When Dimple Met Rishi
Page 55

And then—Celia pushed Evan.
He barely moved, but she stumbled with the effort. Ashish moved forward, like he wanted to run onstage. Then Celia was yelling, “Screw you!” and running offstage, right toward them.
The song stopped. After an intense moment of silence, the audience began to boo.
Celia came bursting through the wings just as Dimple moved out of the way. When she saw Dimple, she began to cry harder. Without thinking, Dimple wrapped her arms around Celia and pulled her close. Even though Celia was wearing six inch heels, she managed to fold herself down and put her face in the hollow of Dimple’s neck.
Dimple patted her back. “It’s okay,” she said. “You did the right thing. I’m proud of you.”
The Aberzombies burst through then. Hari hollered, “You totally screwed it up, Celia!”
Isabelle said, quietly, “Don’t yell at her.”
“Back off!” Dimple said, glaring at Hari.
“Or what?” Evan crossed his arms and stepped forward so he loomed over Dimple and Celia. “How about you stay out of this?”
Rishi put himself between Evan and Dimple. “How about you step back?”
Evan glared at Rishi, and then Hari said, “Is there a problem?”
Suddenly, Ashish was by Rishi’s side. Dimple pulled Celia farther back, away from the crowd. Isabelle followed them.
Celia said, her voice tiny, “They’re not going to fight are they?” just as Evan said, “It’s not my fault the bitch couldn’t follow through.”
And then Ashish punched him.
CHAPTER 51
It was chaos for a few minutes as Hari lunged at Rishi, and Evan and Ashish went at it. Dimple looked around, her throat tight, her heart racing. She waved to Max, who was walking toward them, his eyes widening at the sight. He and a couple of the bigger Insomnia Con students pulled the guys apart. “Break it up!” he yelled. “Right now!”
When the four guys separated, Dimple noted with horror that Rishi’s nose was bleeding. Celia whimpered when she saw Ashish’s lip was cut, the front of his T-shirt splattered with blood.
“I can’t believe this,” Isabelle said from beside them where she’d been standing. She turned toward Celia, her cheeks red. “You were right to stop. I didn’t want to do this either, but they . . .” She swallowed, the blush in her cheeks deepening.
Dimple looked from Isabelle to Celia. It had always been clear that Isabelle wasn’t completely on board with Evan and Hari. But this open admission was more than Dimple had expected.
Celia swiped at her eyes and nodded. “It’s okay. I almost went along with it too. I guess sometimes it’s just hard to find that line and stick to it, even when something feels totally wrong to you.”
Isabelle let out a breath. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Celia.” Then, turning to Dimple, she said, “I’m sorry . . . for everything.” And then she walked off to the dressing room without looking back at any of them.
“Get out of here right now,” Max said, glaring around at them. “All of you. Just go.”
Rishi and Ashish walked toward Dimple and Celia. “Let’s go,” Rishi said, his voice low and tight.
And they did.
The women set up a makeshift clinic in Dimple and Celia’s room, with Rishi sitting on Dimple’s bed and Ashish on Celia’s. Rishi’s nose wasn’t bleeding anymore, but Dimple kept insisting he put an ice pack on it. (She’d gotten one for each of them from the first aid kit at the front desk.) Rishi wasn’t even sure an ice pack was how you treated a bloody nose, but he was enjoying the attention too much to tell her.
Across the tiny room Ashish grinned at him. Celia was hovering near him, dabbing at his cut lip with a wet washcloth. She’d scrubbed her face free of the thick makeup, changed into shorts and a T-shirt, and pulled her voluminous hair back into a ponytail. She looked much more like herself, and Rishi was glad.
“Totally worth it,” Ashish said.
Rishi laughed. “Yep.”
Celia groaned. “No, it wasn’t.” She dabbed at Ashish’s lip with an increased vigor, pulling back when Ashish winced. “Sorry. But seriously, you guys could’ve gotten really hurt.”
“Fighting’s never the answer; hasn’t anyone ever told you dorks that?” Dimple sighed and took a seat next to Rishi. “Even if those jerks totally did deserve it.”
Celia bit her lip, balling the washcloth in one fist. “Guys, I’m . . . I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have gone off with them. I’m not even sure what I was trying to prove. They were terrible friends—not really friends at all—and I was just sacrificing everything I was to be a part of their group. I guess I wanted a high school do-over or something.” She shook her head and stepped toward Dimple, and, smiling, Dimple stood and wrapped her up in a big hug. “You’ve been such a good friend to me,” Celia said, her voice high and shaky. “And you were right. I was uncomfortable, and I hated that whole thing, so I shouldn’t have done it.”
“Eh.” Dimple pulled back and tugged gently on Celia’s ponytail. “I’m proud of you for having the guts to just walk off the stage like that. Right in the middle of the performance.” She grinned, a twinkle in her eye. “Plus, you pretty much decimated their chances of winning, so, you know. Thank you.”
Celia laughed a watery laugh and pressed a finger to the corner of her eye. “You’re welcome.” She turned to Ashish next, and they looked at each other silently. There were so many unspoken words in the space between them that Rishi had to look away.
“Want to go for a walk?” Ashish said softly.
“Please,” Celia replied, and they walked off together, the door closing behind them.
Dimple sighed into the silence. “They make a cute couple.” She wrapped an arm around Rishi’s waist and rested her head on his shoulder.
“Not as cute as you and me.”
There was a smile in her voice. “Obviously.”
Rishi lay down on Dimple’s pillow and pulled her against his chest. “Take a nap with me?”
She snuggled in, her hair tickling his nose, flooding him with the scent of coconuts and jasmine. “Okay,” she said, yawning. “We’ve earned it.”
The jangling of Dimple’s phone woke them. Rishi sat up and rubbed his face. “Who is it?”
“I’m not sure.” It was a number she didn’t recognize. She cleared her throat and slid to answer. “Hello?”
“Dimple, hi. This is Max, your instructor.”
“Oh. Hi.” She sat up straighter in bed and looked over at Celia and Ashish, who had obviously come back at some point during Rishi’s and her nap and were now lying together on Celia’s bed. She grasped Rishi’s hand, her eyes wide, her heart hammering in her chest. Max wouldn’t kick her out, would he? She hadn’t even been involved in the fight, not directly. . . .
“I know you left early, and I wanted to tell you in case you haven’t heard already—you and Rishi won first place.”
The words landed in the shells of her ears, but didn’t really hit her brain. “We . . . what now?”
There was a smile in his voice. “You guys won first place. Congratulations. You’ve got a thousand dollars to put toward the development of your app. It’s a step in the right direction.”
“Oh my gods.” She clapped a hand over her mouth, feeling like the smile was going to explode off her face. Ashish and Celia were making did you win? faces across the room, and Rishi was staring at her. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. And . . . you can tell Rishi he isn’t going to be kicked out. I’m willing to look the other way so long as this doesn’t happen again.”
“Great. That’s great.” Her ribcage expanded, as if she’d suddenly acquired the ability to hold more air. “Thank you. Again.”
“You’re welcome again. I expect great things from you guys now.”
Dimple laughed, feeling like she might float off the bed. “Got it.” She hung up and looked around at her friends. “We did it,” she said softly. “We won.”