~~~@~~~ THE RAKHI INCIDENT ~~~@~~~

         
(PART 3)

     

       Aman so obediently extended his hand, thinking that she was going to give him something. He did it as soon as he heard the first part of her sentence. Once the words “ I want to tie a Rakhi to you” had reached his ears and up through the neurons cells to the brain, his reaction to it was so fast that it was hard to differentiate if it was a reflex action or a voluntary reaction/response sent by the brain. Aman had quickly taken his extended hand back and hit his head with it and settled down properly in his seat.

       Harini didn’t realize what had happened, for one second his hand was right there and next he was hitting his head and pointing to her as if to indicate that she had gone mad. She turned back to see Senthil’s and John’s reaction. They were still encouraging her not to give up as if she had almost reached the finish line of a race fully devoid of energy and had to only take few steps to reach it. 

She air-mouthed to them telling, “He doesn’t want to tie it”. 

Senthil replied the same way, “Try once again, find out why he doesn’t want to.”

“I don’t care!” replied Harini bluntly. “I cannot go run behind him or anyone to tie a rakhi just because you two are compelling me to do”, was annoyed Harini’s angry reply to them while she was turning her head back to face the blackboard.

       John urged Senthil to add some oil to the burning flames coming out of Harini’s aura. His idea was before Harini calms herself  if they hit the red-hot-iron-rod- like Harini, only then she’ll break her I-don’t-care-attitude and take the next step to find out what Aman’s reaction meant. For those two guys it was like trying to solve a high profile mystery and they just wanted to reach to the end as fast as possible.

Senthil told John, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care. I know what to do.”

He pretended to be talking to John in slightly raised tone and said, “Oh! So it’s like that John! You are right, bro; there is nothing between Harini and Aman. But one thing I didn’t understand If nothing is there, why isn’t Aman co-operating with Harini, when he knows this can put an end to all speculation. Is he using HER!", indirectly calling out to Harini by making sure his voice was loud and clear enough to catch her attention

Now even Harini wanted to know why, she called, “Aman!”

After he turned with an I-don’t-give-a-damn look,  “I want to tie the Rakhi to you, don’t turn back, let me finish”, she started  off with so much determination and hurried up to finish the sentence before he retreats again.

She continued on to say, “See! Everyone’s pressurizing me to do it and anyways we don’t staunchly follow this custom, so why not just do it to get peace of mind?!”

          Aman’s face turned to a clueless look and Harini was unable to judge what he is going on in his mind. Aman didn’t give any herd to her blabbering and this annoyed Harini.

         She was already frustrated with those two boys behind her and now when she had made up her mind to do it, Aman was not co-operating. She just wanted to end it so that she can go back to her assignment work. The silence and the wait for Aman’s words or response was just increasing her tension of whether she had made a stupid move.

“H-E-L-L-O! Aman “, Harini impatiently blurted out.

“What?” , Aman questioned as if he didn’t know that she was waiting for his reply.

 Harini shrugged her shoulders implying she was still waiting.

“Uh! … I mean … What peace of mind are you talking about? Who’s pressurizing you? “, asked Aman.

        Harini with a jerk pointed her thumbs behind towards Senthil and John. Aman’s eyes followed the direction meet those two giggling boy’s faces and gave a sarcastic smile and small upward nod indicating “What’s up with you bro!” to them.

        He turned back to Harini and deject fully said, “You, YOU are falling into their words! I last expected it from you Harini. Do you think by doing all this drama, anything is going to change? I thought you were intelligent and clear minded. I thought all this didn’t affect you. Then, why all this is for?”

          Harini was not the kind to be sitting quietly and listening to all this lectures, that too from a boy like Aman or any boy. She had never seen him talking like all-the-sensible-grown-up-adult, then how the sudden change and why was he saying it to her. If any other girl had done it, she knew very well what his reaction would be; his chocolate boy charm and flirty nature would have come out. She was surprised to see this change in Aman.

So she replied, “If it doesn’t affect you, whether Rakhi or no Rakhi, you shouldn’t be so much bothered. Why are you all of a sudden behaving as if you are so grown up?”

Aman was about to open his mouth to say something but she cut him out and continued her train.

“So you mean to say you are having “peace of mind” with everyone time and again linking our names and pairing us up? Don’t you want all this useless teasing to end, once and for all! I can’t understand why you and I should be adjusting with it when we all know these are all just rumors with no smoke also. Or is it, that there is some truth behind what Senthil and John are telling me for your stalling the rakhi being tied on your hand? I hope you are clever enough to understand the underlying meaning.”

There was again that awkward silence, Harini thought again to break this ice-berg creeping up between them is going to take time.

But to her surprise Aman politely asked her “Hmm, you want to tie to rakhi to me, right?”

“Yes”, she replied and in her mind,” Yes you fool from the last 15 mins that’s what I’m telling.”

Aman after quietly listening to her outburst reply was sadly thinking, “She, really wants to tie a rakhi to me, then there is no reason for me to hang on.”

He took a deep breath and said ok and extended his hand as before, “ok, go ahead, do it.”

( Comment below What do you guys think, will they or won't they tie the rakhi? Will someone's hidden feelings curb up in the last moment? Watch out for this space for the last and final part :) There's a twist at the end ;) )