Punit scrunched up his face and stayed under the table, hoping that they would spare him. He didn’t have the guts to face her, not after promising a stellar performance and giving muck in return. 

“Punit, drop it man, she’s gone,” came Vaidehi’s voice after a while.

He pulled out, his face red and sweaty from bending over for so long. “She’s gone?”

“Yup!”

He sighed, feeling so flustered. “See! What did I tell you! She’s still mad at me! Or else she would have talked to me. But she didn’t! See!”

“Why do you want her to make the first move? Even you can talk to her, right?”

“And get myself killed? No ways!”

“She won’t do anything,” replied Vaidehi. 

“Right!” His words were dripping with sarcasm. All the while, he couldn’t help but notice the familiar smell of barfi in the air. “What were you people munching on anyway?” he asked out of the blue.

“We?”

“Uh huh.”

“Barfi, what else?” She shrugged.

“What barfi?” he asked.

“Besan.”

“Oh,” he said, sounding a little disappointed. Sweets and milk powder were something he could never resist. Thankfully for him, he was blessed with a super high metabolism. He could eat all the junk in the world and still look like a stick. 

“Why? You wanted a piece, right?” she smirked.

“Nah!” He waved dismissively. 

“Come on, Punit, I know you love sweets.”

He chuckled.

She knew that he wasn’t being honest. “You can still get one if you’d like.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. From where?”

“Over there…” 

He turned to the spot on the table where she’d pointed at and noticed the box of sweets that Ankita was carrying before. “Whoa! Isn’t that….” The words trailed away as he noticed the very person he didn’t want to see at the moment: Ankita. She was sitting right beside him all this while, and he didn’t even know it!  

Vaidehi smothered her laughter. 

Punit wasn’t even breathing.

Smirking, Ankita quirked her eyebrows.

He flinched a bit. “H-hi…” 

She returned an amused smirk before saying, “hello!” She sounded determined as she turned to him and placed an arm over the bench’s back rest. 

“When… did you come?” he asked sheepishly.

“I never left,” she shrugged.

“Oh,” he mouthed before looking away and screwing his eyes shut. 

Vaidehi burst out laughing.

Ankita sat there waiting, her twinkling eyes never leaving him. She thoroughly enjoyed herself as she watched him twiddling his fingers. “Do you want to talk about the other day?” she asked when he said nothing for a while.

He let out a long puff and opened his eyes. Still not looking at her, he opened and closed his mouth a few times and struggled to spit it out. 

“Hmm, Punit?”

He turned to her with the guiltiest puppy face ever and uttered a feeble “sorry…?”

She couldn’t help but smile. He looked so innocent and adorable. 

“I’m really very sorry,” he whimpered, “I didn’t mean to that day, I swear, it… it just happened.”

She chuckled and so did Vaidehi.

“What? Why’re you laughing?” he asked with the same adorable expression.

“Nothing,” she nodded, and softly pulled his cheeks, surprising him.  Her face shone red from grinning so wide. 

“So, you’re not mad at me anymore?” he asked hopefully while feeling his cheeks, right she’d yanked on before.

“To be honest, I was. I actually wanted to slaughter you that day, but then, I figured things out.”

Punit let out a deep sigh. “Sibal was there,” he confessed.

“So?”

“Don’t you get it? Sibal!” He was incredulous. How can she take his name so calmly, as if he didn’t matter at all?

“Yeah, so?”

“So what? Dude. He was laughing at me. And making faces!” he whined.

“And next time, he might flash his little thingy at you. But you shouldn’t be bothered.”

He scoffed. “Yeah, easier said than done!”

“No, seriously. You’ve got to learn to ignore these people. If you keep paying attention to them, you’re never going to reach anywhere. And you’ll forever be terrified of the stage.”

Punit sighed. In a way, she was right. But he didn’t see an easy way out. Pretending that they didn’t exist was definitely not going to work, not with all the names they were calling him.

“Here’s a solution. For our next performance, you turn to me.”

“What?”

“Yeah, you turn to me. You look at me. Show your back to them if you must, but you will do what you’re meant to do. And nothing, absolutely nothing, should take that away from you!”
“I seriously thought you’d blast at him,” Vaidehi admitted on their way back to class.

Ankita chuckled and strolled along.

“Are you seriously letting him sing again?” she asked curiously.

“Hmm? Well, yeah,” Ankita shrugged.

“Why though? Won’t he mess it up?”

“He might. But let’s see. He’s got a great voice. And I want that. I want that for my songs. It’s the kind of voice I’d always wanted.” Ankita looked dreamy.

“He’d sound fab, especially for the latest one you wrote,” said Vaidehi excitedly. Ankita always told her about the songs she used to write and compose. It was her dream to be a filmmaker one day, and she made sure that knew the ins and outs of the art, from story to screen to music, everything.

“True! I can’t wait to hear that in his voice! Now, if he’d only stop freaking out!”

“What’s your plan anyway?” asked Vaidehi.

“Well, there’s a literary meeting next week, I’m going to make sure he does it right.”

***

By the end of next week, Punit found himself facing a much smaller audience of around forty-five, and still, he was cold and clammy.

Ankita slowly circled him while strumming her guitar. She brushed her shoulder against his to get his attention. “Turn to me,” she reminded in a whisper.

And he did. His face shining with sweat, he turned to her, showing his back to the audience.

When you feel that you’re going to chicken out, keep your mind on the lyrics and the music, feel it, sing it, focus… He pondered over her words which she said a zillion times over the week.

His head and chest pounded so hard that he was certain he’d pass out, so, he tried to concentrate on Ankita’s mini synthesizer on the table. It was set to play a pre-recorded track as Ankita did the guitar and him the vocals. The only problem was that there was something stuck in his throat. Something like a potato. 

He looked up and noticed Ankita wink at him, encouraging him to stay calm and sing. His cheeks burnt red and he hoped that it was just a feeling and not something that the rest of the world could see.