm unable to make out head or tail of this thing!" He said bitterly, glaring at the book as if to burn it by the sheer intensity of his gaze.

"Um, maybe I can help you if you want. I mean, I've already learned it, so I can help you out with it."I offered helpfully, trying to cheer him up.

"Will you do that?Oh khushi, thank you so much! You are such a dear...my  life saver!" Nk chortled looking so relieved, one would think I had really saved his neck or something!

"Well...you are welcome. We'll get at it in the Study room,ok." I called back to him as I scuttled over to my bench as our History teacher arrived.

"You have  got to use the Avogadro's number for this Nk." I told him, explaining the question I had just solved.

It was twilight and we were seated in the brightly lit Common study room of our hostel with Chemistry book and notebook sprawled in front of us. 

"That's right, now you just have to apply the formula given mass divided by molar mass to take out the number of moles and..."

"Hey khushi!" A familiar voice broke through my concentration and I looked up to see Arnav striding towards me beaming.

"Hi there!"I replied back equally jovially, but he didn't see me. His eyes were affixed on Nk.

"Are you tutoring him?" He asked, his smile vanished from his face.

"Yeah why?" I asked, his sudden mood swing baffling me as usual!He grimaced and then shrugging, he pulled up a chair beside me.

"Anyways, khushi you asked me to explain you the Akkusativ case, so here I issued this Wir-2 for you.All the three main cases in German Nominativ, Akkusativ and Dativ-that you'll learn soon are explained in detail here so..." 

"Khushi, see is this correct?" Nk cut Arnav midway, passing his notebook to me. I looked apologetically at Arnav who looked quite annoyed with the interruption.

"Nk, you've solved it wrong...I mean there's a calculation mistake. It is not divided this way." I said correcting his answer.

"With stupidity, the Gods themselves struggle in vain." Arnav quoted Friedrich Von Schiller and I elbowed him in the rib to quieten him, though thankfully Nk was too engrossed to notice his petty insinuation.

"Arnav, why do you have to be so rude with Nk?"I frowned as soon as Nk was out of earshot an hour later.

"Why did he have to be so stupid and stick to you like fevicol?" He retorted equally miffed.

"What?" I asked uncertainly, trying to read the molten depths of his smouldering eyes, but he shaded them looking down at his hands clenched in a double fist. Was I imaging it, or did I rightly caught an edge that could pass over as jealousy in his voice?

"There you are! Trust you two disappear right from the face of the Earth when you are being searched for!" Anvesh, Aman, Akash and Payal di walked in, breaking through my musing. I smiled at them and turned back towards Arnav who was still looking down to face the conundrum. I sighed.Maybe  my imagination was getting too wild!

"What's up Anvesh?" I asked.

"Oh nothing much! Just thought to watch some movie. Are you game?" He asked as he switched on his lappy.

"Sure!"

We settled around and Anvesh immediately started 'Men in Black-2', earning resigned groans from the group, except me as I couldn't really understand their reactions.

"Seriously buddy! Don't you get bored watching this movie over and over?"Akash asked disgustedly.

"Yeah, we have even got all those ridiculous one-liners memorized!" Arnav grumbled looking disgruntled.

Aman seemed to be more a man of action than words as he immediately sprang to his feet and tried to snatch away the lappy from Anvesh who hung on to it tenaciously.The movie got fast forwarded in their ensuing battle and I gasped as I watched a man trot the gun at others, shooting them. I dug my nails in my palms as I watched the carnage and moans of pain of those shot and could feel sweat beads on my face, even though I knew it wasn't real.

"Stop it!" Arnav yelled staring at me and by the look on his face, I could clear guess that my expressions had given me away! 

"Khusi, are you ok?" Several voices asked at once, though their question got drowned in the jumbled hulla ballo in my head and the anguish that seared through my chest nearly chocking me.

Shivering, I got up and raced out of the room as fast as my legs could carry me ignoring the stunned gazes of everyone!