The screwing part about being that popular kid of your school meant you've more of responsibilities.

Same goes for Agastya- he just took a sigh, when the door of his class creaked open.

"Agastya" his senior came- when he attentively looked at him.

"Yes bhaiya" Agastya asked, standing up, fixing his specs. It was one of his senior.

"Tomorrow will be a special assembly, will you take the host part?" His senior, Nitin asked, when he nodded back with a smile.

"Haan, haan, I'll for sure" Agastya said, taking the script from his hand, when Zara saw him coming back to his seat.

"Don't you get bored?" Agastya muttered in a slow voice, when Zara looked at him with her furrows raised.

"Why'd I?" She asked shrugging off her shoulders.

"I can't sit this quiet, like how do you really manage to sit like this?" Agastya asked.

"I can, I feel good like that" Zara said, as she turned her head to the board.

-I lied. Of course there is no fun in sitting alone and suffering, looking upon people bickering, but at the same time it feels better to stand up and trying hard to fit in between some of the social animals and just act like one.

I simply looked at myself, and felt weird for the nth time to reply back. It's not like he's my friend that I can argue with him.

"Your choice Zara, whenever you want to rant, I'll be a good listener" he bent towards me and smiled. Jeez? What the hell is he on?

Trying to attract me by his charm? Do he looks like some superhero, or just a desperate guy, bitch.

Or is he trying to trap me?

The fuck Zara! Why can't you think straight, maybe this guy is just trying to breathe near me just because my brother asked him to take care of me.

Yeah, and who the hell will fall in love with you? I thought looking at my curvy body. Everything here felt just too overwhelming.

When I looked at him again, I could feel him tapping his pen against my table. "Zara?" He asked, when I looked at him.

"Haan?" I asked him, when he pointed at the teacher standing in front of us.

Holy shit? Mam entered the class, so they're done with the first thing.... That welcoming teacher. As I noticed myself again, I was standing, while everyone else sat down.

I bit my lip a bit, closing one of my eye, Zaraaa, why can't you act normally?

I mentally scolded myself before giving a look to the teacher. "G...good...morning....mam" I nervously said, involuntary biting my tongue.

I looked at Agastya, who was looking at me. Damn noo, I wanted the first day of school to be less chaotic.

"Good morning, new admission?" The teacher asked, when I gave her a small nod.

Words didn't came in my mouth, and I was simply trying to sit. I could feel everyone looking at me, including the teacher, when I saw another girl who was sitting ahead of me calmed me down. Her expressions were soothing —the kind that said "Don't worry, you didn't just make a complete fool of yourself. Probably."

She gave me the softest smile, like she'd been there too—awkward, new, standing alone while the whole class pretended not to stare but totally did.

"My... I'm Zara, from Delhi" I said- as the teacher nodded and indicated me to sit.

"Wow, you did it Zara" this guy, sitting beside me chimed and congratulated me which sounded more like a taunt. I nodded, trying to classify if he was being sarcastic or he really meant something.

Anyways....

The class started and I got busy in myself, looking at the corridor through the window, then I started writing off on my back page- something really useless, because the least thing I was able to do was to focus in the first class, this early.

And why not? Being overstimulated, being in a completely new city, being emotionally wrecked- and last one is something I never thought I'll not enjoy, but missing my crazy medico sister and totally gone case twin who walked into another class as if his sister valued nothing to him, leaving me with someone this over concerned.

I was already done.

"Zara" Agastya whispers, when I looked up, into his eyes.

"Hmm?" I questioned back.

"Do you've some plans after school? I'll introduce you to my friends" he asked casually, when I thought. The only place I go in the evening is for gurudwara, and that too alone, maybe for an hour or so.

"Yeah, I do, but maybe you won't like it?" I asked, raising my furrows.

"Where do you go?" Agastya leaned in slightly, keeping a palm under his face as he looked at me. I didn't wanted to tell him where I do go daily, because something I learnt in previous years is that if you don't work according to others, they won't even consider you of their level.

I used to go to gurudwara or mandir, in the evening with my grandparents in my young age, first we used to go to the divine places, and then to park where they used to buy me candy floss, after what I used to play with my grandfather, while my grandmother used to click our candid pictures.... She loved using camera.

After a few years, my grandmother passed away —and the camera sat in a drawer like a silent memory, gathering dust with everything else that hurt too much to touch.

I cleared my throat, brushing the thought off like an eyelash on my cheek.

"I go to the gurudwara," I finally said, eyes still fixed on the window, not him.

There was a pause—short, quiet, weightless. The kind that usually comes before judgment.

But instead of some smartass reply or a pitiful "oh," Agastya simply said, "I've never been. I mean... I've passed one, but never actually gone inside."

I instantly regretted telling him- the feeling of him judging me, eating me from inside, but when I looked at him with a side eye, his face didn't looked judgy- instead it was soothing, he kept his hand on his back, writing his work, biting his lips.

For a few minutes, I was confused. Is he judging me? Or what.

"Zara...." He finally spoke, when I keep my head lowered, slowing shifting my eye gaze towards him and raising my furrows "Hmm?" I questioned.

"Umm, if you don't mind, so can I accompany you?" He asked me, when I simply nodded.

