Mumbai was hotter than my patience level, which already had the lifespan of a mosquito on a windshield. By the time I reached THE UPG College gate, I felt like a dehydrated samosa—flaky, lifeless, and spiritually done. As I stepped inside, that familiar flash of regret hit me: Wow. I really chose BSc voluntarily. Me. With my full consciousness. My villain era truly writes itself.
Inside the corridor, I was still buffering when someone tapped my shoulder lightly. It was Daksh, walking beside me with that quiet, soft smile he carried like it was nobody's business. He held out a pen. "You dropped this." I blinked. "When?" He shrugged. "A few times." I snorted. "My entire existence is a hazard." He gave a tiny laugh, the kind people give when they're secretly fond of you but pretending they're not. He walked along with me, matching my pace without even trying. Suspiciously subtle.
The rest of my circus was already gathered near the lab. Rohan was yelling like a crow with anger management issues. Nandini bounced like she was sponsored by Red Bull. Anushka looked two seconds away from committing legal crime. Saumya waved at me like an alien reporting back to headquarters.
The moment they saw me, the chaos detonated.
"MISHAAAA!" Rohan shrieked as if he had birthed me.
"MY BABYYY!" Nandini cried, her voice echoing like a melodramatic aunt at a family function.
Anushka rolled her eyes. "Good. Queen Tragedy has arrived. Harsh can stop breathing like a broken tractor."
"I wasn't breathing loudly!" Harsh protested.
"You EXIST loudly," she snapped.
Before I could react, Nandini hugged me with enough force to crack my ribs. "WHERE WERE YOU?"
"In my house?" I deadpanned.
Rohan sniffled. "You abandoned us for your Bhavnagar people."
"I met you yesterday."
"STILL!" Nandini declared, wiping invisible tears. "Emotional injury has occurred."
Before the drama could reach national news level, our practical professor appeared with a face that screamed: I need a vacation or a gun. "Inside. Now," he ordered.
Great.
Computer Lab.
The birthplace of trauma.
The moment we entered, we were hit with cold AC and the smell of broken dreams. The professor repeated the rule we already knew by heart: "NO WATER BOTTLES NEAR THE SYSTEMS. If anything spills, you will PAY."
Normal students follow rules.
Us?
We look at rules and say, "Challenge accepted."
We took our seats, pretending to behave. That lasted fourteen seconds. Because Rohan and Nandini spotted an open water bottle on their desk. They exchanged a look. A stupid look. A dangerous look. Their brain cells sparked — poorly.
Rohan whispered, "I'm thirsty."
"Me too," Nandini said, eyes narrowing like a villain.
Then, like two rotten peas fighting to stay in its pod, they lunged at it.
"It's MINE!" Rohan yelled, yanking it.
"You dehydrated donkey, I SAW IT FIRST!" Nandini shouted, pulling back.
"You drink like a vacuum cleaner—give it!"
"You breathe like a buffalo—shut up!"
I stared at them, horrified disappointed mother. "Guys. STOP—"
But no. They tugged, slipped, fumbled—
The universe hates me.
Their hands slipped.
The bottle flew.
In. Slow. Motion.
"NOOOOOOO—" I screeched like a dramatic soap-opera hero.
SPLASHHHHHH.
The water poured directly onto the keyboard like it was performing a holy ritual.
For a full second, the room froze.
The keyboard sparked.
There was a sizzling sound, a tiny spark, and then... silence. The keyboard died instantly. Like someone unplugged its soul.
Rohan stared at it. "It... drowned?"
Nandini whispered, horrified, "We killed it."
Anushka sighed deeply. "You two absolute brain-frosted penguins. Even evolution gave up on you."
Harsh coughed. "Bro... it's bubbling."
Saumya muttered, "Rest in peace."
Daksh sighed softly, the kind of sigh that said, I expected this from you people.
I stared at them. "You absolute moldy guacamole chunks... you've committed a technological murder."
Rohan stuttered, "We... we can fix it?"
"Can you resurrect the dead?"
Silence.
Nandini whispered, "Maybe... CPR?"
"Try it and I'll bury you." Anushka snapped.
And then —
Before we could process the disaster, the door SLAMMED open.
Arun Uncle entered.
The Lab Assistant.
CCTV king.
UPG's personal Batman.
"YOU LITTLE RASCALS." he roared.
We jumped like criminals caught by CID.
"I SAW EVERYTHING!" he declared. "YOU TWO—AQUATIC DISASTERS—STAND UP!"
Rohan squeaked, "Sir, battery died—"
Nandini added, "Maybe global warming—"
"SILENCE!" Arun Uncle slammed the table. "You drowned government property! PAY FOR FUNERAL!"
Harsh started laughing.
