The Alphabetics of Our Story

Chapter Two - Basorexia

Basorexia - (n.) the overwhelming desire to kiss

"Kya aapke toothpaste mein pyaar h?"

Okay, no.

Aman really had no idea how he ended up agreeing to this job. Well, okay. He sort of had an idea. It was partially his fault. He had complained about how, being in his last year, he wanted to start off with a small job so he could support himself to go through with his upcoming doctorate years. His flatmate was quick to suggest that he could come with him for his part-time job at the mall. The said flatmate being none other than Kartik Singh.

Six months.

It had been six months since he had left behind his old crappy flat and moved into the small, yet way better and homely flat. His family had questioned him on why he was shifting after living in the same place for two years and suffice it to say that the vague explanation he had given was more than enough. The two-bedroom flat had a small kitchen, a joint bathroom and a lovely balcony that was perfect for sipping chai on rainy evenings. It was nothing special but it had a special touch to it. Kartik's touch.

The walls were a contrast of lavender and yellow, two colours that Aman would have never selected but to his surprise, they blended perfectly. He asked Kartik why he had even bothered to paint the walls when it was just a rented flat and got a very overdramatic response ("Home is home, Aman. And we treat this home with love, okay?"). There were small messy paintings around the house- on the fridge, the cupboards, the walls- that were made by Kartik's second-grade students. They didn't even look odd for some reason. The whole thing just somehow worked.

Aman was never really a talkative person. It helped though cause it gave him the chance of being observant. Unlike Kartik who could talk to anybody and everybody ever about the most bizarre things. One of their conversations on a random Thursday went like this.

"Do you think snails have sex?"

"What?" Aman looked up from his half-written essay at a very serious looking Kartik who had stopped in midst of peeling potatoes.

"Well, they are on land and probably lay eggs so do they have to have sex?"

Aman blinked. "Uh... No? I don't think they have the body to have sex."

"You don't need to have a body like human beings to have sex."

"I know that but I don't think..."

It took them thirty-seven minutes before Aman decided enough was enough and they could just google it. (Turns out it is something along the lines of the male stabbing the female with a dart, two males copulate into the third female--and then both of them were too disturbed to read further.)

They had fallen into their own routines comfortably which also coincided with the other's, Aman observed.  Kartik would deal with the breakfast as Aman could never wake up early than fifteen minutes before he had to be at college and Aman would deal with the dinner as his flatmate would be incompetent of making anything after dealing with either crying kids or dumbass customers at the mall. (The unofficial schedule took place after Aman decided that they couldn't forever live on takeouts, a bold statement as both of them sucked at cooking and it was a surprise how Kartik had made it far enough on his own.)  He went from living with three people he couldn't be bothered about to living with someone with whom he could actually hold a conversation. It was nice for a change. Oh, and the place was far better at a good price, of course.