It was a cloudy winter morning, last day of the week. As per the plan, everyone gathered at Thrishul's residence except Dikshith.
"Oh you and Punya are neighbours??" exclaimed Prajwal.
"Yes Senior, you didn't know??" Thrishul replied.
"I think none of us knew" said Tarak.
"We didn't keep it as a secret anyway, it's just we never spoke about it" explained Punya.
"We didn't blame you Punya, we understand" said Rahul. "By the by do you have any sister?" he asked.
"No..... why?" she shrugged.
"I would try on her, if you had one" he winked at Prajwal and they did a hi-fi in air.
Everyone started laughing. Dikshith arrived in his car, one by one boarded both the cars. All three senior boys were in Deekshith car and 6 juniors in Thrishul's car. Disha was left behind. She wasn't ready to sit alone with boys, so she helplessly looked at Punya.
"Vedant you go to seniors car, let Disha join us here" she said.
"No wait, I'll go... I will get some boys stuff easily there" said Tarak and jumped out of the car.
"What's boys stuff?" asked Siri.
"Alcohol and nicotine, what else?" Punya chuckled softly.
"Punya are you Ok with all those stuff?" Thrishul asked. He was driving the car.
"Well it's personal choice, I'm not for or against it" she gave a diplomatic reply.
Thrishul looked at Vedant and both chuckled nodding their heads. Two and a half hour journey was filled with music, lots of chatting, small games between them and lots of fun. Both the cars reached Barkana falls by 10.
"Oh my God, what a beautiful falls?" exclaimed Siri. Disha got busy clicking pictures from her camera. They started to trek down the hill to reach the water. They reached in 25 minutes, water was pure and clean but very cold. As teenagers they didn't find it cold, Disha handed over her camera to Punya and got into water first... She started splashing water against Dikshith.
"Hey baby no... Its cold, don't do it" he held hands against his face and tried to save himself but when she didn't stop... He approached her slowly and lifted her in his arms and splashed her into the water. Everyone started laughing. Slowly one by one entered water... enjoyed by splashing water against each other, yelling names and took some group photos.
Afternoon they reached a restaurant with continental cuisine. Everyone ordered their own dishes, Punya ordered veg pasta.
Rahul cleared his throat and asked Punya, "Don't you eat non-veg?"
"No I don't like the blood taste in them" she sighed.
"Prakruth enjoys non-veg food a lot, what will he do with this vegan girl?" he whispered to Prajwal who sat next to him.
"He'll adjust dude, moreover he loves her... not her cooking or cuisine. He knows cooking as well, if he wants he'll prepare it by himself" said Prajwal in a low tone.
"We're missing Prakruth yaar," said Dikshith.
"Yes, though he's silent, he brings energy to the group" grinned Prajwal.
Thrishul didn't like his name taken, "He must be busy dating Roshni" he passed a statement in mockery. Prajwal was severely annoyed by his statement but Rahul controlled him.
"You've mistaken dear, he is not in relationship with Roshni. In fact he hates her, but due to some obligation, he endures her" explained Dikshith.
"Yeah, even if he avoids her badly, she comes back to him finding reasons. He treats her well only because of their parents friendship. There's nothing else between them" added Disha.
"You both are couples, will definitely support couples" said Thrishul arguing.
"No dude, they're right. I saw Prakruth scream at Roshni in the field last week. He was warning her not to do something" said Vedant.
"How can anyone scream at a beautiful girl like Roshni, he must be stone hearted then" shrugged Tarak.
"He doesn't like her, so he might have lost his calm, she's bit annoying lady" Rahul added.
"But I wouldn't if she's my girlfriend" winked Tarak..
"Me too" said Rahul and they exchanged hi-fi in agreement laughing loudly.
"You guys are shameless, aren't you?" asked Siri.
"No Siri, we're just practical" said Tarak.
"You..." she growled at him.
"Relax, show your anger on dead meat here..." said Jyoti calming her down. Punya was silently watching the exchange of views at the table. Jyoti got busy admiring Thrishul from across the table.
Group visited Onake abbi falls post lunch and decided to reach agumbe by 5 pm.
At Agumbe, they waited for the sunset. Agumbe is the place where Lord Sun decorates mother nature with golden orange rays and wishes her good bye for the day in a most serene and marvelous way. Disha clicked photos randomly. Punya was busy in engrossing the nature's best sunset amidst flying birds. She captured Punya's side face facing the sun, lit up beautifully to enrich her sculpted face. She decided to give it to Prakruth.
"Punya why have you become so silent?" asked Thrishul handing over a fruit juice carton.
"I'm just enjoying the nature, thanks" she said taking the juice.
"Hey that's ok... are you relaxed now, you were very disturbed from a couple of months?" he asked sitting next to her.
Punya was surprised to know that he has observed her so keenly. "I wasn't disturbed, I would blame it on heavy syllabus we have" she bluffed.
"Punya, though I haven't seen you from childhood, I can read your face, you're like a open book to me. You can't keep secrets from me. If you feel that senior is troubling you, let me know. I'll see his end" he said in anger.
Punya lost her temper a little and raised her voice "Please it has nothing to do with him, he hasn't even spoken to me properly. It's not him, it's me. I'll handle it myself." she frowned but seeing the concern in his approach she said "Don't worry Thrishul... You know I love to be independent..I don't need any support" in a calm tone
"Well, sorry then... If there's anything you want me to do, please let me know" he said.
"Give me some privacy, let me enjoy the sunset peacefully" she urged.
"Ok... Its up to you" he said and walked to his friends.
After the sunset, everyone walked to the parking area.
"Dude, weekend shouldn't end without getting dizzy.. What say??" asked Rahul.
"Oh yeah why don't we have a small party now??" asked Dikshith to the group. Boys made arrangements for the party and girls arranged the fire camp. They all started sipping their own choice of alcohol and started dancing around the fire camp. Prajwal and Punya were odd people out there.
"You don't want to drink?" asked Prajwal.
"No I don't like the smell of it" said Punya.
"You're peculiar aren't you? Blood faints you, you hate non veg, now smell of alcohol is bad for you?" he chuckled.
"Prakruth has shared my weakness with his friends, God..." she thought. "Why don't you drink then?" she asked raising her eyebrows.
"Someone has to drive these people home, so I gave up for today, if Prakruth was here, I would've enjoyed to the fullest. He doesn't drink even though he's independent and free from parents" he explained.
"Oh what a loser? If I had such a freedom from my dad, I would drink everyday.... My bad luck" said Thrishul. He was almost full already wobbling in air. Party ended after most of the boys sloshed. Punya and Prajwal with the help of guards of the restaurant loaded all the boys to Thrishul's vehicle. Prajwal turned towards the girls and said... "Hire a driver and follow us closely"
"Why a driver, I can drive" Punya said.
Prajwal felt proud about Punya, he nodded and said, "Then you lead, I'll follow"
In 2.5 hours late at midnight, they all reached their homes safe and sound.