Dare Trilogy | Book 3 Editing | ✓

2.3.5 | Standstill

Posted on August 23rd, 2018

| . . . C H A P T E R - 2.3.5 : S T A N D S T I L L ( 1 ) . . . |

[Roughly One Year Ago]

They say the memories you make in your college years stay with you for a lifetime. You always find yourself revisiting them. There may be some truth in it given I found myself standing in the familiar surroundings on campus even after I had told myself countless times that I would not be returning.

The only reason I came would be Kripa's birthday. I wanted to wish her - face to face - and she'd said it was a busy day for her. She couldn't get away in between classes as she only had half hour to spare. So, I told her I would go to her.

The past five minutes I've spent in the café, I kept looking around to ensure there were no familiar faces around. I had no intention of being spotted and have to spend time entertaining old acquaintances. I checked the time on my wrist watch for the nth time. Barely fifteen seconds had passed by since the last time.

Where was Kripa? She needed to hurry up.

"More," Aarav said, bringing my attention to him.

I followed his tiny hands wrapped around the cup and found myself gaping. I lifted the cup to realize it was empty. "Aarav!" I scolded him lightly while pushing the empty cup aside. When had he gotten his hands on them? More importantly, how did he manage to drink the whole cup of black coffee being barely five years old?

Oh, I am so done for today. Lavanya is going to kill me for not paying attention to him. all this coffee is surely going to make it next to impossible to get him to go to bed tonight.

He crossed his arms over his chest in a huff, "Meany."

I rolled my eyes, commenting, "No, you are. You love having La scream at me."

I catch him holding back a smirk. Yeah, this right here. He loves these mischiefs and getting me in trouble.

Lucky for him, the door opened and I looked in the direction to breath out in relief. Finally. Kripa looked around to find out before walking up to us in a grin. I stood up as well to greet her in a warm embrace. "Happy birthday, sis!" I wished.

She grinned back while parting, "Thanks, Arnie. I'm so happy you came!"

"Ofcourse," I answered pulling out a chair for her to seat. "When have I ever missed your birthday?"

She dropped her bag in the empty chair beside her. I was about to look around for Aarav when I spotted him under the table. He must have slipped down there undetected. I opened my mouth to tell him it wasn't clean there when he placed his finger on his lips to silence me.

Biting back a smile, I let him have his mischief. Kripa started to speak as I took a seat, "Sorry if you were waiting long. Professor McKay kept talking. I swear, he is so...ahh!" She stopped talking to let out an abrupt squeal and stand up, pushing the chair back in the process.

It fell with a thud while I laughed as Aarav crawled out to exclaim, "Surprise!"

Kripa had her hand over her chest trying to calm her racing heart. Aarav must have tickled her to give her the impression there was an insect. Kripa was petrified of the tiny ones. She scolded, "Aarav! Badmash. You just near gave me a heart attack!"

He laughed, standing up on the chair and then threw his arms around her neck in a tight hold. "Happy birthday, Kripa."

I cleared my throat.