25 Freshers Ball #2
Niyati offered a faint, gentle smile, her eyes remaining fixed on the blank lines of her paper. "Yeah..." she murmured. Her voice was soft, almost entirely lost in the rustle of turning pages around them.
Because despite saying yes... despite smiling along... despite the contagious excitement humming through her friend... a small, quiet corner of Niyati's heart was still wondering what it would have felt like if the person taking her to her very first ball had been Ansh instead.
The final lecture of the day ended with a collective, audible sigh of relief from the students.
The second the professor packed up his laptop and stepped out of the classroom, conversations erupted all at once, filling the room with loud chatter and sudden laughter.
Stretching her arms above her head, Niyati let out a tired breath before closing her notebook with a satisfied click.
"I think my brain has officially ceased all basic functioning," she muttered, slumping slightly over her desk. Diya yawned dramatically beside her, gathering her pens. "Mine stopped working after the second lecture."
"I'm surprised it even bothered to start this morning," Niyati teased gently.
"Excuse me," Diya gasped in mock offense, clutching her chest. "I am an exceptionally hardworking student!"
Niyati gave her a long, knowing look.
"You spent half of Economics doodling elaborate flowers on your desk."
"Those were strategic artistic investments, thank you very much," Diya shot back smoothly.
Niyati laughed, shaking her head as they both stood up to pack their bags. Just as she zipped up her tote, Diya suddenly froze in place, her eyes widening.
"Oh!"
"What?" Niyati asked, looking over.
"I completely forgot! I have to call Bhai," Diya said. Before Niyati could even ask why, Diya had already pulled out her phone, tapped on Ansh's contact, and put the call on speaker while adjusting her backpack.
The line rang a couple of times before connecting. "Hello?" Ansh's familiar, calm voice resonated through the phone.
"Hi, Bhai!" Diya chirped cheerfully.
"Done with classes already?" he asked, a subtle warmth in his tone.
"Just finished!"
"How was your day?"
"Excellent," Diya replied smoothly. "We survived."
Ansh chuckled softly on the other end, the sound low and soothing. "I'll take that as a very good sign."
"It definitely is," Diya said. She glanced at Niyati before casually adding, "Are you free tonight?"
There was a brief pause on his end. "I should be. Why? Is everything alright?"
Diya's smile widened instantly. "Niyati and I have to go shopping."
Ansh frowned from his office desk across town. "Shopping?"
"Yeah."
"For what?"
"The Freshers' Ball this weekend!" Diya blurted out, her tone airy and completely lighthearted.
She spoke so casually that she missed the exact second Niyati's head snapped toward her in sheer panic.
"We both need formal dresses," Diya added happily.
Niyati's eyes grew impossibly wide. Her hand shot out to grab Diya's arm, frantically trying to cut her off. "Diya, wait-" she hissed in a low whisper.
But the words had already escaped into the air.
A complete, sudden silence fell over the phone. The ambient hum of his office seemed to vanish entirely.
"...Ball?" Ansh asked. His voice was noticeably quieter now, all the warmth suddenly stripped away into something tight and carefully guarded.
"Haan, Bhai," Diya continued innocently, completely blind to the mounting tension between the two.
"It's basically like those high-school prom nights you see in movies. You know... everyone goes as couples. We finally found partners today, so we need dresses, heels, matching accessories-literally everything!"
Niyati slowly closed her eyes, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She didn't need to be standing in front of Ansh to imagine the exact look on his face right now.
Across the city, in his quiet office, the words everyone goes as couples echoed painfully inside Ansh's head. Couples. The reality struck him with an abrupt, brutal force.
Someone else was going to stand beside Niyati. Someone else would offer her his hand, spin her around a crowded dance floor, and escort her to her very first university ball.
For a heavy, agonizing second, an unfamiliar, sharp ache settled deep in his chest. He knew they weren't together anymore. He knew he had no right to feel possessive, no right to question her choices, and certainly no right to feel this sudden, suffocating surge of jealousy.
And yet... he did.
Ansh tightened his grip around his phone until his knuckles turned pale, forcing himself to draw in a slow, silent breath to steady his pulse.
On the other end, Diya frowned, looking down at her screen. "Bhai? You there?"
Another beat passed before Ansh blinked, forcibly dragging his mind back to the present. "Yeah..." His voice was smooth again, masked under a layer of disciplined composure. "Yeah, I'm here."
