Lover Is A Day

Chapter 19

Apparently, Mayur forgot about him and went home, Shubham said as he handed me ice cream
Some part of me doubts if that is true. Mayur is not the kind of person to do something like that. But there is no way of confirming, he will simply tell me the what he told Shubham.
While walking, we came across an Ice cream vendor, whose ice cream was apparently very famous in our college, as Shubham told me.
‘By the way, Raj?’, he said
‘Yes?’
‘Your surname is Malhotra right?’
‘Yes’
‘Is it like Raj Malhotra from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge?’, he laughed
‘Actually yes’, I said
‘Really?’, he brought the ice cream cone close to his mouth
‘Hm’, I nodded, ‘My mom was a Srk fan, and she really liked that movie’, I said
‘Wow’, he said, ‘You must have been teased by every Simran's name’
‘I have’, I said
We walked.
Conversations with him have always been soo easy, its insane. How easily friendships can be made.
He decided to comeover at my room, since it started raining. And conveniently so, neither of us had an umbrella.
We were drenched when we reached my room. I gave him a towel to dry himself and a pair of my clothes.
Since I was soo stressed when I left, I didn’t even bother to clean my room. My room was a mess like always. Clothes on bed, and unclean laundry on floor. And items I didn’t even realize, scattered all over the place. And he noticed all this.
‘Do you ever clean your room?’, he ruffled his hair with my towel
‘For your information, I do clean my room. It’s just that today morning, I was in a rush’, I squinted my eyes
‘Lie!’, he said, ‘Every time I visit your room, the soles of my feet get blackened- I bet you never sweep the floors’
‘I do… once a month’, I said in a low voice
‘Once a month! You need to do it everyday!’, he said
‘Everyday is too much’, I said
He sighed. ‘Do you even wash your dishes?’, he asked
‘…’
‘Oh Goddd’, he walked into my kitchen. I followed him.
There were unwashed dishes from the morning, in my sink.
‘How do you live like this?’, he asked
I shrugged.

Over the next hour, he helped me clean my room, I did the dishes, he swept the floor. I stuffed my clean clothes in the cupboard, and put the unclean clothes along with our wet clothes aside for laundry, and we changed my bedsheet.
The rain had turned to droplets now. So, he said that he was leaving, but I told him to stay for dinner since he had helped me. He agreed. He called his mom, to inform her that he won’t have dinner at home today.
I wonder if I have ever done that. Probably never.
‘What are we eating?’, he asked me
‘What do you want to eat?’, I asked him
‘Anything is fine’, he said
‘I have Maggi’, I said
‘Alright’
I opened the shelf, thankfully there was one big packet of maggi. He looked around
‘Do you always eat this?’, he asked
‘Mostly’
‘Do you not cook?’
‘I cook Maggi’, I said
‘I mean real food’
‘I can make omelette’, I said
He did that thing where he expresses mild disappointment by squinting his eyes shut and pinching between his eyebrows.
I let the water boil, then added the noodles and then the tastemaker.
Once done, I placed the pot on the floor near my bed. I told him where the plates and forks were. And took out coke from the fridge. We sat down to eat.
We talked and laughed. He told me funny stories about his classmates and professors, and I listened. I was done eating before him, so I got up and washed my dish and fork. Shortly after, he was done too, and brought his dish and the pot. I washed it too.
The rain had completely stopped now. So, he was set on leaving. I wanted him to stay. But asking him to stay would really be pushing it. So, I didn’t.
I told him to keep my clothes, and that I will return his clothes when dried, in college tomorrow.
He agreed, and left.
I turned around. My room felt empty without him. I went in the kitchen gallery where the towel was hanging. I breathed in it. It smelt like him. That scent of some shampoo that I cannot remember.
I looked down. And I watched him walk away from my building. But he then stopped, and sniffed my t-shirt, before walking away.

Authors Note: Sorry for the short chapter, I just wanted them to be domestic for this one. Hope you guys liked it.