The Big Swap - Part 15
"Two dozen eggs, one
packet of brown bread and two Hide and Seek biscuits. Anything else?"
Vimal Uncle questioned, looking up from his little notepad.
"No that's all. How
much is it?" Vedant queried.
"Ninety-eight."
The sound of the bill being torn was heard, as Vedant rummaged through his
wallet for the money.
"Hi." Vedant
looked up, and to his complete surprise saw Meera before him.
"Hey." He
grinned, more than happy to have her greet him first.
She looked away
immediately, with no smile and no other expression on her face.
What was that all about?
"Two packets of brown
bread..." she informed Vimal Uncle, who nodding curtly at the two went
further into his shop to fetch the requirements.
Meera stared straight
ahead, not even for once spearing him a glance. Strange.
Vimal Uncle arrived
thereafter and took the hundred rupee note from Vedant along with Meera's
payment. Vedant waited for her to be done. When she did receive all that she
needed, she smiled at Vimal Uncle and left the shop without so much as a
goodbye.
"What did you
do?" Uncle asked warningly, his face stern.
"I don't know."
He jogged out of the store,
his eyes scanning the road before him. And then he spotted her.
"Meera!" He
called, when he found it impossible to catch up with her.
She stopped on her tracks,
her back still facing him.
"God, you walk
fast." He panted, taking deep breaths for air. No reply.
"Hey is everything
okay?"
Meera took a deep breath
in, paused, and then let it out. Her eyes pressed together for a second, as
though she were finding his mere existence annoying.
But it didn't make sense.
It had been two weeks since
they'd last met, and in those two weeks, he hadn't tried to contact her or
impose himself on her. What then, could be the reason for her distaste?
Was she so annoyed that she
couldn't even get herself to look him in the eye?
It was alarming, just how
much this realization hurt him. It was alarming because it felt like she'd
just slapped him hard across his face. And the fact that this girl had such
power to make him feel like crap without even uttering a word only made him
realize how much he liked her.
"Yes. Everything's
okay." She finally replied.
But her eyes told a
different story.
Now, this was the tricky
part. It wasn't in his place to pry for more, but not knowing what was
bothering her seemed to leave him restless.
Don't ask Vedant. Don't ask
her anything.
"Okay." He sighed
with defeat, and with a nod of finality made his way for his scooty.
He'd only taken about three
steps when he heard,
"You came looking for
me at Vimal Uncle's before didn't you?"
"Um yes."
"How did you know I
buy supplies from this store?"
Vedant gulped, taken
completely off guard.
"You recognized me
from my registration number. How did you know that?"
Her eyes burned with rage,
he could see where this conversation was headed. With the calculative nature of
hers, he wasn't surprised she'd summed two and two and reached the conclusion.
But that she'd be able to do it this quick and that she'd be this angry was
something he had never fathomed.
"You said you knew my
name from my IT book. My IT book doesn't have my name."
There was a pause, a
chilling one.
"So, Vedant.
Explain."
He tried to find the words
to explain. But his mind blanked out when he needed to focus the most. Vedant
wanted to laugh at his plight. He wanted to laugh at the fact that time was
ticking and at the end of it all she'd probably walk away from him; for good
and yet all his brain could think of was how attractive she
looked when she fumed with rage.
Her eyes glistened and her
cheeks flushed. She looked...gorgeous.
"Will you stop looking
at me like that Vedant?"
He snapped out of his thoughts,
jerked to reality by her icy tone.
"Like what?"
Her mouth hung open in awe,
"I can't believe this. You read the whole of my personal diary. You didn't
have the decency to own up to it. From ignoring my presence you suddenly went
to being nice to me out of sympathy. And now when I'm asking you to explain
you're looking at me as though you're genuinely into me! How much more of
a...a hypocrite could you be!?"
Vedant blinked with
surprise, "You think I'm being nice to you out of sympathy?"
She rolled her eyes at
that, clearly convinced with whatever conclusions she'd drawn.
"And why would
I sympathize with you?"
"How vain are you
Vedant? You really want me to repeat? To boost your ego?"
"I seriously don't
know what you're talking about Meera."
"You've read all those
entries I've written about you. You know how big a crush I've
had on you for like forever!" she argued, glaring at him with the challenge.
He shrugged in response,
"That was flattering. I don't see where the emotion of
sympathy comes into the picture."
"So you were being
nice to me because it was flattering?!"
The argument had
successfully brought out the real Meera. The temperamental, sassy writer of the
words Vedant had found himself going crazy about. And before he could stop
himself, a grin had emerged on his features.
"Unbelievable.
You're smiling!"
"Meera." He
started, all mirth in his tone gone. "I was being nice to you because I'm
genuinely into you. And I want you to like me back. Not just because I have
light eyes or blue denim shirts suit me but for the person I am."
She gaped at him wide-eyed,
clearly taken aback at how much he remembered of her entries. She could've
sworn she'd forgotten writing about this! "Right. You expect me to believe
that."
"I don't read;
newspapers or articles or novels. I just don't. Period. But I finished reading
your diary in two weeks. I waited to see you at the Babulnath bus stop for one
week. I went to Vimal Uncle's. I sponsored Archit's dates for a month just
so that he could use his contacts to find out your friend Aashni on Instagram.
When your sorry excuse of a brother took us to your place and was going to
force you to cook for an army of hungry football players knowing full
well how much you hated cooking I wanted to beat the crap out of him. Will you
believe me now?"
She blinked at him with
surprise, no words leaving her mouth. And then, after minutes altogether,
"Why me?"
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