Shruti's journey - Part 2

This is the second part of a series. Click here to read Part 1.

Anil shook his head, trying to keep his eyes open.

“What's wrong, are you tired?” Shruti asked him. Kalyan had exchanged seats with her so that she would finally stop complaining about Anil’s driving. Shruti was now in the front seat, all buckled up with her seat belt, so there was no chance of flying off her seat and landing on anyone.

“No I'm good,” Anil told her. He preferred to be the one in control of the car. Believe it or not, he got insecure when anyone else was driving. Except Shruti of course; she drove slower than some bicycles. It was a sharp contrast to her fast moving, happy nature though. One would expect her driving style to be much more like her, bouncy and peppy, and not like a grandma’s.

“Do you want me to take over for a while?” Shruti asked, tilting her head and smiling at him.

She's so cute, Anil thought to himself.

“No thanks, tortoise. We'd like to reach Manali and go back in seven days, not take that long to get there,” he teased.

Shruti punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow!” He yelped.

He watched as Shruti switched to the radio mode and tuned into Manali channels. That means we're pretty close, Anil realised.

“What is this shit,” Shruti said, talking about some apparently old song, which sounded like it was recorded in the nineteen-fifties. She changed channels, until she finally landed on some peppy music. Anil glanced at his side to watch her dance along to it in her seat.

“Do you even know what language that is?” He asked her.

“Do you care?” She said, cheerily. Anil chuckled.

He liked this Shruti; this is the one he'd had a gigantic crush on when he first saw her. She was happy, with a smile that could light up an entire lecture hall, and so carefree that even just being around her felt like listening to peppy music. But as he got closer to her, he knew there was more to her than what she looked like. The rest of the gang, Diya, Rihaan, Kalyan, Harsh and Bhargav were always talking about how Shruti was little Miss Sunshine, but Anil knew better. She wasn't like them; she was like him. Her smile, as genuine as he knew it was, was hiding a darker story. He wondered what she was thinking about before people suddenly walked into her private moments and she had to switch back to her peppy mode. He'd always wanted to ask, but he felt two months of knowing someone wasn't enough to ask those kind of questions, especially when it was obvious that she preferred not to be discovered.

Anil turned as he heard the music turn up, and Shruti’s belt slip off of her with a ‘click’. She had turned around and faced the rest of the car, dancing as wholeheartedly as she could in the space she had. Anil smiled to himself, as he saw a sharp turn ahead. He took it without slowing down, and as everyone emitted a ‘whooo’, Shruti fell right onto him. Her cheek felt soft against his arm, and even with the impact of the speed, she was delicately light, for him. Her hand placed on his chest for support made his heart pound. She quickly got herself off and buckled herself back in her seat.

“Bitch,” she scolded him.

“You use that on a girl,” Anil told her, laughing.

“Well maybe that's why it's even more insulting on you,” Shruti said, hitting him.

Click here to read Part 3.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.