ALMOST THERE

CHAPTER 6: Life is HARD

Raabta - Shreya Ghoshal, Arijit Singh
🌙✨🍯🌇

A heavenly wave of flavor filled my mouth as I stuffed the last piece of chicken momo remaining in the lunchbox, which by the way, earned me two pairs of sculpted doe eyes locked on mine in a sharp glare.

A woman's glare is something one should make an unavoidable try to escape.

But I couldn't care less. I chewed on the food and sat up straight, dusting the crumbs off of my hands.

"Ofcourse she had to have the last piece," Tejal's tone could cut through glass, but only I could sense the underlying adoration in them. She loved when I'm actually eating and not starving myself out of.... let's not go there.

Divisha's high pitched chuckle filled the air. "Well, it's not her fault aunty makes such good food."

"A hundred percent correct." I clapped my hands, being as dramatic as possible.

Tejal let out a light hearted laugh. "Well, mom just loves to feed cows."

She says, a smile tugging her lips which I couldn't quite decipher the meaning of. Until realisation hit me. Not just me, both Divi and I.

Now it was our turn to glare at her.
I slammed my right palm over my chest and said, "You wound me, Tejal Prakash. Cows are the ancestors of your future husband and I do not wish to be one of your in-laws. "

I watched as Tejal's lips curved downwards, her eyes narrowing, her nose crinkling as an intense frown crossed her face, its intensity almost making me rethink my life decisions.

A moment of heated silence passes by as I glance at my left, meeting Divisha's eyes as she stares back into mine. Just as I was contemplating breaking the silence, a shadow at the door next to us catches my eyes. We snap our heads side ways to see a guy standing there.

Round eyes, impossibly long lashes, light brown hair, hands in his pocket, a confused look plastered on his face as his eyes darted between the three of us, before landing on Tejal seated right opposite to me.

His eyes softened for a split second before a concerned look filled his expression as he looked at me, raising his eyebrows in interrogation.

It was Divisha who broke the silence, "Oh look, the cow's here."

Another expanse of silence and a set of poker faced glances later, a deafening crack of laughter echoed through the room, as Abhimanyu stood at the door, contemplating ever befriending us.

Our laughter subsided as Tejal shifted in her seat to make space as Abhimanyu took it next to her. And he might've though he was slick, but his fingers intertwining with Tejal's under the desk didn't escape my eyes. Neither Divisha's.

"So," Abhimanyu said in Divisha's direction. "How does finally being a senior feel like?"

"Like shit." Divisha said as she rolled her eyes, her lashes touching her eyebrows.

Tejal laughs. "I can confirm that."

"So can I." The wide smile on my face betrayed the churning sensation in my gut. Highschool had never been something I looked forward to, even as a middle schooler. Given that we spent both last year of middle school and the first year of high school at home, sitting infront of computer screens, listening to our teachers blabber academic stuff we were too dazed to pay attention to.
So technically, this was my first year of high school, in the school.

And man was it a roller coaster.

"The syllabus is HUGE and I almost failed the tests this month," her shoulders sagged as she said the words in a rather sad tone.