An-EXIT

CHAPTER 6 (3rd YEAR: RESPONSIBILITIES)

MITANSH

A magazine came flying in the air and fell on the floor after hitting my head. I picked it up. 'MU Updates, 2015' was written on the top of it.

"Zaid!" I groaned.

"It's review day, Mitansh!" He panicked.

"Well, this is the fourth time you're reminding me about this. And what's taking Agastya so long to come out of the washroom?" I said in irritation. It was the review day, An-Exit's review day. On the very first day of college. How could they even do this? My team and I were crazily stressed out and felt miserable. Miserable in the sense that our hands were actually tied up for almost a month as we were asked to not make ANY type of changes in the application. This review period goes for like weeks or even a month in our university, taking surveys, interviewing students or creating other new ways to ask people about their views. Then after a week, the results come out in the magazine issued by our university's editing department. MU Updates.

An-Exit was again going to be in the limelight. The thought of it being criticized and joked about among students was slowly becoming the favorite topic of my nightmares. Believe me or not, I've truly started to hate this routine. Doing everything I can, but still feeling like a loser is all I can explain.

"Okay, let's change the topic!" Zaid said out of the blue.

"Change? What do you want to talk about now?"

"Mitansh, this is our 3rd year of college, right? So, why don't we just rent an apartment?" He said in one breath and then made a guard in front of his face with his hands in defense.

"What?" This was Agastya's line till last month, but I.... I didn't expect Zaid to be saying this.

"Mitansh, I'm literally bored of living in this hostel." Zaid closed his laptop and gave me his full attention.

"Did you just say 'BORED'? What does that mean? And what's wrong with living in a hostel? I feel comfortable here!" I looked at him through the corner of my eye. Am I actually contradicting Zaid, or am I dreaming?

"And who's changing the topic now? I know that not a single one among the three of us is comfortable staying here, but still you're making an excuse!"

"We can't-"

"Don't tell me you're going to end this conversation by saying, 'We can't afford it', blah blah." Zaid pushed his eyebrow upwards.

"I didn't say that! Okay, I was going to say that, but you already knew the answer so...... congrats!"

"We have already received the funds for the software, so I don't think we still need to save money for it." He crossed his arms, a complete intimidating vibe move. Ugh, he can't win.

"I've already told you that we've to pay it back to Mr. Sehgal, and 70 percent of the money is from my savings. So, stop forcing me to use it."

"I-I was talking about our own comfort only, there is nothing to be mad about" Zaid rolled his eyes. "I actually wanted to stay away from those reporters, we are not even famous, but those morons have already started to give me that paparazzi feeling. I don't know what kind of grudges they are even holding against AN-EXIT."

Feelings like this often bully us in our thoughts. It's not different, but still not the same for everyone. We three have invested our breaks, our hunger, our days and even our nights on An-Exit, only to make it successful. And when we don't get the due results, it makes us feel even more sad and unmotivated. I know that these obstacles are indirectly helping us in making the app better, but at what cost? Our energy? Our mental health?