Chapter 7
Morning brought some sweet sounds with it. The birds chirped and the breeze blew softly. It was as if there would never be winter again. Kripa pried her eyes open and watched the ceiling. She could hear her house-mates making a racket. She smiled. This was just the way she liked it.
She went to the living room and she was met with the funniest scene. Jill, Kajal, and Tiff were holding Justin upside down and he was screaming and yelling at them to let him go. They all turned when they saw Kripa. 'Kripa, come help us! He won't tell us what happened!' Kajal screamed.
'What are you all talking about?' laughed Kripa.
'He was saying something about Dev and then he just stopped!' exclaimed Jill. Kripa scanned Justin's face for the slightest hint of emotion. She gave up and joined them.
'Girls, just stop! All the blood is rushing to my face! This is what happens when your best friends are all girls!' Justin was turning red indeed. But there was no mercy. 'OK fine, I'll tell you! Just put me down! I promise!' They finally let him go.
'I went to the gym,' he flexed his muscles. Tiff flung a pillow at him. 'Ouch, fine! I went to the gym in the weights section and whom do I see? Dev! He was looking around when I entered. That's it. We just smiled and continued our workout! That's it! I don't know you girls are making such a fuss!'
'You don't know why we're making such a fuss? You're daft! Dev was obviously looking around for Kajal!' chirped Jill.
'I know! And this idiot didn't even talk to him! Boys! What idiots!' screamed Tiff.
'Hey, get off my back! I'm not like you girls! You don't see a guy around and all of you go crazy. Thank God, Kripa you don't go nuts over guys.' Kajal put her fist near Justin's face. 'If you saw a guy and went nuts, well, we'd take you shopping with us!' everyone laughed. 'But you better make sure that the next time you see him, you talk to him. And you have to give us details!'
'OK fine, now let me go. This is what I get for bringing breakfast for all of you.'
'Hey, what did you bring for us? You didn't even tell us!' Kajal shrieked.
'With all this noise, you think I would have been able to get anything for all of you? Croissants for everyone, Kripa, you don't eat egg so I got them without egg too. There are muffins, here are the eggless ones for you and here's some orange juice.'
'That was so sweet of you! But it's always fun to pummel you!'
They all had a lovely breakfast and talked about their plans for the day. 'Justin, why don't you just come and live with us? You're always here anyways?'
'If I do end up here, how will I be able to flirt with Miss 2A?'
'Oh Justin, you're still behind that 2A? What does she have anyways? Big assets?' asked Jill with hand actions on her chest. 'You guys are so cheap!'
They all started making birthday plans for Kripa. Her birthday was in a week and it fell on a weekend. They all decided to think about it later. They parted ways in the evening. Classes were starting the next day so they all got prepared for that.
Next morning, Justin went to work out again at the University gym. He met Dev again and remembered the incident of the day before. He went to the weights section near where Dev was working out.
'Hey, I'm Justin Saunders. And you are?'
'Dev Dhananjay, it's nice to meet you,' said Dev all sweaty from his workout.
'And I'm Angad Khanna. It's good to meet both of you.'
Dev and Justin turned towards the third voice and laughed. 'Wow, that was unexpected. But it's nice to see you too Angad,' piped Justin. 'I haven't seen you around Angad. Dev, I've seen you before but never introduced myself to you.'
'Yeah, I'm new here. I'm a full time graduate student here. Just arrived a few days ago. It's pretty sweet here. This is the first place I came to as soon as I got here,' said Angad.
They all bonded over weights and sweat. By the end of it, Justin grinned. At least we wouldn't be beaten up today.
Kripa stared outside the window. Her class was in half an hour and she felt the depression coming in. She took her notebook and began writing.
***
Birthdays. What's so special about them anyway? So what if it is the day you were born? Every day that you live is a day older for you. Every breath you take ages you. So why mark this milestone? But I have to pretend to be happy about it as I always do. When somebody doesn't like birthdays, they are looked at weirdly. Oh well, at least we always end up doing something special.
***
Kripa shut her notebook quickly and headed for class.
Chapter 7
Edited by sna004 - 15 years ago
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