32. Danish Roy

The meeting with the principal was brief. He wished me luck and hoped I could stay for a little bit longer. The board exams were nearing and the students could really use some help, he told me. It felt good to be wanted. I told him it was a great experience and he could still send students to me if they needed help though I knew he would hire the next person available.

  Back in the room, I dreaded seeing Aisha again. The first two students came to me worrying about their class ten results. They cried, and I told them stories about people who had made it without excelling in stupid standardized tests, and they stopped crying and talked about issuing the biographies of those people. I offered to talk to their parents and they took down my number.

  Once calm, one of them updated me on the latest rumours. Usually I would ask them to shut up but today they talked about how the entire school was abuzz with Aisha and Vibhor totally doing it in his house.

  'Are you sure about it?'

  'Yeah, of course. Everyone knows that,' said the kid brightly.

  When he talked about the rumour, it felt like someone had ripped out my heart with a butter knife. On a scale of ten, if the hurt from her falling in love with Vibhor was a ten, her sleeping with him, right now, was Taylor Swift. I felt petty and small for thinking the way I did and forced myself to be happy for her. Easier said than done.

  That day I decided to eat my lunch at the cafeteria instead and hoped to bump into Vibhor and Aisha. The heart gets what the heart wants. If it wanted more pain who was I to deny it that?

  The cafeteria fell silent for a few brief seconds as I took a seat at the corner table. I pretended to read a book on my Kindle while I stole glances at the table Aisha and Vibhor sat on. Namrata and Norbu were there too, and they were laughing all too loudly, and so was Aisha. She caught me staring a few times and walked up to me, smiling.

  'Hi,' she said.

  'Nice party that day. I wanted to stay—'

  'Why did you leave early?' she asked. Before I could answer she said, 'You shouldn't have.'

  She wasn't smiling any more. Why was she angry with me? I wasn't the one who was putting up snuggly Instagram pictures.

  'I'm sure you had fun,' I said in a tone befitting a friend, and not a jealous boyfriend.

  She shrugged as if she didn't. Who was she kidding? Of course she had fun.

  'You shouldn't have left,' she said again.

  Her eyes were on me but were some place else.

  'Maybe I will stay for longer the next time and play Truth or Dare with you guys. That seemed like fun.'

  'Who told you about that?'

  'I saw the pictures. Everyone has seen the pictures,' I snapped.

  'Glad you have,' she said dryly. 'I don't need you any more.'

  'Excuse me?'

  'You heard me.'

  'What's this about, Aisha?'

  'I have talked to the principal, Danish. He said I was well enough to stop going to your sessions.'

  'Why would you do that?'

  'How does it matter? You're leaving the school anyway. I thought you would tell me before anyone else,' she said.

  'I would have told you today.'

  'Anyway, it doesn't matter. Nothing you said matters.'

  'Is something wrong?' I asked.

  'Yes, I was wrong. What you told me, taught me? Everything was wrong,' she said, her voice steeling up. 'I was foolish to listen to you. You encouraged me and look what happened.'

  'What are you saying?' I stood up and reached out but she jerked back.

  'STAY. AWAY.' she shouted. A few students looked at us. She lowered her voice and said, 'What did you tell me? To be my own person? To do what I want to do? Experience everything? That's not what a girl does.'

  'Of course that's what a girl—'

  'Shut the fuck up, Danish.'

  'Excuse—'

  'You were wrong. I should have never listened to you. Who are you after all? A failed psych major. You know nothing about anything.'

  'Can you just tell me what happened?'

  'Life happened, Danish.'

  She bolted and left the canteen.