Newcomer

‘I don’t have 5 rupees; can I pay you later’ I requested the tea shop owner. He hesitated a
bit.
Of course, why should he do me a favor, it is hurting his business. To be fair, it’s on him for
not having UPI-
‘I got you!’ a voice came from behind me. ‘Here you go, sir!’ He extended the money to the
shop owner.
Wow, he has such a deep voice…
‘Thank you so much, give me your number, I’ll transfer it back right away’ I took out my
phone.
‘Woah, maybe we should exchange names before numbers?’ He smiled at me and so did
his hazel eyes.
I chuckled. Damn, he’s witty.
‘Okay, have it your way, my name is Adarsh’
‘I’m Sarvesh!’
We shook hands. Strong grip!
‘Anyway, Adarsh, I am getting late for class. The 5 rupees – you can pay it forward, I’m sure
it’ll make its way back to me!’ he winked and jogged towards the classroom block.

I looked at my watch. Shoot, I’m also late for class. I jogged in the same direction and went
in only to find my friends waiting outside the class for me.
‘Where have you been? Have you been chatting with strangers again? I told you he’s too
extroverted for our group’ Arjun smirked.
‘Hey, I wasn’t’ That’s a lie ‘I just couldn’t find change for my tea. You all abandoned me’ I
complained.
‘Boys, stop bickering already, let’s go in, Kavya Ma’am is staring right into our souls’
Meera was right, she was staring into our souls.

We beelined towards our usual desk, third row corner, also known as the blind spot. But
the desk was already accommodating Sarvesh. It was a three-person desk, so naturally,
we headed one row back.
Is he in my class? If I talk to him now, I’ll never hear the end of it from Arjun.

Sarvesh gave us a small smile. Pretty sure that was for me.
As we were sitting down, Arjun whispered to me, ‘Dude, the new guy, I heard some weird
stuff about him’
Uhoh
‘Can you not?’ Meera sneered at him.
‘Wait what? I was just speaking to him. He seemed fine’
Arjun’s eyes lit up
Damn it, couldn’t keep my mouth shut
‘It’s not what you think, he paid for my tea!’ I resisted
‘Well, I heard he was-’ Arjun hesitated, looking in all directions (and other dimensions too?)
‘Guys you know I can hear you right? I’m literally a foot away from you’ Sarvesh remarked.
Well, obviously he can hear us, what was Arjun thinking.
‘Your friend is trying to tell you, very conspicuously, that I’m gay’ Sarvesh continued.
That’s it? Arjun is such child-
‘Sorry about him, I’m Meera and I’m sure you’ve met Adarsh, everyone has.’ She took a dig
at me sigh. ‘And this is Arjun, he lives under a rock, I will lecture him later.’ Meera went
ahead and sat with him in front of me and Arjun.
‘Dude, do you think she’s actually going to lecture me?’
‘Oh definitely.’
‘CAN YOU PLEASE BE QUIET’ Kavya Ma’am from the dais. Oops I completely forgot about
that.
After the lecture, we all got together outside the class. Arjun apologized to Sarvesh ‘I’m so
sorry, I have never had gay friends, and also, I’m terrified of Meera.’
‘You better be.’
Sarvesh laughed ‘Oh, it’s fine, I’ve heard and seen much worse!’
‘Arjun, Meera, can you come back in for a second’ the professor called out. I bet this is
about their assignments, Arjun must not have varied it enough from hers. Not a good day to
be Arjun-
‘You’re right, definitely not his day.’ Sarvesh chimed in.
‘How…how did you do that?’ Can he hear my thoughts? Oh no, did he hear everything?
He asked me something, oh dear, I didn’t pay attention.
‘That’s okay, I’ll ask you again, would you like to go out with me?’
I blushed(unintentionally). ‘I would love to; this time I’m paying. And here is my number, we
know each other’s names after all.’