the next day the girls left their home early in the morning just like the day before. "so you are in love with sanders miller, the youngest ceo hailing from our humble town, hah", robin was stripping out of the leather pants she was trying and gave it to mina.
"you don't like it? seems like it doesn't fit you. could you stop repeating that again. i said it is not that serious!" the girls were exchanging the clothes they picked out for trying to see whether it fit the other.
"i can tell from your eyes that it is damn serious. now tell me what are you gonna do?" "robin give me some time to process this, alright. it's been less than a month since the first time i saw him. maybe i have really fallen for his handsomeness, nothing else. it will go away in time. so stop pushing me. seriously, literally stop pushing me. i may bang myself somewhere if you keep doing that"
robin "suits you. take that pant. give me the shirt you got there. yes, that one. ok, i will stop pushing you, so tell me when you plan to get serious alright? am your best friend afterall" she said all dressed up in her usual clothes. mina couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry seeing her friend's puppy eyes.she burst out laughing and came out of the trial room. the immediate second they came out, a male salesman saw them coming out together and he looked at the girls' dishevelled hair and breathless look. he became rose at his cheeks and almost ran away looking bothered. the girls stood there stunned for a minute and again started laughing crazily.
"hey mina do you remember my little brother?" "the one who used to play with pretty big sisters?, oh yeah i remember him" "is that really how you have to remember him,well, he came home after a long time, from college. he would be here for an entire month before going back"
mina" well good for him, he must have missed the home food, and the big sister part is the only prominent memory i have about him to remember him"
they placed their purchase on the cash counter and continued talking, while the man on the counter took sneaks on them now and then. inside his mind he was thinking ' wah, what beauties. they aren't our everyday ideal beauties but how beautiful they are. is the dark beauty reincarnation of cleopatra herself? and the grey eyed beauty. wow, they can't be compared. they are unique', thus thinking like this he was smiling inside his mind. when robin by chance turned towards him, he lowered his head out of a mixture of shame and guilt, on having thoughts about them in his mind. she nudged mina in the ribs, tickling her unintentionally. mina looked up to glare at her friend to find her almost laughing but controlling and found the reason. she too joined her friend in the fun.
the friends spent almost all their time having fun and adventuring till the day he entered into mina's mind. she started experiencing uncanny emotions, that which she have only read in books but never experienced before. while she was in college she liked a boy from her high school with whom she came into contact through Facebook. she started falling for him, or to say the truth "obsessed". she hung about him till she couldn't remember how long but he was one strange being. since it was college time and maybe because they didn't mature much, she didn't get to experience these feelings she had now. her feeling this time was serious, she knew that, but she didn't want to worry her friend so she had hidden it pretty well. she believed that she did well. but...
"Robin as you suggested, we are not going to the club today for practice. you also asked me to not work today. i had some really good ideas for my book. you see this time am exploring new grounds but they have to wait for a whole day! so what's your plan now? we are even walking on the streets now." "let's head to my home. come and meet my mother. she's been asking about you and there is brook. he would be happy to see another pretty big sister."saying that robin wiggled her eyebrows and chuckled.
"haha, very funny." mina was distracted.
'why am i feeling like we are being intensely gazed at and followed closely by someone. look at my skin, i am getting goosebumps',mina was clearly on vigilance. since they came out of the trial room the gut feel of being followed only kept increasing till now. she felt a burning gaze on her back, then another time she felt it from her front and sides. she inspected with her gaze every nook and corner that could be a potential hiding place for whoever that is stalking them. she thought 'the person must be stalking me, from different directions. sometimes far, sometimes disturbingly so close. there are even some instances when as if the person is observing me from being inside me. what is happening with me?'
"robin, is anyone following us?" "by following us, do you mean like someone stalking?!, no i don't think so. this street is almost empty except for us and the bosses of the shops."
"ok, then", mina became silent. robin looked at her face to only find her thinking something seriously, so deep in thought. robin is worried about her friend. since yesterday she's behaving strangely and she already appeared disturbed for more than two days, but she knew she can't show her worry explicitly otherwise mina would go to extreme lengths of hiding her pain. that is what kind of person she is, one who doesn't wanna show her pains and sufferings. so she'd rather pretend to be not noticing than let her friend suffer in seclusion.
"here we are mina. let's go inside." "ahn? oh yeah. i didn't notice. let's. i am starving robin. would have aunty made any food?" "of course she would have. she is a great cook, you know that from all that lunch box stealing" saying that robin laughed out loud. mina looked embarrassed but she couldn't refute. her friend's mom's cooking is best, in par with her own mom's cooking. only they are totally different that they can't be compared. thinking of food, she only starved more, reminded by a grumble from her stomach. she gave a groan from her throat holding tight to her stomach and pulling robin inside by her elbow.
"i already told my mom that you are coming home and she got ready to prepare a feast. you are her favourite after all not even me. i sometimes doubt whether we got switched in the hospital while we are still newborn?". they removed their pumps and changed to inhouse slippers.
"how could that be possible we aren't even born at the same time. i am older than you by 5 months." she gave a helpless smile at her friend. "well it is possible if someone time travelled and switched our places. so technically am the older one but am made to exist in a time later than you so again you are 5 months older?" she was seriously contemplating this possibility. mina "I don't think time travel exists."she was already baffled by Robin's way of thinking.
" you never know what exists outside in this world. whatever exists outside as well as inside you, you think you know it all well, but you have started to see only the tip of the iceberg. remember this, someday you are going to believe in time travel. someday you are going to believe in all that you never wanted to believe in." mina was silenced for once again in the same day.
"mom i brought mina home. feed us. we are hungry! she is hungry!" "i will be there in a minute darlings. just wash yourself up and sit in the table. just have to get all these dishes out there." robin nodded her head sideways at mina, signalling her to assist her mother. they both washed up real quick and entered the kitchen to take all the dishes out of Robin's mom's hands. she was a tall, lean beauty with grey eyes, just like robin. only she is older, had tamed features with more rounder figure compared to the wild, so young robin. her smile was shining which made robin and mina warm up as well. they all settled on the table and mina was inquired about her and her family's health again and again by Robin's mom.
when she was left for a minute while her aunty went to call out her son to come and eat, she returned to what they were talking before,' what is that i don't believe. what is that i don't want to admit that it exists. there is time travel for one. ghosts, Bermuda triangle, parents who doesn't love their child, a disinfectant 100% effective, a completely filled potato chips packet...' immersed in her thoughts she didn't hear the noise of wooden boards creaking as someone came down the stairs, faster and forceful than it needed to be. brook came into the view of his sister and her companion. he was laughing loud over the phone, but suddenly he stopped with his mouth hung open, looking at the direction of the table. he trembled a little and whispered something over the phone. the girl voice from the other side asked him to repeat it again so that she can hear it clearly, this time he said it clear as a crystal, so the whole room could hear it,"am in love". everyone looked at his direction and mina raised her head suddenly only to look into another pair of grey eyes, only it is mischievous and his lips had a smirk on them.