"Welcome back", the moss beneath her feet smiled sheepishly at her, "You had me worried. It had been so long without you here and I was afraid that you may forget me. Out of sight, out of mind, you know!" She was furious. This was probably the last place she ever wanted to be back in. She put her foot out to take a giant stride. "Careful! You wouldn't want to hurt yourself on this ground. This is probably the last place you ever wanted to be in!", the moss said with genuine concern. See, when you have been together long, you develop a soft corner for each other.
"This is a messy area, you have been hurt here before. Getting angry won't be of any help, right? Why don't you stop thinking a way out for a few seconds and appreciate my new colour?", the moss winked at her. It was the slippery green of the ugliest kind. But she gave the moss a good look. "Yes, you have grown up", a soft and short reply from her. "Ha! So you noticed!! I have become filthier, stickier, stronger", he was triumphant.
"And I have become weaker.. more responsibilities on my shoulders, more expectations, more questions to answer." The girl turned to the sky, couldn't find it but. "I have lost my sky as well!", she let out a hysterical laugh, "No ground beneath the feet, no sky above the head.. what choices do I have now?"
"I am a bad choice to expect an answer from!", This time the moss let out a hysterical laugh and she opened her eyes wide in horror.
It's still night. She picked up her phone from the bedside table and looked at the time. Turning to the wall, she recounted the happenings of the day before. During the second class, a thin boy sitting in the first row had requested her to turn up the speed of the fan, whose regulator was on the walls beside her. She obliged and shouted a word of caution for the students around him, "Keep the paperweight handy lest he is flown off by the high air speed!" The whole class broke into a laughter and the boy's face fell. The lab partner was displeased and whispered to her, "You are a nasty, little bitch."
"Ouch!" She was unaffected.
By lunchtime, she was unstoppable. She had had bread and jam for her breakfast and longed for a proper meal now. Ordering a plate of rajma rice, she sat down and helped herself to her best friend's tiffin while the best friend stood there in the waiting line of the college canteen. "You know, I am dead sure that that cook in a blue shirt likes you!", The best friend said this as she adjusted the big plate on the table. "What? Who? He?" "Yes! Look at that unmistakable, shy smile on his face when you looked at him!" "You need a good kick on your hips sweetheart" "Naah! Somebody needs to live his 'chhoti si love story' too!" The best friend took a jibe at her petite frame.
