Someone Like You (15 page)

‘Do you like her?’ I ask Tanmay. ‘That girl in the pink tee?’

‘Niharika, for the last time—I’m not interested in dating. That’s not why I came here,’ Tanmay says.

‘Then? Why did you come here? To attend classes? Because I don’t see you doing
that
very often,’ I snicker.

‘Whatever. I am not interested in girls, so please stop selecting them for me. Plus, I am really busy with the football practice and the lab work and assignments,’ he says and adjusts his spectacles.

‘I just … still think that girl is quite sweet.’

‘I don’t think so,’ he says and gets back to completing his assignment. I don’t understand his rush. We still have a week till the last date of submission. Pia is not around and I assume she is on one of her long, long-distance calls with her boyfriend, Vishal. So I concentrate on staring unblinkingly at Tanmay instead. I am not in a mood to complete the assignment just yet, and so, I don’t want to let him do it either.

‘What?’
he asks, irritation etched across his face.

‘I think your specs are cool. They make you look sexy,’ I tease him.

He’s caught off-guard. For a moment, he stares at me. I wink at him. We laugh. It’s true that over the last few days—ever since he made It to the football team—he has been getting
substantial attention from the fairer sex. Football is like an obsession in this college and at first, I was shocked to see it. The seniors in the football team—a bunch of good-looking, arrogant seniors—are very desirable in our college.

Now they have another boy in their team. But Tanmay is not just one of them. In fact, he is nothing like them. He is way different. In a team full of huge, bulky, cocky players, who spend half their time on the football field and the rest getting high on weed and alcohol, Tanmay definitely stands out. He is not one of those rich, spoiled brats, who have lots of their dad’s money to spend. Even though he is wearing the same uniform and shoes as the rest of them, Tanmay stands out. He, instead of using his weight and attitude on the field, concentrates on adroitness and speed. A typical small-town boy that he is, he does not believe in playing dirty. He is just plain talented; he does not need cheap tricks to win.

After getting into the team, he was instructed that playing without shoes on is not allowed as per the sport’s rules. So Tanmay has started practising with shoes on, and he is getting better by the second. He just needs to get used to them, and the day isn’t far when he would be a better player than every other guy on the team. And, surprisingly, the rest of the seniors on the team do not hold a grudge against Tanmay. In fact—they all love him! He makes the team stronger, and that is what matters the most. I feel proud of him.

‘So, football stud,’ I say as he scribbles on his assignment sheet in his beautiful, girlish handwriting.

‘Let me work,’ he says.

‘What’s your problem? Why are you so irritated today?’

‘I am not irritated, I am just a little concerned about Pia.’

‘Concerned about Pia? Why? What happened to her?’ I ask. I didn’t know that there was anything wrong with Pia.

‘We have to submit this assignment by today evening and she has not even started it. I have called her thrice and her phone is on waiting. I don’t know when she will do it.’

‘Excuse me? I am sitting right here and I haven’t started it either. You’re not pissed off at me?’

‘You’re responsible, she is not,’ Tanmay says.

‘You have hardly known us for two weeks! How can you say who’s responsible and who’s not? You’re just making stupid excuses. You just care about her, not me.’

‘But—’

‘I am just kidding, Tanmay. I was just checking. You’re so much in love with her. Aww! That’s so sweet,’ I say and hug the life out of him. I imagine the two of them together, and the picture in my head looks like one from those cheesy greeting cards.

‘I am
not
in love with her. And she has a boyfriend anyway,’ he says and keeps scribbling with unnecessary intensity.

‘But you like her. And you like her
a lot
. Don’t you think I have not noticed your eyes behind your ridiculous glasses? The way you look at her! It’s so obvious.’

‘You think my glasses are ridiculous? But you just said that they are sexy! Should I get lenses? Did
she
say anything about it?’

‘Will you stop freaking out? No, she didn’t. And I love your glasses. They are the cutest thing about you,’ I laugh.

‘Oh. Okay,’ he says, looking clearly relieved.

I don’t know what to say to him, so I just reassure him, ‘If she were single, I think you would make a great couple.’

He smiles a little sadly and I feel bad for him. I change the topic. ‘So—about this assignment—did you say we are supposed to hand it in
today
? I thought we had another week!’

‘It’s today. I have been telling you since the morning, but you seem to be in some other world,’ he shakes his head and takes out the first few pages of his assignment and passes them
to me to copy from. Life has been easy for the first two weeks here. The college professors are taking it easy on us. We try not to make a lot of noise in class and stay out of trouble. There are piles of assignments and laboratory manuals to be filled up, but Tanmay socializes with anyone and everyone, so he has a few studious friends, too, who help us out. As an added advantage, he himself is very studious.

‘Niharika, who’s the fair guy who keeps following you around?’ he asks.

‘Oh. Don’t look his way. He is Akshat. I told you about him, didn’t I?’ I ask and look at him from the corner of my eye. For the last so many days, he has been following me around college. He did disappear for a few days, but then came back for good. As he had said earlier, he does know a lot of people from this college, most of them M. Tech students. They look nothing like him; they are way bigger in size and scary looking. I think I even saw him chatting with Chetan Mehta—the college
fucking
president who had harassed me.

I have been avoiding Akshat, though. He has not been intrusive; he doesn’t call or sit right next to me, but he has always been around. I can feel him looking at me, and at times I start to look at him too. During the three days when he had disappeared, I had even missed him slightly.

‘Oh, the guy from Jaipur?’ Tanmay asks.

‘Yes,’ I say.

