If people at Maurya didn't know what a big deal Melisma was for our college then they would have found out as soon as they entered the gates. 

The hulking tents at various spots that had been set up the evening before were casting a shadow on many classrooms. Normally, this would have been considered a nuisance by the college authorities but they hadn't caused too much of a problem this time around. Or maybe this talk just hadn't reached us because we weren't organizing the event. 

The same nervous energy I had had on the day of the Bhaskara fest was back but this time I was trying my best to suppress it. I was in class with Smriti who kept glancing over at me. I had thought it would be a good idea to take classes on the day of the event because I had missed many hours in the past week. 

None of us really thought we should practice on the day of the competitions and since they were to take place in the evening I thought it would be best if I could utilise the morning and afternoon to catch up on some academics. 

Bad idea. I couldn't concentrate on what was being taught and I couldn't whip out my earphones to listen to calming music. The professor who was taking the class hadn't particularly taken a liking to me so I couldn't just excuse myself. 

"Excuse me, sir. Sorry to disturb your class but we need Meera Sehgal," I heard a familiar voice speak out from the doorway. 

I looked up and found Virat and Heena standing at the threshold of our classroom. Then I noticed Angad was in tow too. I all but jumped up from my seat. The professor grumbled something about fests, disruptions and time waste but I ran out thanking him on the way. 

"Thank you," I gushed, "Couldn't take another minute of that class."

"You're welcome, now come," Heena grabbed my hand and almost dragged me along. 

"Hey, what is the hurry?" I asked.

"They want to give us a preview of the whole setup before everybody else gets here. Familiarize us with everything," 

It was Angad who had answered my question. 

"Yes," Virat confirmed, "Since this is your home turf, we want to give you every advantage we can," 

"We need to hurry though, the coordinating team will be here any minute," Heena reminded. 

We reached the biggest tent which was where the stage had been constructed. It was a big stage with a narrower ramp in front. Huge light fixtures had been erected that would illuminate the centre stage. Virat informed us of the several cameras that would come swooping down to capture the performance and live stream the entire thing on the Melisma channel. 

The backdrop was actually pretty cool with these psychedelic neon designs floating about. Operators tested the speaker systems that boomed far and loud. I was amazed at how well this production had turned out to be. 

I knew that fests were a huge deal for colleges after Bhaskara but this was on another level. Surpassing my expectations. KGV must have dug deep into their pockets to produce this one. 

Virat quickly directed us to the entries and exits of the stage setup and showed us where every jury member was to be seated. Then they let us have a minute so we could work out our placement on this stage since we had been practising on a much smaller one. 

Angad and I went over our set once and then Heena called us down. 

"I hope you were able to get some sense of how you can best use this stage," she asked us.

"Yes," I said, "Thank you this was very helpful." 

I felt a little easier after this run through. It might have been short and sans actual microphones but it was really helpful. 

"Good. No pressure guys, but we really need you to win this for us, for your college, for your society. A lot is riding on this. We have spared no expense to make this a memorable event. This will be plastered everywhere, and I mean everywhere." she said almost frantically. 

I looked at Angad who seemed equally uneasy. I turned back to Heena and gave her an uncomfortable smile, 

"Sure, you know we will give it our best,"

Which we obviously intended to. I mean this was a big, big deal. I had looked up Melisma after the first meeting and the past editions had been equally, if not more, colourful and elaborate. Some winners of these competitions were even local celebrities with a huge following on Instagram. 

To make our performances better visually we had gone with a more dramatic look this time around. Deepani was doing huge dramatic curls with my hair and I was wearing this satin burgundy dress to really stand out. I didn't know what Angad was wearing but I was sure it had been approved by everybody and was complementary to my attire. 

"I almost forgot," Heena smacked her forehead, "Would you like to go up towards the end or towards the beginning of the participants?"

"How many participants are you expecting?" Angad asked her.

"Around 30 per category, I don't think all of them will show up though, so let's say 20 to 25"

"Towards the end then," he said and then looked at me. 

I met his eye for a second and then nodded turning to Heena,

"Yes, towards the end of the list."

"Alright, You guys should go and practice or get ready or something," Heena said absentmindedly typing something into her phone before walking away.

I glanced at my phone. It was almost two in the afternoon. I guess I could start setting up my stuff in the green room assigned to us. 

We started walking towards the building together and I felt this intense longing for what this could have been. I thought of how different things were last month and this was agonizing. I had this overwhelming urge to talk to Angad. If I didn't talk to him, talk to him like nothing had changed, I would burst or scream out loud like a maniac so I turned to him and said in the most casual tone ever,

"So, what about this huh? All this expense from them," 

"Yeah, looks expensive," he said.

"Are you excited about our performance?" I asked.

"Sure," he shrugged. 

We were nearing the entrance into the building where I knew we would have to part ways once we entered. Almost desperately I made a last attempt,

"You think we'll win this time?" 

"Can't say, depends on the competition," he said very neutrally.

In that second I could have actually screamed out loud. I wanted to grab his shirt and shake him and shake him and shake him so I could wake up my friend Angad in there. Talking to this stranger had become more and more agonizing. I needed him to tell me that he has faith in me and that he knew I could do it, like the moment we had shared backstage at Bhaskara and he had comforted me with his words of affirmation. 

But I didn't. Instead, I did nothing and he went inside the building turning in the direction of his classroom. 

I just stood there feeling my spirits plummet to the earth. 

***

Deepani was trying not to burn me as she did my hair. My hair was poker straight so I had told her that she was dreaming if she thought they would stay curled even if she turned her curling wand to the highest temperature. 

