Chapter XXV
The Injury: The Lunch Box Journal

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Story so far: After Gautham’s birthday, Aryan’s and Neil’s birthday was just around the corner, while they were planning to bunk the office the very day. Was there a birthday bash planned something that happened for Gautham? Read on to find out…

As planned Neil and Aryan bunked the office in the middle of the week, which was quite unusual for either of them, as they were one of the few people who rarely used to take leaves on a working day. This one time Aryan worked on a weekend and to compensate for the day that he spent extra at the office, he was given a choice to take off any day as compensation. He still came all the days even when there was no much work to be done at the office.

But unlike Gautham, there was no much buzz around in the office or inside the group. The party givers conveniently took absence on the day and hence they owed them a party. But as fate may have it, the very next day after their birthday, Akhil snapped his ankle on the badminton court (New Beginnings) which put a lot of things on hold, including the big party bash they were supposed to receive.

Akhil had an injury which sort of restricted pretty much everything. While he was sure that it was not that big of a deal, he did things about his business. Though when he went to the doctor the very same day, he was suggested to take proper care of the leg before it gets even worse. He was advised bed rest for a few days, which if avoided might take a longer time to recover. He was even suggested that he should get a cement plaster to avoid excess involuntary movement and give it time to heal properly. Akhil didn’t pay much heed to the advice of the doctor. He was under the impression that it wasn’t that big of a deal and it would be cured in a month or so, contrary to the doctor’s assumption of at least a couple of months. The whole incident wasn’t informed to the parents back at his home. Meanwhile, he struggled to walk with the pain. He did take a few days to work from home, which wasn’t given generally to everyone. After a few days of working from home, he decided to come to the office anyway when he felt that it was getting much better. He was wrong there.

Likitha was getting worried sick of Akhil as he wasn’t taking proper care of his leg. She seemed to be in more pain than he was. Well, maybe that’s how love works in some cases….well… just-good-friends–love. A week or so after that he had to go home for a friend’s marriage, which was when his family came to know about his injury. Upon taking him to the hospital, he came out with a plaster around his ankle with a pink bandage (which was apparently the only color available) and a walking stick to assist him in walking.

This did come with a little good as well if one had to think about it. People started offering him seats seeing his state. The better part seemed to be at restaurants especially when they are crowded and people offering him to a seat which later transitioned to getting the table much faster. Well, it was painful for him but the attention which wasn’t alien to him which he garnered balanced it out. Meanwhile, Likitha was more worried than his parents. In one instance she was even sorta scolding Neil for not telling him to sit and not move around. As if it was any easy to tell anything to headstrong Akhil. One thing she regrets is not being on the same campus as him, yet her concern was very well heard in the whole of office. Thanks to the phone that rang every 30 minutes or less asking what he was doing and what will do. This ritual was something that was termed to be the Status Update taking the cue from the daily StandUp calls everyone has with the clients giving their updates for the day. One of them even pointed out that their mother or wives or girlfriends do not call them that many times in a complete day. This too many calls in a day solidified their previous assumption of how much they are meant to be together. But as always Akhil discarded the very idea of it which an age-old statement “We are just good friends“. “Yeah, of course”, everyone exclaimed at the same time like it was rehearsed and perfectly choreographed.

( To be Continued … )

How Akhil dealt with the new injury and how Likitha reacted to it? How did it impact the others, if it at all? And what happened thereafter.
– Check out for new updates coming soon on the blog –

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The Lunch Box Journal

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