Chapter 7: New Boundaries, New Rivalries

After that night, Kabir started holding my hand in the corridors, not caring who saw. The gossip started, but for once, I didn’t care.

Kabir didn’t realise his unconscious possessiveness, didn’t realise his instinct to claim me as ‘his girl.’ I saw it in the way his eyes lingered on me in the corridor, the way he’d reach for my hand when no one was looking.

But as a fellow woman, Ritika keenly sensed the subtle changes.

She started to feel threatened.

After another night with Kabir, Ritika angrily blocked me in the bathroom. The tiles were cold, and the lights buzzed overhead. Her bangles clinked as she crossed her arms tighter, jaw set like Amma before a family fight.

She stared at the faint hickey on my collar, the anger in her eyes almost tangible, but she still forced herself to speak sarcastically.

“You and Kabir sure have energy—doing the same thing over and over and not getting tired?”

I carefully buttoned my collar to cover the hickey, then looked at her with a smile. My fingers trembled, but my voice did not.

“If I don’t spend my energy on my boyfriend, where else should I spend it?”

“Spend it on—”

I drew out my words.

“Studying?”

I was reminding her:

A man, or marks.

Ritika could only have one.

That day, Ritika retreated in defeat. She brushed past me, her shoulder sharp, her head held high, but her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

I still remember the look on her face.

Besides the boiling anger, there was also a hidden expression that said, ‘Just you wait.’

And today, I guess, is when she wants to ‘make me pay.’