Anushka slapped his shoulder. "Laugh again and I'll bury YOU next to the keyboard."
The professor walked in with the speed of a man ready to resign. He looked at the keyboard, inhaled deeply, and said slowly, "What did I say about water bottles?"
Rohan pointed at Nandini.
Nandini pointed at Rohan.
Both spoke at once: "THE OTHER ONE DID IT!"
He didn't care. "Both of you. Pay for a new keyboard. NOW."
Their souls left their bodies.
Saumya whispered, "Tragic fall of two fools."
I facepalmed so hard I saw stars.
They paid.
They cried.
They did cleaning duty.
They wrote apology letters.
They aged spiritually.
The rest of the lecture was just us pretending to code while the computer pretended to care. Rohan kept complaining. "This broom is racist!"
Anushka didn't even look up. "You're complaining about a broom? You infected potato."
"This is child labor!" he yelled.
Arun Uncle chased him with a stick. Classic.
By the end, Rohan and Nandini looked like bankrupt grandparents.
We walked out of the lab in tears from laughing. Harsh kept teasing Rohan about the "aquatic homicide." Nandini vowed to never drink water again. Saumya said we were banned from heaven. Anushka claimed she needed new friends but still stuck with us.
Daksh walked quietly beside me again, hands in pockets, glancing at me once like he wanted to say something. But didn't. Just a soft presence. A quiet orbit.
We all separated at the gate, and I headed home to rest my fried brain.
But the day wasn't done.
By evening, my brain felt like mashed potatoes, so I went to meet Nidhi near our usual chat spot. She spotted me from far away and waved like she was signalling a ship.
"MISHA!" she screamed. "COME HERE YOU EXHAUSTED RAISIN."
I plopped onto the bench. "You won't BELIEVE what happened today."
She widened her eyes dramatically. "Did you slap someone? Did someone slap YOU? Did you fall again? Did you fail practical—again?"
I stared at her. "Wow. Confidence in me is strong."
"Shut up," she said. "Spill."
So I told her everything.
The bottle.
The fight.
The splash.
The spark.
The death of the keyboard.
Rohan screaming.
Anushka insulting.
Daksh being weirdly... soft.
Nidhi gasped so loudly people turned. "THEY DROWNED A KEYBOARD? YOUR FRIENDS NEED COUNSELLING."
"They need EXORCISM," I corrected.
She pointed a finger at me. "I warned you. If any apocalypse starts in UPG, your group will be ground zero."
I groaned. "You don't understand. They were insulting each other like two mentally unstable parrots."
"What did Anushka say?"
"She called them 'brain-frosted penguins'."
Nidhi clutched her chest. "Icon. Legend. Goddess."
I shoved her. "NOT HELPING."
She leaned closer dramatically. "Now tell me the main part. The important part. The gossip part. The 'my heart is beating fast' part."
I frowned. "What gossip—"
"DAKSH," she whispered like she was summoning a ghost.
I slapped my forehead. "It was NOTHING."
Nidhi hit the table dramatically, her eyes lighting up like she had unlocked a secret level.
"AHA! I knew this! That boy is not just air with legs—he's at least premium air. I can SEE it in your face!"
"What? No. He's just... nice."
She raised an eyebrow so high it touched heaven. "Nice? NICE?! Misha, he was walking beside you like an unpaid bodyguard. Do you understand the SUBTLETY LEVEL?"
I groaned. "Please. He's like that with everyone."
"No he's not," she said dramatically. "He's like that only with you. Everyone else gets two business-day replies and a polite nod."
I threw my head back. "You're exaggerating."
"I'm not." She leaned closer. "And the shoulder brushing? The soft voice? The checking on you? Girl... that's ROM-COM material."
I slapped her arm. "Shut up!"
She slapped mine back. "YOU shut up!"
I pulled my hair. "I want to hit you with this samosa."
"Violence is love," she said proudly.
We both laughed like two hyenas having a mental breakdown. The kind of laugh that releases all the stress you didn't know you were holding.
By the time we finished eating, the sky was dark, the streetlights flickered, and my brain finally felt lighter.
By the time I reached home after meeting Nidhi, my head was spinning like a ceiling fan on Turbo mode. She had screamed, roasted, bullied, lectured, and emotionally assaulted me with love for one full hour at our usual chat point. My stomach was full of pani puri and my brain was full of trauma.
The moment I kicked my shoes off, my phone buzzed.
Kiara.
The universe never gave me a break.
I picked up. "Hello—"
"What happened," she said immediately.
I blinked. "Wow. No hi? No how are you? Straight to psychic powers?"
"Whenever you don't pick my calls for more than four hours, it means either you caused chaos... or chaos found you."
