Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 38. Last Day of Vacation

Next day at the breakfast, Arpit spoke to Shrishti, 'Have you checked the app since you woke up? You have gained many followers.'

'I have?' Shrishti was surprised and opened the app right away. Her brows went up at the followers increase. It had almost doubled.

'What happened?', she blurted out.

'Bhai commented on the photo on him with sunlight on his face that I posted.'

'And what did he say?' She looked to Raghav who kept his head down eating quietly.

Arpit chuckled. 'He wrote that he looked so good because of his photographer and tagged you!'

'Nooooo!', she cried out and Arpit burst out laughing. 'Yup.'

She checked her app and was horrified to see more than thirty DMs. She knew what was in those messages and did not dare to open them. She had seen the comments under the photo. Most people were raving about Raghav's looks but there were many who wanted to know the photographer so that they could ask the person to take their photos too!

With a groan, Shrishti shut her phone and huffed. 'I am ignoring them! I am on vacation!', she declared solemnly before eating. Today was last day of their vacation and they were going shopping after the breakfast. As there was nothing but shopping in the plan, all of them had slept in and were having late breakfast. Hence, it was nearly eleven when they headed out of the restaurant to begin shopping. Shrishti ignored Raghav and stuck to Megha or Arpit. Pappa was not coming along and planned to rest. So only the four teenagers were going to the Darjeeling Mall Road.

'Are you ignoring me?', Raghav asked.

Shrishti shrugged. She did not want to talk to him. She did not want to see him. He flirted with her the other night! Or so it felt. But what if it was not? What if he was just being sweet and friendly and she was reading too much into it? All her thoughts left her sleepless the other night and today, she had to order coffee to be awake for the day. This was so embarrassing! She wanted the day to end. She badly wanted to go home and focus on her second year of college and not her embarrassing crush.

'Are you angry at me about giving you credit?', Raghav asked. All four of them were walking together with Megha and Shrishti in the middle and the boys on the other ends. Raghav was next to Shrishti.

'I am sorry.', he mumbled.

She huffed. Now she had to speak. She could not let him feel guilty for something that was not even his fault. It was not his fault that Shrishti had a crush on him.

'No. It is not your fault. I should not have gotten mad at you for giving me credit.', she lied. She did not want to tell him that she was annoyed at him for giving her hope with his words.

'I am sorry though. I did not think people would target you like this.'

Shrishti shook her head. 'It is ok. I don't blame you. I am just annoyed that my DMs are filled today and I know exactly what they will say and I don't know how to answer it.'

'Just tell them. It is not your skills.', Arpit spoke up, 'It is my brother's lovely looks that made the pic so beautiful.'

Shrishti chuckled while Raghav rolled his eyes.

They reached the market and split right away. Raghav was with Megha, buying things for her while Arpit went for his own shopping and Shrishti sought her own. She saw a sweater selling shop and remembered how the world kept getting colder every year in winter in future. Even people in Mumbai had suffered due to it. Shrishti's Pappa had struggled too as the usual sweaters did not protect him much. By the time, they realised that the cold was bad and got thicker sweaters, the damage was already done. His health had begun to deteriorate by the time Shrishti was in her twenties.