"Hey, have you seen Nikhil?" I asked Parth. He shook his head and I went to the basketball court to search for him. I haven't seen him since morning. I tried calling him but his phone was switched off. Where could he be?
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
"Mind your own business Ved."
"Your boyfriend is not here."
"Where is he?"
"You are supposed to know that. Why are you asking me?"
"Do you know where he could be?"
He shrugged his shoulders. Wasn't he supposed to know since they were in the same team? Whatever. I had to talk to Nikhil about yesterday. The doubt was eating me.
"Nikhil. Look, your girlfriend came here for you," Ved shouted and I turned around.
"Nikhil! Where were you? I have been searching for you since morning. And why is your phone switched off? I thought you were not feeling well or something. I even called aunty to ask about you. She told me you had left for the college in the morning itself but I didn't see you anywhere. Where were you? Oh yeah one more thing I had to ask. Where-"
"Whoa. Calm down. Easy there," Nikhil cut off my rambling.
"What?"
"I was out for some work. You told mom?"
"Uh...no. Why?"
"She would worry unnecessarily. I had some urgent work."
"What work?"
"Ummm.... Just work. Please don't tell mom. You know how she is."
"Okay..... But I had to ask you something."
"Yeah, what is it? Just make it quick, okay? I am already late for the practice. If coach saw me now, he would kill me."
"Where were you last evening?"
"Huh? Last evening?"
"Yup."
"At home, why? You needed help with something?"
"No. Nothing like that. Just confirming."
"What confirming?"
"I thought I saw you with Karthik yesterday at Vijay chowk."
"Oh!"
"Yeah. I thought it was you, smoking and all. It wasn't you, right?"
"Of course! I told you I was at home." He laughed a little and I nodded my head.
"Okay then. Sorry for the misunderstanding."
I gave him a small smile and left. If he wasn't lying then why did he look nervous? He kept fidgeting too.
Stop judging Sandhya. Why would he lie to you? Yeah. He won't. He was my friend. There was nothing to hide. Then whom did I see yesterday? A doppelganger? But then, I was sure I saw Karthik too.
Stop it Sandhya! You are overthinking again. You are doubting Nikhil and it's not good. How would he feel if he got to know that you didn't trust him about such a simple thing? Hmm... Okay. I will stop now.
"Where did you run off to?" Surbhi asked.
"I was just checking something."
"All okay?"
"Yup."
"Let's eat then. I brought Snickers and Bournville."
"Ouch!"
YOU ARE READING
Hues Of Dusk
General Fiction"Do you still hate me?" "Why shouldn't I?" Getting admitted into her favorite college doesn't turn out to be that awesome when Sandhya Rai comes face-to-face with her childhood arch-nemesis aka Ved Rajput - her worst nightmare in human form. Would...
