Love in micrometer

~THE LAB~

Avi

It is the beginning of February. Open day was two months ago, feels like yesterday that my friends met Agasthya. After that day, I can freely talk about him without being cautious. It has made me happier than ever. It is a bright, sunny day today; I can feel the energy inside me boosted in this perfect weather.

I have finished my assignments for the day and am extremely excited for the lab. The three of us love lab days (which is basically every day). I put my ironed coat inside the cover and placed it in my bag, all ready for the new week.

I reached college and walked straight to the canteen to feed my hungry stomach. I ordered Idly for a light breakfast, finished it, and walked towards the lab, where I saw Siddhi and Priya walking together.

I ran towards them and hugged them from behind, to which they staggered with a bolt of surprise striking them. “Ahh Avi, why are you so energetic in the morning, you idiot,” Siddhi screamed because I had pulled her hair like every day. Priya joined me in teased Siddhi by imitating her, and we laughed, watching her attempting to hit us with her small hands. “Priya, you have started to side with Avi a lot”, Siddhi complained, then I added to the fuel by hugging Priya by her neck and whispered to her in a voice that annoys her “She loves me more”.

After getting hit on the head with Siddhi’s book several times, I decided to stop teasing her (well, for now, at least). Priya went inside the lab first, when I took Siddhi to the side to have a quick talk. She was flaring her nose in anger and hit me again, remembering.

I laughed and asked her my concern. “What do you think happened to Priya after she met your brother?”. “I have no idea, Anna said nothing to me nor did Priya”, Siddhi explained. “I don’t know how she managed to talk to that man, brings shivers down my spine,” I confessed.

Siddhi laughed and told me that she would inform her brother about what I did to her today. I stood there shocked and apologised immediately. I want to live, you see, so better stay away from any dangers.

Siddhi was now laughing as though she had won against me by using her brother as a weapon. I agree with her. She won. Anyways I can not live well enough if I don’t keep playing with dangers now, can I? I laughed with her nervously and walked into the lab to ask Priya about the events of yesterday.

Priya had already gotten ready with her lab coat, books, and other necessary things. We did the same. We still had 30 minutes to spare until the lab officially started. I opened the fridge and took out all the media that had to be poured into the plates today.

We sat down until the media in flasks came up to the room temperature. I started by asking Siddhi how her day was without me and Priya. “I was so happy all by myself without you Avi”, she said to me, sticking her tongue out. “Priya, I missed you so much” she continued with her dramatic voice, even fake cried. We started laughing loudly as the lab had only us because we were super early.

Slowly, our classmates started coming in before we could extort some details about Priya’s meeting with Shivamsha.
Our professors came in, giving us instructions on today’s work. We quickly jotted it down, getting ready for it. It was time for us to sit apart because we were assigned to work in different groups at the beginning of the year.

As much of a head ache it is to not work with the people you adore, in a professional space, we had to deal with it. It has become our life now. We have learned to adjust to it. Just like Agasthya says, We evolve to become either the best or worst version of ourselves when we work out of our comfort zone. It is our decisions that make us what we are.

After 2 hours of nonstop running around in the lab working, we had some time to sit down while we wait for other groups to finish their work first in the LAF (short for Laminar Airflow, where microbiologists usually work with cultures. A biosafety cabinet).

I sat down in front of Siddhi and Priya, who were ranting about how tired they felt. “Now, you tell us how did it go yesterday?” I asked Priya, whose face as I noticed dropped the smile it was having.

“I went to him, told him about my situation that I needed to work in a lab for dissertation. So, he gave me some contacts. That’s all nothing special” she explained. Priya has started her preparations early, which is so like her. I thought about the stress we would have to go through in a few days, which scares me. I spoke to Agasthya about it, and as usual, he comforted me.

“Priya has gone to Shivamsha to enquire for the dissertation, I feel I am lagging behind” I had said to Agasthya on a phone call. “Do you think you are in a race, Avi?” he questioned me, to which I had no answer for. “It is not a game where you are awarded for winning. The only win you need is your health and not compete with others” he continued.

I could imagine myself getting hit on the head if we were together. His nagging is my definition of comfort. He was right. It is never a competition. Siddhi pulled my hair and brought me back from the flashback. “Are you not going to perform serial dilution?” Priya asked. (Serial dilution is a technique commonly used in labs while isolating individual colonies of microorganisms)

After two more hours, our lab got over, so we headed for our lunch break. We sat in our classroom, ate our lunch, shared some gossip, and spent our time. I was too tired to sit for two more hours of theory classes. Priya started laughing at the face I made unknowingly, “You are wondering how to sit for the next few hours of classes isn’t it?” she asked. This ghost. She sees through me like always.

“Urgh! I am so tired” I cried, feeling restless. Siddhi had been irritating me (not that I am complaining. She is cute) by poking my shoulder for the past few minutes. I caught her hand, slightly hitting it, to which she immediately responded by using her other hand to steal the biscuit I had in my lunch box, loosened my grip and ran away before I could react.

I went out of the class, closing my box, finding her in the corridor. She was nowhere to be seen. I had to take revenge for the biscuit she stole from me. I could hear Priya call out for my name and heard her threatening me to take another piece of biscuit from my box. These two women! 

I ran panicking into our classroom, and I saw Siddhi and Priya giggling. “I just saw you run out of the class” I screamed at Siddhi, shocked. I sat down on my seat and found all my biscuits in their rightful place. I looked at them laughing at my reaction, which made me laugh with them. These two women, I said out loudly. I love them.

I was walking out of the class for washing my hands when I noticed something familiar in Siddhi’s hands. Siddhi had taken out a kerchief from her pocket, which almost fell down while we were running, which she placed it carefully in her bag. I know that handkerchief. It belongs to Agasthya.