Friday, 11.35 P.M.
Since Monday every morning I had been getting ready for the college with the same ebullience, only to return home, dejected. Days were slipping, so were my chance to reinvigorate the idea of outing that might have had been ignited too early by Suhasi, only to let let it die its own death. How I could have asked her for this again? For last two days there wasn’t a single word that had been exchanged between us. Sunday is nearing, probably at much slower pace.
But today wasn’t at all like any other day.
****************
To my surprise first lecture was free and she wasn’t absent. It was probably the first time she was there in the class attending the first lecture and she might have sacrificed taking a bath for this. There were not more than 10 students in the class in which more than 6 were there around her.
Oh! Suhasi… damn your gregariousness…I whispered to myself.
Anubhav was lying flat on the bench absorbing his quota of sleep and I was thinking about ways to infiltrate the Z security that Suhasi’s friends had built around her to keep her secluded from rest of the world.
I looked at my watch sixth time. 2nd lecture was on its verge to start.
**************
“You haven’t talked to her, Right?” whispered Anubhav while lecture was flowing smoothly, veering all my attention back on Suhasi.
“Na“, I replied continuing to copy letter to letter from board.
“Kya yar, tu bhi fattu hai“, he exclaimed.
“What can I do? Her friends never leave her alone. How am I supposed to talk?”
“The way she talked to you when we were sitting here on Monday. You see! how straight forward she was. She came, she asked, simple!”, said Anubhav.
Yes. She had come to me. Now it was time to settle the dues.
**************
“Hi!”, I muttered.
“Hello”, she replied with a gorgeous smile.
It was lunch time and there couldn’t have fewer friends around her.
“So, How are you?” I asked.
“Good! Hostel is a real fun place to be. No T.V., Wi-fi is down, no laptop to take use use of that Wi-fi when it is up, seniors almost dance over our heads, but overall AMAZING!” she exclaimed sarcastically.
“My week was as amazing as yours”, I said, “Well I think we still have something better to do on this Sunday”.
“I thought you forgot that plan”, she said.
“No, I haven’t. So not a problem?”
“Of course not.”
“Good…(pause) Can I have your phone number?” I finally asked to her after pumping all the confidence in me.
“Ya sure!”
***********
From this week onward our college is going to be 5 days a week that means tomorrow is a holiday. It could have been a curse had I not taken her phone number.
Sunday is all I am waiting for…
to be continued…