The Locked Door - Chapter 1 & 2

CHAPTER 1 - He got a match

"Tut tut tut click, tut tut tut click. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't smash that guy's so called "jarvis"," said Shekhar who, one could say by the red popping vein on his forehead, was at the brink of losing his temper.

"Forget it yaar. He stalks like what a million of girls in a day. He is just nuts. I don't know how he manages such good grades." Srivats said as they both kicked the metal door of Room no- 19. "Koi reply nhi aane wala be chor de ( No one is going to reply, leave it)." It had now become a routine for them. Kicking and banging that door every once in a while just to hear the annoyed response of "Get lost you morons" from the inside. It seemed that they loved to be called morons.

To their surprise, the door opened. A short highted, spectacled, Harry potter looking guy appeared. He seemed a bit too young for his age. His eyes spoke of innocence. His messed up curly dirty hair were desperate for a wash. The room guy stared a while at Srivats and Shekhar, slowly twisted his lips to give them a crooked smile.

"You have got to be kidding me." Shekhar was still nodding his head hoping for the smile to disappear. But it didn't. The room guy seemed to enjoy their reactions.

"Sharma ji, you got a reply.!!" Srivats said and Rohan Sharma, the room guy nodded in agreement. The two outsiders jumped off their feet straight onto Rohan's bed and started searching his laptop. 

"Who is she? Who is she? Where did you get a reply? We have heard that you stalk on Twitter too."

"No! It was just once. I tried but some guy retweeted my words. It was embarrassing I must say." 

"Cut the crap and show us the girl," said a desperate Shekhar whose vein was nowhere to be seen now. He was just rushing through his browsing history, his Facebook recent chats. For once he even tried the google voice response, "Hey Jarvis. Who is the unlucky girl who went flat on your master? Would you show us Jarvis darling, please?".. "Don't make fun of my master." Jarvis responded. That came as a shock.

"Leave Jarvis alone. Its here." Rohan handed over his cellphone and asked to open Timber. "You see guys, yesterday, or I must say yesternight. (giggles) I came across a dream app, Timber. You know ----"

"We already know buddy. I guess everyone knows. That's where our Dhondhu (giving a tap on Shekhar's shoulder) found his Dhondhi." Shekhar punched Srivats in the abs.

"You bastards! How come you not tell me about it?" Shekhar's vein was now on Rohan's.

"Duh! Who would have believed that our Mr. Pervo----," Shekhar's words seemed to have been swallowed back in. "This girl responded you!!!!!!! How on earth is that even possible..!"

She was a blonde with light hazel eyes. Her cheeks seemed so soft that actually made Shekhar to move the cellphone closer to his lips. The lips were no less red than a red wine. Shekhar completely forget about his Miss Dhondhu, and seemed to be petrified by the beauty of the picture.

The others seemed ambiguous. Rohan knew that the girl was not so good looking, and hence wondered why Shekhar's giving such a reaction. On the other hand, Srivats was wondering how beautiful is this new girl that Shekhar was awestruck. He grabbed the cell looked at the pic, showed it to Rohan and said, "Thi-this-this is the girl."

"I wish," Rohan blushed, "but she is the Timber automatic response bot."

 

Rohan bursted out a roar of laughter. It was so loud that even the student who was playing DOTA with plugged in earphones on the 5th floor would hear it.

Shekhar and Srivats both started throwing punches and shouted, "then who the hell is she?" 

"Here here see! Shanky Edwards." 

She was a professional. Properly pinned neat and tidy hairs, well ironed clothes and a gracy smart look that completely over shadowed her dark complexion. She looked in a perfect shape which added the word "matured" to her personality traits.

"Are you sure about this Rohan?" They asked in unison.

"Oh yes I am. We had a talk just for half an hour and I somehow felt connected.,"

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2:- The Graph on the Wall

Rohan was finally happy. Though he was a stalker, he did it only because he felt alone. He was never a talkative person. He kept all his secrets to himself and therefore he needed someone who could lighten his mood. And now he had Shanky.

