Deepak wakes on an ordinary Tuesday morning; he gets up, draws back the curtains and greets the warm September sun with a big breath and a stretch of his back; like he always did. He brushes his teeth, makes coffee, collects his papers from the stairwell and sits down in a slit of sunshine; as always. Soon after the breakfast ritual; cleaning of the bowl and cup, getting dressed and making his bed, he heads for the bus; like every day of his life. Everything was normal to Deepak this morning, except unknown to Deepak, absolutely everything was about to change. After today, he would wish for yesterday every hour of all of his days.
The bus runs like clockwork, as always and gets Deepak into the college exactly on time. He hangs his jacket up on the back of his chair, slips his files out of his bag, places them on his desk and slips the bag underneath his desk. He then flicks his phone on and turns just in time to see Aditi coming down the corridor. He sits waiting patiently for her to reach him and once she does he looks up and smiles the warmest smile he has.
"Your usual this morning, Deepak?" she leans in with an animated shifting of her eyes side to side and lowers her voice, "Did you complete the homework?." She straightens herself up with a smile and Deepak winks at her.
"Oh, you do spoil me Aditi. What would I do without you?"
The words come easy to him; this was their morning ritual, him and Aditi, and despite her hard, impatient exterior towards everyone else, she never seems to tire of him or their little routine.
"How was the bus this morning?". It was a private joke that had long outlived his best mate. The thought makes him a little wistful and Aditi catches it; as she always does.
"How long has it been now?"
Deepak looks down briefly and readies himself for this conversation, again. If he had his way he would wipe this from everyone's mind and have done with it.
"Three years now. It's the anniversary of his death on Friday. Aditya, Harshit and Swastik have been trying to persuade me to join them in a little remembrance party but, you know with the..." He actually nearly says it to her. Now, this is new to him. He's always so very careful not to tell anyone of his twisted dreams and of their effect on him, but here he is with it flapping on the end of his tongue, raring to leap out into the room. That's the problem with getting close to people at college; Aditi was just so easy to talk to, as easy as talking to his own brother.
He straightens himself up with a brush of hands down the front of his cream shirt and tries to backtrack as politely and as best as he can.
"I haven't been sleeping well and Fridays seem to be the only night I can get off to sleep lately," he shrugs and then continues on, his eyes lowered from Aditi's, "Maybe a drink would help, I don't know."
Aditi leans forward and places her hand on his broad shoulder, squeezing lightly. She has a moment to feel his bones under her hand and a moment to worry for him before she says, "Maybe you could just go for an hour. What harm could it do?"
He looks up into the beautiful girl's weathered blue eyes and smiles. He really did like Aditi. She's been like a best friend ever since he's joined here and yet all she really ever does is bring him some chocolates and a little morning chit chat, no more, no less; yet strangely, he feels closer to her than any of the other fifty people in his class.
Aditi turns to leave and Deepak catches it just in time to call a goodbye to her. He really had to stop doing that; drifting off whilst people we're talking to him, he'd hate to think how rude he must seem but I guess, considering how many other things Deepak could be, that's not so bad.
It was late Wednesday evening by the time he finished his classes and after his silly water dream he had been anxious about staying late every evening since. Such a stupid thing to be afraid of, a dream, but he was all the same. So, by the time he had written down his last word he was so eager to leave that he wasted no time in finishing up; throwing his papers in his bag, and then with his jacket thrown over one shoulder and briefcase in the other hand, off out the college he flees. He runs down the stairs like a man released from prison early for good behaviour and bursts into the cool evening air at a run. He skids to a halt at the edge of the curb and whistles for a cab; there's none to be seen. Deepak can't help but think this is extremely ironic; he chooses a cab over the bus for the first time in a couple of years and there isn't any anywhere when he wants one.
