CW: Mild homophobia
Indu was frustrated that day. After all the efforts she had put into her English essay, she realised that she had forgotten it at home, and Archana ma'am would not believe her when she said that she was done with it. She was scolded for 15 minutes straight, and though it was in hushed tones, the whole class knew what was happening, and Sameera had heard every single word of it. She was sitting there, silently smirking at the creative jabs that Archana ma'am came up with. All in all, Indu was happy when the period ended.
Lunch break did not give Indu a break either. Somehow, she found herself in the middle of Siddhu and Swara, with Mirzab right in front of her. Their incessant chatter gave little room to breathe. Even the usually shy Swara was speaking a little, though the two deeper voices dominated most of the noise. Siddhu had practically tried to lift Indu and drag her to lunch with them, completely disregarding his small 165 cm (5'5) stature.
"We've been sitting together for the past one week, I have no idea why we didn't do this earlier, like, this is FUN!" Mirzab was telling her, oblivious to the uncomfortable smile Indu had put on. Just then, the bright sun was suddenly covered by grey clouds, and the gods unleashed the rain. All four stared in amazement for a second, before shrugging it off. This was Bengaluru after all.
"It would have been amazing if we had access to the coffee room ka microwave. We could have had hot hot food in the rain" Swara lamented. The three others strongly seconded that opinion. "They should have one for the students too - at least in the canteen!" Siddhu said. "If not hot food, at least we'll enjoy with ice cream today" Mirzab was rubbing his hands together with a devilish grin on his face. Completely exhausted by what was, for her, five years' worth of socialization, Indu trudged to the Chemistry lab.
Even greater a horror waited for her there. They were doing their experiment in pairs. Lady Luck felt like she was at the other end of the universe - Indu and Sameera were the only ones left without partners. Sameera didn't put any effort into the experiment, busy staring into space. Indu was a hair's breadth away from going completely ballistic on Sameera and pulling that cute little ponytail completely apart. Thankfully the bell rang right away as Indu was about to pull her metaphorical sword out.
When the final bell rang, Indu could not be more thankful. She hoped that the ice cream that she would stuff herself with would provide some comfort. She walked onto Swara's bus and saw that the back seats had already been occupied by Sameera, Swara and Siddhu. They beckoned to her, but she winced in apology and sat on the first bench.
"She never sits in the back seat, don't worry. Her anti-social self can't ever handle too much." Sameera scoffed. She wondered why she got the urge to console Swara and Siddhu a little when she saw their faces drooping. Mirzab entered the bus, his marshmallow aura preceding him by miles. He stopped at Indu's seat and was pestering her to come to the back seat. Swara beckoned to him and gestured to stop from afar. Her principal thought was that the poor thing might have had a rough day, letting her recuperate.
The journey went smoothly, which was quite a rare thing in Swara's bus. They typically travelled by a different bus, and that one was so worn out, that the yellow outside had begun to completely peel off. They had had to stop and board BMTC buses and travel by other routes several times before. The bus stopped around a kilometre away from Swara's house. After Siddhu was done violently shaking Indu, who had fallen asleep during the journey, all got down.
"So we'll go to my house, change our dresses and then leave for Corner House?" Swara asked the group. Indu's eyes widened, and her hand went to slap her forehead - she hadn't brought anything to change into. Mirzab quickly opened the last zip in his backpack and revealed an extra set of clothes that he had brought with him.
"I always come prepared!" He proudly declared. Swara's head swerved sharply towards Mirzab, she stared for a second and allowed herself a small giggle.
Indu, oblivious to Swara's reaction, seemed sceptical. "Would yours fit me though?" She asked.
"I mean, it might be a little loose, but you're just a couple inches shorter than me anyway, and our proportions are similar too," Mirzab reassured her. As they had this conversation, they had reached Swara's house. Sameera was panting from the last uphill stretch and stopped to drink some water, as Swara walked up the stairs, pulled the key out of her bag and opened the door.
"My parents aren't home, so we can chill here for some time if we want to?" She asked again, anxious to please. "It's okay Swara, we don't want to impose on you too much" Siddhu patted her on the back. She led Mirzab and Siddhu to one room and Sameera and Indu to another.
Indu went to the absolute corner of the room, turned toward the wall and started the process of changing out of her uniform when she felt a pair of hostile eyes on her. She turned around slightly to see Sameera glaring at her.
"Want to go change somewhere else, Sameera?" Indu sneered.
"Yes," Sameera said acridly, and walked out of the room. Indu felt a pang across her heart. Lowering her gaze, she went back to her uniform. Swara looked down, her own heart heavy. Once the two were done, they walked out of the room. Indu looked surprisingly incredible in Mirzab's clothes, and they gave the impression of an intentionally baggy look. Swara was wearing a maroon pair of trousers, with a pale cream t-shirt on top of it. She seemed completely different in pants than in a uniform skirt, and the look suited her immensely.
Siddhu and Mirzab were sitting on the sofa, waiting for them. Siddhu bent over towards Mirzab and pretended to wipe some of the drool off the side of his face. Mirzab tore his eyes away from Swara and slapped Siddhu's wrist, before looking the other way and smiling. Sameera appeared from the common bathroom in a floral skirt with slightly puffed sleeves. The neck was cut fashionably deep and she had even brought along an imitation pearl necklace and bracelet to go along with it. Sameera looked like she had walked out of a Pinterest board.
