Akriti and her sister were sitting on the couch, overlooking the rains through the windows.
A few moments before, they had this huge fight, over a phone call. Sukriti had informed Akriti about a phone call from a guy.
“I should never have taught you about changing voice on call in mobile phone.”, Akriti, still angry on her sister.
“But what difference does it make, you get calls like that every other day. Why is it any different.” Asked Sukriti.
That question left Akriti wondering for a bit. All her life, she had been avoiding getting close to anybody, because of her commitment issues and she should have been thankful to her sister.
But here she was, rebuking her sister. ‘Attraction works in mysterious ways’ she thought and proceeded to let go her anger or whatever it was.
Taking cue from her body language, Sukriti broke the ice.
“Do you know our college dance group is performing in a college fest, and I joined as well”, she informed Akriti.
“Ohh good, what are you performing on?” asked Akriti.
“We are depicting 8 songs on 8 different emotions with 8 different songs in 8 different languages.”
“Ohh thats….nice. Tell me one thing, does it also suck in 8 different ways?” Akriti joked.
“You wouldn’t even be able to do one step from it. You need flexible muscles for that”
“Atleast my funny bone will tickle while watching your dance.” said Akriti sarcasticly to end the topic so that she can talk about what she had in mind.
“Listen, the guy that you talked to; his name is Atush. Last week, he came into the video parlour to play Laser tag and…”
“What is that?” Sukriti said interrupting her.
“What is what?”
“Lasertag”
“You should really care atleast a little about what I do. It’s a game played among 2 teams, they each have a gun and they have to shoot their opponents to collect points”, Akriti explained.
“Okay got it….move ahead!” Sukriti said getting interested.
“So he has been my closest competitor so far, I thought I would lose to him, but somehow I won.”, continued.
“You are talking like you have never lost a game.”
“No, I haven’t and that is why I like my job”
“Don’t you think you are too obsessed with gaming? I am surprised you didn’t start to play that Pokemon Go game.”
“I would play it, but then I would have to go retard first. But anyways, I am not obsessed that much about gaming. I just like them a normal amount.”
“Oh yeah? Last night you were chanting ‘Go Go Go’ while you were asleep”
“Wow, that was a nice dream, I killed so many counter terrorists in my favourite map De Dust2.”
“Uff! Sometimes, I feel like I live with a boy.”
“I know you wish it sissy, but that is not happening in my flat.”
Sukriti shifts a little uncomfortably. But continues fighting with her.
“What’s wrong in bringing friends over?”
“Sissy, I fought with Papa to get you out of our small city, so that you can make a life here in Mumbai, and not ‘make a life’ here in Mumbai” Akriti joked.
“I love him, but I am not stupid. And I told you hundred times, that these talks make me uncomfortable.”
“Yes and that is why you can go live-in with ‘Whats his name’, but just don’t bring him in here. It creeps me out as well.” Akriti replied.
“His name is Rohan and yes, let me get a job and I will move out soon.” Sukriti said decidedly.
Both looked each other in the eye. They had nothing but respect for each other.
Karan’s place
Karan was playing FIFA in his laptop, when the phone rang. It was his dad. Karan immediately paused the game and started thinking about all the bad things he had done in the last week, that could come back to haunt him.
Surprisingly, we found nothing. So, he turned his thoughts to some bad news. After contemplating a lot, he heard from a distant corner of his brain, ‘Dude, it’s just Dad’s monthly call. Pick up!’
He picked up the phone.
“Hey! Hello Dad!” Karan started first.
“Hello Beta! How are you?”
“I am fine, dad! How about you?”
“I am also good. So, what’s new?”
“Nothing much!”
“Hmm…okay”
“What’s new in our city?”
“Well, nothing much. Same old things in same old city.”
“…”
“…”
Awkward silence was reaching its height, when a silver lining came to Karan.
“What is mom doing?”, Karan leapt for it.
“Yeah, mom is right here. Wait! Let me give her the phone.”, Dad also breathed a sigh of relief. He gave the phone to mom and went to see the TV.
“Haan beta, How are you?.”
“I am good mom. I was just playing football in my laptop.”
“Still playing games. Should’t you be studying for CAT exams?” she asked.
“Oh mom! I am not a kid anymore. I know my priorities.”
“Yeah that’s true, now you have a job, you don’t need to listen to your mom.”
“Emotional blackmail? That came very early today in our conversation. Tell me what happened.”
“Nothing.”
“Mom”
“We found a girl for you.” Mom said happily.
“No No No” Karan managed to say, before getting in shock; a shock that every child has to go through once in his lifetime, at some stage.
To Be Continued…
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