After parking my car in the slot, we three walked towards the building and saw Amy waiting for me at the entrance. 

"Hey," I said, giving her a hug.

"Hi all." She pulled back and greeted us.

"Hey," Zinnia said, smiling widely. 

"I saw your car entering the gate when I was walking so I thought I would wait for you," Amy said.

I smiled and nodded my head. Me and Amy headed to our class after saying goodbyes to Zinnia and Lily.

As we were walking to our class, we saw Ash standing at the class entrance. Me and Amy slowed our steps as soon as our eyes caught his figure. I looked at Amy and she looked at me. We went closer. As soon as Ash saw us, he walked towards us.

"Hey," he said, looking at Amy and then at me.

"Hi," me and Amy said in unison. 

"Where were you yesterday? I didn't see you at all," he said, gazing at Amy.

"I was a bit busy and after college, I went with Elka to hers," Amy said without looking at him but elsewhere. 

"Oh, ok," Ash said, nodding his head.

There was a few seconds of awkward silence that was so fucking uncomfortable for me. 

"I'll get going. You guys continue," I said, taking my leave as I felt I was intruding their conversation. 

"Elka, wait. I'm also coming." Amy caught my hand and turned to Ash. "Bye. I have got some homework to complete," she said and drew me to our class. 

I looked back to see Ash standing at his spot, gaping at us with knitted eyebrows. We entered the class and Amy sat on her assigned seat next to me while I stood beside and looked at her, who was busy taking books out of her bag.

"What was that about?" I asked, taking her attention. 

"What was what?" she asked.

I arched an eyebrow to which she smiled faintly.

"I think I should keep a distance from him before-" she halted her words.

"Before what?"

"Before I fall in love with him," she mumbled those words but I heard it plainly. 

I kept silent for a few seconds, watching Amy as she sighed and fiddled with her fingers resting on her lap.

"Leave that. Did you have fun yesterday?" I asked, taking my seat and trying to divert her mind from Ash. 

"Yeah, I did. And again thanks to you people. Especially Zinnia. She made me laugh so much with her dad jokes," Amy said, laughing. 

Zinnia scoring with her lame dad jokes!

"Yeah, Zin knows a lot of dad jokes," I agreed with her.

»»---------------------►

It was lunch break and me, Amy, Zinnia and Lily gathered at our table as usual. I made Zinnia sit beside me when Amy went to get water so that she was sitting in the middle of Amy and me now. Lily chuckled and shook her head seeing my effort to make Amy and Zinnia close.

Amy came back and her face showed a bit of surprise when she saw Zinnia sitting next to her place but she brushed it off the next second. She sat down beside Zinnia and they started to talk whilst Lily asked me, "What made you to be nice to Andrew yesterday?"

I looked at her with a bottle of apple juice in my hands. 

"Well..." I grew dim. I signed and said, "Zinnia said something that made me not to judge him without knowing him at all." 

Lily tilted her head with a baffled look.

"Zinnia said there's something I should know about Andrew," I said.

"And do you want to know about it?" Lily asked. 

"Only if you wanna tell me," I replied. 

"I'll tell you, but not now. It's personal."

"Owkay," I nodded my head and drank the juice. 

"Isn't that Danish?"

I turned my head towards Lily and followed her eye line. I saw Danish standing there, his bag slinging on a side and his hands tucked inside his jeans pockets. He was flirting with a girl who I recognised to be from my French class but wasn't able to remember her name. 

"Yeah it is," I said before averting my gaze and taking another sip.

"Who's he talking to?"

"You mean flirting?" I corrected her.

Lily snickered. "He's hot right?" she asked.

Not gonna lie, he was indeed hot just by standing there, wearing a black full sleeve t-shirt that was rolled up and dark blue jeans.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Danish again. As I was looking at him for a few seconds, suddenly his eyes caught mine. I blinked my eyes as a reflex and averted my gaze quickly. My face began to creep with a shade of crimson. I could feel a heating sensation emanating from my skin. My heart was pounding swiftly. After taking a long sip of my juice to calm myself from this bizarre feeling, I sneaked a look at him. Danish was already looking my way and as soon as our eyes got hooked again, he winked at me.

