WANDERLUST

Chapter 6

We all look at the group of men staring back at us aggressively. I tighten my grip around the backpack I was holding. Aditi walks forward and shouts,"COME ON! C'MON! We are not afraid of you guys!"
What the hell?
She rolls up her sleeves and challenges them,"You don't know my friends, they'll beat down each one of you!"

The group starts walking towards us. Bunny speaks,"Ready friends?"
Avinash and Aditi say,"Yes!"
Bunny counts,"On the count of 3...2...1...
RUNNN!!!!"
Bunny and Avinash run away leaving Aditi there. Aditi turns around with shock. She starts running with them as the men come running after us.

I stand there still with no idea of what to do.  Bunny comes back and pulls me by my arms,"Run scholar!!!"
Avinash and Aditi go to different direction. Meanwhile, me and Bunny enter a restaurant. A guy who was following us, enters the restaurant too.
Everyone in the restaurant were looking at us as we circled around their tables running from him.

The guy caught Bunny and holds him by his neck. I look around to find things that might help to free Bunny. I see a ketchup bottle on the table beside. I lift it  and squeeze it, letting out the ketchup on the guy's eyes.
He loosens his grip around Bunny as we run away from the place.

We hide behind a wall. We could see Aditi and Avinash across the road hiding in a truck. I look at Bunny and hiss,"What is this? What situation have you put me into? I didn't want this."
A small V forms between his eyebrows as he says,"Neither did I. Don't worry, I'll do something."

Aditi removes the curtain that was hiding them. Avinash growls,"What did you do that?"
Aditi takes a bamboo stick and says,"We'll attack them behind!"
Avinash cries,"Why do you have to attack ? Just keep quiet and hide with me."
He looks around and realises they were hiding in a truck with bottles of liquor.He excitedly takes out two bottles and shows Aditi,"LOOK!"

A man turns around and looks at Avinash and Aditi and screams,"They are here!!"
Bunny holds my hand and starts running towards the road. He quickly calls a Taxi and asks me to get inside.

Aditi and Avinash come running towards the Taxi followed by the group the men. Avinash throws his liquor bottles on them as they slow down. All of us get inside and run away from the market.

As we all sighed after finally getting rid of them, I smiled thinking about the little adventure I did today. I never thought I would attack someone using a ketchup! I never thought I would attack anyone by anyway! I saw the little 'hero' residing in Aditi. It could have get us in more danger, but nevermind.

I looked at the three of them. Who thought I would I actually call them friends and mean it? These people are so much fun.  They travel together and always have each other's back. I'm so glad that I'm a part of them now.

But I can never be them. My lifestyle is so much different from them. After this 'fun' trip, I'll be going back to my study routine. Ugh.

**********

Next morning, Sameer, our travel guide leads us near a mountain range. We were surrounded by snow covered mountains. A small stream was passing beside us. We all sit on the huge rocks. Sameer stands on the highest rock and announces,"Okay guys, we start trekking today. But before that we'll have to make two teams. The one who reaches the top first will be the winning team. The losing team will set up tents and cook food for everyone."

This is my first trek ever. I hope everything goes good. Sameer continues,"So, who volunteers to be the leaders of the teams?"
Avinash and Bunny immediately raise their hands. Since they were the only two who volunteered, Sameer made them the leaders of two different teams. He then asked them to choose their members.

Avinash starts searching as Aditi goes and stands beside him,"What was taking you so long to choose me?"
Avinash gets annoyed and shouts,"Let me choose, will you?"

It was Bunny aka Kabir's turn to choose. His eyes start searching but stops when he looks at me. He looks at me intensely as I start feeling butterflies in my stomach.
He then speaks,"I choose you, Lara!"
Oh.
Lara who was sitting right behind me gets up and stands beside Bunny.
He was looking at Lara the way I wished. Why am I feeling jealous all of a sudden? I don't know, honestly. But this somehow pricked me.

Avinash calls out my name as I stand near his team. Soon they choose all their members.