Neel

“I am surprised that you said yes for coffee.” Josh said while he and me as wed were walking in the fair.

…

When he and we met at the ground floor, he came to us after saying thanks to the principal. “Hi guys” he said to all of us.

“Hi Josh, long time no see.” Deepak replied to him.

“I knew I would run into some familiar faces during spring fest.”

“Did you meet anyone else other than us?” Sunakshi asked him.

“I came just an hour ago and I directly went to meet principal.”

“For the Job?” Dharm asked.

“Yes, and its still vacant so I might get it too.”

“Are you seriously planning to come back here?” Deepak asked him.

“Yeah I am. But I don’t remember telling you about this.” Josh said.

“Well, let’s just say I come to know things.” Deepak smiled.

“Hi Neel.” Josh said to me.

“Hi.” I replied. But I can sense my tone and I am not cold, raw or anything.

“Would you like to have a coffee with me?” He asked me.

“And not with us?” Sunakshi said eyeing him.

“Its not like that, but if you wanna join sure.” He replied to her.

“Guys if they wanna have some coffee, let them have it. Neel, meet at the same shooting game stall after an hour?” I can sense something different in Dharm but I didn’t want to address it right here so I just nodded my head and they started going away from us.

I turned to Josh and said, “Coffee it is then.”

…

We both were holding a paper cup filled with coffee. Mine was still three-forth left while I think he was half done.

“Let me address the elephant in the room Josh.” In my mind I thought I will be bitter but I wasn’t when I said this. And next thing I said came out of my mouth naturally,

“We both are adults now. As teens we do shit. We do things that sometimes we weren’t supposed to do. What happened in past is history. I am glad that you know what you did was wrong, and from what I can interpret you have not continued it and won’t do it.”

I took another sip of my coffee and so did he.

“Even though the time was a little hectic for me, I won’t lie about it but we are way past now. So, if we see in one sense, apology isn’t even required. But I am kinda glad as well that you did as it made me see you in a different light.” I ended and took another sip.

“So does that mean you accept my apology?” He asked me.

“If I didn’t why would I say this much to you and have a coffee in the fair when I can spend my time with the ones I came with?”

To which we both laughed.

“Hi both of you. Would you like to try our photobooth? You can click up to five photos and even though our booth looks small, there are props which you can use as well.” A girl said to us when we were crossing the booth.

“Sure, why not we still have time before meeting them.” I turned my head to Josh.

“Count me in.” He said with a smile.