Koushik looked at her with a scared face.
"S.. sorry. I.." He gulped.
His heart was still beating rapidly and his face flushed from shame.
"I.." he tried to get up in a hurry when Olivia stopped him.
"Wait." She pressed him down and put the barbell away.
"Oh right I... I didn't notice." Koushik sat up and looked down.
He covered his face and took a few deep breaths. The cold palms pressed against his sweaty face helped in decreasing the tremor coursing through his body. The thought of what a horrifying accident could have happened just now sent a trail of cold sweat down his back.
"Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t. I almost fractured my scull! This stupid ego! If Olivia wasn't here.. No. No no no, I don't even wanna imagine what the consequences could have been." He mumbled to himself as he tried to get his heartbeat down.
'Why? Why does this always happen to me? I just wanted to prove to her that I'm not weak but instead of that, I made such a mess of myself. She probably thinks I'm ridiculous. No, I actually am! Coach repeatedly told us never to egolift and I just went ahead and did that. Dammit! Nothing has been going the right way ever since...'
Koushik clenched his fists and shook his head heavily driving those thoughts away. He had to move on. He was clearly lacking behind his bandmates and already got a warning of suspense from the upcoming concert from his manager if he failed to get back in shape. So got up unsteadily and moved to the side to do some squats.
Olivia observed him for a while and went back to bench pressing when he seemed better.
But in less than a minute a loud crash drew everyone's attention to where Koushik was exercising. He had lost his balance and tumbled on to a nearby rack which made the loud rattling noise.
Sensing everybody's gaze on him he felt sick. A wave of nausea hit him and he felt like his head was spinning. He also started breathing heavily.
'Fool, fool! What the hell are you doing Koushik? Are you here just to make a fool out of yourself?'
He tried to get up by grabbing one end of the rack but that caused several weights to fall over. Luckily they fell on the side rather than on top of him so that saved him possible injuries.
Several of the students roared in laughter.
"Oh my goodness! That was so funny."
"Did you see how he fell flat on his butt?" One of them enacted how Koushik fell exaggeratedly.
"Isn't he a celebrity? I head they go through rigorous training to have that ideal body. Why is he so clumsy then?"
"Gosh, that's so humiliating!"
"Hey, I saw him drop the barbell on his face too. Fortunately, that girl beside him caught it. Otherwise he would have gotten a deformed face too. Probably would have needed his career."
"Huh? Really? That must be such a huge save since he needs that pretty face for publicity."
They kept clamouring on and on.
'So. noisy.' Olivia sighed and kept the barbell in its place.
Then she stood up and walked towards Koushik.
Koushik felt his blood run cold. The tremor returned with an intensified wave.
'Not now Koushik not now. You can't have a panic attack here. Get up. Please! You have to get out of here!'
As much as he wanted to get out of there the mean comments from those students were not helping. Koushik clenched his hands so tight that his nails left marks on his palm but the pain helped to get a grip over himself. He placed his hands on the ground for support and slowly got up. Then he tried to walk through his trembling legs but stumbled on the first step. Those students laughed again. Koushik took a few deep breaths and dashed out of the gym stumbling on his way.
Olivia, who had walked up to him to help, was left behind with her hand hanging mid-air.
'Panic attack. He couldn't even hear me nor see me.' She stuck her hands in her pocket and sighed.
Olivia looked at the students who were still making fun of Koushik with narrowed eyes.
One of the them was imitating him stumbling and running outside when he felt a shadow over him. Seeing him halt, the others also stopped and looked over. They saw Olivia standing there with a very cold and piercing gaze directed especially at the boy who was leading the mockery. He suddenly felt like his legs were cemented to the floor and an inexplicable fear washed over him.
"Go on. Why did you stop?" Olivia tilted her head.
Although she said it very gently, the boy wanted to run. He had a gut feeling that the woman before him was not as easy going as she presented herself to be. He felt cornered. As he tried to back away Olivia also moved closer. After a few steps he crashed on a rack, just like Koushik. When he tried to get up he stumbled too.
A faint smirk graced Olivia's lips. She was satisfied to give him a taste of a fraction of how Koushik felt. Next she looked over to the others who were encouraging him and participating in that disgusting joke. Just like their lwader, they also felt an overbearing pressure and a chill running down their spine.
"Can't even do a workout properly but somehow you have the gall show off that sh*tty sense of humour?" Olivia said in a calm and soothing voice.
She then threw that boy lying on the floor one last look and slowly walked off. Nobody dared to breathe until she was gone. They heaved a sigh of relief once she was out of sight.
"F*ck what was that? What did just happen?"
"I still feel cold remembering her look." Another one said shivering.
"I know right? But who is she?"
"Wait, what was she talking about?"
"Probably about that weak piece of sh*t from earlier."
"Hey, she's so strong why would she take his side?"
"Pity perhaps? B*tch how dare she threaten us? Does she think just because she's somewhat stronger than us she can look down on us? Who does she think she is?"
"Bro, we should do something about it. We can't let her walk all over us."
"Right, she cares so much about that little celebrity, right? Then let's play with him a little. We'll see how far she'll go for that weak little pr*ck."
"What are you planning to do?"
"He's a singer, right? He must care about his reputation very much. Let's do something about that." The leader smirked sinisterly.