Filter Coffee

Chapter 3

The entire cafeteria seemed to be devoid of noise, tantrums and cheerfulness, which meant her best friend wasn't there, which left Anusha with only one option.

She entered the women's room and there were three women inside. One was swiftly putting on her lipstick without mercy. The other two were working on their hairdo. All the cubicles were occupied. Anusha hesitated for a moment. But then, she couldn't contain herself.

"Nanditha! Are you there?" She didn't know which one of the four cubicles her friend would be in, so she kind of aimed at all of them. For a moment she was afraid that there won't be a reply and she would appear too awkward to be true.

"Good Morning piggy!" came the reply from the rightmost cubicle.

"I searched for you like everyyywhere and here you are." Anusha said, unsure where to look.

"You mean my cabin and cafeteria right?" Nanditha asked with a bored tone.

"Yeah."

"Oh Anusha! That's so not the definition of 'everyyyywhere' ." Nanditha accused.

"Whatever. So what're you doing in there for so long? Come out." Anusha said impatiently.

"Why, I'm flushing myself out to the magical world of Narnia. Care to accompany?" She asked with a thickly coated dose of her usual sarcasm.

"......." Anusha remained silent.

"Okay Her Majesty. I'm here!" Nanditha emerged from inside and Anusha was standing with her arms across her chest and with a piqued expression on her face.

"Woah.. Someone's as cheerful as a cactus this morning." Nanditha exclaimed and put both of her hands on Anusha's shoulder.

Anusha couldn't control herself and burst out laughing on seeing her bff's face.

"Yeah. That's my Anu. You look ugly already when you're normal. Why do you want to look more ugly? By the way I didn't wash my hands." Nanditha said and rubbed Anu's back.

"WHAT!" Anu started jumping up and down. "Ewwwww Nanditha!" She was shouting and throwing tantrums all the way to the cafeteria.

And the whole corridor was planning on posting a complaint of excessive noise on that floor.

~~~~~~~~

"So what's the fuzz about?" Nanditha demanded, sipping on cold water from her 'Confidence-Is-The-New-Sexy' mug.

They both were sitting in the cafeteria now, looking at the diminished outline of the skyscrapers that decorated the city. Anusha wished she could just transform into some super-human creature and fly away from all these barriers. Only humans needed passport, visa and all such craps.

"Earth to Anusha Narasimhan!" Nanditha snapped her fingers in front of her best friend's face.

"Yeah? I was just wondering, you know? How more pathetic could I get?"

"Shhh.. What happened?" Nanditha asked, stroking Anu's head and attempting to pacify her. Anusha laid her head on the cafeteria table. She took in her friends features. Nanditha had a wild curly hair that had a devilish red tint, that gleamed in the sunshine. She had an edge of fierceness and roughness to her beauty. She was wearing a red velvet hoodie that complimented her hair color and a tight black skinny jean.

"Why do you always look like a wannabe goth?" Anusha asked her friend who spitted out some of the water from her mouth back into her mug and looked at Anu open-mouthed and in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" She was shocked when that question came from Anusha.

"Why, of course yes Miss.Nanditha Malik."