I sat up dramatically. "KIARA. Today was— Kiara, today was HISTORIC."
She sighed. "Let me sit down."
"Sit on the floor," I said. "You will faint."
"Just talk, Misha."
So I took a deep breath and unleashed the insanity.
"First of all, Rohan and Nandini turned the lab into Niagara Falls. WATERFALL. Not drops, Kiara. A whole WATERFALL on the keyboard. It started hissing like a dying lizard. Then smoke came— actual smoke— and Arun uncle came running at us like we tried to blow up the building."
Kiara made a small sound. "Oh no."
"Oh yes," I said dramatically. "He started screaming in English today. ENGLISH. 'WHO DID THIS? WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE? ARE YOU ALL TRYING TO TURN THIS LAB INTO A SWIMMING POOL?' Kiara, I nearly died."
"That bad?"
"BAD? IT WAS ARMAGEDDON. HE CALLED ME FIRST. ME. LIKE I WAS THE MASTERMINED."
"Why you?" she asked calmly.
"Because apparently my face looks like someone who spills things!"
She snorted softly. "That... I can believe."
I gasped. "YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT ME."
"I am supporting you. Emotionally. Silently. From a safe distance."
I groaned into my pillow and continued, "Then Nandini cried like she lost her children. Harsh started laughing like a villain. Anushka nearly told Arun uncle to calm down— I had to pinch her. Saumya asked sir if another water spill would shut down the entire building and got thrown out of class. Kiara, my batch is a zoo."
"They always were."
"Yes but TODAY, it's a TRAGEDY," I corrected. "A Greek tragedy. With water bottles."
She paused. "And after that?"
I swallowed.
Because after that... there was the quiet moment. The pen. The soft voice. The "Are you okay?" The shoulder brush. The subtle warmth.
But Kiara didn't know about any of that.
So I mumbled quickly, "Then I met Nidhi."
"Oh dear," she said. "How many times did she yell?"
"Twenty-seven," I replied instantly. "Maybe more. She insulted my life choices, my friend circle, my brain cells, my existence... AND she ate my sev puri."
"That sounds like Nidhi."
"She asked me why I look tired," I continued dramatically, "so I told her about the lab incident and she SCREAMED. She said, 'Your friends need therapy AND CCTV supervision.' Kiara, she is so jealous that she wasn't there to witness the drama LIVE."
"She does love chaos."
"LOVE? She THRIVES on it. She said if she had been there, she would've recorded everything and gone viral."
Kiara chuckled. "Honestly... same."
I gasped. "YOU TOO?! EVERYONE IS USING ME FOR CONTENT!"
"Misha... everyone lives because of your chaos. You're like a generator."
"I hate you."
"No, you don't."
I sighed, rolling onto my back. "Fine. Maybe I don't. But today was... a lot."
Her voice softened. "You sound overwhelmed."
"I am overwhelmed," I admitted. "The drama, the screaming, the lab, Nidhi's lecture... everything felt too loud."
"But you're still smiling," she said gently.
I froze.
"How do you know?"
"Your voice," she replied. "You sound tired... but happy-tired. Like something small made your day better even if you're pretending it didn't."
My heart skipped at the accuracy.
Not because of anything huge...
but because maybe she was right.
Maybe something quiet had sat with me today.
"Kiara?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks for listening. Seriously."
"Always. Now go sleep. You need energy for tomorrow's next episode."
I smiled softly. "Yeah... tomorrow."
We hung up.
I lay there, staring at the ceiling, my room silent except for my heartbeat still remembering the day.
Somewhere between Nidhi's chaos, my friends' madness, and the universe's personal mission to embarrass me...
I ended up on my bed, hugging my two emotional-support idiots — Puchku and Fluffy.
I poked Puchku's stitched nose.
"Listen, both of you... something weird is happening," I whispered like they were licensed therapists.
Fluffy stared back with his crooked button eye, judging me silently. As usual.
"I mean, I don't understand it yet," I told them, pulling the blanket up to my chin.
"But I felt it today. Something small. Soft. Quiet."
I squished Puchku closer. "And no, it's not heartburn."
The room felt still.
Warm.
Comfortable.
Like even my teddies were waiting for me to admit something I wasn't ready to admit.
I sighed into Fluffy's fur.
"Look, I'm not saying anything is happening, okay? I'm just saying..."
I paused, cheeks heating up even though they were stuffed toys.
"...something gentle slipped into all that noise. And I didn't hate it."
Puchku flopped to the side dramatically — probably fainting from secondhand embarrassment.
Fluffy stared like he already knew the next chapter before I did.
I hugged them both tighter.
"Maybe..." I whispered into the quiet,
"...just maybe... I'm waiting too."