What Happened?

"Here you go honey, Have some tea! Are you sure, you're okay? you look pretty shaken up.", Mansi inquired.

"I am fine Mansi, just a little tired", I replied while taking the Cup from her.

"Well, you certainly didn't looked 'Just Fine' when you came back home jas. I mean, I can't believe it that, the spiteful girl threw her drinks on you, that's total mean girl move dude...such a psycopath", she quoted with her fingers.

"Yeah, she did looked like a soap opera drama queen", I smiled.

" Did you talked to your father? You should have told him, what happened", she replied.

"I don't think that would matter, don't worry I am fine now mansi."

" If you say so babe, let's go to dinner then, the Diner closes at 10 and it's 9:00 already, and you look famished plus you have your first day tomorrow, forget about the crappy bi*ch and focus on what's coming..okay?!", she said firmly while slouching beside me on the couch.

Just on cue, my stomach growled, we both stared at each other for a moment and laughed.

"Here's the signal, now let's go".

As soon as we reached the door of the apartment and were about to leave, mansi's phone started ringing. The caller ID said 'Harsh', my breathing hitched a bit, but I tried my best to maintain a neutral expression.

"It's Harsh, you go down the dinning Hall, I will meet you their in a minute.", Mansi suggested and went straight back to the her room without waiting for my reply.

I stared her back for a second and then headed for the door, towards the Dinning Hall, ever since my arrival, I have had, only a single meal at the common Diner nearby. While on my way, my thoughts started to swirl and events from the past begin to show up in my mind, flashes of the past, I decided not to think about anything and just focus on my current priority, that is filling my stomach. I ordered generic thaali for me and Mansi, the Dinning Hall was almost empty when I entered. I immediately started scanning the place after placing my order.

The Hall was small and warm with several booths to severe many customers. The last time that we arrived here, it was full of people hustling here and there. I started to check out the art work on the walls when the waitress arrived.

*A young girl with red long hair brought my food. She was in her early 20's, that's what I guessed. She was slim and wore old clothes but her movements were quiet graceful.*

"Hey Here's you're meal, Are you waiting for someone? Cause you know the dinner closes at 10:00, and it's already 9:25"

"Yeah, she will be here in a while, If she's late I will take the food upstairs, if you could pack it up." I said nervously....

*Did I forgot to mention,, I have anxiety when I talk to new people, usually I am a bust when I run on adrenaline, but in a comfy situation like this... *

"Oh! don't worry, you could wait for an hour or so, we usually just remind customers so that they follow with the general schedule of the diner, we don't prefer drunkard a***oles to bother or customers late at night you see", she replied smiling lightly

"Thank you so, much. I am Jasmin by the way, you can call me jas.... I moved in here a few days back.", I replied a bit relaxed now after her calm tone.

"I am Tara, Nice to meet you Jas", she smiled again.

*I don't know what but something about Tara suddenly felt different, she felt warm and homely. This warm feeling and curiosity forced me to talk more with her."

"Do you work here full time Tara?", I asked

"No, Actually this is my mom's dinner, I work night shifts to help her, I am a student at PTU....Umm...Pune Technical University", she replied.

"oh! that's great, what's your major?", I inquired again.

" It's English Literature... "

"Taaaraaaa could you come and help me with the Plates in here honey?", her mother shouted loudly from the kitchen.

"Coming Maa!! ", she replied with the same energy and turned towards the kitchen to help her mother.

At 9:45 I tried to call Mansi but her line notified busy so I asked Tara, to pack her food. I paid Tara the money for the food and thanked her mom for the meal, I went back to the apartment where mansi was in the balcony clearly still talking to Harsh on her phone, so I just went there and tapped her on the shoulder, she jerked, clearly shocked. She covered the speaker and asked, "What?!", a bit annoyed

*Well that was weird!, I said to myself*

"I brought some food for you from the Diner, It's on the Kitchen counter.", I replied as calmly as possible.

" Okay! ", she replied tartly and went back to talking on her phone instantly.

*Double Weird! *

I ignored the whole thing and decided to head for the bed. A lot of things happened today and I didn't want to overwhelm myself for the big day tomorrow. so, I crawled back to my palace of solitude "My Room", My sheets smelled fresh even after being used yesterday, After a long day there was some serenity of returning to the bed. I got settled comfortably and decided to check my phone before going to sleep.

I considered calling mom and informing her about everything, because that's how my life have been for, like forever. Whenever I am clouded with distress I talk to her and tell her about everything, not everything exactly but most of it...but today I finally decided against it, I don't want her to worry about me, for nothing just because I feel dull, Also it's not a big deal whatever happened, Right? Instead I opened my gallery and went through the old photographs. It always calms me down, living the old memories again and again, the feeling of Nostalgia. On top was a selfie of me and Dad, that I sent to my Mom from the station, when we arrived at pune. I scrolled a bit, going through all the good old days, me and my friends from school planned a small trip to an amusement park in Delhi after exams, I laughed at the funny videos of us dancing madly, I scrolled some more and my family pictures popped up with me and my cousins.. fooling around....the funny and warm memories always smooth my heart, I grinned ear to ear, remembering the Happy days, suddenly I came across a group picture of me, Mansi and Harsh when we went to watch a movie together, My heart begin to beat fastly and got filled with all the memories of that day and my mind started to drift again, this time I allowed it.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***