Serious in Love ✔

30- "You'll always be my stupid."

“Where's Pragya?” Tripti asked, noticing someone missing amongst us. All of us looked around and indeed Pragya was missing. Strange, she was with us, just a minute ago.

“Oh, are you looking for a girl with a curly hair? I just saw her leaving the house with a rickshaw. Guess she ran away.” A teenage boy who Tripti introduced as her brother- in- law answered and walked away upstairs, putting on his earphones.

“What?!” Dhruv rose up from her seat, shocked. “What she's upto now? Ugh, I'll call her.”

Upon calling Pragya, she informed she had a sudden craving for bubblegum so she left to buy that in the nearest convenient store. That idiot did tell us to have dinner without her but how could we, when she was out, in an unknown town at night while Tripti was constantly messaging her to come back. The dishes kept on the pots were getting cold while the cook was yet to make chapati (yes, Tripti's in- laws have hired a professional cook). The wait was getting infuriating as hell. I was actually considering having my food before my stomach growls in open for everyone to hear.

Twenty minutes later, we heard the doorbell.

“I'm going to knock her senses for making us starve this long,” Vansh grumbled. Dhruv also said something similar along the lines, agreeing with him. The five of us including Tripti rose from our seats and stepped outside the door together.

The bitch had the nerve to show at the gate with a gigantic smile on her face. We were about to shout inadequate profanities at her when we spotted something else and stopped dead.

That something else was in the form of two familiar figures. The color of their faces  were in contrast with each other under the house lights. While one had less hair, the other had thick curls. The fairer amongst the two had sported himself in a red black checkered shirt and beige pants while the other was in grey tee shirt and blue half jeans with his head covered by a funky cap. Dragging their luggages along their handle, they came forward with a welcoming smile on their faces that brought tears in Tripti's eyes.

“Man, what a welcoming sight this is. Everyone's here.” One of them said, removing his cap.

“Yeah, even our former roommates looking as foolish as ever,” The other one agreed with a laugh. He looked at Tripti in the eye and spoke earnestly, “We are here, Trips.”

“Chad, Mark...” Vansh mumbled, still caught under the moment of shock.

“I didn't think you would come.” Tripti spoke. “I thought—”

“You thought we wouldn't show up, just like your wedding day, right?” Chad completed Tripti's sentence. “Well, that's exactly why we came. We felt guilty for not showing up at your big day and made up our minds to grab the next chance to visit you in any occasion that came.”

Mark Adam, too, backed him up. “Don't ya send us back now. Do you know how difficult it is to request a two day leave? But no, we extended it for five days, just for you. And don't even get me started on the money. This better be worth it, Trips. You better tour me around this cultural country of yours... Say, do you forgive us now? Answer, girl. You—”

In that spur of a moment, I felt a slight rush of air to my left. Tripti, who was standing right next to me was gone like a gush of wind. It was like a scene from the movies. She ran past the flight of stairs, ran past the front yard like a superman, jumping straight into the arms of those boys, almost knocking them off in the process. They hugged her back, apologizing at the same time while she bawled like a baby. Just when I thought of greeting them too, someone else beat me to it as they approached Mark and Chad.

“Please step aside, Tripti. We have some unfinished business to do,” Dhruv spoke, standing before Mark and Chad.

It almost looked like a skit going on as we girls stood in the sidelines to watch the interaction between the boys. Chad and Mark threw questionable looks at Vansh and Dhruv while they answered them sternly. Dhruv and Vansh exchanged a knowing glance at each other before they stepped forward.