The Wrong Number

58

"Hey, Ally," Faizal said with a wide smile. "Hey," Alankrita replied, and quickly followed with, "How's Farhaan?"

Faizal made a face. "He's okay, I guess. He isn't here, of course, he insisted he had to vent his feelings out by playing Dead Rising three," he said very matter-of-factly. "It's no big deal," he said, when he saw guilt flash across Alankrita's face, "Really; you should have seen him when my I went to watch Jurassic World without him. He didn't come out of his room for two days. He's a dramatic soul."

Alankrita widened her eyes. "Oh, that's....interesting," She cleared her throat. "I better go search for Sandhya ma'am. I'm in charge of the music. Have fun, guys," she said, waving them off and craned her neck to spot her principal. Catching sight of her principal's characteristic grey bun, she shuffled over.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" she tapped her shoulder and she turned around, smiling at the sight of Alankrita. "Yes, child?"

Alankrita held the pen drive out and said, "I have the music." When she saw the principal eye it with a confused look on her face, she said, "You asked me to bring the dance tracks, right?" The principal laughed and said, "Of course not, child, we hired a DJ for the night, not a student." Alankrita was surprised by her statement and insisted, "But the DJ broke his leg, didn't he?" Sandhya ma'am looked at her with faint amusement and pointing to the stage said, "He looks fine to me."

Alankrita's eyes followed to where she was pointing and she gasped shortly when she saw a man at the sound booth wearing headphones almost as big as head and an alarming number of piercings on his face, fiddling with his setup surrounded by half a dozen students bombarding him with song requests. She gave her principal a taut smile, saying, "Oh, I'm sorry. Never mind, ma'am," and rushing away to prevent herself from being further embarrassed.

She fumed, looking around to find Anu. 'How could I have fallen for that? I'm not that dumb, am I?' she thought, making up her mind to find her best friend and give her a piece of her mind, and force her to take her back home. Instead, her eyes fell on a self service drinks counter and she decided to get something for herself first, her throat feeling suddenly dry. She walked towards the table and picking up a small transparent plastic cup poured a ladleful of a clear red liquid into it from a large bowl.

"Hope this stuff is all non-alcoholic."
Alankrita looked up from the punch bowl and nearly dropped the ladle into it. "Dev?" She said, looking at Ruhan's best friend. He smiled a thin lipped smile and said, "Hi," accompanied by an awkward single wave of his hand. Alankrita returned it with a hesitant "Hey".

There was a very pregnant silence between the two. Alankrita finally broke it by saying, "So, what are you having?" He held up two fingers and said, "Two cups of coke, please," and he picked up one of the large bottles of coke set on the table. She held out two cups as he poured the drink into them, one by one. After she handed him the cups and picked up her own drink, Dev said, "You know...Ruhan really liked you." Alankrita stopped, her drink halfway to her mouth. "Yeah, he did", she said sardonically, "Until I screwed up."

Dev shook his head, "No, that's not what I meant. He never shut up about you. It was getting really annoying," he said, chuckling, "It was weird seeing him obsessed with someone he hadn't even met too." Alankrita's stared at him slack-jawed. Dev gave her an assuring smile, "Yeah, whatever you were pretending to be, you sure did a number on him. Now, if you'll excuse me," he held up both cups, "My date needs her refreshments. Don't do anything stupid, Einstein," he said with a wink, and weaved through the crowded auditorium floor to the other side of the room, where he handed the cup to a girl in a pretty pink dress. Alankrita recognised her as one of the tenth graders from drama club.

A few minutes into the dinner everything began to go smoothly. The students loved the food, nobody had tried to hijack the DJ's mic and Alankrita, who'd decided to keep busy by filling cups with the four different kinds of drinks on the table, hadn't seen Ruhan anywhere.

Everything began to go downhill when Monica Deshwal decided she needed a drink.

"-So basically Shweta said she felt sorry for you when she heard Ruhan dumped you, but then again she also started telling people he dumped you because he found out you had a weird feet fetish, so she's being a bitch actually. But oh my god these guys in my van told me that you dumped him and they said that you slapped him in front of everyone at Phoenix Market City and walked away like a badass," she said, standing next to Alankrita and occasionally taking a sip of her pomegranate and sprite mock tail, "Lekin, honestly, na? I knew you two would break up. I have a feeling for things like this, you know?"

Alankrita gritted her teeth and just nodded at Monica, and gripped her cup of pomegranate juice, which she hadn't taken a single sip of. "And," Monica continued, oblivious to the fact that Alankrita was trying her best to ignore her, "I don't think you should be too worried about him. Look he's coming this way with Tanya and he seems to be fine."

This made Alankrita stop idly gazing at the ceiling decorations and look down, and when she saw Ruhan approaching the drink table with Tanya, she suddenly felt sick. She couldn't confront him. Not now. "Monica," Alankrita picked up a cup for herself and turned to her, "It's been really great talking to you. I'm going to go get some food, okay?"

Arielle grinned and nodded, saying "Don't have the naan, it's disgusting," but Alankrita was already trying to weave through the crowd unnoticed by a certain someone. Unfortunately, Alankrita seemed to have the luck of a Gandhi, and lost her footing.

"Whoa!" She yelped as she rammed into some girl, emptying the drink on her.

"Oh my god!"
Alankrita looked at Tanya in horror, who was now covered in fruit juice, an orange slice stuck on her neck. "What the hell?!"

Alankrita stammered, "Crap, T-Tanya I'm so s-sorry," and reached for the orange slice, only to have Tanya smack her hand away.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, was when the proverbial shit hit the fan.

"What the-"
Alankrita and Tanya simultaneously turned to Ruhan, who was looking at them completely mystified, holding a plate of food in one hand and a plastic cup in the other. Alankrita's insides felt funny when she saw him again. Before she had a chance to make words with her tongue, which suddenly felt like it weighed a tonne, Tanya grabbed the plate from Ruhan's hand and violently flung its contents over her. She gasped and stumbled backwards, unable to come up with a response, feeling slimy curry and biryani slide down her head.

Hearing the collective gasps and snickers, Anu looked over the heads of the crowd to see her best friend looking like she had head butted a buffet table and on the verge of tears. Cursing under her breath, she made towards her.

Alankrita's brain seemed to have stopped functioning. She dazedly glanced around at the wide eyed faces of the people around her, and her eyes fell on Ruhan, who seemed as petrified as her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Anu walking in her direction. Squeezing her eyes shut, she ran out of the auditorium, down the corridor, heading towards the girls washroom. She heard Anu pursuing her, yelling for her to stop. She entered the washroom and quickly locked herself in an empty cubicle. Clutching herself, she leaned on the door.

"Uuuggghhhhh."
"Alankrita, get out of there!"
"No, I think I'm gonna be - BLAAARF."

Alankrita doubled over above the toilet bowl as she hurled what little she'd eaten into it. Anu banged on the cubicle door. "Ally, let me in!" Alankrita wiped her mouth and pushed her hair away from her sweaty forehead. "Give me a minute, Anu, please," she pleaded, and something in her tone made Anu go quiet for a while. After a few moments she said, "Okay, sweetie. I'll be outside if you need me."

Alankrita heard Anu's heels click clack away and the sound of the washroom door swing shut. Then she let out the sob she'd been holding onto. This had been a huge mistake. She never should have come to the dinner.