The Flower You Didn't See | Mystery

Chapter 15

Years of attending these parties had given Sara the experience of how to be, what to say and what to do. She could now easily identify what was needed, what was lacking, what should be done to fill the need, and what should be done to eliminate the waste.

The three-week semester break felt rather longer this time. Unexpectedly, to her surprise, Sara missed her college. After the first week at home, she had felt rather tired of seeing the snobby faces that gobbled up the exquisite food her chef had prepared, the mouths that drank half the time and rambled the other half. She didn't have the power to even tell them off. Her mouth was tired of smiling all the time. She missed rolling her eyes at her friends.

This was why she had excitedly come back to college on the first day of her fifth semester. Laksh had arrived just a day earlier. Lee had tanned quite a bit, she couldn't wait to see him. Ruby let her know that she had found a new place to stay. A small apartment in the city.

Until lunch, Sara was showing off to Laksh, her new outfit on her shapely body that she had worked on throughout the break.

They walked to the cafeteria, hoping to meet Ruby there. Laksh couldn't stop talking about her meeting with a young heartthrob from a new Netflix series. Sara couldn't and wouldn't bother to remember his name no matter how much Laksh talked about him. Tanned Lee was definitely hotter. That could have been the reason why girls wouldn't stop checking him out.

As soon as Ruby arrived, she and Lee exchanged a hug and a kiss. Sara saw Laksh squint her nose.

Ruby and Lee were warmer to each other now, compared to how they had parted ways. The four talked extensively about their break. All of Lee's stories had started with, "So I went to this bar with my friends. We had ordered everything on the menu-" and it would abruptly end with, "I was so wasted that I- I went back to the hotel alone and slept it off," when he would realize that Ruby was sitting with us. Sara honestly couldn't understand whom he was trying to fool.

Ruby, however, was rather quiet. She listened to all of them speak and enquired well about other details of their break. She didn't say what she did until Laksh forced her. All she did was stay at home.

"I missed home. I just wanted to be with Pa," she said with a shrug.

That evening, Sara and Laksh stayed back on campus, watching the new kids walk up and about. It was fun to watch the ones fresh out of school, with excitement and dreams in their eyes, thinking high and mighty of May Flower and hoping for a few fun years of college ahead. So naive.

Lee and Sara had gone somewhere. Laksh hadn't asked, and Sara couldn't be bothered. Laksh went on and on about the Netflix boy.

"Are you even listening?"

Sara turned at Laksh's sudden question. "Not really. You should know when to stop," Sara sniggered.

Laksh pouted as she looked away crossing her arms across her chest. And then, Sara asked, "Did you smell something funny on Ruby today?"

"Oh my god. I thought it was just me since both of you weren't reacting at all," Laksh turned to Sara, "A bit like sweat or dirt."

"I don't think staying on her own is doing her any good," Sara said wisely.

"Maybe it's her perfume," said Laksh, "Maybe, I should gift her a new one."

"Sure. I support you as long as I don't have to smell it," said Sara as she stood up to leave, fixing her dress. "I wonder how Lee survives the smell," Laksh said, still seated.