Jinxed.
Chapter XIII
Jinx : The Lunch Box Journal
Chapter I, Chapter II, Chapter III, Chapter IV, Chapter V,
Chapter VI, Chapter VII, Chapter VIII, Chapter IX, Chapter X,
Chapter XI, Chapter XII
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People love things that they have, or to be more precise, the things they have owned by ‘working’ hard. And god forbid, but if anything happens to it, they lose their cool. It’s like that little toe that gets accidentally knocked up by the edge of the bed and we curse and beat the shit out of that and try not to cry. May be it is a very poor comparison to things. But it goes without saying how people would react, if the things owned by them somehow gets messed up by someone else. And it doesn’t hold the same for the things they do that leads to them getting messed up.
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The journey was enroute, the destination was set, the people made the jolly in the bus double their numbers when Ranjiv started telling two of his important news. One being that he won’t be much longer in the country, the other being him getting married. “Finally”, all of them exclaimed under their breath. He had been working for quite a long time and it was about time he got married. The usual congratulations were conveyed, the photos of the engagement collaborated the story, the music played loud in the closed enclosure, and the journey began.
A few hours later as the sky tuned crimson with the sun setting far beyond the horizon, while the songs played in the background, it was each one’s time to take the hot seat and confess. It was called Hot Seat Confessions, where each member in the group would take an assigned seat and answer all of the questions that are thrown at them. But the questions were pretty slim. To tell about all the girls they have fallen for, or had a crush on in their office campus, especially their project.
Sameer was the first to take the hot seat as he was the one who had this brilliant idea in the first place. He started off with his first crush, how he had started the conversation when he was working from onsite and what they conversed about which apparently was about another guy. He went ahead and showed the Facebook conversations to justify his claims. Chivalry, or what? He had a pretty big list, which was kind of known fact, but the others wanted to know who made it to the list.
Akhil followed after Sameer who was pretty much hung up on person who had the whole of the office campus behind her. But there was this burning question that never gets answered, honestly everyone wanted to know the obvious answer. About Ayushi. The others know how deeply she feels about him. Even though they have met her only a couple of times, the other times they have seen her name popping on Akhil’s phone almost every half an hour, which did say more than he claims to be. She is just a friend, is the constant answer he went with even after pestering about it a hundred and one times. It might as well be true, but it didn’t quite seem so. It looked more than just how friends usually are. But he always went with his standard answer that he had a long time girlfriend back at his place and they it came almost upto marriage but due to some stars, they couldn’t get married. But well, no one can really go against a bunch of gases floating a few light years away. They apparently know your future.
Next up in the hot seat was Gautham, whose story was quite known. Well, a few knew, a few other had their suspicions. It was someone he had worked with, briefly, but directly involved but a little bit related. He got introduced to her by a mutual friend, the mutual friend was someone he had worked with. Besides that he went ahead and told how he proposed someone and was rejected which propelled him to never approach someone ever again, even though he wanted to. Aryan took the cue and was asked to speak atleast now. Though he claimed to not having any such crushes, he told about his experience he had a year ago when we was in another place working in deputation. He told about how he tried to break the ice with his ‘skills’ of solving a Rubik’s cube and that coffee cup that changed its color with anything hot in it. It didn’t quite work as expected for him, because he was apparently bro-zoned.
Ranjiv was quite elder in this group, and was sort of workaholic or atleast seemed so. It would be an interesting story if he had a love story. Interestingly he kind of did, but it was typical Indian Drama without the happy ending, where the guy approaches the parents with the said proposal and they don’t seem to like it for some star reasons or just that age factor and the guys doesn’t want to go ahead with the plan or against their parents. Eventually, they part their ways. That was his story, but now that he has got engaged, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Neil was more of a reserved person, who didn’t sought after something trivial as love. It was beyond his boundary of things to expect. Though, there was people who have shown interest in him, but he wants it to be genuine, from the heart and unless he sees a future, the future that involves settling, he wouldn’t pursue it. Myrah, the latest addition to his list of alleged crush was more of a forced crush. The people he usually goes to lunch with and works with, thought that she would be a perfect match for him. Even though, he seemed to have liked the idea of settling up with her, he didn’t break the ice. The reason for which is just beyond the normal person’s purview.
The sun settled beyond the horizon a long back and they sky by that time had sunk in the starry darkness. It was the time when the hot seat confessions had just ended and their vehicle took a turn and settled outside a restaurant. It was pretty late by the time they had reached there. The sky was shimmering with twinkling stars and cold wind ruffled through the dense trees that surrounded, with an occasional flash of light passing through on the highway.
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They had their dinner, while continued to discuss about the one thing guys usually talk about when they hang out. But as they proceeded to carry on the journey after their almost stupendous dinner, they had an encounter which almost put a stop to their long weekend plans. What was it? Was it somehow jinxed.
( To be continued… )
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
Chapter VI : Capricious
Chapter VII : Delighted
Chapter VIII : Too Early
Chapter IX : Fitness..zzz
Chapter X : The Health Guru
Chapter XI : Horror Story
Chapter XII : Impulse
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