2 months later

The scorching Chennai heat hit me hard when I stepped out of the airport with my huge drag along suitcase and shoulder bag. My brother was just behind me, along with my parents. Even though I insisted on travelling alone, considering the fact that Chennai was just forty five minutes away from Bangalore by flight, they decided to accompany me saying it was the first time I would be away from home. My mother also wanted to inspect my living conditions, considering that she was a stickler for cleanliness.

Soon we were approaching the gates of the University campus. The car drove through and parked at a random spot. I jumped out excitedly and started hopping around. My brother nudged me, signalling me with his eyes, calling my attention to a man who passed by, who looked at me strangely.

He was most probably a patient, who had come to the conclusion that I belonged in the mental asylum.

Just then, I saw a girl wearing a red kurti and white tights offer me a bright smile. The aura around her was filled with cheerfulness. Her ebony black hair which was put up in a high ponytail, bounced up and down as she skipped towards us.

"Excuse me?" I asked her politely "Do you know where the ladies' hostel is?"

She seemed nice and friendly and I wanted to make a good impression on the people in my campus from the beginning.

"Sure, I am headed there too," she said with a broad grin, showing her white teeth.

"Which year?" I asked, walking alongside her, my parents following close behind.

"MBBS 1st year," she said smiling. " I just arrived from Trichy two days back," she said, and I was surprised that she knew the way there despite being new to the place too.

"Oh... BDS 1st year," I replied with an equally enthusiastic grin. "I'm Riya Krishnan by the way," I said.

"Meera Anand," she offered.

We continued walking for a while till we stopped in front of a gate that looked like it hadn't been repainted in years.
She laughed at my disgusted expression.

"You can't expect more than this from a government institution," she said. "Be happy you at least have a place to stay."

I introduced my mom, dad and brother to her and they all exchanged greetings with each other. Then we went in to have a look at the rooms.

"Which room number were you alloted?"she asked.

"14," I said, after checking the mail I had received from the hostel warden.

"That's mine. Oh my god, you're my room mate," she said happily.

I smiled. This was going to be fun. At least I knew someone already here. Even if the room didn't look that great, my stay here seemed to look better at the prospect of having a friend around.

My mom wasn't impressed when she looked around my room. I saw her scrunch up her nose several times when she either discovered a cobweb somewhere or a rare cockroach.
My brother looked a little scared as he had always been allergic to dust.

"Are you sure you will be okay staying here Riyu?" he asked me and I nodded.

I wasn't much of a fusspot when it came to living among dirt. Literally.

"I will be fine guys," I said, trying to reassure mom too in the process.

She sighed. I assumed it meant 'can't do anything to convince my daughter otherwise and she's so adamant that even God can't help her.'

"Okay then Riya. Take care and don't get into too much trouble. No boyfriends, drinking, doing drugs-

"Mom!" I cut her off. "Can you stop embarrassing me..? I know..I am not a kid," I said huffing and she laughed, while my brother seemed amused.

"Alright, but call me everyday, don't trouble your room mates , please keep an alarm clock and get up on time..."

"Yes mom," I said. "I've heard this 10 times already."

My brother ruffled my hair and kissed me lightly on my forehead.

"Take care Riyuu, will miss you more than you ever know," he said.

"I will miss you more," I replied as a single tear rolled down my cheek.

He brushed it away with his thumb before saying "Don't waste the precious jewels on me.. I am not worth it." in a joking manner.

I laughed before hugging him tightly. I was going to miss his bear hugs so much.

"Bye," I told him smiling. "Call me everyday okay?"

Then I waved at the trio before they exited the room. I watched from the window as they got into the car and drove off.
I turned around to see a grinning Meera.

"Now now it's not the end of the world...You will meet them soon," she said, then spread her arms wide and gave a dramatic pose before saying
"No tears when Meera's here!" and she looked so cute that I couldn't help but laugh.

Her straight black hair cascaded down her shoulders ( she had removed her rubber band from her pony after coming back, if you were wondering) in contrast to my short wavy black hair that ended few inches below my chin. Her brown doe eyes lit up with mirth when she looked into my dark brown irises. A cute dimple formed on her left cheek when she smiled and I couldn't help but envy her beauty.

Meera

Just as I realized it must be inappropriate to stare at someone you recently met for so long, she spoke.

"So, what do you want to do now?"she asked.

"I don't know," I shrugged. " Do we have a third roommate?" I asked.

"I think so," she said, a little unsurely.

Right at that moment, there was a knock on the door, interrupting our short conversation. Meera went to open the door. Standing outside was a tall girl with dark brown hair and coal black eyes.

Her whole appearance screamed 'rich' She was wearing a short purple sequined kurti and skinny jeans that accentuated her thin, lithe frame. Her feet were adorned with designer heels and for a second I wondered if she'd come to the wrong college. But I still gave her a broad smile and a wave when she entered our room.

She offered a hand to Meera saying "Hi I am Kajal Malhotra, nice to meet you," in a strong British accent.

"Meera, nice to meet you too."

"Riya, it's a pleasure," I replied.

She didn't seem like she had any airs about her though. She seemed really gregarious and sweet.

"So are you doing dentistry or medicine?" I questioned curiously.

