You Were My Crush: Till You Said You Love Me! Read Online Free PDF Page B

me, it’s not that I cannot read, but this was not a novel; it was a thousand-page book on economics and we had to go through the
entire
book.
    ‘But this isn’t even in the course?’ I protested, as I flipped through the book.
    1256 pages. Small font. I would rather be eaten up by Diya. Make her a reptile, please
.
    ‘Isn’t it, Benoy? Then I will just go and tell sir that you think it is out of the syllabus and you don’t want to do it,’ she said coldly, adjusted her huge spectacles and looked away.
    Every time she looked at me, her face distorted in hatred and repulsion. The feeling was mutual.
    ‘I never said that,’ I said.
    ‘Then?’ her voice was now meaner and colder, like a pissed off schoolteacher on a low salary.
    ‘I will read it,’ I said and tried to sound as harsh as possible.
    ‘Fine, read the book by day after and then we can discuss it. Note down anything that you think is important. Okay?’
    ‘
Okay?
What okay?’ I said. ‘Just two days? At least give me a week? Please?’
    I panicked. Anyone would.
1256 pages? Two days!
    ‘We don’t have a week, Benoy; he wants us to submit an initial framework in three days. And he might want to meet us tomorrow,’ she said, collected her things and was about to leave.
    ‘Is he crazy?’
    ‘I don’t know, but he certainly thinks we are
dumb
and if you mess this up, I am going to the principal,’ she said and looked at me with those unrelenting eyes.
    ‘Fine,’ I retorted and looked her back in the eye. Well, I would be lying if I said I was not a little scared to look at her like that.
    ‘I will see,’ she said, ‘you undeserving brat.’
    I think she wanted to say that in her mind, but it came out. She left without saying another word, leaving behind an air of hatred and just plain disgust.
    Undeserving brat.
    I did not have a comeback for that. I was taken aback at the unnecessarily vicious comment. She was being a
bitch
! Now, I just
had
to finish the book and do it before her.
    I called up Eshaan and he said he would have loved to help me out but he was caught up. He apologized more times than I could count. I disconnected the line, stared at the book that lay on my table and cursed the professor.
Argh.
My mind had started weighing options—call up Dad and ask him to write a big cheque? Or read the 1256-page book? The first option seemed more lucrative.
    I was staring blankly at the book for what seemed like ten years when my phone rang. Strange.
Palak calling
.
    ‘Hello?’ I said, not sure what to expect.
    ‘Benoy?’ she said. ‘What’s up?’
    ‘Umm … nothing much. How are you?’
    ‘I am fine,’ she said.
    She did not sound half as cheerful as she was that day. I did not have a crush on this low-sounding girl on the other side of the phone. I had it on the girl who had been drunk and happy and danced as if she were nuts.
    ‘Is there something wrong?’ I asked.
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s just that … my boyfriend … he told his mom about me.’
    ‘Umm. Okay,’ I wondered what that had to do with me.
    ‘So, I was thinking if I should tell him about
us
.’
    ‘About us?’ I asked. ‘What’s there to tell him about us?’
    ‘That we spent the night together, Benoy.’
    As soon as she said that, I started wondering if we had actually made out. It seemed so now.
    ‘But I passed out as soon as I reached home,’ I said. ‘Didn’t I?’
    ‘But what if you hadn’t?’
    ‘If I hadn’t? Even then, how would things have changed?’
    ‘Something might have happened,’ she said. ‘That’s why you didn’t drop me at my friend’s place, right?’
    ‘Umm …’
    It was a hard question to answer; I had not dated or got anybody home in a long time. I could not predict whether I would have done or tried doing something with her. Imean, it was not that I had not fantasized about doing that, but … well …
    ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘I don’t remember anything about us that night. What did I say? What did