Hues Of Dusk

Chapter 12. Click it!

Two kg tomatoes
One kg onions
Two and a half kg potatoes
250 grams okra

"Hey Sandhya!"

"Wait. I will forget the sequence," I said and continued walking in the market.

"Wait up."

"What the?" I turned around and saw Nikhil approaching me.

"Hi Nikhil but you messed up the list. I will have to recount everything again," I said and tried to remember everything mom told me to buy.

"Running errands?" he asked and I nodded.

"Why don't you just make a list on the phone?" he questioned and I told him I forgot my phone at home. Mom sent me to buy groceries in a hurry and shoved me out of the house telling me the items faster than Eminem. I couldn't even grab my phone.

He showed me his shopping bag and I chuckled. We shopped together and luckily I didn't forget anything. Mom would have made me go back to the market.

"You live around here?" I asked.

"Yup," he replied as he paid the coconut seller money. We chatted about random things as we made our way out of the market. He pointed his finger at a street and told me his house was few blocks away.

We parted ways and I thanked him for accompanying me. Nikhil was a good guy unlike someone I knew. How could they be best friends?

I reached my home and gave mom the shopping bags. In return, she gave me the whole bucket of butterscotch ice cream. Yay!

The clock showed 4 pm and I was spread out on my bed scrolling through YouTube. I watched a lot of short movies and parodies. Should I open a YouTube channel too? What would be the concept though? I threw the idea away.

Ping!

I opened up the Facebook notification.

Nikhil Avasthi has sent you a friend request.

After checking his profile to confirm he was the same Nikhil I knew, I accepted the request. Instantly, he messaged me and we began chatting like we had known each other for ages. In between, I kept checking his pics and frowned whenever Ved's face popped up in some.

He had to be everywhere, didn't he? Majority of the pics were of them playing basketball and travelling. I wanted to travel too. I should make a plan with Surbhi. We could go for trekking atleast.

My arms started aching and I realized I had been talking to Nikhil for two hours. I had been holding my phone above my face and it fell down three times too. My nose must be squashed now.

I told him I was tired and he also agreed. He said he had assignments to complete but didn't realize how the time flew away. I was already done with my assignments and had whole Sunday free tomorrow. What should I do?

After dinner, I had a movie marathon with dad. Mom retired to her room. She was exhausted with today's activities since I was at home too and I kept asking her for food every minute.

I eat a lot but I get no results. I have been trying to increase my weight since 10th grade but no use.

"I am the winner!" I announced as my father yawned. He had been trying to keep up but was failing. We were on our fourth movie and his eyes had started to droop.

I told him to go and sleep. He shook his head and tried keeping his eyes open. He just didn't like to lose.

"Go dad. You will fall sick if you continued." I grabbed his arm and pulled him up. He nodded his head and went to his room.