Shanky was two years older than Rohan. She told him that she is a data analyst and gets free only after midnight. They could only manage a half an hour daily. But still he was satisfied. Shekhar and Srivats never missed a chance to pull his legs and Rohan seemed to enjoy it now. "Rohan Edwards, boy you are going to sound so cool." And it did sounded cool. Rohan thought that if in future they ever got engaged, he would inherit Shanky's surname. "Shanky Sharma- er-- not cool."

A couple of months passed and it was time for the semesters. For the first time in life, Rohan seemed worried. He was always a bright student and remained among the topmost scorers of his batch. But seeing him tensed during this sems worried his friends. "Kya hua, Sharma ji k bete (What happened Sharma ji's son). It seems that this semester have got the best out of you." Srivats said merrily. (Srivats always envied the calmness Rohan maintained during exams)

But Rohan was lost in his own thoughts. He was continuously staring at his ventilator as though it had the exams questions on it. Srivats turned around to see a graph sticked just below the ventilator. 

It was a tidy one. A big round circle in between with arrows popping out in all the directions pointing to another small circle, which again had arrows popping in different directions pointing to an even smaller circle, that again had.....

The centre one had SHANKY written in big bold letters. Srivats followed one arrow to a circle that said "If I propose." Srivats retraced his path and went for another circle that said, " If I tell her she is special." Srivats eyes kept on circling that graph for a minute or two before dizziness got over him.  He rubbed his eyes, got back to his feet and then yelled at the top of the voice. 

"YOU ARE A LUNATIC. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN HER---"

"Yes we had a video chat the last night."

"NO NO NO. JUST LOOK AT HER. SHE IS WAY TOO SMART FOR YOU. SHE HAS A CAREER AND HERE YOU ARE DESTROYING YOURS FOR HER. Get back to your senses and please shut this nonsense," Srivats put one hand on the graph ,"for a few weeks at---"

He was just going to tear up that piece of maze, when he suddenly noticed something odd about the wall. "Rohan," he said knocking on the wall ,"Is this hollow?" Srivats knocked again," Rohan what is in-----".

BAMM! 

A loud blast came from Srivats door. They both rushed to find that Srivats laptop had destroyed himself and was in flames. They both quickly extinguished the fire as Srivats asked to be left alone for a while.

It was semesters time. Srivats was still recovering from his loss, while Shekhar was having the exams of his lifetime. "I think I am going to top this year." 

"Shut up you. We still have one more to go and its tomorrow. I have to finish it now, cause you know boys, my nights are reserved." 

Shekhar grimmed and punched him on the back ,"My heartiest regards to Bhabhi."

The next morning, Shekhar woke up with the biggest smile on his face. Was it a beautiful dream or just the happiness of the last exam? God knows. Within minutes he got dressed up and rushed to the hall. He caught up with Srivats on the way and they both did the usual kicking morons thing on Rohan's door. Surprisingly there was no response. They kicked again, this time even harder. Still nothing. "We just have 5 minutes to go. Get up Sharma."

"He might be doing his so called " last minutes revision sessions with Jarvis. Come on I don't want to be late."

And they were off. All the three shared separate examination halls and had the habit of having a small get together at a tea stall nearby. Shekhar and Srivats were both waiting for quite a time now but Rohan didn't show up.

"Where the hell is this guy? That girl has actually driven him crazy. I am going to teach him a lesson now," Shekhar's vein was popping out.

"Hope he is alright." Srivats said with a worried look.

They returned back to their hostel only to find Rohan's door still locked from inside. They were terrified.

"Open up! Open up! Rohan yaar are you listening?" They both shouted.

The slamming and kicking was loud enough to gather the whole hostel outside Room-19.

"We must break this door now. Help us come on everyone. Fortunately they were able to find a long rod that might have been there to fix the purifier or something. They started slamming the door hard. "Rohan yaar please open up." Shekhar was in tears and so was Srivats. With a loud bang, the door busted open, and