Blooming Flower ✔️

Chapter 12: Spines

With only about a week to go until Manish left, it was safe to say that I was not the happiest camper around. I felt like my mood is slowly declining, like you're going down a flight of steps as slow as you can, trying to piss the previous person off.

Nothing had been going my way for the past couple of days. I just felt so tired. I didn't feel like myself at all. I never got sick, so it wasn't that. I just wasn't the same anymore. Everytime I tried to dance to one of my favorite songs, I just didn't enjoy it as much.

I felt like someone had taken a vacuum cleaner and sucked all the fun out of that. I wanted nothing more to sleep, and I just wasn't as hungry anymore. It felt like puberty, just 150 times worse.

    "You seem down, Jaya. You doing okay?" Ananth asked me, as he hit the birdie with the badminton racket. I just hit it back, watching it fly in the air and head towards Ananth, like an actual bird.

Except this one doesn't poop on your car windows.

"To be honest, no. I feel like shit. Isha has just been sticking her porcupine cactus spines in my ass, and it feels like getting a shot at the doctor's with a serrated knife. If he ever does that, I'm going to take that knife, an archery bow, and aim it straight at Isha's throat. It will shut her up nice and good."

Ananth looked at me with a slight look of horror on his face, but I kind of just think that he shouldn't have expected less. "Okay, I totally get why you hate Isha. That girl is like someone decided to take Satan's sperm, fertilize Medusa's egg, and place it in Mother Gothel's womb. But are you sure that's the only reason you feel like rabbit shit?"

I kind of sighed at the fact that everyone can read me like a book for the past couple of days. I had felt like someone has been dragging me through a pile of mud for the past couple of days. Things have just not been going my way. And Ananth was completely right in this case.

Isha sticking her cactus face in my life was causing me to feel like I'm going to hell at this point. But we both knew that's just not all. "Fine. I'm depressed about Manish leaving. Give me a goddamn break here, Ananth. He's my best friend. You saw how impactful he was in my life. You really think that this is easy for me? I feel like absolute shit."

Ananth's face turned to a much more empathetic one once he saw my side of how he's feeling. "Okay, I totally get you. I'm gonna miss Manish too. And I know that Isha hasn't been making your life easier. But you can still FaceTime him, Skype him, text him.... It really isn't that bad."

That was the point.

It was.

It was never going to be the same. It was not going to be the same as having each other over, watching movies such as Love, Simon, Mission Impossible, or anything else we could get our hands. We wouldn't be able to browse IMDB for hours, looking for movies to watch and laugh, cry, or scream over.

I can't watch Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania, Badlapur, or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara for the thousandth time without him, a big bowl of popcorn, and a nice glass of soda to go with it. That's not going to be able to happen when he's not around.

I didn't know what I'm going to do, but I knew that it's time to start appreciating Manish for just bringing an element of joy to my life.

***********

    After listening to my playlist for the hundred thousandth time, I knew it's time that I have to go outside to get some fresh air. Otherwise, my stomach starts to hurt, and I feel dizzy. I mean, Isha's cactus face causes me enough pain already, so the fresh air gives me some relief from the sting of her needs in my life, heart, face, and other parts where she knows she will cause pain and just pure discomfort. And just breathing in the fresh air is just super relaxing for all parties involved.