She Needed Him Today
The next day felt heavier than the last.
From the moment Meera stepped into the classroom, she knew
today would be worse.
Meera walked in with Veer and Ruchika beside her. Same third bench. Same corner. But the air around them felt hostile .
Whispers followed her like shadows.
“Isn’t she the girl who slapped Omkar yesterday?”
“How dare she?”
“She thinks she’s something special.”
Meera kept her face blank, fingers gripping her pen.
Veer leaned closer, voice low.
“Don’t listen. Just… don’t listen.”
Ruchika nodded, jaw tight.
“We’re here. All three of us.”
The English teacher entered, glanced at Meera, then at Veer, Ruchika, and Tiya sitting beside her.
“So,this class has turned into a drama club now?” the teacher said coldly, adjusting her glasses.
“some students think discipline doesn’t apply to them.”A few students snickered.
Meera felt her stomach twist.The teacher’s gaze hardened.“Scholarship students should remember one thing gratitude.”
Veer stiffened.Ruchika clenched her fists.
“Free education doesn’t mean free arrogance,” the teacher continued.
“Especially when your background doesn’t match your attitude.”
Meera slowly looked up.
“Sir,” she said quietly, “we didn’t...”
“Silence,” he snapped.
“You and your group already embarrassed this institution enough.”
Her throat burned.The teacher scoffed.“Sit properly. And don’t let me hear your voices again.”
The lecture went on, but every word felt like a slap.
When the bell rang, relief didn’t come.
It only got worse.
After Class:??????
___________________
Just as students began to leave, the classroom door slammed open.
Omkar walked in.
With his friends Virat, Viki, and their group.
The air shifted instantly.
Veer’s breath hitched.
“…No.”
Omkar’s eyes landed on Meera instantly.
A slow smile curved his lips.
“Well . Look who survived.” he said lazily.
Tiya laughed.“Barely.”
“Oh look , the poor little gang is together again.” Omkar smirked,
Meera’s heart started pounding.
Viki stepped closer too close to Ruchika.
“Move,” Ruchika said sharply.
Viki suddenly reached out his fingers brushing her arm, then sliding lower.
“Don’t touch me,” she said, voice controlled but shaking.
Veer stood up instantly.“Hey! Get away from her!”
Viki smirked.“Relax, hero. I’m just checking if she’s still human.”
Veer pushed his hand away.
That was enough.
Virat grabbed Veer by the collar. “Know your place.You don’t even belong in the same room as us.” he hissed.
The class froze.
“People like you,” Virat continued,
“can’t even dream of our level.”
Veer struggled but didn’t reply. His silence burned more than words.
Then Omkar turned.
Slowly.His eyes landed on Meera.
She felt it that familiar fear crawling up her spine.
He picked up a glass of water from the desk.
Meera barely had time to react.The water came crashing down over her head.
The class went dead silent.Meera didn’t scream.
She didn’t cry. But her eyes already in tears.
She just stood there wet, humiliated, breathing slowly.That calm snapped something inside Omkar.
“Still silent?” he said sharply.
“Did the water cool your attitude?”
Meera swallowed hard.“Please… stop.”
He stepped closer.“You think staying quiet makes you strong?”
Tiya scoffed.“Begging already?”
Meera stepped forward slightly.
“I’m sorry. For yesterday. I shouldn’t have slapped you.”
Omkar laughed.“Now you’re begging?”
Ruchika moved forward.
“Enough, Omkar!”
Before she could reach Meera, Tiya shoved her hard.Ruchika fell to the floor.
“Ruchi!” Meera cried out, rushing toward her .
But Omkar caught her from behind.
She froze.His grip made her body stiffen in fear , shock and also disgusted.
“Let me go,” she whispered, panic flooding her voice.
“Please… don’t touch me like that. You can't”Her body rejected every second of it.
Her mind screamed.
No one touched me like this before Aarav.No one.
Aarav
the boy she loved.The boy who left.
The only one her heart ever trusted.