‘He is creepy! Why don’t you date Karthik instead? He is so cool! He helps me out with football practice, you know? Since the rest of the players don’t practise that much and leave early. He said he will let me drive his bike one of these days,’ he says.

I have not talked to Karthik since that day we went out for tea. I have not gone to the gym either. I don’t know why, because I had had a really good time that day. I think if
Akshat hadn’t been haunting me all these days, I would have. He has crossed my path a few times in the last few days and has smiled at me. I have smiled back. I don’t know, but the moment I see him, I feel guilty. Like I am doing something wrong with Akshat. I don’t know whether I like Karthik or not, but he is so intriguing, like there is an endless ocean of secrets behind those hypnotic eyes.

Plus, it’s very hard to talk to him. We had not exchanged numbers and he is constantly surrounded by juniors or professors. On a few mornings, I have wanted to go the gym but I don’t want to look desperate. Even though I actually am desperate to sit behind him on his noisy bike and go on a never-ending drive.

‘I don’t even know if he likes me,’ I say.

‘I am sure he does. He keeps asking me about you all the time,’ Tanmay says.

‘Are you serious? He does? What does he ask?’

‘Everything about you. Like what you like, what you don’t, whether you have a boyfriend or not?’

‘Oh my God. I don’t believe this! What did you tell him?’ I ask. I try hard to hide my excitement but I fail quite miserably.

‘I was kidding, I just wanted to check …’ he says and starts laughing loudly, during which his spectacles slip down right to the tip of his nose.

‘You’re an idiot.’

‘But you like him! That’s cool. By the way, he does ask about you. Not in great detail, but he does,’ he says and starts writing again. ‘We spend a lot of time together for the football coaching he gives me. I wish he could be on the team. We would be so unbeatable. But our stubborn captain!’ his face flushes red in anger.

‘Aren’t you taking it a little too seriously? I know it’s
important to you and I know that it’s fun to watch, but it’s just a game,’ I say, glad for the change of topic.

‘We haven’t won a match for the last five years. I desperately want our college to win. You know I lead the team to my school’s first district victory? It was the best day of my life,’ he says with nostalgia and passion in his voice.

‘I have seen you play and I still think it’s so odd. You really don’t look the football kinds. You’re too polite for this game.’

‘Every player is a different player,’ he smiles at me.

‘Hey! What are you guys doing?’ Pia asks, coming back from her long phone call. She looks a little disturbed but I don’t ask her why. Long-distance relationships have their own pitfalls. Only yesterday, after getting off from a call to Vishal, she almost cried because she was missing him and Delhi so much. Thank God I had my Mom’s home-baked chocolate cake to distract her.

‘Pia, I have been calling you for so long. You need to complete this assignment, quick,’ Tanmay says. ‘We need to submit it by four in the evening.’

‘Which page are you on?’ she asks.

‘Sixteen.’

‘Oh shit!’

‘Never mind; Niharika has just started. You can copy it with her,’ Tanmay says and hands over the assignment to Pia whose hands are full—a plate of fries in one hand and a Coke in another.

Pia gives me a questioning look and I acknowledge it. She knows that Tanmay has a huge crush on her. But there is nothing we can do about it. We just sit silently and keep scribbling, not even bothering to understand what we are copying down.

By the time it’s four, only Tanmay has finished. He gets his assignment photocopied and hands it over to us to copy it down.

‘I will go and submit mine. Call me when you guys finish it. I will talk to the teacher and get you a time extension,’ he says, opening his bag and stuffing his assignment in. He takes out his football shoes and ties the laces.

Pia leans over and whispers in my ear, ‘That’s one thing I really love about him.’

We both laugh and Tanmay looks at us strangely. ‘I’ve got to go. Karthik is waiting. The match is in five days and the last time we played against NITE, Nagpur, he scored three goals,’ he says and leaves. I suppress an urge to go with him and see Karthik play, as images from that day cloud my head. The strong arms, the muscled chest and the protruding abs muscles—very distracting.

‘He likes you so much, I feel bad for him. It is
not
funny.’ I look at Pia.

‘I know, and he is such a nice guy. I wish I could just turn him into a teddy bear and keep him. We don’t see guys like that any more, do we? Everyone tries to be such a stud,’ Pia says and smiles.

‘Do you like him?’

‘How can anyone
not
like Tanmay? I don’t know how he would be as a boyfriend, but we are so lucky to have him around, aren’t we?’

‘We sure are,’ I say, still unsure about Pia’s feelings for Tanmay.

‘Plus, I like the football part of him!’

‘Pia, tell me! Do you like him? Like,
really
like him? I am getting all kinds of signals here,’ I say.

‘No, I don’t like him in
that
way. He is good as a friend,’ she says and smiles at me. ‘But you tell me? What’s going on with Akshat? Seen him today?’

‘Second table to our left. But don’t look!’

‘Why don’t you talk to him? He is so pretty. Have you looked at his lips? So pink! I wish my lips were like that,’
she says. I thought her mood was off, and here she just can’t shut up. And I don’t even know if it is a compliment or an insult to Akshat. Though, Pia isn’t someone who is capable of insulting people. She is way too sweet for that.

‘You think I should talk to Akshat?’ I ask.

‘Yes, that way at least it would end. At least he will go away from here,’ she says and I nod.

‘Fine, I will meet him.’

We get back to our assignments and it’s six by the time we finish copying everything. We call up Tanmay, who is still busy with his football practice, but says he talked to the teacher concerned and we can slip in our assignments inside her room.

He is such a sweetheart.