Living The Now (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2

“Hey Tamana, would you mind if I left a bit early. I’ve got somewhere to be in, like, half an hour.” As I said that, I was silently praying to God that she’d let me leave without throwing a fit. His prediction had been right; I was getting bored. The past two hours had been spent talking about nothing except ‘cute’ guys...who unfortunately were not that cute. Besides I’ve never been into all this girly stuff.

“Yeah,” she said. “Sure. As long as you tell me where that is.” Her inquisitive nature often got on my nerves. Often included now.

After hesitating for a few seconds, I said, “Daksh. Me, Samara, him, Rohan and Pawan had planned to go to Domino’s. So...” I let my words trail off, knowing that she would put two and two together. Hopefully.

“Well.........” She said, putting a thoughtful expression on her face. “Of course! You should leave right now. Hold on,” she said and then turning around yelled for Samara to come on. She pushed us out of the door.

Samara followed us out. Once the noise coming from the dormitory lowered to simply plain music in the back ground we stopped.

“What’s the plan?” Tamana asked, looking from me to Samara expectantly.

“Oh, nothing,” Samara said, knowing that I didn’t exactly want too many people knowing about it.

“Come on,” Tamana whined, “you know I won’t tell anyone. You can trust me!”

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We’ve told Rohan to get the others there when we call them, which will be after we’ve reached. The boys had planned to go to the Wax Museum today and then go for pizza.”

“Ohh, Well you guys carry on,” She said, probably having realised that we weren’t exactly too keen on playing ‘best buddies’. She gave us both a quick hug and then abruptly ran back to the girls.

“Phew, She’s one hell of an interferer. The worst person to have for a twin.” Tamana said, sighing dramatically. Those sighs were her speciality. “So madam are we ready to depart?”

“Yes, Miss, We sure are. Please stop the wagon for me,” I replied with a wink.

This was a thing between us. We were both ferocious readers. We’d always been fascinated by the classics. Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Shakespear, were like our oxygen. It had been just Shakespear first, Then Bronte, and then eventually Jane Austen. A read through Pride and Prejudice and then Emma was enough to make us fall in love with her. The way her characters spoke always amused and surprised us. So we tried speaking that way when we were alone. Silly, but fun.

We went to get our out pass signed and then walked to the railway station nearby.

Travelling by the toy train was always fun. And our school had its own station; Lovedale. We bought our tickets and the train came about 15 minutes later during which we talked about Tamana’s party. The journey was short and the scenery flashing by familiar. We went by here every weekend. T was cold outside. This January had been surprisingly cold. I pulled the zipper of my jacket all the way up, tightened the scarf around my neck and dug my hands deep into my pocket.

“It’s so damn cold.” Samara said, As a shiver convulsed her body. We both closed the windows. After a moment of silence she spoke again. “You know Jess, two guys in the boy’s hostel were taken to the hospital last night. They had pneumonia.” Her voice was a whisper.

“Whom?” I asked, fear blatant in my voice.

“I don’t know the names. They were from eleventh I think.  I heard the seniors girls talk about it in the washroom. One of them was crying.” She was still whispering.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. I mean nothing happens in pneumonia. Only kids die because of it. Babies, you know.” I said, trying to reassure her. After a moment of uneasy silence I decided to restart conversation.  “Let’s talk about something else. You done preparing for the practicals?”

“Not exactly. I’m done with the Bio file. The viva bit I still have to do.” She replied, with a grimace. “What about you? You must have finished even revising it, what, four times?”

I giggled and said “No.  I just have to revise it. It’s easy. Piece of cake.” I said winking at her. “I downloaded some sample papers from online and checked for more viva type questions online. It’s actually not as difficult as you think. Just read the chapter well. And be confident in front of the examiner.” I noticed her eyes getting larger with every word I spoke. “What? Why are you giving me that look?”

“My God!” Her pitch turned heads to face us. I threw an apologetic smile to all those giving us dirty looks.

“Samara, this is a public place. Not the dorm. You don’t yell stuff in a public place!” I said and pinched her arm lightly.

“Accha baba I’m sorry.” She said giving me ‘The Look’, the one that’s supposed to melt your anger. And it worked, I smiled. “I was just surprised, you know. I mean you’re talking as if the 12^th boards are on.” She giggle and added, “It’s just 10^th yaar, chill.”

“Whatever,” I said and fixed my attention to the view outside the windows.

Ooty had always been beautiful. The hills were a patchwork of clumps of eucalyptus trees in some place and lush green tea gardens elsewhere. The tea gardens always appeared so soft and even that I’d look at them and wonder what it would be like to roll down them. The view shifted and as we went past the shooting spot, I saw the valley covered in smooth green grass, and memories came flashing back, drawing a silent giggle from me. Just last month me and Daksh had come here on one of our free Sunday evenings, and lying down on the grass had discussed the patterns the clouds made in great details. I noticed hearts, phoenixes, rabbits while he was stuck on the horses and cars. Our mind makes connection where they don’t exist, and one such connection was just made, reminding me of the conversation me and Daksh had a few days back.