"Dentistry," she said with a small smile. "It has been my lifelong dream and I am so happy I got the opportunity to study here."

I felt happy that there was one more person who had chosen the field voluntarily and not landed here by chance.

"Is it your first time in Chennai?" I asked her.

"Yup sure is...I just moved from Mumbai," she said.

"Then why did you choose Madras Dental College?" I asked in an astonished manner. "Don't you have other good colleges there?"

"Yeah we do but my uncle studied here and I am following in his footsteps," she said with a shy smile.

My first year in my new college had begun on a good note. Now, I atleast had two people I could call my friends.

First day passed with an introduction by Mrs. Shailaja to the basics of anatomy where she briefly explained the course curriculum and what she would be covering in the following days. This took place in one of the first floor classrooms in the medical college for about an hour, following self introductions. Next, we met the physiology teacher, and the biochemistry teacher, who were both, happy to know I had taken dentistry by choice but also pretty astonished since in India, dentistry was always second in consideration when compared to medicine. Being an enthusiastic biology student, I pretty much answered all the questions they asked me without hesitation. During the session, I got to know, that there were 50 students in my class, out of which there were just 15 boys.

"Female-dominated profession, isn't it?" Kajal asked me, just when I thought the same thing.

"Yeah looks like it," I replied. "At least in India."

After the first class, the teachers left us alone and told us we could do whatever we wanted. We had a 1:30 introduction session at the dental college later. It was presently 11 am. Kajal and I exited the classroom together to go talk to some others. Over the past few days, we had become really good friends, considering the fact that she was my room mate and also because she was a fan of Troye Sivan.
We were standing by the benches near the medical college canteen when a guy walked up to us.

"Hi, I am Desh," he replied with a grin. "What about you guys?"

I was surprised with the boldness with which he approached us and directly asked our names.

"I am Kajal," she said holding out her hand.

"And you?" he questioned looking at me.

I wasn't usually a confident person. And especially when a good looking guy was looking at me, anticipating a response , it made it worse. I agree he wasn't hot or attractive like the description in wattpad novels but he was cute and it was making it hard to look at him without blushing.

"Ummm," I stuttered nervously looking at the floor. "Riya."

"OK Umriya," he said and Kajal giggled.

"What?" I exclaimed finally looking into his deep brown eyes.

"Aha and she finally looks at me...pretty eyes," he said winking and walked off before I could respond.

My mouth dropped open in shock.
Kajal muffled her giggles next to me.

"Smooth," she said. "You look like a tomato."

"Thanks," I mumbled in embarrassment.

"Caught a fish on the first day itself huh?"she said.

"Oh shut up, I don't even know him."

"But he sure seemed pretty interested in getting to know you," she replied with a grin.

My cheeks turned a darker shade of crimson.

"Let's just go meet other people," I said.

We walked all around , generally chatting with our classmates while finding out their names, their reasons for choosing dentistry and where they studied earlier. Most of them had chosen dentistry as they hadn't got medicine. Standard reason. Kajal and I then went to the college canteen to see what we could order. We were soon joined by Rahul, ( the boy with the blue bag), Nikita( the girl who could not stop talking about her high school crush and present boyfriend) and unsurprisingly Desh( the one with the dreamy eyes..what? Did I just say that?)

Kajal already had a weird theory that he liked me and the first day hadn't even got over. Stupid girl. We decided to try the 'Special Manchurian' since it was mentioned as the 'Dish of the Day'. It turned out to be a mixture of Baby corn and Gobi( Cauliflower) Manchurian. And oh my god it was so... delicious. It made my mouth water so much that I was embarrassed.

"I wish that was your reaction to my body," Desh whispered to me in my ear, which caused me to shiver.

Unfortunately or fortunately he was sitting right next to me.
I pretended to ignore his comment and looked to Kajal who was sitting on the other side of me, smirking with an eyebrow raised.

"Shut up," I mouthed to her.

"So you're ignoring me now?" Desh said prodding me on my cheek.

I refused to acknowledge the fact that that action sent tingles through my skin and awakened my nerve endings.
Crap, what's wrong with me? I thought.

"I never spoke to you in the first place, except for offering you my name," I replied, completely forgetting the fact that I was not supposed to be talking to him.

Not that I didn't want to. It just made me really nervous and I was scared I would make a fool of myself. And I knew that he knew that. It was easy to notice that I was a stuttering, blubbering mess around guys.

After a while It was time to head to the dental college. During the short conversation, I had tried to let loose and talk to everyone without inhibitions. I had managed to learn that Desh was a single child and that Nikita had gone to Starbucks for her first date. Rahul had a younger sister Riya who was an annoying pest, (his words), and the coincidence of having the same name made me laugh and realize how similar Rahul and Anandhith were. In that moment I missed my older brother a lot. He was one of my best friends and I always relied on him for everything and now I couldn't. I was on my own.

__________

Hey guys!
So this is one of my newest stories and I would be really grateful if you could tell me how the prologue and first chapter is.
Does it make you want to read more? Does it excite you? Or is it just a boring story that doesn't hold your attention?
Please feel free to give in reviews and I will do what I can to improve.

Adios Amigos,
:) harshini :)
Don't forget to read, vote and comment! :D