The Great Indian College Romance

25. Of Beaches and Cocktails

The evening was incredibly pleasant despite the crowd. Goa was a popular place during this season for obvious reasons. We all were dressed for the beach as we met up in the lobby. Sarah was rifling through her huge bag and would have bumped into another hotel guest if Matt hadn't steered her away to safety. I smiled to myself as I looked on. Matt was a good guy. 

"What are you smiling at?" Vahni asked as she checked her new sunglasses out in a small mirror. 

"Nothing," I shook my head. 

I smoothed down the white dress I was wearing over my swimsuit. My own sunglasses were pushed back on my head. Sarah gave me an approving look but didn't say anything. I would never have worn such a dress a year ago. 

"There they are," Vahni said and pointed to the stairs. 

My eyes widened as I noticed Angad's attire. His shirt was identical in both colour and texture to my dress. It seemed as if we were dressed in a cheesy couple's costume. Which is not to say that objectively he didn't look good because he did. The shirt stood against his tan skin making him look better than he already did. His shorts exposed his shapely legs. 

I shook my head to break away from this chain of thoughts and prayed that nobody would notice our coordinated outfits. 

Too bad that was the first thing out of Yug's mouth.

"Whoa, Meera, Angad, did you guys plan this or something?" he said loudly drawing everybody else's attention to us. 

Angad stared at me and then back at his outfit. I blushed.

"Of course not!" I protested.

"Why so testy?" Yug laughed. 

Everybody had, by this point, made the connection and they were laughing in agreement. 

"Looks like the existing couples have some competition," Yug laughed, "Meera and Angad have coordinated outfits. What will you do to one-up this?" 

If my blush wasn't prominent enough already, it was now. 

"Har har, very funny. Let's go now. We need a good spot on the beach and we haven't sorted out transport." I said walking off. 

"So, were you spying on me? Is that how you knew I would be wearing this?" Angad asked as he caught up with me easily. 

"I could ask you the same thing," I quipped back and he laughed. 

He teased me about my dress till we were outside. 

Our hotel was a little distance from the nearest beach. We could have walked but we decided to rent scooties instead. Among all of us, we would need five of them. Siddharth suggested it would be more practical to rent a car and a couple of scooties so we could store our stuff in there and switch with whoever wanted to ride in either. 

I seconded his suggestion because it would be safer. 

***

We got to the beach well before the sunset. People milled about the area enjoying themselves. I breathed in the salty smell of the sea and smiled to myself. The breeze tickled my hair and for a moment I was truly at peace. 

It lasted a second because Angad and Yug instantly whooped loudly and ran towards the water throwing their shirt to the side. I stared after them amused at their antics.

The boys all followed suit and I could only guess that this wasn't the first time they had done this. Deepani paused for a second and looked back beckoning the rest of us.