Tears spilled freely now.“I said stop!” she cried, trying to break free.
Omkar tightened his grip instead.
“You think you’re untouchable?” he sneered.
“You’re nothing. And that no one you keep dreaming about..”
His words dropped like poison.“Girls like you should learn one thing.”
His lips go neverher ear and said something which only she can heard.
“You’re replaceable. Breakable. And no one will ever choose you.”
Something inside Meera shattered.
Aarav. Did Aarav also do that. If he did that then what will she do?
No , he can't he promise me . he will never forget her not replace her
Her breath left her lungs.
Her eyes went empty. She can't take it anymore.
She pushed him hard.
Omkar stumbled back, shocked.
Meera didn’t wait.She ran.
Out of the classroom.Out of the corridor.Out of everything.
Veer and Ruchika stood frozen for one heartbeat.
Then reality crashed.
“Meera!” Veer shouted.They ran after her.
Outside the Campus:??????
____________________________
They searched everywhere.
Library.Washrooms.Gate.
Nothing.
Ruchika hugged herself, trembling.
“She’s not here…”
Veer’s voice broke.“She must’ve gone home.Should we go there?”
Ruchika shook her head slowly.
“No. If we go… she won’t open the door.”
Veer turned to her, eyes wild.“What do you think that what Omkar said?”
Ruchika swallowed hard.
“I don’t know . But whatever it was…” she whispered.
She looked toward the road Meera had disappeared on.
“It broke her.”
In Meera's room : ??????
__________________________
Meera locked the door.
The click echoed through the house like a verdict.
She stood there for a second… then another… then her knees gave up.
She slid down, back against the door, wet clothes sticking to her skin, cold seeping into her bones but she didn’t feel it.
Her chest hurt too much.She pulled out her phone with shaking fingers.
Aarav.
Just his name made her cry harder.
“Please…” she whispered, her voice barely there.“Please answer. Just once.”
She called.
Ringing…
Her breath caught.“Pick up… Aarav, please pick up…”
No answer.
She wiped her cheeks roughly and tried again.
“This time you will,” she said desperately, nodding to herself.
“You will.” she said.
“He wouldn’t replace me.”she sobbed softly.
“What Omkar said… it has to be wrong.”
She hugged her knees tightly.“Aarav wouldn’t do that to me. He wouldn’t.”
But the phone stayed silent.A broken laugh escaped her throat.
“What Omkar said…” she murmured, hugging her knees.
“It can’t be true. You wouldn’t replace me. You wouldn’t.”
She pressed her forehead to the door.
“You promised,” she whispered.
“You said I was enough.”
She tried to breathe the way she always did when things hurt.
In… out…
“I have to calm down . I can’t break like this.” she whispered.
But the tears didn’t listen.They kept falling.
She looked at her reflection in the dark screen of her phone and laughed bitterly.
“I need to calm down,” she told herself firmly.
“I can’t fall apart.”she said.
“But I am so weak,” she murmured.
“You couldn’t protect yourself… couldn’t protect Ruchika either she said.
Her nails dug into her palms.“You just stood there. Begging.”
That hurt more than anything Omkar did.
She stood up and walked to her table with slow steps, like her body weighed a thousand kilos.
Her diary lay there.
Waiting.
She sat down slowly and opened it.
Her pen hovered over the page. Her hand shook so badly she had to grip it with both hands.
She swallowed and began.
Her pen trembled as she started writing.
“Aarav, Today I needed you.”
Tears splashed onto the page.
“They humiliated me in front of everyone. Teachers, classmates… no one stopped them.”
Her chest tightened as she wrote.
“Everyone looked at me like I was nothing.They didn’t even see me as human.”
“Omkar poured water on me. I stood there like I didn’t exist.I stood there… frozen.”
Her pen stopped.Her hand shook violently now.
She closed her eyes.Then forced herself to write.
Then slowly she wrote.
“He told me something.”Her lips trembled.
“He said everyone replaces me.”A sob escaped her.
“He said people like me are easy to forget.”
