Kismat Connection by Ananya Devarajan

Author:Ananya Devarajan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises ULC
Published: 2023-04-13T21:06:31+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Arjun

Arjun Mehta was a lot of things, but traditionally successful was not one of them. Sure, he was a nationally ranked lacrosse star and a self-proclaimed wannabe aerospace engineer, but he didn’t expect Stanford to see that in him. Even his guidance counselor told him that it was a long shot. Amid a sea of applicants spanning from the future Beyoncé to the reincarnation of Gandhi, he didn’t stand a single chance.

Madhuri had always been supportive of their coinciding dreams. They grew up loving Stanford together, begging their parents to take them to visit simply so they could watch the students in awe. As a result, they’d agreed to not discuss their application process until they’d been accepted. It was a well-known fact that Madhuri would get in, while Arjun was a wild card.

And yet, despite it all, Arjun was officially accepted into Stanford University.

He should’ve known from the way the school’s lacrosse coach trailed after him, sending him a cryptic email months ago about his potential for the school’s athletic and academic departments. About how the coach had already spoken to the School of Engineering about bending their class schedules to better fit future games and practices. The undertones of the message were clear. They wanted him to apply Early Action.

Even so, Arjun had never expected anyone to notice his potential. It didn’t matter if he aced his ACT on the first attempt or managed to snag straight As throughout his senior year. If his own mother couldn’t pay him a passing glance, how could he expect a school like Stanford to?

Especially when there were applicants like Madhuri, the perfect Indian daughter and the child Arjun was always second best to, shining from the top of the pile.

She must have gotten her decision by now, but considering she hadn’t called him to freak out, he could only assume the worst.

He made it into Stanford, but Madhuri didn’t.

He couldn’t stop the shiver racing down his spine of toe-curling, heart-surging euphoria. He could make his mother understand that the hours he spent at practice while Madhuri studied weren’t in vain. He could throw a party and invite everyone who ever doubted him, just so they could watch him click that coveted enrollment button. He could do so many things, prove so many people wrong.

But he never actually would. Not when Madhuri was likely sitting at home, devastated at the loss of her childhood dream.

His eyes flicked to the clock beside him, standing tall against the dark blue walls of his living room. It was nearly five in the afternoon, almost three hours since the results were posted during their final class period. He couldn’t stop thinking about Madhuri’s face and how she must have graduated from sobbing into her mother’s shoulder to screaming at God, the Universe, and everything in between. He didn’t want his happiness to come at the expense of the person he cared about the most, so he decided to keep the news quiet. No one, not even his mother, would know until he’d made sure Madhuri was okay.

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