M.E.M.O.R.Y | Chapter 2: Maria
This Story is part of a Series. Read Chapter 1 at https://medium.com/aaveg-blog/m-e-m-o-r-y-85ab6aa58dd4
All characters appearing in the work are fictitious. Any resemblance to a real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
“I hate that boy”.
That was enough to snap Maria out of her short-lived daydream. This much passion from Yukta-normally so docile-was a rare sight to see. She turned to look at her friends as they made their way towards the café, one of the only spots in the campus with free air conditioning.
“Who does he actually think he is, not even waving back properly at me? We studied together for four years, and all I get is a disinterested wave!” The heat of the evening and her frustration were turning Yukta red in the face.
“He thinks he’s all that now, with a new crew and a new crewcut and all that. What a bag of crap Raghav is. I’m telling you-“
Maria zoned out again. The tree-lined avenues that covered the campus reminded her of home, when she used to frantically travel the city from corner to corner to reach her tuitions on time. Even the bird poop stains on the pavement tugged at a homesick heartstring. It had only been a couple of weeks, but she was already starting to miss her family desperately. The only things that were keeping her sane were the daily phone calls to her mother and her newfound best friend, Yukta.
“Why do you hate Raghav so much?” Maria asked mildly as Yukta paused for breath in her rant. “He doesn’t seem very annoying.”,she remarked as they neared the café.
“See, he isn’t actually. It’s just that we never spoke to each other much, and now he’s giving me attitude for no reason. We’re supposed to have each other’s backs, being from the same school and college now, I guess.”, Yukta coloured slightly at her unexpectedly honest confession. “Tell me, Maria. Why are we doing this group discussion thing again?”
Walking into the cafe, Maria flashed a nervous smile at her friend as they walked into the place and saw their seniors waiting. “You were bored, remember?”
— — — — — — — — — — — — -
“Excuse me? Hey, you forgot your keys!” Maria turned as a tall boy hurried over and handed her a bunch of keys.
“Damn, thanks so much! I totally forgot about these, just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible”. Her hands were still shaking from what she’d gone through.
“Tell me about it. Who even comes up with topics like that?”, he smiled, looking equally shaken.
She shrugged and grinned back. “Welcome to NIT Trichy, man. Even the things we do for fun here, can suck our souls out of us.”
It turned out that she and Omar, the tall key-retrieving boy had more than a terrible GD in common. They were both dancers , eager to show off their skills and earn a name for themselves in college. Both despised attending classes and loved eating puffs, and so the natural order of things led them to bunking lessons and meeting up at Coke Station whenever the desire overtook them. Sometimes Ram, a classmate of Omar’s and a quiet boy who was also a participant in the terrible GD accompanied them, though he didn’t offer much by way of conversation; he seemed content enough to listen to Maria and Omar banter about useless things.
The Fresher’s Talent Hunt was making quick progress-one evening saw a new set of horror for Maria as she was made to do all kinds of crap in order to prove her competency as a potential Miss Fresher. Never would she have thought the qualifications included having to accurately imitate a drunk penguin. Ram’s didn’t seem to be going great either-she noticed his embarrassing attempt to chat up a senior and get her name and number. Nope, she did not want to be a witness to that murder. The next day, as she and Yukta made their way over to their friends at the Coke Station, she caught Ram’s eyes and they doubled over with laughter, the ordeals of the previous day reduced to a story rife with comedy.
“Dude, why did you think complimenting her on her handwriting would get you her number?” Maria wiped tears from her eyes, grinning at Ram.” See, I wanted to show her I look beyond beauty.”
Maria scoffed. “Wow, what a load of bull. Didn’t get you anywhere, did it?”
Interesting guy, Ram was. He seemed quiet and reserved at first, but would deliver his own form of sass with such crispness it could be mistaken for a bad attitude.
Noticing Yukta lingering awkwardly by her side, she gestured to Ram. “Yukta, this is Ram. Ram, Yukta.”
“And y’all know Eeshan and Raghav, yeah?” Omar bustled forward, with the two boys from the other day trailing behind.
“‘Sup, boys?”, Raghav and Yukta nodded and smiled at each other, much to Maria’s surprise, while Eeshan waved cheerfully. While they all stood around making friends, Omar’s and Maria’s phones pinged in chorus.
Greetings. We regret to inform you that you have not made it to the final round of the Freshers’ Talent Hunt. Thank you for participating and we wish you all the success for your future endeavours.
Heart sinking, Maria looked up from her phone. Oh well, she didn’t want to go in the first place. But still, she wondered if she hadn’t acted drunk enough as a penguin to get through.
When she looked up from her phone, she saw Omar smiling, looking at her expectantly. Uh oh.
