Twinkling of stars

Broken Down Cafe

"So you think we're gonna find them."

"If they're alive then of course. It'll take time though. Sometimes I wish the world was smaller than it seemed.", Bruce said sipping his cappucino. The white foam had created a beard for him, one of our childhood memories.

"What do you think they are doing at the moment?"

"If I'm accurate and if they are just as I remember them, then Evan is sleeping still unwilling to get out of his extra cosy bed. Gray trying to flirt with his female collegues and Pete trying to earn his boss's admiring glances through shortcuts. Thats that.", he said ifting his eyes to look into mine.

"Too many ifs.",I said sighing," and we can't really say anything about Pete right now. He might've become a singer or some famous French personality."

"Yea the great Pete Dubois. Wonder how great would it be to be related to someone so great."

"You know what we all are like 31st December and 1st January."

He gave me a you-have-totally-lost-your-mind look.

"Close as moments yet years apart."

"Can you stop being so wisey-wisey and wisdom-ous?", he said jokingly.

"Whatever you say big man.", as I turned my head to the stage to watch the singer sing some relaxing songs but the manager just jumped in the middle of my half-soothed mood. I sat up and turned to see that Bruce was busy flirting with the girl sitting behind. He was not at all interested in what the manager was saying.

"Ladies and gentlemen today we are all gathered here to watch a live interview with a new rising star. Peter Anderson.", and the crowd broke into a loud applause. I, on the other hand, didn't even hear his name in my whole life but still chose to clap slightly. The girls were going berserk. Chattering loudly about him, his beauty, voice, aura and what not.

The interviewer clapped his hands together to silence the cafe and coughed to show his discomfort in the cacophony of voices there.

"Can we again get another round of applause to help Peter feel right at home here?", he said in his hollow voice. Although he was clearly excited to interview the so-called-new-rising-star ,sounded rather empty, uncomfortable. The crowd broke into another round of applause as Peter stepped onto the stage like a diva. The girls called out his name in excitement and squirmed in their seats quite impatient for the interview to begin.

Mr. New-rising-star flashed his all thirty-two teeth at the girls and smirked at the interview. He knew his thing very well. He raised his hand to quiten the cafe just like my kindergarten teacher and put a deadly silence over the cafe. You could even hear a pin drop.

"So Mr Anderson", the interviewer began,"how do you feel after getting such a huge response to your songs?"

"I feel blessed.",he said winking at the bunch of girls sitting beside me. I at once grew bored of this person. Bruce had done a good job not listening to him. He already knew this man would be a bore. I tried to engage myself with the coffee by trying various stunts of how to drink it differently each time. "I'm free at nine, if you wanna visit.",I heard Bruce say and smiled. I wish I found my soulmate. I was just so tired of dating different people every week. Tinder can be such a damn bore sometimes. To be honest if I was girl looking at my own photos I'd centainly not date him. I sighed agin for the fifth time and yawned for the hundredth. My head hadn't hit the pillow last night even for once. I was all too busy listening to Bruce's drunken complaints and calming him down.

"Mate remember when we bunked class and went to the mall to have a feast when Gray won the hand-cricket match with Steve?", Bruce spoke up for the first time in an hour. His new girl was waiting for something interesting to pop up. Or Mr New-rising-star to come and ask her out.

"Oh I so hate Steve.", Steve was our enemy since first grade when he had kicked Bruce in the stomach and he had to be taken to the hospital,"I do remember the bunk although."

"Yeah it was so fun until Gray's father popped up out of the blue.", he said punching the air.

"Ohh yeah I still remember each line. Gray's wallet had fallen out of his pocket and a strange man came up, tapped him on the shoulder, saying 'Mister ,your wallet'", we both mimicked the last portion of the sentence in Gray's father's voice.

"And he later told us that he was his father. I still remember your face. Always the 'fraidy-mouse aren't you?", he said chuckling.

"Yeah whatever.", quite embarassed, I turned my attention to the stage, seeing Bruce had too.

"So I hear that you had a fear of exams.", said the interviewer smiling and showing his half-white-half-yellow-teeth.

"Yeah its right."

I smirked and exchanged glances with Bruce.

"So who was your best teacher in your life?", after one and a half hours of talking, I came to know that this interviewer had a habit of saying "so".

"Hmm...well there's been many",Peter Anderson started staring at the road through the huge glass window at the end of the cafe, "but I did have this one friend who used to explain the entire syllabus in twenty minutes before the exam to me."

I smiled recalling my own childhood memories. My memories? Shit, I thought to myself. I had the same memories. I shot a perplexed glance at Bruce and found that he was looking at me too with confusion.

"Peter? Dubois to Anderson?", we both exclaimed as loudly as possible, standing and looking at each other like lost kids in a fair.

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