Shattered Relations | Aru Shah AU |

II

ARU
Aru was blindly copying down dates from History.

Like a robot, her hand wrote, her ears listened, but her mind was on other things.

There were barely ten minutes left for class, since most of it had been spent in introductions, as it was the first day of college.

The bell rang, and the students began filing out. Aru snatched her bag, her notebook, and stomped out, falling into step with fellow students.

The hallways were choked, with the others discussing their first day.

Her mind was still fixed on her family, when she bumped into... someone.

She stumbled, when a guy caught her arm.

He was handsome, with dark eyes and dark, floppy hair that nearly fell into his eyes. A camera was slung around his neck, and it bobbed slightly.

Even though he was apologizing profusely, his dimples flashed.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry!" He said, bending down to pick up the books that had spilled out of her arms.

"I wasn't looking where I was going," she said, apologetically.

He handed the books back to her, and said, "Again, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

The longer, more truthful version (yes, occasionally she spoke the truth) would be messy, so she just said, "Yes, I'm fine."

The boy breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Well.... have a good day?" She could have sworn there was a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Thanks... you too."

He smiled slightly, and went on his way, and Aru continued on her way out of the campus.

Her face was heating up too, and once again, her thoughts wandered to Kara. She bumped into a second person, this time, it being Mini.

"Oh--hey, Aru." She smiled, cradling the thick textbooks in her arms tighter.

"Hey, Mini. Good day?" She wasn't exactly waiting for an answer, and offered perfunctory remarks to her as they walked to their apartment building.

It was quite close to their college, (Brynne went too, but they hadn't seen her, since all of them majored in different subjects).

Mini opened the door, and delicious aromas attacked the both of them.

Aru's stomach grumbled in response, while Mini sneezed.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

Brynne poked her head out of their kitchen door, and said delightedly, "You've come! Great, I need you two to sample some things--you don't have any food allergies, do you?"

Mini opened her mouth, but Aru interrupted, "She's lactose intolerant, and I don't have any that I know of."

Mini beamed. "You remembered!"

"I mean, one has to learn something after listening to their roommate ranting to them about the dangers of lactose intolerance, and milk products without medicine for a week."

Mini scoffed good-naturedly, and they walked toward the kitchen.

Brynne was cooking up a feast, a crazed glint in her eye, as she said, "Mini, you'll have to make do with salsa." 

"Whoa. We can't eat all this." Aru said, scanning the food, barely stopping her mouth from watering.

"I have a few friends coming over. I think they'll like you.. I think you'll like them. They're cousins, Rudy Sarpa, and Aiden Acharya."