'When does she not look like that,' thought Indu. As much as she hated Sameera, Indu acknowledged that she could pull off any look with utmost confidence. Sameera cast a cold glance around the room before asking, "Are we leaving?"
"Sure!" said Siddhu, immediately getting up.
While walking, Indu found herself a couple of steps behind Sameera, with Swara, Siddhu and Mirzab leading the way. Indu looked at her hair, tied neatly in a low pony, not a strand out of place. If her memory served her right, Indu had also seen faint, natural makeup adorning Sameera's face. To be fair, she always was that put together, even at the end of a long school day. 'If she's going and touching her hair and makeup every couple of hours... How vain of a person is this woman? She seriously doesn't care about anything other than boys, does she?' Indu had an incredulous smile on her face. 'Straight girls, man... At least I have taste in people' Indu internally rolled her eyes.
Sameera, on the other hand, was wondering if it'd be polite to call Nur up while she was with this lot. She had approached Nur earlier in the day, hoping that a friendship with her would lead to her and Raghav reconciling. She cursed herself for fighting with him. She cursed him for continually wanting to date Indu. Speaking of Indu, Sameera had had to use a god-like amount of restraint not to compliment Indu. 'NO. Sameera, shut up. She's wearing boy's clothes, for god's sake! How do you think she looks good in that?!' She shook herself and slapped both her cheeks.
After trudging along for fifteen minutes, they finally reached Corner House. The AC at full blast right at the door gave them much needed relief. Sameera instantly went to the bathroom and came back with her makeup touched up, and smelling pleasantly of deodorant. Indu discreetly raised her eyebrows - Sameera was just further proving her point. Sameera looked over at the staff that were there over the counter and signalled to bring her another chair. They hurried over and pulled the fifth chair for her. The rest of the four huddled closer together to make space for Sameera.
"What do you all want to get?" asked Swara, pulling her purse out. The same question was asked by all the rest at about the same time, all of them reaching for their purses. All broke into laughter, inciting a couple of stares from other customers. Indu felt herself loosen up physically. She had gotten enough money to treat everyone, courtesy of her extremely Indian mother. Looks like the rest had the same thoughts. They each other a glance and the unspoken race began. They all rushed to the counter at the same time, engaging in a friendly tussle, overwhelming the cashier.
It was then that they stopped. None of them knew what the others wanted, did they?.... After some awkward silence, they profusely apologised to the cashier and other staff, and Swara went on an apology rant for almost five minutes and practically offered to help out in the kitchen for their disturbance. The embarrassed cashier gently put her down and asked her to get back to her seat, and the red-faced girl finally made her way back.
They finally settled on paying for themselves, though most were reluctant to do so. They calmly discussed their order.
"I'm getting the mango flavour - double!" Siddhu told the cashier.
"Single scoop of vanilla and a Banana Carmel Milkshake for me, uncle," said Sameera
"Single scoop of Mocha, thank you," Indu placed her order next
"2 nut butterscotches for us!" quipped Mirzab, who had discussed his order with Swara a couple of seconds ago.
They all sat down at their table and indulged in their discussions. The ice cream mixed with the company gave them the much-needed relief from school and all its drama. Sameera forgot all her urges to call others up, as she relaxed into the chair, and listened to all the animated conversations happening. While talking, Siddhu leaned a little too much towards Sameera and spilt Indu's ice-cream bowl on her shirt, since she was the one who was sitting between them.
"Ah!" She leapt up, narrowly avoiding the bowl that had now fallen to the ground. "Siddhu!" reprimanded Sameera. Almost by instinct, she picked the bowl up from the ground and called a staff member to clean the mess up. She picked a tissue up and started rubbing the ice cream off of Indu's shirt. Sameera's head came only up to Indu's waist, and Indu felt heat creep up to her cheeks as the former cleaned the shirt.
In a flash, Sameera too realised what she was doing and immediately flinched, pulling her hand away, and gruffly clearing her throat. Embarrassed and flushed, the two settled down.
"I'll wash it properly and give it back to you, Mirzab," Indu told him as soon as she came to her senses.
"Thank god you didn't waste too much of it, or else it would have been a pity..." Swara mumbled. The waiter brought her another cup of ice cream anyway, and Indu carefully kept the bowl in her hand, far away from Siddhu's reach, who seemed surprised Indu wasn't angrier at him. "I'm extremely sorry, Indu..." he said, for the nth time.
"I told you, it's okay - It was an accident anyway" replied Indu, through gritted teeth.
The rest of the evening passed without incident, and they rose together after seeing the orange sky start its transition to indigo. Walking out Siddhu and Swara immediately took their phones out and filled their galleries with the pictures of the clouds and sky, for it was rare to see an evening in July where it was not pouring down on everyone. Indu and Sameera both had laughed so much throughout the entire thing that their sides were hurting. Both their jaws had probably unclenched for the first time in years. A content Indu rubbed her belly and parted with Swara and Siddhu at the metro station, walking up the stairs with Sameera and Mirzab.
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