03: About the Realisation

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A lecture had just concluded, and the eight of these friends entered the cafeteria. There was silence around, and a couple was standing in between, everyone looking at them. And then the boy gave the girl a ring and proposed her.
"Sweet!" complimented Rishab, with a smile, nearly all over his face.
"Seventies..." commented Antara casually and moved forward.
Sunidhi quickly moved next to Rishab and whispered to him, "So? When do you plan to tell her?"
"Tell her?" he exclaimed. "Tell whom? And tell what?"
"If you want me to name her.. SMITI. When do you plan to tell her about your feelings for her?"
"Woho.. After I get those feelings!" said Rishab, with a stroke of laughter. His face loudly said 'Oh, Come on! Not the same old topic again'.
Sunidhi quickly replied "Oh! So that'll be two years back. I wonder how you'll do that. I wish I could come along."
"Eh No!" said Rishab, laughing at what Sunidhi just said. And before you draw any inference, science always struck Rishab's mind before jokes and taunts. He continued. "Moving back in time together is not possible!! You see, practically, moving in time together would mean conversion from physical to -"
Sunidhi growled with a look that loudly conveyed "Who's the idiot out of us? Here's a hint. Not Me!", and thankfully, he got it.
"And, anyway, I have never been in love with her."
"You'd say that! Forget it." snapped Sunidhi and moved away.
When they reached their table, six people were already sitting there. The good part was that there were three girls and three guys against the Eight of these. The bad part was that they all seemed to be regular at real hard workouts. While the guys out of them had their biceps bulging out like someone had inflated them till the skin began to crack, the girls seemed to have hands strong enough to break the table in one stroke.
"So? Does anyone feel like eating? Well, I don't" said Sunidhi and turned around to leave.
"NOOOOO!" shouted Smiti, breathing hard. "We have been challenged. We're not losing so easily. We are eight and they are six. So if each one of us handles Three quarters of a person out of them, the fight will be in our favour."
Rishab and Kanishk agreed, though fear rejected to leave their face.
Anish immediately threw his bag on the table and held one of the guys.
Armaan followed. Just that he took a girl, ehh, that too not for long.
Finally all of them jumped in..

