Tea lounge

We sat on the table smiling at each other. It took only about 5 minutes drive as the lounge was just around the corner. He drove.

"Do you like the place?" He asked

"Umm...yeah. Do you come here regularly?"

"No. Just a couple of times with friends" he said raising his eyebrows. I smiled.

The waiter came over and handed us the menu.

"You drink tea?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said casually looking in the menu.

He opened his menu but his eyes were observing me and I could feel it. We ordered special masala tea.

Ummm.. he is an observant. Okay we have something in common. I don't like those numb fellows lying lifelessly in front of you.

We started casual conversation, about my last college and why I transferred. Impressive, he has really good interaction skills.

"So tell me something about the college." I asked with a small smile.

"College is good. Faculty is quite cooperative. Nice infrastructure." He said.

"Is this all?, Honestly I can read all of this on the college website."

He smirked for a while before speaking

"This college sucks. Especially that professor kay, who teaches metabolism. Haven't you heard about his adventures on the tour already?" I laughed a little, nodding my head.

He continued- "and you wouldn't find unity here in our class."

An elderly waiter came over and placed our order with "girl and boy together, shame on you" face.

We looked at our tea which had a weird long green leaf inside it, may be for stirring.

Taking the sip of tea, we looked at each other. Both of us had the same expressions.

"Do your tea have sugar in it?" - he asked with cringed face. And we both burst into laugh.

We saw few sugar sachet lying on the tray, taking 1 sachet I added into mine. He followed.

Although he was still waiting for me to take another but I didn't.

( Indian masala tea is the special tea that contains a lot of other ingredients other than just tea leaves and already have sugar added in it)

"So you were talking about our class" I said

He still had I don't like this tea face when he spoke- " Kavya, this tea is shit. I have been here a couple of times and they served the best. But I don't know why they served this today ."He said looking towards the waiter who was busy watching cricket match on the T.V.

"Its completely fine, don't think too much" I smiled.

I talked most of the time, about my hobbies showing him few of my paintings and the book I read. He listened everything silently with hands crossed.

I even told him, how me and my friends locked a professor in the washroom and with crackers inside. And how my notorious group would bunk lectures and visit the haunted places. Times.

"What about you? Tell me about your kands" i asked.

"No no no. Rules are bit strict here. Forget all those days of yours. Its Xavier's, one step out of the line and you will be detained".

My smile disappeared and I looked into the cup. I miss my old friends.

"Armaan and Raaj" - he said.

I looked at him.

"Armaan and Raaj are my man here" he said- "Armaan is the best. I tell him everything and he never spill the beans. Its like everything dissolves in him and Raaj is the studious one ."- he stopped.

I nodded and took another sip from my cup silently.

"I was sitting with Armaan just behind you today" he said suddenly. I raised my eyebrows but decided not to say anything.

"What's your goal in future?" He asked.

"A beach house, not huge. But mine. Where I can live peacefully with my tortoises and dogs, alone." I replied.

"Why alone?" He asked.

"That’s for another day." I replied with a wink.

We chatted for about half an hour and left.