Saturday night. The wind outside was trying to blow down the trees along the road when rain started to fall. Some drops of water trickled down the window behind me. I was sitting on a round table at Green Garden Cafe with piles of paper in front of me. My group and I were working on a project for a subject on plays and theatre. Plates of pasta and glasses full of either mint tea or lemonade were waiting to be eaten and drunk. We were, at the same time, eating out. Just like our weekly hedonistic yet productive ritual.
Things just went normal. Eat, talk, write, type on our laptops' keyboards. Talking about talking, I was, as usual, the Queen of Conversation. Mazmur, Sonya, Jeff, and Iqbal kept asking questions to and asking for advice from me. Once in a while, to break the ice, I drew laughter from them with my jokes.
Things just went normal. Until our discussion reached the most difficult part of the assignment.
"Oh man, this is too hard. We cannot finish the task this week." Jeff raised his both hands above his head.
"I agree," added Sonya. "This is beyond my capacity. I don't even understand the meaning of Act 3."
"That's why it is called an absurd play," I jumped into the conversation. They all giggled. Deep down, I hated the situation. The situation in which my friends couldn't rely on me since I myself had no idea.
"Next time, I think we should invite somebody smarter than the five of us," Iqbal came up with a suggestion. Which I didn't really like to hear.
"Sounds good." I pretended to take side with him, anyway.
"Sisil?"
"No. She is bright, but she is too busy with her organizational activities."
"Yeah, sure. She and her Students' Board of Executives thing. Future student activist."
"Juna?"
"It can't be him. He's not an outgoing one. If you know what I mean."
"Oh! I know," snapped Mazmur. We all turned our heads to him. "What about Aruna? Desiree is quite close to her, right?"
Well. Sure. Aruna. I should have been okay hearing that name. Yet a feeling of uneasiness was stuck in my throat.
[D]
