Chapter XXIII
Birthday Night Out: The Lunch Box Journal
______
The new year started with a promise of a lot more possibilities. After all it was a new year and it meant new beginnings. While a few settled themselves in making new resolutions for the new year, for a newer themselves, while a few other were reminiscing the old resolutions and wondering over how they let the resolutions pile up over the years like that mountain of clothes at the corner of their room. How a complete year could last for a minute, they wondered and where did the days, the months go? But this was definitely the year everyone had their eyes set on accomplishing new as well as old goals. What is the first week of the new year without hope and determination. It is completely another story that this determination fades out from the second week of the first month of the year. For a few, it is the second day of the day may be because they are the strongest of the lot.
Gautham was siting at his desk completely engrossed in typing something on his computer, hoping that no one would actually realize that it was his birthday the next day. He wanted to keep it a low key and crossed his fingers that no one got the drift of it. Little did he know that the other guys have were making a plan on their own on how to surprise him. Having known that Gautham’s mom wasn’t in town for the week, they decided to crash at his place for the night. And since it needed his permission, they had to disclose the party crash well in advance. Gautham was more than happy to be the generous host.
The office ended as usual and they decided to head towards Gautham’s house as planned. Than plan was so that since Gautham and Akhil had their bikes with them, which meant that four people could hitch a ride while the rest could go in the office cab. But Akhil had some plans which involved him to go back to his home. While the others argued that it would be a total waste of time and completely unnecessary to travel all the way back to their night-out place, he insisted that he had to go his home which left only Madhav to go along with Gautham. Neil, Sameer and Aryan were to go on the office cab. Since Akhil was going to his home, he had told his cook to make extra chapatis. Being the only vegetation in the crowd made it a bit more difficult to eat outside or even prepare anything at home. So, the idea was that Akhil will get the much need chapatis while the others can feast on them with their non-vegetarian curries along with a few drinks. Speaking of being the odd one out like being the only vegetarian, the other one was being a teetotaler(s) in the group. Though, they might not be objecting to others having, but still it is sort of a buzz kill because half people drunk didn’t make a party.
As Sameer, Neil and Aryan boarded the bus, Sameera was a little taken aback by seeing the whole crowd that she knew as they had all been working on the same floor, of getting into the bus,. It didn’t take much for her to connect the dots as to why they were travelling in the same bus as Gautham and Aryan ‘s usual. While Gautham and Madhav were on the two wheeler, Akhil went home to God knows what reason and to get those chapatis for dinner. Wait, hold on! Who eats chapatis on a drinking night? Meanwhile, the remaining three got down from the cab to get those (non less alcoholic) drinks since Neil already had the alcoholic drink waiting to be opened since a long time and this seemed like a good time to do the honors. It was then they realized that they needed a cake as well after all it was a Birthday Party. Akhil was already on his way and was almost reaching Gautham’s house and so he couldn’t get that. So, the remaining three of them scoured the neighborhood for a decent cake, which they finally found. While on their way to Gautham’s house, they saw a restaurant which they thought was more convenient than ordering online and waiting for it to be delivered. They could make better use of that waiting time and hence they got the much needed non-vegetarian dishes. Meanwhile, Gautham and Madhav have long reached and Akhil joined them shortly a little after as they waited for the other three musketeers to reach home.
The party was off to a great start. The cake was cut, no bumps were given though which later transitioned to talks, a few bitter truths, a bit of music and then a little more talks. But more often than not the conversations run out of things to talk about and then there comes the talker to keep the party…conversation going. And usually, when such an awkward silence situation arises, Aryan gets a bit out of color because he would be the one who hasn’t shared any of the talks except a few laughs and an occasional one liners, it might also seem as if he wasn’t even there. And the faces turn to him to say something and give his share of the conversation. When there is still no sound from him, there are questions as to why he is so quiet and doesn’t talk much to why he is still single when he chats with a bunch of people online to why hasn’t yet pursued a career in photography, which apparently since he was good at it to basically about anything as a matter of fact. All they wanted was to see him talk, or hear him talk. Though they were about to dug out whatever was possible of Aryan, they weren’t tired yet and they still had a whole night to kill.
While they were discussing over the crushes, they made a plan to go to Aryan’s bus stop, which was the same stop as Srestha, Akhil’s alleged crush. They had to make in time for the bus or else they would miss the opportunity to see her at the bus stop. While their tomorrow was sorted out, their now still had a lot more time to be killed. They weren’t that much hungry and as a result of which they didn’t order anything online. They managed something with the starters they got, only to realize that Akhil was the vegetarian and he had some sort of salad with him, custom made for himself. The rest of the gang were’t a bit hungry so they dropped the plan of ordering anything online. They retired to sleep a little later, but far earlier than they had expected as they had to wake up in the morning to catch the bus, perhaps her.
(To be Continued …)
Did they make it on time at the bus stop? What would happen if Likitha came to know what Akhil was upto with his crush thing? Was Akhil able to catch her on time?
– Check out for new updates –
_____
ak, mmxviii
