The evening was chaotic as usual.
Neha slammed her schoolbag on the bed and headed straight to the living room, only to find her younger brother already hogging the remote.
"Give it, Aarib," she snapped. "I wanna watch something."
"I came first!" he said, clutching the remote like it was gold.
"You were sitting here since 3 PM! It's my turn now!"
He stuck out his tongue. "Go write your stupid poems, Miss Sensitive."
Before she could yell, their mom appeared from the kitchen.
"What's this noise now?"
"Mumma, he's not giving me the remote again!" Neha complained.
But her mom barely looked at him. "He's younger, Neha. Let him watch. You always fight for silly things."
Neha's jaw dropped. "But he-"
"I said enough! Go to your room!"
Tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she didn't argue anymore.
She turned around and stormed off to her room, slamming the door shut.
She didn't eat dinner. She didn't reply to her best friend's texts.
She just lay in bed with her face buried in the pillow, letting the muffled sobs escape the kind she'd gotten used to by now.
"No one listens. No one cares. It's always me who's wrong."
That night, she cried herself to sleep.
Next morning...
The alarm rang like a drill in her ears.
Her eyes were puffy, her head heavy. But she got up anyway. Same routine, same uniform, same silence.
She didn't say a word at breakfast.
And when she reached school... even Riyan's annoying jokes didn't make her react.
Not even when he called her Miss Khan with his full filmi accent.
"Okay, what happened to you?" he finally asked, blocking her path.
Neha just gave him a blank stare and walked past him.
For once, Riyan felt... confused.
And maybe, just a little bit... concerned.
The hallway buzzed with noise as students rushed to their classes. Neha walked with heavy steps, lost in her thoughts, her mood clearly darker than usual.
Behind her, Riyan spotted her walking alone.
Smirking, he caught up and casually bumped his shoulder into hers.
"Wake up, Miss Khan," he teased, "walking like it's your funeral."
But the moment his shoulder hit hers...
She snapped.
Neha turned around sharply, her eyes red, face furious.
"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM, Riyan?!"
He blinked, surprised. "Whoa relax! I was just joking-"
"Oh, so now you're a joker? Do you even know how to behave in public?" she shouted, her voice louder than she meant it to be.
The hallway suddenly went quiet.
"Don't you dare touch me again!" she hissed. "You act like a stupid, jobless, irritating"
"Enough!" Riyan shouted back now, stepping forward.
Everyone turned. The whole class was frozen, eyes wide.
"You think the world revolves around you? Just because you had a bad morning doesn't mean you'll dump your mood on me!"
"You don't know anything about me!" she screamed, her voice trembling with more than just anger.
"Oh, clearly! Because if I did, maybe I'd understand why you're being such a drama queen today!"
Teachers nearby started walking over, and a few classmates stood up to intervene.
"Neha, Riyan what's happening here?" one of them asked, nervous.
But neither of them answered.
They just stood there.
Her breathing heavy.
His jaw clenched.
And a thick silence stretching between them... loud enough to drown out every whisper in the room.
Before Neha could storm off, a loud, sharp voice cut through the crowd.
"Riyan Sheikh. Principal's office. Now."
The teacher stood near the door, arms crossed, glaring like she was ready to throw chalks at his forehead.
Riyan froze.
"But Ma'am, I didn't even-"
"Do you always want to be the class clown?" she snapped. "There's a limit to your nonsense. It was funny until it started affecting others. Especially girls."
Her tone was cold, serious.
Neha stood silently behind the crowd, eyes still glassy but unreadable now. She didn't say a word.
Riyan tried to speak, but the teacher raised a hand.
"I've heard enough. This isn't your playground. Learn the difference before someone loses their mental peace over your cheap jokes."
And with that the boy who was always smirking, always teasing, always escaping trouble walked to the principal's office... alone, silent, and maybe... shaken for the first time.
Later that day...
Riyan sat outside the office, elbows on his knees, lost in thought.
He wasn't angry.
He was confused.
Because somewhere between the scolding and the silence...
He realized something he didn't want to admit:
She wasn't just mad at him... she was hurt. Really hurt.
And for the first time in years, he didn't know how to fix it out.
After the fight, Neha skipped lunch and sat quietly in a corner of the school ground.
The trees swayed gently above her, but her mind was anything but calm.
She hugged her knees to her chest, head resting on them. Her fingers fidgeted with the loose thread of her skirt.
Everyone had seen it. The yelling. The tears in her voice.
And Riyan getting punished in front of everyone.
"I didn't want it to go that far."
She closed her eyes.
His words kept ringing in her ears "Just because you had a bad morning doesn't mean you'll dump your mood on me!"
He was right. She had exploded.
Because of her brother, her mother, her silence...
But Riyan had just been his usual annoying self.
"He didn't deserve that... not like that."
And yet... she couldn't bring herself to go say sorry.
Not when her chest still ached with everything she'd swallowed for days weeks maybe years.
But still...
Something about the way he looked when he walked to the principal's office quiet, not defensive, not smirking...
Just hurt.
It made her stomach twist.
"I always promised myself I wouldn't become like them... the ones who mad
e others feel small."
That night, she stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep.
"Maybe tomorrow... I'll say something. Just a word. Maybe."
To be continued...