“Samara,” I said, turning to her. I’d been meaning to discuss this with her for some time but always forgot. “You know on Tuesday during lunch, Daksh told me that he has to go to Bangalore for this annual athletic meet.”

“Yeah, Rohan also said something like that.” She said, turning her torso and full attention to me. “They’re both on the relay team.”

“I know that, yaar,” I said, irritated. “What I actually wanted to tell you was that I’m thinking of signing up for the girls’ long jump team. Ravi sir announced during the games period yesterday that they’re looking for more girl participants . And you could join the shot put team. Then all four of us could go together.” I smiled expectantly at her.

She was thoughtful for a moment before she spoke up. “I’ll talk to my mum about it tonight after we get back to the hostel. Your idea sounds good.” She smiled back at me and then turned her attention to her phone where she was punching in a text to someone. “In fact,” She spoke up again suddenly, scaring me, “My mausi stays in Bangalore. I’ll have her pick us up and go sightseeing on one of the free evenings.”

I immediately brightened at the prospect of meeting Samara’s aunt again. She was one of the coolest adults we knew. “That is a really good idea.” And then we both high fived.

The last few minutes of our train journey were spent making wild plans on how we would spend our time in Bangalore, before it was time to get off the train and begin our taxi hunt. After about 5 minutes of continuous waving in the hope some that some auto driver would see us stop we gave up. We ended up walking halfway to Domino’s before some old lady offered us a ride in her car. All of the ride was spent talking about our school and what classes we were in as the lady decided to gather all possible information about us, within the little time we had. We thanked her when she finally dropped us off at our destination and rushed in the building, eager for the protection from the cold which the building would offer. Not many people were in so we easily found a table by the heater and sat down.

“Hello, Rohan?” Samara said into the phone which began to buzz just then. “Haan, when you guys come?” She was quite for a bit as he spoke. “But me and Jess are already here,” Her impatience became obvious as she began to drum her fingers on the table. “Fine then we’ll offer. You guys had better hurry up. Yeah, bye.” With that she hung up. Looking at me she said, “The boys will be here in about 10 minutes. We are now going to order for them. Daksh has no idea you’re here.” She flashed me a grin and then stood up.

Taking me by the hand she dragged me to the counter where, after scanning the menu for a bit we ordered: One large double cheese margherita for me and Daksh and two large Farmhouses for the others. Payment made, we went back to our table where Samara began delivering some nonsense gossip to which I dedicated half my attention, the other half on the door. Finally, I noticed the door open and a group of three boys came in laughing loudly and interrupting the peaceful meals of the few people around us. But I, of course, couldn’t care less; my attention was focused elsewhere.   

I watched him as he looked around, scanning the faces of people of around him. On reaching our table his expression froze for a moment, before his face lit up with a huge smile and twinkle in his eyes. Me and Samara  both stood up in their wait. When he reached the table, he immediately pulled me in a huge hug and I felt the world fade away. When he hugged me, it was like coming home to a place  where I knew I would be safe and protected. Where I would be happy.

He pulled away and with a amused grin said, “So what made you come, eventually?”

“Samara came up with the plan and Rohan assisted us. We wanted it to be a surprise.” I said. As i spoke he took my hand and we settled down on the table. The warmth of his hand felt heavenly against my cold and freezing ones. “Besides,” I continued, “we were getting bored. I had to but mention your name before Tamana threw both of us out.” I smiled at the grin on his face.

The conversation then shifted topics to the upcoming boards as Pawan asked about our preparation levels. When our order was ready we collected the Pizzas and ate up, me and Samara enjoying and savouring the them while the boys gulped it down barely chewing or even registering the taste.

“So,” Rohan began saying, “Can we leave now, I wanna  grab some ice cream, the pizza wasn’t too good.”

Me and Samara burst out laughing. Between my laugh I muttered, “For it taste good you have to eat it properly Rohan, not gulp it down.”

“Yes,” Samara added, “Today guys properly broke the record of fastest eaten meal.”

Laughing hysterically, the five of us made our way out and into a taxi that Rohan called for. Most of the 15 minutes journey was spent laughing over all that the boys had done during the day, posing with the wax models and cracking silly jokes.

Once out of the stuffed taxi and inside the school gate, after handing our out passes back, we made our way to the common hall. As we walked Daksh took my hand and we walked in silence listening to the others’ talk. Once at the common hall he gave my hand a gentle squeeze before we turned or separate ways and began moving to our dormitory, Samara silent by my side and the boys still laughing over some joke.

“Jess?” I heard Daksh call my name on the 12^th step toward the girls’ dorm. I turned back to face Daks., he stood waiting for me where I’d left him. I walked towards him silently, aware of Samara and the other two boys watching us.

When I reached him, he hugged me tightly. Looking into my eyes, he said, “I love you Jess. Forever and always.” His eyes were glinting with something I didn’t recognize.

“I love you to Daksh, forever and always. Till death do us part,” and with that I smiled. He smiled at me and  hugged me one last time before I turned around and jogged to where Samara was waiting for me. Turning around one last time I smiled at him and made my way back to the dormitory with Samara.

“I love you, forever and always.”

The words echoed in my head.

They echoed for a very long time.

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