MY FIRST STORY- CHAPTER 3

“What the f***?!?”
Was my first reaction .The guy who had just insulted me was standing right in front of me. No one could ever look so much out of place as he did. He had a perfect blonde hair and blue eyes and was casually smirking at me. I was much perplexed because I knew this college wasn’t famous enough for NRI or foreign students but there he was standing right in front of my eyes.

“Stop kidding around Josh!!”
Kavitha scolded the guy shaking me out of my shock. He just smirked and took his seat next to Kavitha.

“Sanjay, this is Josh. Mr. Joshua Rodriguez this is Sanjay. Now is that enough formal intro for his Highness?!?”
Aruna teased Josh. I later came to know from the conversations that followed, that Josh’s parents had moved in from San Francisco long before he was born for some unknown reasons, and they had ancestral properties strewn in and around Tamil Nadu.

“Hey, you are the guy huh?!? So Sunny boy I hear you are in Gaurav’s class?!”
Though I had no idea what the guy meant by “you are the guy” I just gave him the smile which I reserve for my irritating and embarrassing relatives. And from that day on I was christened as Sunny. The lunch was quite normal from then on and it seemed the guy Josh was friendly after all, in his own way!!

“So Sunny have you really thought it through?! You are gonna go for it?!”
Josh asked suddenly, I was totally lost and I guess it showed on my face, for Gaurav explained that I didn’t know it yet and that he found it ridiculous, a small argument broke out and Kavitha kept her head bowed without joining in on the argument and jus playing with her food without much interest in it. Aruna was backing Josh’s side of the argument while Kavitha kept on ignoring the whole heated argument. Suddenly Josh said,

“Don’t just sit there, what is your take on this kavi?!”
Kavitha still didn’t answer Josh’s question but kept her eyes closed. I was completely lost upon what is going on. After what seemed like ages, Kavitha spoke,

“Rules are rules, we can’t change that”
And that put an end to the argument, and everyone turned to face me, everyone except Kavitha. And Gaurav spoke,

“Sanjay, all four of us, me, Aruna, Josh and kavi we come from the same school, and back in our school we formed our group upon one thing which we shared common interest. Ghosts!!”
Kavitha looked up at me and her eyes were a bit moist, but before I could see it clearly, they were gone and then they all, the four friends explained me how they formed a group similar to a brotherhood and made a vow that any person who wanted to join their group have to go through a test of some kind to show their interest and courage in paranormal activities and how some have tried and many others have chickened out.

I was petrified to give any response to it, I felt transported to some R.L.Stine novel and no longer in a boring engineering in Chennai, the sunny pleasant day and a lovely afternoon lunch suddenly turned into a suffocating unknown place with me sitting with some people who are so casually explaining a kind of cult that they practice. It was a few minutes before I realized that Gaurav had stopped talking and they have been waiting for me to answer some question. I heard myself apologize and ask what is it that I have to answer.

“Dude! Are you in?! Will you go through it?!”
Josh asked me. And all I could see was Kavitha’s face, eager for my answer. She looked even more beautiful when she was tensed with beads of sweat on her forehead. I heard myself laugh and say,

“That’s no big deal; I myself am intrigued by paranormal activities. Count me in!!”
And looking at Kavitha’s relieved face I thought, I could tell a thousand more lies to keep that face happy. And everything was back to normal, Josh his usual sarcastic jovial self.
“That’s my Sunny boy!!”
Aruna and Gaurav were still bickering over the argument that’s long over. But all my eyes were for Kavi who looked more radiant after my words, and kept glancing at me all the time with a coy smile on her face.


The bell rang to indicate the end of the lunch hour. I felt a few days have passed in the last half hour!! And Kavitha stood up saying she had to go and ran off from the canteen leaving her half eaten lunch behind. And soon Gaurav and I finished eating and started off to our classes in the third floor in our block while Aruna and Josh made their way over to IT block.

Gaurav was unusually silent and just when I was about to ask why, I heard Kavitha’s voice from behind me,

“Sunny, can I have a word with you? Alone?”
Gaurav just grinned at Kavi and asked me to join him in the class and ran off. And Kavitha and I made our way to an empty class room and as soon as we were inside she started speaking in rapid Tamil, which was roughly translated as,

“I am so glad you are ok with it, to be honest I knew you would say so, come on Sanju, don’t say you didn’t feel the magic when we first met!! I feel I can understand you even before you do!! I know we share something more than friendship, a much deeper relationship!! And I knew you will say ok!! That’s why I brought this.”
And she gave me a back pack, I could hear things rattling inside, and she told me not to open it before going home and before I knew it, she kissed me on my lips and wished me luck and was off to her class, leaving me dumbstruck!!