Deepani had taken that as a personal challenge and was doing just that. After a ton of heat protectant, hairspray and a painstaking effort to curl every strand of my hair she was left with the last few sections. 

I still had to do my makeup but that would not take nearly as long as this had. 

Everybody else had lost interest in the process after the first few curls were done. Angad was the first one to leave the room, followed by Yug and then finally Siddharth gave me an apologetic look and slunk away. 

I laughed as Shreyas stared longingly at the doorway after Siddharth left but Deepani was making him juggle between the wand and the bottle of hairspray. 

Smriti walked into the room. 

"Where have you been? I have been trying to call you for the past hour, I thought the class was supposed to end at 2:30?" 

"I was hungry, sorry. I would have come right away otherwise," she said.

"No, don't apologize. It's okay. I was just wondering where you were," I said.

"Alright, I am done," Deepani announced. 

Shreyas dumped the clips, hairspray and wand as soon as these words were out of her mouth and he was out of the room. 

Deepani shook her head and then looked lovingly at her masterpiece. I looked in the mirror and had to admit. My hair looked amazing. It was really different and new. I had gotten so used to my straight hair that this seemed like such an upgrade. 

"Your hair looks amazing!" Smriti said.

"Thank you, Smriti. Deepani I am speechless. This is so good. I just wish it would stay this way till my performance."

"With the amount of hairspray I have used, you will wake up with these curls tomorrow."

Smriti giggled.

"Alright, I am going to go outside, join us when you're done with your make-up."

Deepani left the room and I opened up my makeup bag starting to layer my face up with products.

"So I ran into Vahni outside," Smriti began casually.

"Smriti..." I sighed. 

"Just hear her out. She wants to apologize for what she said. She says she got wrapped up in all the rumours. She knows she was being stupid. You know she has a huge crush on Angad and she is incapable of hiding her emotions."

I considered her point for a second. I had tried to put myself in her shoes and had concluded that I wouldn't have believed in the rumours over what my friend had to say. And she had deliberately stayed away because she thought something was going on between Angad and me. But at the end of the day, we were different people. Vahni was sort of impulsive and vocal about everything in her life. 

"If maybe I was willing to talk to her," I began and a huge smile erupted on Smriti's face, "I said if I would be willing to talk to her then it would have to be after the competition. I have a lot on my plate right now."

"That is too bad because she is outside this room right now waiting for her cue."

"What!?" 

"Oh c'mon, you know that this will make both of you feel a lot better."

Smriti might have had a point. So I yelled out.

"Vahni, get your ass in here."

Vahni shuffled in with a sheepish expression on her face. 

"I am sorry Meera. I have been a moron, Actually, more than a moron. A dumbass. An idiot face and a Dickhead." 

"Can we leave this whole episode in the past now?" I asked, smiling at her. 

"Please let us all do that. This is the worst! Not getting to talk to you guys. Spending time with my classmates. Blech!" Vahni mimed gagging herself to emphasize her point. 

I laughed along with Smriti. Vahni came and hugged me and I hugged her back. I will admit this did make me feel a lot better. There was one less place in my brain that would feel cramped with unresolved emotions. 

If only sorting things out with Angad could be this easy. I could just go up to him and make him say what he is thinking and say what I am thinking and this entire communication block would just disappear. I know I was half responsible for this weird equation we had at the moment and if I could just go back in time and undo everything that had happened just after we had walked off stage at Bhaskara, I would. 

My thoughts strayed back to the kiss we had shared. My hands in his soft hair, his arms around me and...

I had to physically shake my head to bring myself back. 

That was also part of the reason I felt better about making up with Vahni. She wasn't entirely wrong. Something had happened between us. No matter the reasons or circumstances behind it. I knew I could never disclose all of this to her because she wouldn't understand. If Angad hadn't then she definitely wouldn't. 

But even if I did undo all of what had happened there was still the practicality of it all. It had seemed rational at that time but now I just couldn't take it. 

I had the sudden realization that if I didn't go and talk to Angad right now I would never be able to do it and if I didn't clear the air, I wouldn't be able to give my best performance. This was not only vital for me and my relationship with him but also for the college and this competition. If this could help clear the blockage and make me breathe easier I didn't think there was much to lose. 

My heart soaring I capped my lipstick and threw it back into my makeup bag. I had made my decision. I stood up,

"Where are you going?" Vahni asked.

"Uh... registrations must be starting up. Lots to do before the competition. You guys just stay here till Deepani gets back to collect her things. Then you can leave."

"Okay," Smriti said.

They both wished me luck and I walked out as fast as my pumps would take me. 

The room I was in was on the first floor so it gave me a good bird's eye view of the gardens and the tented areas. I held on to the railing as I peered below to spot him. 

When I couldn't find him I whipped out my cell phone. I had to scroll all the way down in my recent call logs to look for his contact because that was how long I hadn't called him in. 

Getting a signal at some places in our college was a pain. I raised my phone up high to get more than one bar. When it didn't help, I walked to the other part of the floor. 

I looked around for an unlocked classroom and found that one of the smaller tutorial rooms was open. I sat down on the front bench and dialled his number and the line trilled. 

He didn't answer. 

When I was debating over whether or not I should call him again the sound of the door opening caught my attention. I looked up and found Gautam of all people standing right in front of me with a malicious glint in his eye.

A/N

Dun Dun Dun...

It's a cliffhanger! The next chapter is going to be happening so stay tuned. Won't make you wait too long... I think.