To The Place I Belong

ETHAN

Oh boy! You are a gallant soldier. Victory tastes this sweet I had never known. AM I GOING TO SLEEP TONIGHT? Holy shit.

I could have called Ben this moment and shared it with him but like all selfish people on earth, I wanted to keep this moment only for myself and never share it with anyone.

The next day saw a tumult erupting. When Sylvia and Myra joind our group at 8:25. I had to give her a bad news. News that was both frustrating and agitating and was the point of origin of the tumult.
“Wassup?” asked Myra.
“What happened, why is Isabel looking so grim?” Sylvia asked me in the mutest whisper.
“There’s news” said George.
“What?” echoed the two girls and then looked at one another.
“Our topic’s stolen,” said George.
“What!” This time it was a chorus exclaim.
“But who and why. How I mean…” asked Sylvia really confused.
“Marcus and his cronies.”
“But that’s not done, how did they even know…?”
“Uhh-I have a little confession to make guys-” said George all of a sudden, with a guilt stricken face.
Ben beamed “All confessions aside boy, you have an issue to deal now and I swear Isabel will gobble you whole if you bring up any personal discrepancy-”
“Wait Ben. It had happened because of me.”
“Now stop lying and taking all the blame-”
“No am not lying and am not trying to be the ‘good-guy’ by taking the blame. It’s true it has happened because of me. I slipped it out to Melanie.”
The word made Isabel buckle up with wrath.
“What? What did you just say?” asked Jessica , the tension, anger and agitation in her voice rising, so much so that she could only whisper.
George, my boy, it’s the end of your damn life. I feel for you.
…
Throughout the whole period Isabel had been sulking and to our greatest trepidation she wasn’t even taking her notes sincerely. You know she is really upset and angry when she isn’t being herself.
After two consecutive classes when we went out of the room to gather fresh air, we found Ben already standing against the lockers with a new surge of excitement.

“What’s up Benny?” I tried to sound less curious or excited.
“Don’t you guys know?”
“Know what?”
“So you guys don’t know…” and he gave a goofy smile.
Isabel refused to speak or even for the slightest, be amused or excited for another topic. George was already tensed and feared an error on his part might cause his teeth to be knocked out completely. So it was I who entertained and questioned Ben further while down the stairs. Sylvia and Myra had their general classes and sped up the stairs.

“Damn you guys, don’t you know there’s going to be a freshers.”
“Of course there is. So what?” I asked dismayed. “I thought you had really something interesting to tell Ben. You’re disappointing me and the furious Isabel.”
“Holy cow, man don’t be this silly, you know what we have in the freshers, apart from all the band music and food?”
“What?” I asked puzzled.
He enacted a small dance step and I asked “Don’t tell me it’s dance that amuses you.”
“Man not just dance! It’s a ball dance!”
I frowned to say “And the thought that we both don’t have a girlfriend was out of your head-”
“Oh come on Ethan. You know who you’ve got to ask out…”
I pretended to be the innocent and asked “Who?”
Ben stopped midway to shout “Ofcourse Sylvia! Don’t joke-”
I covered his mouth just in case Sylvia was near and this time instead of Ben, I would be the victim of her rage and violence.
Ben struggled to get out of my hold and shrugged his shoulder, “Okay man, am serious, if not this time then never. And we all know you do have a soft corner for her.”
“Alright, you can shut your bloody mouth up, can we talk quietly?”
We reached the campus area, freshly moaned grass glazed with vitality. The sun shone in the broad day light. “Fine! I’ll do something about it. I’ve got Sylvia, lets suppose and George has Isabel” I said eyeing him and Isabel, “But who do you have Benny?”
He took his clean set of teeth out and smiled broad, “It’s been long, I think I like her”
Isabel and George were now looking at him in surprise and eyes that were searching for an answer that would awe them.
We all asked in chorus, “Who?”
“Myra Clarke.”
George took him by the shoulder and shook him hard, “Are you on weed or something?”
“Well that’s lovely” said Isabel, her face for the first time showing delight.
“Are you sure? ‘Cause if you have plans of changing your mind later, her violent friend might end up removing your testicles, completely.” I said. It truly was a matter of concern.
In all my entire life I have never seen Ben sticking to someone or something. If he really loved it(for instance, coding), he is going to stick around for  the rest of his life, or if it’s a casual ‘like’ then am not sure how far this is going to go.
“Man, she likes me and I like her two. We have our own little conversation every night.” He said blushing. “What more do I want?”
“And what if someone else has already asked her out?”
“No no no, you don’t understand”
We all looked at each other hoping someone might have understood atleast.
“There’s going to be a chit system”
“What the fuck is that now?”
“The soft board says that ‘drop a chit and grab a partner’ which means we need to drop our names into a box with our desired partners and behind the chit write our name and department. If the girl gets her name on more than one chits then she gets to choose of course else its fixed you see”
“What fucking stupidity is this, ha?” said an inadvertently raged Isabel.
“Okay suppose Myra gets chosen by more than one boy then how are you so sure that she will choose you?” asked George.
“Oh come on man, don’t you see how good friends we are” at this George and I felt it our bounden duty to pass a look at each other.
“Okay, she will choose me. I’m am quite sure of it. Just wait and watch.”