With Mangoes And Chocolates | ✓

29. Good Food & Nudes.

Delhi Airport was intact.

The colorful Indian attires everywhere. . .dark hair, brown skin. . .she couldn't believe how a whole country was her home.

The definition of home redefined itself everytime someone said it. For some, it was a structure of bricks. For others, it was a city, a country. For the rest, it was a person.

Manasvi looked around, eyeing the items one by one. So expensive, everything. She didn't know how she was going to survive. Already under so many debts. . .she couldn't afford wasting any money.

A light tap on her shoulders made her look back. Stuti stood, her hands at the back, grinning widely. Her brown hair the same.

"Oh my God, bro," Manasvi whispered, letting go of the trolley and water bottle in her hand. She threw her hands around her, both of them stumbling due to the impact.

Stuti yelled so loud in her ear; it made her laugh. "I can't believe!"
"I missed you so fucking much, babygirl!"

She held her hand and took her outside, her mouth blabbering stuff non-stop.
"I thought your flight was late! Then I realised oh, I'm checking the wrong. . .are you feeling the jet-lag yet?"
"Yes, Stuti. A li'l bit, I'll say."

"Tch, whatever," she shook her head. "Did you inform Arbaz yet? About the landing?"
"No. Should I?"

"Of course!" She blurted out. "Call him, till then, momos khana hai?"

Manasvi nodded, accepting the fact that refusing Stuti to consume the street food would go nowhere.

She sat down on a bench, fingers flying to search for the contact.
He picked up after four rings. "Hey."
"Hey," she mirrored. "Landed."
"Safely? Or is it heaven's call service?"

She chuckled. "Heaven doesn't have towers, idiot."

Her ears picked up someone else's s voice from his end. "Who you with?"
"This one crazy girl. Who else do I get to spend time with, these days? Heer met this guy ten days ago, just before her flight, and God knows what reminded her of him. But she's rambling something about him right now."

"Don't tell me you're jealous."
"Why shouldn't I be? Why is some random person suddenly a part of our conversations?"
"He must be intriguing," she stated, watching Stuti balance herself and the plate in her hand. She sat beside her and softly blew over the momos. "Call you later, 'k? Happy listening."

"When will you be leaving for Lucknow?" She asked, her eyes searching for the answer as if it was written on her face.
"Two days later. Maybe three. I don't know. Whenever you kick me outta your place?"

"If that's the case, I'd just keep you with me," Stuti grinned ear to ear. "Chalo, I'll show you how nice I've kept my place."

She wasn't kidding. Her room screamed neatness. Stuti was little bit of neat freak, to an extent that her having OCD had become a joke between them.

"Get a boyfriend, Stuti. This is too neat."
"It's exactly why I don't want a boyfriend," she rolled her eyes. "He's gonna disturb the rhythm of my life. Besides, I don't trust men one bit. They're so annoying. And obnoxious."

She wasn't wrong. They were obnoxious.

"So, you like it, huh?" Manasvi sat down on the bed. "Living alone."
"Nah, I mean, mummy-papa did ask me to stay with them, but then again, it would be too far from my workplace," Stuti tucked a hair strand behind her ear. "So I have to stay here."

She couldn't believe they both were preparing for an entrance exam the last time they met, and now. . .both of them being engineering majors who were successfully workin—