Chapter - 18
"Sid, we would have submitted our project on Monday, right? What's the urgency to do it today?" Arun said sadly as he got down from the car.
"You both go and submit it. I'll join you later" sid said and moved into the campus, hurriedly.
"What's wrong with him?" Arun looked at nitesh while he shook his head as 'don't know'.
It was lunch break when they reached college. Sid jogged upto roli's classroom but he didn't find her there. There were a few students in class having their lunch.
Sid took out his mobile and called roli but, it went unanswered. He tried again and again, still the same response.
Just then when he was about to go out, he saw roli's friend entering. He walked upto her and asked "where's roli?".
That girl looked at him stunned as she didn't know what to say.
Observing her expression, sid again asked "what happened? is she alright?".
Initially she hesitated but then narrated everything happened with roli on that day.
Sid's face reddened with anger as he listened to her. From the time sid left roli in college that morning, he started feeling a strange uneasy feel, which he never experienced before. At first he ignored it but, by the each passing minute, he became more and more restless. And even before reaching college, he dialed to roli at break time but, she didn't answer, which made him more worried.
Being unsure of his own thoughts, he decided to check on her directly. Thus, he gave a reason of submitting their project to his friends and drove to college.
And now after knowing what all happened with roli, he realised why he had been feeling strange. It seemed like his heart might have sensed that roli was in problem.
"Where's she now?" Sid asked, worriedly.
"Don't know. I've been looking for her but haven't seen her anywhere" she replied.
Sid went in search of roli. After looking at few places, he thought something and rushed towards the old lab.
There she was sitting in the corner of the room, sitting in the bench with her head rested on the desk, covering it with her hands. Sid let out a sigh as at last he found her.
Sid then walked in and sat beside her in the bench. He felt a dagger piercing his heart as he heard her sobbing. He slowly placed his hand on her head. Roli quickly jerked at the touch and looked up in fear.
"Roli.." sid held her shoulder and called softly, making her calm.
The moment roli realized it was sid, she fell in to his arms and cried out. Sid wrapped his arms around her and caressed her hairs, consoling her.
A couple of moments later when roli calmed down a bit, sid pulled her from his arms and cupped her face in his palms.
Roli didn't utter a word as she cried silently, without looking at him. Sid wiped her tears away and held her hand.
He got up and said "come". She looked at him but didn't move.
"I said come" sid repeated again. This time his voice was stern that roli obediently followed.
Sid took roli near his car and made her to sit in passenger's seat. "I'll come in a while" he said before going into the campus again.
Sid rushed into the canteen like a thunder storm. And as he guessed, he found mukesh there having lunch with his gang. He moved near them and grabbing mukesh's shirt collar, pulled him aside.
Sid's action was so quick that everybody present there was stunned as they looked at him in shock.
Mukesh looked at sid with terror in his eyes and before he could even say a word, Sid's solid punch fell on his face, making him to land on to the ground.
Everybody got frightened at the sight but none dared to step in as they knew about sid. He was usually a calm person but when someone messed up with him, he would be worse than a beast. And they could clearly see how much angered he was, just by looking at his reddened face.
Sid pulled mukesh, who was lying on the ground, up and thrown few more punches, which made his corners of lips to bleed. He picked up a bottle from one of the table there and targeted at his head.
Nitesh and arun, who just happened to reach there, grabbed sid and pulled him back.
"Sid, stop it" nitesh shouted and pulled out the bottle from Sid's hand.
Mukesh held on to a table for support as he felt weak. He then looked at sid and faintly said "I didn't do anything. I didn't even touch her. It was all naina's plan".
As sid heard it, he looked at mukesh first then turned his attention to naina, who was silently watching the scene and was too scared to say a word. She knew that sid wasn't easy to deal with. But, never had she ever seen sid in such a turned on mode. After seeing his anger, she felt stupid of herself for plotting against roli.
Sid walked up to her and looked at her with a stern face.
"Sid... I.." before her words could come out, she felt a tight slap on her left cheek.
She held her cheek and looked at sid in disbelief. She had pissed him off lots of times in past but sid always ignored her as she never existed. But, for the first time he actually slapped her. And it was also the first slap she had ever received in her life.
She opened her mouth to say something but again she received one more slap. And this time it was too strong that she fell on to the chair.
"I've told you many times to stay the hell out of my life. But, you never listened to it. And you've gone too far this time that you even crossed my bottom line and tried to hurt roli. I'm telling you, if you dare to hurt her again then be sure of it, I'll make your life a living hell" sid warned her and his voice echoed around.
Naina looked around and found everybody watching her. Being slapped in front of those many people was a huge blow to her pride that she felt mortified.
She slowly got up as she looked at sid and said "you've to pay for this".
"I'm willing to pay" sid replied in a challenging tone.
As she didn't want to embarrasse herself any further, she quickly rushed out from there.
Sid then turned to look at the people around and said "if I ever got to know anyone talking about any of the today's incidents, it would definitely not going to be good for them".
His words were simple but everyone understood what was he referring to. And they all nodded obediently, too scared to go against him, especially after watching his anger just a while ago.
Kumkum Bhagya
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