Chapter XLII
Too Predictable: The Lunch Box Journal

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There she was, out on a whim to surprise the one she loves and there he was a bit shocked, but a more tensed.

Akhil’s next steps were a little bit bizarre which put Aryan in an awkward position…

Akhil was completely taken aback by his surprise. He wasn’t at all expecting her to be at the Airport. He was more shocked to see her, actually. He got tensed in no time. Because his lucky charm that stuck to him is there along with him. She had already infiltrated into his family, making nice with everyone but also crying her eyes out because Akhil was going away for a good amount of time, which she was unable to bear. And also all that had happened in the past regarding him and Srestha was an icing on the cake. She was angry at Akhil and also cared for him, apparently. Because in her opinion Srestha was a bad influence on him and she was taking him away from her. And when Akhil saw Srestha at the airport he had his heart in his mouth. He immediately turned around and started walking. Aryan ran after him as he saw that scared look on his face. He finally caught up with him and he was immediately scolded upon for bringing her over to the Airport. He mentioned Likhita’s name somewhere while Aryan was still reeling about what had just happened. He had no idea that the atmosphere would get so much tenser.

But there was nothing that Akhil could do anymore there. Because his family and his girl had already seen her and Aryan convinced Akhil to at least meet her at least once since she had come all the way just to surprise him. So, he met Srestha and in all confusion and shock, he managed a smile. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”, Srestha asked Akhil to which he had replied that he was of course happy to see her. If only Likhita wasn’t there, which was never gonna happen ever. You might even find her traveling all the way overseas just to meet him, as a friend, of course. After Akhil had met Srestha for a brief moment being supervised by Aryan from a safe distance, Akhil had finally decided to introduce her to his parents. There was Likhita with her bloodshot eyes onlooking the whole introductions. And she just couldn’t contain herself. She was passing remarks the moment Akhil had walked Aryan and Srestha to his family. And all those were below the belt sort of remarks. Aryan knew that Lukhita would be angry, but he wasn’t expecting such a crass behavior from her. He was slowly the respect he had for her. And at one point she walked past Aryan and even shouted, “You didn’t do a good job “. Aryan by that was in the process of losing the respect he had for her since she was acting all spineless and this remark just catalyzed that process. He had never so much anger in someone and the coldness between them was deafening and it was suddenly a bit more chilly.

Srestha was no less. She just couldn’t stand there and take every shit that was thrown at her by Likhita. Akhil wasn’t doing a good job at calming them down. She didn’t leave anyone alone, even small kids. At one point Likhita who was holding Akhil’s niece passed a remark that she only stays with nice people and she doesn’t go to bad people. She was hitting new lows with every second. While Srestha had her schemes under her sleeves, she offered the niece some chips she had brought along with her and when she finally came to her, he reciprocated to Likhita’ earlier remark about the kid going to the nice people that she does go to nice people. While Akhil was juggling between people, his father was sad and was expressing his sadness that he didn’t want him to go and made Akhil promise to visit as soon as possible, exactly in the few months time. At one point Akhil took Aryan to the side and informed him not to talk to Likhita since she was extremely angry and he will take care of things from his end that he will talk to her and calm her down. He wasn’t doing a good job at calming her down earlier and now it was simply impossible, which Aryan knew but he didn’t want to talk to Likhita anyway. He had lost a lot of respect for her that day and talking to her isn’t going to help anyone’s cause.

Amidst uncalled for remarks and photos ( thanks to Aryan’s camera which he was still wondering why he took it in the first place ), the time had almost come for Akhil to leave. Akhil’s family was sad but they knew that it was for work and that he would be coming back soon and not settling over there. Likitha was visibly bawling but somehow managing to keep it under wraps. What happened next kind of shook Aryan for the second time that very night. Srestha was at the corner with tears in her eyes. This just blew Aryan’s mind off. He was expecting that there will be sadness on their part since over the course of time they had become good friends, but what he didn’t realize that she would actually be crying for him. She didn’t want him to leave. She wanted him to stay. She didn’t want him to go. But Aryan wasn’t swayed even by her tears. He had to leave and they hugged and he went into the Airport leaving two girls in tears. And Aryan! Aryan was the silent spectator to all of this. He had his mind blown a couple too many times that very night and he had no idea what happening anymore.

Srestha was in tears while Akhil was stepping in. All Aryan could do at that time was offer her a handkerchief. He was too preoccupied trying to process what was happening than to act accordingly. And that handkerchief was also a reflex action. And after that, he had no idea what to do to console her while he didn’t have an ounce of feeling with that tense atmosphere that was set up all around. Akhil went in along with his family since they too had an early flight to catch while Srestha and Likhita who were quite apart from each other were waving at Akhil amidst sobs. Akhil called Aryan while standing in the queue to inform him again not to talk to Likhita since she was very angry and she would just make it worse and she would be hitching a ride with her friend who was coming to the airport that very morning. Earlier the actual plan included Aryan and Likhita returning back in the cab but after Srestha, Likhita had a new found imaginary friend who was coming to the airport to drop someone off, so the earlier plan was not canceled. He had informed the same and also to leave as soon as possible. Aryan replied that he would but he saw Srestha who was eager to talk to him so he handed her the phone to talk to him. She did talk amidst more sobs and tears. While they waited for Akhil to disappear into the crowd to go in for the security check, Aryan after seeing the condition that Srestha was in, that blank and don’t know what to do sorta phase, he thought it would be better if she could take a little bit of rest before they could head back home. He took her to the coffee shop at the Airport hoping that the coffee might give her a bit of perspective, but she insisted she didn’t want one. So, he took one. While he was sipping his coffee, Akhil called again to check whether they left or not to which Aryan replied that they still haven’t and would after some time and he gave the phone to her so that she could talk to him before he boarded his flight.

Meanwhile, the group members from abroad were blasting with funny messages in the group chat. Aryan took upon himself to inform them individually not to make fun of him right now. A lot had happened at the airport and making jokes might not be that good of an idea since he is going through a lot right then and them mocking him would just rip something in him, so not to crack any more jokes in the interest not to hurt Akhil anymore than he was already suffering. In the interest of not causing any more discomfort, the people waiting for him on the other side sensed that something might have happened and restricted themselves from sending funny messages.

When it was almost 7 AM, after having spent close to seven hours at the airport, they headed back to their home. While Srestha slept the whole way back, Aryan just couldn’t get his around the previous night and sleep was the last thing on his mind. They reached their home an hour later, a but early since there was no traffic at that time. Aryan dropped Srestha off at her home and headed back to his home hoping to sleep, mostly because he had an afternoon movie and it would be a bummer to waste that movie ticket, the movie he was so looking forward to watch: Justice League. He reached home, tried to sleep it off when it didn’t work, the showered hoping that some freshness would help him to sleep, when that too didn’t work, he took out his cycle and went to the coffee shop to pen the series of events that had happened the previous night. By the time he was finished penning them down and trying to narrate the story to Siri all the while, he got a notification about the movie. He went home, left the laptop, got freshened, watched the movie half asleep and return home later that evening. He was craving for some sleep by the time he returned back home. He barely knew what was happening in the movie because his mind was still a lot preoccupied. So he was in his bed after the third shower that day and finally, that worked. He was able to sleep, at last. But there was some music playing in his dream and the ground below him was shaking all of a sudden. He jolted back to sitting position at that sudden change of events in his dream.

He checked the time. He barely slept for an hour and there were already 3 missed called from an unknown number.

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(To be Continued …)
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The Lunch Box Journal

ak, mmxviii