Meera squeezed among the horde and finally pegged the window seat at the back end of the bus. This 3 hour ride to the starting point of the trek was going to be annoying for Meera. All she wanted was to meet the guy. Was that so hard? Apparently, yes!

She waited for Leah to take the place beside her, but almost jumped in her seat when Omkar sat there.

"Why are you sitting here?", Meera could hear how rude she was, but it didn't faze her.

"Well I deserve that.", I came here to apologise", he winced.

"To apologise for what? And why now? And where's Leah?", Meera couldn't help but the ring hysteria show. She didn't want to deal with this now.

"She got pushed into the other bus with the other girl gang. And I came here to apologise for being rude to you and almost bullying you. And I wanted to do it now, because none of us may meet after the trek again. We all have our finals, and then it's of to college to us guys, while you come to grade 12. So this may actually be the last time we meet outside school. And I'm sorry."

Meera couldn't help but notice the sincerity in his voice and the guilt in his brown eyes.

"That's all right. It's all in the past now. Hope you don't be this anti-social in college...". Meera replied. After all, Meera wasn't one to hold grudges, and she wasn't about to start now either.

"I know you won't acce- w-wait what? That's it? No, 'you suck', 'you're mean'. 'Why would I even accept this' and all?", he seemed stunned.

"To be honest, your comments didn't faze me. Just made me think what I did wrong with you..", Meera trailed off.

"That's what I'm talking about! It's me who did wrong with you! Not the other way round. I was in the I-hate-the-whole-world phase."

"So who opened your eyes, and got you out of the phase?", Meera asked, curious to know.

"Just a night-long talk with the guys, you know our last hurrah together. It made me realise I don't want everyone to remember me as the moody teen. But I guess I was too late. At least apologising to those whom I've been rude was the least I could do.", Omkar said, not meeting her eyes.

"Look. It's alright. Just be yourself. And if you don't get along with someone, just leave them. Don't be extra rude and target them. This would be hazardous for you in college.", Meera told him.

"You are right. Thank you for forgiving me.", Omkar finally met Meera's eye, a bright twinkle highlighted a few golden specs in his warm brown eyes.

Just then Arun came by, a box in his hands. "Meera! Milady, choose your movie!", he said in an exaggerated and accented voice which made Meera chuckle.

Meera combed through the stack of CDs before reaching a horrible conclusion."All of these are Telugu movies!", she lamented.

"Don't worry. Just choose one. Arun and I will translate it and help you understand it.", Omkar told and nudged Arun.

"Yeah sure.", Arun told, a frown hinting on his face.

Meera then chose a movie, and the rest of the 3 hours went by uneventful, with Meera enjoying the movie with witty subtitles provided by the 2 guys sitting behind her.

________________________________________________________________________________

Hi guys!

Welcome to The Trek chapters. There will be 4 of them in total.

This if you look closely, is not a filler chapter. This is actually a named chapter. So, to quote myself, 'Named chapters show character development!'

How did you like this chap? How did you like Omkar's 180 degree turn in his attitude?

Who will you bet on, to be Shaitan?

I'm going to taunt you and say this: I know who Shaitan is!

Well I'm supposed to know, considering I'm the author and all...

Please Vote, comment, and Fan!

Ciao!