crossroads

11. paint war

My work has started heating up. Ms.vidya is prepping me on the paperworks to be filed in an official meeting. And Akil has been very busy with an upcoming acquisition deal with prism publishing. And Ms.vidya wants me to be prepared to do all the paperwork if this deal moves forward. I meet Akil only in the mornings, he is very stressed out about this acquisition which is a huge deal for this business. He has been full on working on it with our law department. It was already Saturday when I finally got a good rest.

Neil had some work. So we planned to hang out on sunday. I had a good girls night with Lola , adieh and shrey. We had a typical Saturday night , few drinks and danced crazy all night. I have terribly low capacity of alcohol. I get so high in very few shots. So, I think I might have blacked out here and there. Because when I woke up the next morning with a heavy headache, I didn't remember texting Akil. It was just an innocent ' hey '  But thankfully, he has not replied to it yet. I shrugged it off and got out of bed to get ready to meet up with Neil in an hour. I wrote a note to Lola as she hasn't woken up yet and quietly left the room.

The afternoon sun hurt my eye as I walked out the door. I joined the guys in lunch. The guys went to laser tag yesterday except for Neil and lucky. Lucky is practically spending most of his time in the pub flirting with the cute bartender. We had lunch and small chitchats about our night and ivelle. I was almost finished when Neil walked in.

" Hey " he came to a stop beside me. His eyes looked tired.

" Hey " I said looking concerned. I had no idea where he was yesterday.

" Bye guys " he said as the guys left the table. He placed a warm kiss on my forehead before sitting down. " After I finish eating, I am taking you out. Gotta show you something. " He was pretty excited about it. I grinned and nodded at him wondering what it could be.

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We took a cab to a nearby residential place. Neil didn't want to tell me anything about it but he was pretty excited about it. We got down near a bunch of high raised buildings what was named as " ETA star the gardens apartments ". I look up at him in a  sudden realisation.

" Yeah. " He said smiling

" You are taking an apartment? " He nodded in Glee. " That's .. that's so sudden. Why ? " I tried hide the small parts of me that didn't want him to go out of the hostel. We won't be seeing each other for dinner anymore.

" Private tutoring and my mom thinks this will help me study better. And few other guys are joining me. Din and pranov " he said as we walked inside.

" Pranov? The guy from science Dept? " He nodded. We entered the lift and reached 5th floor. The place was great , there was a swimming pool, gym, karoke room and what not. We arrived before a door with a board E2.

"Alright" He turned around and analysed me. His eyes turned  concerned and he held my hand " sweety, you don't seem so happy? "

I sighed " I mean, you won't be in school anymore. We will miss you at dinner. And.. and we just.. became a couple " I swallowed hard at that word " its not..  To Whom will i talk to about dumb stuff? " I chuckled.

He smiled and looked at me through his eyelashes " what are you talking about. We can all hang out here and it's way better than school right? " He looked at me for approval. I shrugged " this is better , trust me? " He said holding both my shoulders at arm length giving me his confident eyes.

" Alright " I said and hugged him. I might not know if this is what it feels like to be in a relationship but I will miss him. Miss our talks every night.

" Hey " he said holding me tight. It felt good to be in his arms. A pleasant warmth " you just called us a 'couple' for the first time " I could feel him smile.