Love Tangled

Broken Echoes

The buzzing energy of the St. Xavier’s cafeteria during lunch break was usually something Nitin ignored. He preferred the quiet corner near the window, lost in his sketchbook or fixing minor bugs in his code. But today, the noise felt suffocating.

Every time the cafeteria door opened, Nitin’s heart did a strange little flip.

He kept staring at Ritika, who was sitting three tables away with her friends. She was smiling, but her eyes kept darting toward her locker's direction every now and then. Nitin’s pulse raced. *Did she read it? Does she know it’s me?*

Suddenly, a loud burst of laughter echoed near the main entrance. Priyansh walked in, flanked by two guys from the basketball team. He had that effortless, arrogant charm that Nitin secretly envied. But what made Nitin’s blood turn cold was the pale blue corner sticking out of Priyansh’s back jeans pocket.

Nitin’s breath hitched. *No. That can't be...*

He watched in frozen horror as Priyansh walked straight toward Ritika’s table. Priyansh pulled out the bakery box of chocolate chip cookies with a suave flourish, sliding into the empty seat beside her.

"Thought you might need a mid-day sugar rush," Priyansh said, his voice smooth and confident.

Ritika’s face flushed a delicate shade of pink. "Priyansh! You didn't have to do that."

"For you? Always," Priyansh grinned, resting an elbow on the table. He leaned in slightly, his tone dropping just enough to sound intimate. "Besides, a girl like you deserves a little extra attention. Someone who actually knows how to appreciate you."

Nitin’s grip on his pen tightened until his knuckles turned white. Priyansh was using the sentiment of *his* letter, wrapping it up in his own glossy package. And the worst part? It was working. Ritika looked genuinely touched, offering Priyansh a warm, sweet smile that Nitin had spent months dreaming about.

Across the cafeteria, another pair of eyes was watching the exact same interaction with a very different kind of pain.

Disha stood near the drink dispenser, a cold soda can heavy in her hand. Her chest felt tight. She recognized that smile on Priyansh's face—it was the look he wore when he was closing in on a prize. She had helped him pick those exact cookies only twenty-four hours ago, foolishly hoping he’d realize how well she knew him. Instead, he had taken her advice and served it to another girl on a silver platter.

Priyansh chuckled at something Ritika said, casually slinging an arm over the back of her chair.

Disha’s eyes stung with unbidden tears. She forced herself to turn away, unable to take another second of the spectacle. As she scanned the room to find a quick exit, her eyes landed on the isolated table in the back corner.

There sat Nitin.

Disha paused. She noticed the way Nitin was staring at Priyansh and Ritika—the tight jaw, the dropped head, the quiet despair written across his entire posture. It was like looking into a mirror of her own heartbreak.

Then, Disha’s sharp eyes caught something else. As Priyansh reached into his pocket to pull out his phone, the pale blue paper shifted, catching the bright fluorescent light.

*A blue envelope?* Disha frowned. She remembered seeing that exact shade of blue paper early this morning when Nitin had been hovering suspiciously near the locker bay before anyone else had arrived.

The puzzle pieces suddenly snapped together in her head.

Priyansh hadn't written a letter. He had *stolen* one. And the poor, quiet guy in the back row was sitting there thinking he had been completely outplayed, without even realizing his words had been intercepted.

A strange, cold anger washed over Disha, instantly burning away her sadness. Priyansh thought he could treat her like background noise and play with other people's feelings just because he had a pretty face and popular status?

*Not anymore,* Disha thought, her jaw setting into a firm line.

She watched Nitin abruptly pack his sketchbook into his bag, stand up, and hurry out of the cafeteria, his head hung low.

Disha didn't hesitate. She threw her untouched drink into the recycling bin and walked out right behind him.