"So you'll come with us?" Diya pressed hopefully.
Ansh looked at the scattered project files on his desk before shifting his eyes to the wall clock. "I can wrap up work by six."
"Perfect!"
"I'll pick both of you up from the hostel gate," he said quietly. "Six o'clock?"
"Done!" Diya beamed, utterly oblivious.
"Okayyy, Bhai. See you!"
"See you," he replied before hanging up.
For a long moment, neither girl spoke. Niyati slowly turned toward her best friend, her expression a mix of absolute disbelief and quiet embarrassment.
"What was the need to call Ansh for this, Diya?"
Diya blinked, looking genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"
"We could have easily gone by ourselves," Niyati said, her voice strained. "There was no reason to trouble him after a long workday."
Diya laughed, waving her hand dismissively.
"Trouble? Arrey, toh kya hua? We don't have to deal with booking cabs or figuring out transportation across Delhi during peak hours."
She slung her bag over her shoulder as they finally stepped out into the bustling hallway.
"We literally have our own personal driver in the city!"
Niyati couldn't help a small laugh from slipping out despite her frustration.
"Diya! Be serious!"
"I am being serious!" Diya bumped her shoulder playfully against Niyati's as they walked. "And besides... we won't get to spend any time with Bhai this weekend since he'll probably be buried in work. So let's all go out tonight. It'll be fun."
Niyati hesitated, her fingers clutching her tote strap tightly. "But still..."
"No buts!" Diya linked her arm firmly through Niyati's, physically dragging her toward the stairs. "We are buying dresses, we are eating good food, and you are going to stop overthinking every tiny detail."
Niyati let out a long, defeated sigh. "You make my life so difficult."
"I make your life interesting, Niyuu."
"You make it exhausting."
"Potato, potahto," Diya grinned.
Their shared banter carried them into the open courtyard, blending into the stream of students leaving the academic block.
Niyati offered a soft smile to her friend, but deep down, her mind had already drifted far away from campus-to a quiet office on the other side of Delhi, and to a man who had gone completely silent at the mention of one single word.
Ball.
She had caught it instantly. The microscopic pause. The subtle drop in his tone. The forced, careful steadiness that followed. Anyone else would have missed it entirely, but Niyati knew Ansh too well. She knew the quiet cadence of his voice better than her own.
And as they walked toward the hostel, that subtle realization made her own heart feel unexpectedly, heavily bruised.
The late afternoon traffic of Delhi crawled lazily beneath the golden hues of the setting sun, long shadows stretching across the pavement as Niyati and Diya waited outside the hostel gates.
A familiar black sedan pulled smoothly up to the curb, the front passenger window rolling down to reveal Ansh behind the steering wheel, looking relaxed in his office shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
"There are my favourite troublemakers," he said, an easy smile gracing his face.
Diya grinned, instantly picking up her pace toward the car. "Finally! I was beginning to think corporate people never actually leave work."
"They usually don't," Ansh replied with a soft laugh, leaning across to unlock the doors. "I successfully staged an escape."
Before Niyati could even reach for the front door, Diya had already yanked it open and claimed the seat. "Shotgun!"
Niyati could only offer a helpless smile, shaking her head. "You've been calling shotgun since we were ten years old, Diya."
"And it remains a valid legal defense," Diya shot back smoothly.
Shaking her head fondly, Niyati opened the back door and slipped into the rear seat. The moment the door clicked shut, the subtle, comforting scent of Ansh's cologne filled her senses, instantly stirring up memories she had spent the last several months trying to bury.
She quietly fastened her seatbelt, her hands resting tightly in her lap as Ansh merged the car back into the evening traffic.
"So," he asked, adjusting his side mirror as he navigated the busy avenue, "how was college today?"
That was all the invitation Diya needed to launch into full narration mode. "Oh my God, Bhai! You won't even believe what happened today!"
Ansh chuckled warmly. "I've literally asked one question, Diya."
"And I'm giving you the comprehensive daily report," she declared proudly.
Leaning her head lightly against the cool window pane, Niyati smiled to herself. Diya could narrate an entire twelve-hour day without taking a single breath, and usually did.
"The lectures were fine... although our professor already managed to hand out assignments on week three," Diya complained, throwing her hands up.
Ansh groaned dramatically on cue.
"Already?"
"Exactly! They're actively trying to ruin our young lives."
A collective wave of easy laughter rippled through the car.