»»---------------------►

The day ended and we went home. I was working on a project that was due tomorrow and I was just halfway through. I drank only a glass of milk as I was bustling. After an hour, I completed my work. I stretched and looked at the clock hanging on my wall to see that it was half past ten. 

"I think I'll skip my dinner for today," I murmured to myself. 

Right then, my stomach grumbled betraying my words. 

"Wow," I said. 

I signed and went downstairs. Lily was on the couch watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S and Zinnia was nowhere to be seen. She might have gone to bed. 

"Hey. Done with your work?" asked Lily as soon as she saw me.

"Yeah. I'm hungry," I said.

"Oh, I thought you would be skipping dinner. You do that sometimes, right?" Lily asked, getting up as I walked to the kitchen. 

"Isn't there anything?" I asked as I opened the refrigerator to see nothing but just a jar of jam and nutella and some juices and a carton of milk.

I looked at Lily with my mouth apart. She shrugged her shoulders. 

"Why didn't you tell me we had nothing in our fridge?"

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you. We had some bread but me and Zinnia finished it. We thought you would be skipping today," she said with an apologetic tone.

"Maybe any ramen there?" I asked, pointing to the cabinet.

She shook her head. I signed.

"I'm sorry. Are you that hungry?" Lily asked with a concerned look. 

"It's fine. I'll go get some ramen from that convenience store now and tomorrow we can go together to get whatever that's needed," I said.

"Now?" she asked. 

"Yeah. I'm fucking starving."

"Oh, ok. Wear a hoodie or something. You are going to freeze to death if you are going out wearing just a tank top."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll get my hoodie," I said and went upstairs to my room.

"Be careful," Lily said before closing the door.

I walked to the convenience store that was near our house. It was a five minute walk from my home to the store. The bell chimed as I opened the door of the store, making the owner look my way. 

"Hey, Elka. Long time no see," greeted Mrs. Baker, who was a sweet woman around fifty.

"Hi, Mrs. Baker," I greeted her back. 

"What can I get for you?"

"Few ramens. I'll get them," I said as I turned my heels to the side where ramens was stocked. 

"Oh, Elka," Mrs. Baker called me, stopping me in my tracks. "We moved the ramen counter to the other side. The right one, top shelf."

"Got it!" I turned around but she called me again.

"It's the top shelf. Can you reach? You're short, right?"

Ok. She's not that sweet.

"Yeah, I can," I said with a faux smile to hide the uneasiness on my face. "Short, my ass," I mumbled to myself as I turned around and walked to get the ramen. 

As I reached there, my eyes went to look for my favorite spicy ramen that was a limited stock at this store. And, I was lucky enough today as I saw my favorite, making my face gleam. But that gleam was soon replaced with dullness as the height difference between me and the spicy ramen knocked my sense.

Mrs. Baker was indeed right. I was short and it would be a bit difficult for me to reach my ramen.

Keeping the pride and not going to ask Mrs. Baker for any help, I tried reaching the top shelf. I raised myself on my tippy toes, trying to balance and reach the shelf. 

And I swore, I looked like a crooked ballerina.

I heard the bell chime and assumed that Mrs. Baker had gone out to take a leak as she kept herself hydrated 24/7 which made my task easier without having worries of anyone laughing at my inferiority. 

I signed as I wasn't able to reach but I wasn't going to give up. I rolled up my sleeves and tried again. 

Again. 

And again. 

My toes were paining and going numb because of the number of tries but my stubborn ass wouldn't give up. 

As I went for another try, I heard a voice from back saying, "Hey, Shorty. Want some help?"

Ni kudiye tu bomb bae turrda ni
Jhukeya saara Mumbai.. sir te
Tu ik vaari mann lai meri, gal nu
Kahnu tu kare nakhre, chhadd de