“Hey Priya, what are you up to?”, Myra asked me on phone.
I had just finished laundry and come back to my room.
“Nothing much, I might go out for dinner in some time.”, I replied.
“Why don’t you and Arjun come to the main gate? There’s a food court called “Fiesta” here and it looks awesome. Let’s have dinner here.”, she said.
“I’ll check with Arjun”, I replied.
I called up Arjun but he did not take my call. I sent him a text about the dinner plan and after 5 minutes, I got a reply saying that he’ll meet me soon.
Annoyed at this behavior, I was resolved to find out what was happening.
*
“What’s with the no-calls policy? And why are you acting strange? ”, I confronted Arjun as soon as we met.
“Sorry, my phone was on silent”, he replied.
I wanted to ask him why he ignored us in the evening but I did not argue; He looked miserable.
“Okay, what happened? Is everything okay?”, I said instead.
“Am okay”, he lied.
We started walking towards the main gate, it was a 30-40 min walk depending on our pace. We could take bicycles but it was an upward slope and riding would be difficult.
“Change is inevitable. We have no option but to embrace it”, I said after 10 minutes. Arjun slowed down.
“But what if we don’t trust ‘the change’?”, he asked.
It was clear whom we were talking about.
“Time will tell. “, I said, “Moreover, there’s nothing we can do about it”.
“Are you okay with 'change'?”, he asked me.
“I’m not but when it’s not in my hands, I try to embrace it. ”, I replied.
“Some people have the knack of winning hearts”, he said with spite.
“Are you jealous?”, I asked. He looked at me.
“It’s not jealousy. I don’t like certain changes”, he replied.
I did not know what to concur. Was he upset because it was all happening so quickly? Or did he secretly like Myra?
We reached the main gate. Myra was coming in through the main gate.
Chetan followed her.
“Hey Chetan”, I said. Arjun said nothing.
“Hey guys”, he said.
There was an awkward pause.
“Look at Fiesta.. “, Myra said trying to diffuse the tension, pointing to a building ahead. We looked at the enormity in front of us.
“So that’s Fiesta! I saw it on our first day here. It's huge”, I exclaimed.
“I knew you’d like it”, Myra said.
“Yes, it has almost all cuisines of food available in it. Guests are not allowed beyond this point and hence it has high traffic of people coming in”, Chetan said.
“Yes, it makes sense since it’s the first food court that you come across on the campus”, I agreed.
There was another pause.
“Okay guys, have a nice time. Myra, see you on Monday.”, Chetan said.
“Wait a minute.”, a voice said. It was Arjun. “Why don’t you have dinner with us?”, he asked.
“Okay”, said a surprised Chetan. I could see Myra smiling.
We entered the famous Fiesta FC (food court). The hall was larger than all other food courts and the FC had multiple levels. The popular kiosks seemed to be Dominos, Polar Bear (ice cream stall), Idlys, and Juice Junction. I took Poori bhaji from one of the less crowded kiosks and chose a table.
Chetan was the first to come back. He had ordered Chinese food.
He looked around and said, “Hope we are cool”.
Before I could reply, Myra joined us. I nodded as if saying “later”.
Arjun also joined us shortly and we had a pleasant meal. The food was really good, and we gobbled it. Arjun and I were especially hungry due to the long walk. The conversation was light and we could see that Chetan was a happy-go-lucky person. He asked us questions about our college days. He was not extremely chatty but he was decent enough. Moreover, Myra and he shared a very good rapport and I could see that she was enjoying his company. After dinner, we bade bye to Chetan and stood outside Fiesta. His friends were joining him.
“So”, Myra said after a pause, “what do you guys think?”
She asked Arjun specifically.
“He’s okay”, he looked into her eyes. “As long as you are happy, we’re okay”, he said with a smile.
We started walking when suddenly I saw someone’s shadow from the first floor, it looked like they were peeping at us.
It was Chetan…
- To be continued
This post is a part of the Blogchatter A2Z Challenge.
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