It did not make any sense to us. One fine midnight, I had teleported to his room. And now, I had no idea what to do. As I was ranting on and on about it, Prakash cut in, "I know what to do." I looked at him with my curious eyes, he was combing his curly hair.
"You just have to leave!" he said, adjusting his shirt collar.
"It's not like I've been teleported with my wallet and I don't have anyone here to help me send me home..."
It was for a moment, I thought how fun it would be if he took me for a tour around there. I wished to go out for a vacation and here it happened. I didn't want to let it go. I quickly geared up my brain to come up with some ideas to stay put there for a few days. I knew that it was too greedy of me, still, I am greedy indeed and I was not ashamed of myself.
"Do you go home?" I interrogated.
"Yes."
"How often do you go home?"
"Once a month."
"What about this month?"
"I think I will be going..." he looked at the calendar on his mobile phone "next week, maybe."
'What a stroke of luck!' my mind whispered. "Then make it two tickets."
He chuckled "Are you insane? You are almost fired. What will happen if you don't show up for work about a week?"
I was ready to resign from my job anyways, I was tired of the work which I couldn't enjoy doing and I wanted to study. Now that I had come to face this stupid situation, I took it as the universe's permission to have a break.
"I don't care. Let me stay here. I can repay for expenses once I go back home." I looked into his eyes, it was for him to fall for my trap but I was the one who got drowned in those eyes.
I had no idea if it was my trap or something else "Okay! Only for a week. What are you gonna do here?"
"I can go around the city and try new things. Lend me some money, I need to get some stuff for myself and for transport."
He would have never thought of having me in his room one night out of blue, I might not even have crossed his mind all these years. I knew what I was asking for was too greedy of me and it could turn out into a big fatal mistake in my life. But he didn't take much time to say what he had in his mind. He slowly nodded his head.
"I am not sure how this is gonna work, don't blame me if something goes wrong."
My eyes popped out in surprise, as I jumped in joy, my hair got loose and let it fall open. I couldn't care less about it, but he looked shocked looking at me celebrating.
"I can't believe you celebrating getting fired." He could have said anything, but he chose these words. As I knew he was just a jerk who liked to chaff me and took the pleasure of my anger. I stopped jumping and was standing there like a statue, glaring at him without knowing how to shut his filthy mouth.
"I think someone else is also going to become jobless today." I sniggered. He made a quick exit looking at his watch and he didn't miss to frown at me before shutting the door behind.
I was sitting on the bed with my legs crossed, dazing. Then, I rushed towards the door and opened it very carefully to sneak peek outside the room. I wished someone would help me kill time. I felt someone's eyes on me, it was Thomas. He waved goodbye with a smile and went out. Angad had already gone and it was only me and Swara in the house. I remembered how sweet Swara was, she would definitely help me out. But I was hesitant for a moment.
I closed the door behind me and strode towards the sofa. Swara was in the kitchen rummaging in the fridge. I didn't have anything for break-fast too. The last time I had anything to eat was last night's dinner at my hostel. I had Rotis of the size of my palm with Dhaal. Once again I wondered how in the world have I ended up here.
"Have this!" Swara offered me the sandwich she had just made.
"Thanks! I was starving."
"Do you have any plans for today?"
"Nope!"
"Then get ready! It's shopping time"
I looked at myself and said, "I don't have any dress here."
She dragged me into her room and explored her wardrobe. She found a few pairs of jeans, t-shirts and other stuff and offered me them. "I don't use them now. I've out-grown them. I think they would fit you" they all looked new.
I washed and changed into blue jeans and a maroon shirt. The sun was blazing outdoor. Swara took me to a bazaar. We kept on walking for hours through those crowded lanes. It was crazy to walk on a sunny afternoon. We lunched in a roadside stall.
Swara had bought clothes of various types and some ornaments too. I was very much detailed about what she had to buy. Then, I came to know that she was a fashion designer. When we stopped to have ice cream, I asked her, "How did you meet Angad?"
She couldn't resist but blush, "We met in college. He was an engineering student and was popular. I always knew him but hadn't even thought of approaching him. It was him, he approached me first. I had no idea that he had been noticing me."
She told her story about how she fell in love with Angad gradually. It was shocking to hear that Angad was made to wait for her. It had been seven years since they started going out, her heart still fluttered talking about him. These two looked a lot younger than their actual age. It made me go crazy thinking about how dazzling they would have been in their college days.
"What about you? How did you meet Prakash?" she asked.
"We are just schoolmates!"
"I never knew that Prakash is kind enough to let a girl from his school stay over."
I couldn't say much about it. We finished our ice cream and wandered around aimlessly. Apparently, Swara was from Pune. She settled down in Hyderabad after completing her studies. Angad, on the other hand, was from Delhi. Even though Angad could have gone back to his home after college, he stayed back solely for Swara. They had the perfect love story to tell about. I had always thought that such love stories were just stories. To witness one such story in front of my eyes fascinated me. "Only if Prakash too felt the same as I did, I too could be happy!" I thought.
We chatted for a while and got to know each other when we were about to reach home, we decided to stop by a coffee shop nearby. There was a spoken poetry event about to be conducted that evening. Swara told me that she visited the shop very often and also that the person was very good at spoken poetry. It would be a waste to miss it since I was there already. Last evening I did not even dream about coming there, who would have thought that things would turn out that way!
There we took the corner table to have a clear view. I was pretty thirsty and needed something to drink as soon as possible. Swara was on her phone, so I decided to order some coffee. A guy walked towards us, I stared at him as he was looking at me. He stopped by our table, "Two cappuccinos, please!" I said still ambiguous if I could have ordered any other drink. He smiled as he nodded and strode back. When Swara noticed me ordering, she hit my hand and said "What the hell!!!"
I was perplexed. "Do you even know who he is?"
I asked her if he wasn't a waiter.
"He is the star here, madam. He is the one who's gonna perform today."
I could just hide anywhere but to sit there embarrassed. I did not even check, there were no waiters only self-service was available. I checked on what he was doing. He was very kind enough to make an order for me on the counter. "Oh shit!" I thought.
"Hey! Good evening guys! I'm Ashmit Swaminathan!" the show started.
That's how I met Ashmit. It was quite dramatic, to be honest. I was embarrassed and never wanted to face him again.