Twenty too short

Chapter VI
Capricious : The Lunch Box Journal

Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V

Capricious (adj) :
Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behaviour. 

Fast (verb): 
Abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink, especially as a religious observance.

Crush (noun) :
A brief but intense infatuation for someone, especially someone unattainable.

It so happens sometimes people like someone, really like. It may depend on a variety of things, be it appearance, the way the talk, the (same) frequency with they communicate and resonate, et cetera. It is a level below love which in layman terms is also called as infatuation, because love is a too deep of a concept and it, the feeling has passed the like-station. Infatuation is a broader topic, but let’s keep it simple, like most things usually are, unlike the “It’s complicated” replies that people usually give when asked about how they love-life is going on. When someone reaches this station of infatuation and gets down of the train, they have to let the message be sent across to the other side. There’s an easy way to do it, and there’s an harder way to do it. The former involves going up to the person and expressing and (most of the time) convincing to get the next train to the next stop, while the latter involves sitting in that station and hoping that the crush automatically gets the clue because that’s what staring too hard does (or may be not) and comes running to express their feelings. But then again, the former doesn’t happen, because too scared of the consequences or may be it’s just the fear of rejection and the latter doesn’t happen either, the reason to which is quite obvious – Just don’t be that creepy.

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It was a boring day at office, which means “Work as usual”. The office floor saw some reshuffling of places. Akhil, Neil and Sameer got the notice in advance, which at that point of time it wasn’t clear that it was for the whole office flooe. So, they had a chance to select the best place for them which they did – The window! There was one window, and it was not corner office with a skyview. It was just a plain old window from top to bottom which had sunlight showering over it. The news of reshuffling spread slower to the other members of the project, while some were reluctant to move since they got too comfortable sitting in their place and the proximity to their friends. Aryan went ahead and chose a place which was not his alloted place, but he chose the one which was quite far, so that there would be no disturbance to his addiction to online window-shopping. It was the perfect place, or so he thought for a day. Then as others started coming over, some of the other computers didn’t work which made people to shift towards the corner. Eventually, there were more people surrounding him than he thought there would be. He still has countless sleepless nights, perhaps the withdrawal symptoms of his addiction.

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*There’s noise from the other end of the ODC (Offshore Development Center, since the client is on the other side of the planet) The squeezey toy makes a squeaky noise almost alarming the entire floor*
Aryan checked the bottom right corner of his screen. “4 PM“, it read, which meant it was time for the second official break of the day. This was also the time which synced with the dancers group. The whole squad went out to have their coffee, tea and green tea, the choice of their beverage. They were still on their way when they spotted the D(ance) C(rush) group sitting almost at the center of the cafeteria. As a result of which, the usual plan of going out to the ground and watch an ongoing cricket match was replaced with sitting in the cafeteria, preferably closer to them. They got their drinks and settle down, very close to the DC group. One of the group members wants to have biscuits while having tea, which was one way of ensuring that they sit there for a longer time, and the other thing was that the DC group was on the way to the wending machine.

Neil was going to get the biscuits and Akhil decided to accompany him, since his crush was in the DC group. They get a packet of biscuit and settle down enjoying their hot beverages, dipping the biscuits and talking some really important stuff. It’s easy to guess how important the discussion was by observing Akhil’s eyes which were fixated on someone across the table. He was paying attention to the conversation, ofcourse. He really was. The whole group knew what was going on. Since they were still sitting there and the biscuits got over, Akhil decided to get another round of snack. When he came back, Sameer who was getting bored of this long distance single sided eye relationshop and dared Akhil to talk to her and keep the things moving forward. To encourage him, he said he would sponsor the whole group a treat, of he manages to talk to her.

The new batch of snack was shared and enjoyed by the group, but Akhil was still sitting there, not doing anything for the treat to his friends. His will power could have made his friends happier. The snacks got over, the girls gang left to resume their work and they still sat there to give some time to access the damage. This was the second time that this had happened. A week earlier the same amount of money was spent with no outcome. And this was the second time in a row While they were accessing the damage done, suddenly Akhil realized that he was fasting that day, probably for his future wife (could be one among that girl group if he manages to go and talk and take the next train). It was a almost a complete disaster, that day, for him. He didn’t talk to her, which was pretty obvious when he said that he was a little scared and on top of it they wasted twenty bucks twice on account it and the last but not the least he broke his fast without realizing.

( To be continued… )

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If it interests you, you could find the other parts here :

Chapter I : Introduction
Chapter II : Be the Sherlock
Chapter III : A New Leaf
Chapter IV : Adieu
Chapter V : Being Decent

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