[20 minutes later]
All eight of them were sitting in that table, panting badly. Eyes were swollen, and body parts seemed to be broken. Smiti and Antara however were hit less than the others. A lot less.. Actually they had not been hit at all.
"We got it!" declared Smiti proudly. "We made it, boys and girls."
Everyone mildly celebrated. "But I didn't think we would. They were really.. REAAAALLLY strong."
"You're welcome!" said Antara. "We might have never been in this table had I not told them about Anish's Feline Flu!"
Everyone looked at Antara with jaws dropped! She smiled, feeling proud of herself.
"Yeah! I told them that he had already given it to two more people. And that the disease is really contagious and horrendous"
"What? Who two?" asked Smiti.
"Don't worry about that. They don't know them." said Antara.
"But Feline Flu?" said Anish. "Have you started creating new species of diseases?"
"What do you mean? Cats give this disease. Stop questioning the power of Mother Nature" defended Antara what she had just done.
"Thank God! Thanks Antara." said Sunidhi to end the discussion before it starts, and all the guys looked with a "Really? Thanks?" at her. "So we are in the seat. Shall we eat something?"
"Sure! By the way, one of the girls and her boyfriend used to be quite good friends of mine at school only till they ate away my lunch"
"Oh that's bad!" exclaimed Sunidhi.
"Yeah!" said Smiti almost about to cry. "Her mother made the cake thrice for me. It was mine. And they ate it everytime..."
Everyone went blank. The reason was already weird. And then she added in a volume hardly audible to others, but clear to all of the seven of these. "... Out of HER box"
Rishab took a tissue paper and gave it to Smiti.
"Oh thanks!" said Smiti, rolled it and threw it in the Recycle bin and went away to get something to eat.
Rishab tried to find atleast one logical explanation but failed. Sunidhi came to rescue.
"She just threw that on those two!"
"What?" said Rishab with a hybrid of Confusion and Adoration.
"Yeah! See, she dumped the two of them, and what's closest to 'dump'?" she said, making the quotation marks gesture, followed by a shrug to mean "Obviously!"
Rishab was so impressed that for once he got the feeling that Science and Technology were probably not as good. While others kept talking, Rishab began to think about something.
"I appreciate everything she does, like all her theories, support every cause she raises, like to go everywhere she goes... eh probably not everywhere.. Anyway.. Do I really love her?"
"What?" said Kanishk.
"Yeah, what?" followed Anish.
"Whhhhaaaaat???" exclaimed Armaan.
"What? You guys say that all the time. I was just thinking that may be I do love her?" explained Rishab, and then he realized something. "But it was all on inside my mind. How did you hear that?"
With their mouths wide open in shock, they were all looking at Rishab. "Oh, you didn't!" Rishab drawled.
"Yeah, but since you've started, should we hear more?" said Anish, moving the ketchup bottle standing upright between him and Rishab aside.
"Nope! I don't like informing the worthless-but-loud people about my personal life" replied Rishab raising an eye-brow, and then continued. "You know what, I am leaving.. I need to reach home early today"
"That is what we all do, and everyday!" strongly argued Anish.
"Really? So you call reaching home after 9 early?" commented Rishab.
"Yeah" said Armaan very seriously, "that's too early.. You're such a kiddo..!"
They got up to leave when they saw a lot of crowd gathered near the service counter. They ran to see what it is, when Smiti's head popped out from between the crowd, and then she pushed herself out, as the people shouted things hard to understand.
"Run! Run!" she whispered. "Before they find out I'm gone."
"What happened?" asked Rishab all concerned. Smiti only gave a guilty smile.
"No.. You didn't do that." exclaimed Antara.
"What? What did she do?" asked Rishab as he looked at both Smiti and Antara, all confused.
"That lady was not giving me enough noodles for the money I paid.." slowly spoke Smiti, looking down.
"Well, so? You asked for it very sweet, didn't you?" said Rishab, his body saying "Say Yes and just stop after that!"
"Ofcourse" she said trying to feel a little less guilty, but failed. "Just that I guess, the punches are not counted as one of the sweet ways"
"WHATTTT?" shouted all of them together.
"Yeah, that's it? And they made an issue out of it?" said Antara, as she joined her hands thanking the God. "It's all karma.."
"What did you do then?" said Smiti. Hers got bright to know that someone did something bigger.
"This guy paid for more than he was getting. I told the lady on the counter to get him more. But she didn't budge!" Antara told the others.
"So?" they asked.
"Nothing.. I just took two forks from the counter.." she continued. By the way, the forks kept on the counter were metallic, good-quality ones.
"So, you took forks!! That's it?" said Kanishk.
"and apparently threw them on her when she was standing, her back facing me. She got the forks in a place that made it hard for her to sit for a month" she said, and then smiled at Smiti. Smiti however didn't feel any comforted by this.
The friends walked out of the cafeteria, when Kanishk's phone rang up.
"It's Pratigya!!" he exclaimed, but then controlled his excitement in front of the friends.
"Keep moving!" he said and moved a little away from them to talk to Pratigya.
The others kept moving, Rishab and the others trying to make Smiti feel comfortable, and ofcourse, avoiding any more of Antara's stories. Pratigya, on the call, was telling Kanishk about a big offer she had just got.

They were about to reach the main gate when the girl who had kicked Armaan, came running towards him, gifted him a portrait of his and then went away.
When they saw the portrait, the name of the artist was 'Divya', and at the back her phone number was written with a message.
'After that day, I've never stopped thinking about you. I kicked you because I hate it when the guys hit on me just for entertainment. In your eyes, I saw sincerity and commitment. Unfortunately, I could not see that before the kick. Will you be mine and let me have the best partner I could have dreamed of?'
"O-M-G.." exclaimed Sunidhi.
"Did she just propose Armaan!?" exclaimed Smiti.
Kanishk's call had just completed and he joined in with "Proposed Armaan?? A girl?"
"May be, she liked his innocence!" said Anish, with a smile. Armaan responded with a launch-of-merc-teeth-out smile.
"Or she liked his humour!" said Rishab.
"Or she liked his courage!" said Vineet..
"Or.." drawled Antara, "she got a high and now, she cannot see things clearly."
She attracted a loud 'WHAT?' look from all. She immediately responded.
"What? I thought we were trying to find reasons why she would propose him". Antara paused and then continued "with open minds!"
[The day concluded]