2014
Wednesday
I was having a wonderful day. Until I woke up.
I lay there in bed, staring at the ceiling and contemplating life when I heard my mom yelling at me to get up and get going if I wanted to get to school on time. Internally groaning at the thought of giving a physics test in class today, I got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
Twenty-five minutes later, I reached the bus stop, only to realise that I had missed the bus. Ruefully, I walked back home to hitch a ride to school from my father. One that I knew came with a complimentary lecture on tardiness.
***
It was the period before Lunch Break when the English teacher was discussing the wonderful writing of an author whose name I had never heard while I tried my best to not fall asleep. I had given my Physics test which was in the first two periods. Needless to say, it did not go very well. I didn't know a few things and I had to wing it. To make things worse, I fell short of time. Five marks out of fifteen went down the drain just like that. To top it all off, in the periods after we broke for snacks, I got yelled at by the Math teacher for no reason at all. The idiots sitting behind me were whispering when ma'am was teaching a new lesson and I was trying my best to pay attention. The minute I turned around to ask them to keep it down, Ma'am had decided to look at us. Before I could say a word to either of them, she had begun scolding me for not being attentive in class and disrupting the decorum.
And so I dreamed on about how torturous my school was and how wonderful it would be to instead study at Hogwarts, I'd choose Professor Snape over the teachers at my school any day. Just then, the bell rang, breaking me out of my wishful daydream. It was Break, finally!! Within seconds of the teacher leaving the classroom, Pragya, Kriansh, and Kanak had gathered around my table with their tiffin boxes. The chair next to mine was empty, and Pragya took a seat while the twins turned the chairs from the next table to face the back of the class.
"Ms. Neha hates you doesn't she?" Pragya asked referring to the Math teacher.
"Tell me about it," I replied with a sigh.
"Forget that, have you heard Justin's new song?" Kanak said, in her usual cheerful tone, always the little ball of sunshine.
"Yeah! I was waiting for you to bring it up. It's so nice." Pragya replied with a laugh while I half-smiled. I hadn't had a good day and was not in the mood to laugh with them and pretend that everything was just peachy. They both ranted about how silky his voice was as I tuned out of their conversation, focusing on the task at hand, which was to finish my food. You'd think they were being bad friends who didn't care about me. But they were experienced with my sour moods. I liked to be left alone or I would become even more cranky. I felt someone tap my shoulder and looked up to see Kriansh looking at me with concern.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing; just had a bad day."
I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't notice someone sitting on the other side of me. It was only when said mysterious person decided to take a bite out of my lunch, did I look up. It was Anquit. He had started joining us during lunch breaks recently.
"Mmmm! Sandwiches!" He said as he relished on what was to be my meal. I don't normally let people take my food, not without asking anyways, and if they did I would make sure they regretted it. Not today though, I didn't have it in me to yell at him. I just scowled at him as I scooted away from him and towards Pragya, making sure to keep my lunch box out of his reach.
The next thing I knew, Pragya was yelling in my ears, "Who are you and what have you done to my best friend? Why isn't Anquit lying on the ground, begging for mercy and forgiveness for taking your food without your permission?" I mean, she wasn't wrong, Any other day, and that would have actually happened. Everyone at the table started laughing as Kanak replied with a smirk, "You see, that kind of treatment is reserved for us. Special people have privileges of being treated kindly."
Oh no, not this again!
You see, all of these people that I called my best friends had a very baseless theory that I had a crush on Anquit which is why I let him get his way. I honestly didn't get why they thought that but there was no convincing them otherwise so I had learnt to roll with it. Until they mentioned it in front of the devil himself, which was precisely what happened seconds ago. I discreetly threw a death glare at Kanak for saying something like that in front of him while she pretended to be oblivious to me secretly plotting her murder. Anquit, who had caught on to the conversation by now, asked innocently, "What do you mean?"
That's when Kriansh joined in, "A certain someone on this table may or may not fancy you." he said almost as casually as if he was reading the quote of the day written on top of the whiteboard.
"They would make a pretty good couple you know. " Pragya said in a fake thoughtful voice. If only she had spared a glance in my direction, she would have been six feet under by now, as I threw daggers at her with my eyes.
"Well then let's leave the lovebirds alone, shall we?" Kanak said and in the blink of an eye, they all were gone.
And then there were two.
"So, is it true? You fancy me?"
"Pfft, you wish!"
"Well, Pragya was right , it makes sense doesn't it?"The Bad Boy and The Good Girl", quite the cliché if you ask me."
"First of all, I'm not a good girl. At all. Second, You don't look like a bad boy to me. Besides, I don't do clichés." I smiled at him in the fakest way imaginable before taking my water bottle and almost emptying it over his head. Good thing there was no teacher in the class or I would have been in deep trouble. The look on his face was priceless and I wished I could capture it. "Why'd you do that?!" He hissed at me. I just laughed and said, "Guess we're even now. You can just imagine that this is orange juice. Oh, and, I hope this helps you decide whether or not I have a crush on you," I smirked at his now drenched self as I stood up and walked out of the classroom, feeling pleased with myself. Finally, something good happened today, I thought to myself.
***
2021
Honk!
And I was late. Again. I called up Shreya to ask her to cover for me as I wriggled my way out of the morning Andheri traffic.
And, here I stood, in front of YellowPage Publishing House, albeit forty-five minutes late. I had been working here as the Managing Editor for a few months now. I was lucky to get such a high job so early in my career. YellowPage in itself was a relatively new company but had risen to fame in a few years. I remember when the firm had just begun. After graduating from college, I got a job here as a proofreader. Not soon after, I got promoted as the Managing Editor. I and Shreya are the two Managing Editors of this firm. While I have been here for a long time, Shreya only just joined last month. We became good friends in a very short time and I was grateful to have someone in the company to lean on. She reminded me of the people I had left behind seven years ago.
No use dwelling on the past, I said to myself as I walked into the building. Welcome to another regular day at my job. I dashed straight to my office, like a woman on a mission. I had a lot of work to do today and I was late as it is, contacting the writer to go over the final details of her book and editing the manuscript to send to the printing press, assign all the proofreaders, editors, and illustrators tasks for another book which was still in the works. Not to mention the meeting with the Publisher-cum-Founder of our company, who had called one to inform the main staff about a new decision that had been taken by the management.
I buried myself in work and before I knew it, Mrs. Sabharwal was beckoning for everyone to join her in the Conference Room. Here we go.
"Since we're all here, let's get started. We've grown as a company in a very short time and paved the road to success for generations to come but now,....increase engagement...market ourselves better....bringing on board more people including people from the data industry, albeit temporarily, to...." Thus, we were now recruiting more people from another sector altogether to improve our position in the corporate world. Nice.
"Ishvika, since you know how everything works here, you could show the team around when they arrive next week."
"Duly noted ma'am," I replied. She went on to give other people responsibilities and informing us about the changes that would happen in the coming few months that they'll be here as the day finally came to a close. It was 6:00 by the time she dismissed all of us and I headed home. A rather empty apartment with only music to accompany me on lonely nights. I had put out advertisements looking for flatmates but they had been of no avail.
Hope you guys liked it! Suggestions for ship names anyone? Comment or PM me. And be sure to vote:)