The Big Swap - Part 15

~FIFTEEN~

"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?"

...continued The Big Swap - Part 16