Her heart pounded violently.
“Is that true?” she whispered.
“Did you replace me too?”
Her pen dug into the paper.
“Now I’m scared.”
“Scared that you did the same.”
She hugged herself for a moment, trying to stop shaking.Then she forced herself to write the words she was avoiding.
“He touched my waist.He touched me.”
The words felt heavy dirty wrong.
She pressed the pen harder.
“My body hated it.”
“ I hated it.I hated every second.”” she whispered brokenly.
“Only you were allowed to touch me like that. I was safe with you.”
Her voice broke completely.
“Only you,” she sobbed.
“No one else had that right.I don’t want anyone else to touch me,” she whispered.
“Never.”
She covered her mouth, trying to stop the sound.Then wrote the line that shattered her.
“Now that memory feels ruined.When he touched me, I felt dirty.”
She dropped the pen for a second, chest heaving.
“I didn’t want him,” she whispered desperately.
“I swear I didn’t.”
She picked the pen back up.
“I begged him to stop.I said sorry even when I wasn’t wrong.”
Her tears wouldn’t stop now.
“I called you.Again and again.”
She stared at the page, then added
“You didn’t answer.”Her shoulders shook violently.
“I needed you today,” she cried aloud.
“I really needed you.”
Her pen scratched the paper again.
“If you’re with someone else… please tell me.”
She pressed her forehead to the table.
“I don’t know how to be strong anymore.”
“I don’t know how to survive this alone.I don’t know how to survive being touched by someone who isn’t you.”
She signed nothing.She just closed the diary and hugged it to her chest like it was the only thing keeping her alive.
“I miss you,” she whispered into the silence.
“I really need you today.”
Her tears soaked the cover as she sat there afraid, broken, and terrified of being replaced.
In Viki's house:??????
________________________
Viki’s house was loud with music, laughter echoing off the walls. Empty snack wrappers lay scattered across the floor, phones glowing in careless hands. It felt like a celebration.
Omkar dropped onto the couch, stretching his arms behind his head like he had just won something.
“Did you see her face today?” he laughed, eyes shining with cruel satisfaction.
“God… priceless.”
Virat burst out laughing, grabbing a drink.“She really thought saying sorry would save her.”
He mocked her trembling voice,“Please stop… I’m sorry…”
The boys laughed harder.
Viki leaned against the table, smirking.
“That water thing?Epic. The whole class froze.” he said proudly.
He snapped his fingers.“Not a single person helped her.”
Omkar chuckled lowly.“That’s what I liked the most.”
He tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling.“She stood there. Quiet. Like she didn’t even exist.”
Virat added casually,“And still tried to act strongly.”
“Strong?She was shaking.” Viki scoffed.
He stepped closer, eyes darkening.
“But why stop there?”
The room slowly quieted.
Viki’s smile widened dangerous, deliberate.“Let’s spread rumors about her.”
Everyone turned toward him.
“Say she’s characterless,” Viki continued calmly.
Virat laughed nervously.“That’ll destroy her.”
“Exactly,” Viki replied, unfazed.
“And her little friend group too.”
He picked up his phone and scrolled lazily.“We’ll make sure no one sits with them.”
“No one talks to them.”No one believes them.”
Omkar’s lips curved into a slow smile.
“Good . She deserves it.” he said.
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
“Tomorrow, she won’t just be the girl who got humiliated,” Omkar added softly.
“She’ll be the girl everyone whispers about.” Omkar said.
Virat smirked.“And Veer?”
Omkar laughed.
“That poor guy? Let him watch. He can’t do anything anyway.”
Viki clapped once, excited.
“I’ll start tonight,” he said.
“Messages. Stories. A few fake screenshots.”
He looked at Omkar.“You in?”
Omkar didn’t hesitate.
“Do it.Let her suffer more.”he said calmly.
He unlocked his phone, scrolling through social media.
“Breaking her today was fun,” he added, almost bored.
“But watching her fall apart slowly?”
A cruel grin spread across his face.“That’ll be even better.”