"Of course" I said, a faint hint of smile came on my face. "I go in the afternoon, like we'll get free nearly at 1, so I'll be going at 2"

*******

I wore an off white suit, Silver jhumkis hung delicately against my jawline, swaying every time I turned my head. A tiny bindi sat between my brows.

[her outfit]

I usually don't go outside, but going to gurudwara is quite a tradition for me. I was hopeless that Agastya would join, maybe he'd not even care to ask if I went without him- so I just left.

It was 2.18 PM when I opened my phone, to check the time.
The day felt so slow already, and I finally reached the gurudwara, when I heard a voice. "Zara!"

It was Agastya.... The hell? He was in a simple white shirt and blue pants but as I saw him, he looked breathless, his shirt creaked, and the way he tied his handkerchief on his head felt more like a failed you tube tutorial.

I waved him a bit when he almost slipped- his arms flailing in air like a penguin when someone came and held him from behind.

He simply balanced himself, thanking the uncle who saved him and ran to me.

"You... sorry, I was super late, I just closed my eyes for a minute and didn't knew when the next half hour went...." He said, thank god he didn't knew that I didn't waited for a minute.

"It's genuinely okay, Agastya or else our neighbours would've made weird if somebody saw us coming together" I told him, when he nods.

"By the way, this isn't a big problem, because 90% of the time nobody sees, everyone is so consumed in themselves that nobody has time to check others" he told me, when I took him to a corner.

"What?" He asked, most probably taking up the messiest reason to grin.

"You haven't tied this properly, let me help" I told him, when he touched the handkerchief.

"Isn't it tied properly?" He questions.

"Nahi," I said, as I stood on my heels to match his height, my hands floating in air, without even waiting for me to say anything , he bent down slightly, now eye-level with my lips. Bro. Please.

"There," he said, fingers pointing to his forehead. "Tie away, O certified rumal stylist."

I rolled my eyes. "Just stay still."

He closed his eyes dramatically like I was about to crown him king or stab him. Either, honestly, was a possibility.

My hands ran through his hairs, for a second they were brushed with my arm. "Done" I said, moving further, while he rushed behind to match my speed.

He chuckled, when we reached to the main prayer hall. The chaos suddenly changed to silence, the surroundings now echoed with gurbani, as I bowed my head, my duppata gently slipped forward. The humming of the path, the granthi recited verses with calmness.

Agastya bowed his head, as he saw me doing it. As I walked, he followed me doing the same. He followed whatever I did and sat in the line of men.

It was 15 minutes, when I gestured him to stand up, and we went outside.

Agastya took karah prasad, and it was my turn. For a second, my throat died. It's just prasad. Sacred. Holy. Safe. That's what I always told myself, but my brain didn't care. It only saw calories. Ghee. Sugar. A spoonful that could spiral into guilt I wouldn't shake off for the rest of the week.

I stepped forward anyway. I always do. You don't say no in a place like this. The warmth of the prasad hit my palm. Sticky. Soft. Heavier than it should feel. I moved away, slow, like I was afraid it would stain my skin. I didn't even look at Agastya—I couldn't. My chest was already too tight.

"This is so delicious" he said, eating prasad, clueless, probably just trying to make conversation.

"Hmm, it's" I gave a half nod, eyes still fixed on the marble floor.

I didn't eat it. He did. Happily. Licking his fingers a bit like a kid. I hated how normal that looked.

"Agastya, you want more. I'm not hungry"

I asked him, when he simply nods looking at me. "Yep, it's super tasty" he said, when I passed him the prasad.

We didn't speak much as we walked toward the sarovar. The marble under our feet had started to cool, soaking in the late afternoon shade. It wasn't crowded, just a few people here and there—some lost in prayer, some lost in thought.

I sat near the edge, crossing my legs, careful not to let my dupatta dip in the water. Agastya quietly followed, sitting beside me—not too close, not too far. Just the exact amount of presence that didn't feel suffocating.

The ripples in the water shimmered gently, reflecting bits of the sky and the golden dome behind us.

"Do you ever just... stare at the water and overthink your entire existence?" he asked.

I smiled faintly. "All the time."

Agastya leaned forward a bit, watching a small fish swim by. "I don't know how people say water calms them. I think it makes me think more."

I simply shrugged looking at him and opened my phone.

"Are you searching what I just asked?" he asked, with a grin.

"I've better things to do in my phone," I told him, while looking for 'that better thing' in my phone. Of course I opened my phone to check what's the reason—why the hell my chest still felt heavy. But I couldn't Google that.

I locked it again. Pointless.

"I thought you were about to give me some deep spiritual take on water and inner peace," he teased, fingers lazily swirling on the marble floor beside him.

"Nah, I left my enlightened version back in Delhi," I said, not even looking at him.

There was a soft beat of silence, but not the awkward kind—just... present. Like both of us were sitting with thoughts we weren't ready to unpack out loud.

"Chale?" I asked him, when he was walking slowly behind me.

I raised my furrows as he looked at me. "You said na, people will think weird, so I thought to walk behind, sahiba"

"Sahiba?"
I asked stressing on the word.

He shrugged like it was nothing. "Felt like it suited the moment."

*******

TBC <3