Sarayu

Chapter 11

My eyes met Sarayu's, and she immediately goes back. I really didn't know what that meant. Ram tapped on me and whispered, "FYI Sarayu's eyes are visible, and I don't know if she's looking at you or me, but she's definitely looking at one of us. I looked back, and Sarayu's eyes disappeared. What is this?

Ms. Malini started coughing, and Sarayu ran towards her with a glass of water. "Amma, have some water. Careful, it's hot."

After another 15 minutes, class was over. I was packing my bag and Ram whispered again, "Here, I think you lost a paper or something."

"Wait, this is not mine-"

Wait.

I unfold the paper that said:

"Hi, I heard your conversation with Ram. Please don't tell anyone about Aadi. He made a mistake, I wanted to let him know that no girl would be comfortable about him, and I behaved like that. I don't know if that was right or wrong, but I don't want everyone to spread the news." ~ Sarayu

On the other side of the paper, I immediately wrote:

"I wish my sister had the courage you had when slapping Aadi, her ex wouldn't have gone that far, to a point where-"

No.

I erased everything after the first comma and left that under the mat in front of Ms. Malini when she left for the back door, with a tear in my eye that didn't come down my face, because Akshu was picking me up that time.

September 3, schools started.

"Congrats my man, you got through the first step of love," Rahul called.

"Or infatuation. Stop listening to Rahul, Abhi!" You can guess who that is.

"But Sarayu seems the old fashioned type, so it's probably love Vaishali," Krishna said.

I replied, "I don't care what it's called, but it feels good you know."

"Yeah, whatever," called Vaishali.

Senior year was tough. Tougher than junior year.

Until junior year, none of my dad's friend's or our relatives gave a (beep) about how my life was because Mr. Arjun his it from everyone and they hid it from my dad. When it came to colleges, everyone said proudly, "My son is going to Johns Hopkins" or "My daughter's going to NYU!" Of course he wouldn't hide such a thing from others!

Last year I cleared SAT with a decent score. It's not wonderful because I got a score lower than Akshu (well of course, she got a 1510), but it's not bad because it's better than what Rahul the Flirt got. Maybe I would've done better without Sarayu on my mind.

Or maybe I did a decent job because of Sarayu.

Half an year ago...
"Abhi kanna, go finish that SAT homework that Mr. Carlos gave," shouted Subbu, who was in the kitchen while Akshu and I were in the family room, watching "Stranger Things".

I called, "Ma let me finish this season, it's almost done, just an episode left!"

"You can finish it later Abhi ma, first finish the homework! This is your second attempt, you shouldn't be so lazy!"

Akshu tapped on me and whispered, "Do it for Sarayu. She studies well, she wants to do dentistry, and she'd want to like someone cute and smart," and winked.

I kept eye contact with Akshu and shouted, "I'm going," with a big smile on my face.

Present

I studied my butt off to get into a good college and impress Sarayu and become her boyfriend and-

"Abhi ma, did you finish studying for the physics test and the literature quiz?"

"I'm studying for it ma!"

Darn.

Then came November. Five out of the eight colleges I applied to accepted my profile, all being decent. Since there were very few colleges with "Aerospace Engineering Major", I sadly had to choose either physics or mechanical engineering as the major.

Before I chose a college, I wanted to know where my friends decided to go to and where Sarayu was planning to do to.

"Dude I got admitted to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It's a good school, so I guess I'll choose that, because it's the best out of the ones that accepted me," said Vaishali at the lunch table.

I got into UNC too, and that's where Sarayu went for her dentistry internship thing or whatever.

Rahul started, "Well I got into a decent college as well, I got into-"

Vaishali interrupted, "That college behind my house, with 100% of students who apply being accepted."

"Shut up you f-ing idiot. I'm probably going for the one in NYC, Brooklyn College."

Krishna called, "I haven't decided, but I'm choosing between NYU and UCLA."

"I'm not sure yet guys, it all depends." And I assumed they knew what it depended on.

It was Friday evening. School was over, and I thought about how to find out where Sarayu was going.

And I prepared a plan for it. Thank god I have a sister.