Episode 3
‘How can one person have this much shit!?’ Abhi stood in his hallway looking at the enormous piles … well, he had no other way than describe it as junk. ‘ where god are you?’
He knew that she was home, he had just no idea where. Which was saying something because his apartment wasn’t that big.
‘I’m here you turd’ Bulbul called from somewhere out of the sleeping room. With a big pile of clothing in her arms she walked in the living area.
‘You know? O dear brother of mine,’ She said ‘If the mess bothers you so, you could- you know- just some weird suggestion- totally thinking out of the box-…..help me.’
Abhi just smirked at her and walked towards the couch which was- surprisingly- somewhat empty of Bulbul’s junk. Abhi made a big show –just to annoy Bulbul– of stretching down on the couch an staring at the black television.
‘Nope’ he said. ‘You know just as well as I do, that I whole heartedly disagree with you decision, and therefore will not do anything to spur it on.’
Bulbul just sighed as she went to sit beside him. In her arm she had a big pile of Abhi’s old band t-shirts from when he was going through a fan boy faze. She dropped them down and started folding them and put them in a moving box that sat beside the couch.
‘My god Bhai.’ She sighed after a while, ‘I don’t get why you are this upset, do you know how lucky I am? I literately got assigned the biggest dorm room in existence, and you will finally have some space for yourself as well.’
Abhi looked at Bulbul with an annoyed expression on his face ‘I don’t mind not having any space, I do mind you going to live with a complete stranger. What if this girl is some psycho killer?’
Bulbul just raised her eyebrow at him while she put the last of the t-shirts in the box. For the first time Abhi looked at what she was doing
‘Hey!’ He protested ‘Those are mine!’
Bulbul smiled innocently at him ‘God bhai, like you ever wear them! – Besides they are my pj’s, you can’t take those away from me! – That would be, like an awful crime. – It would be just as terrible as killing a puppy!’
Abhi looked at Bulbul with an un-amused expression.
‘You wouldn’t kill a puppy. Right o brother dear?’
‘Here’ Bulbul handed him another pile of tops that was lying on the ground. When he didn’t respond she sighed annoyed.
‘Fold those.’
Abhi looked at the clothes, sighed and started folding them ‘You know,’ he said ‘I would have let you have them If you asked.’
Bulbul just grinned sheepishly ‘But you got so mad last time!’
Abhi smirked at her ‘Yes, because last time, I spend months looking for my only pair of dark jeans, thinking I must have gone crazy for not being able to find them, only to find out that you cut the legs because you thought you would look good in denim summer shorts.’
Bulbul laughed ‘Well,’ she said ‘they did make my look great’
Abhi raised his eyebrows and looked at Bulbul. Which made her laugh harder.
Abhi sighed ‘Do you think this is funny? I should have had a brother. They don’t steal clothes you know!’ he grumbled.
Deciding to let the comment to how her behind looked in his jeans pass.
Bulbul pulled up her biggest puppy dog eyes and looked at him ‘But you still love me right?’
He laughed at her expression ‘Well, it looks like I don’t have a choice do I?’ He put the last of the tops he had folded on the pile he had made, and stood up to get himself a beer from the fridge.
‘Well, at least it’s your turn to cook.’ He said.
Bulbul turned on the couch to look at him ‘since when!?- I cooked yesterday!’
Abhi smiled at her undignified look ‘Since you are leaving me, and the penalty for that is cooking for me every evening until you leave.’
To be honest, Abhi was kind of glad to be having some more room to himself. When he had gotten accepted to Delhi he and Bulbul had been forced to move to Mumbai.
Bulbul, luckily didn’t mind. She didn’t really like the people in Delhi anyway, even years after their mother had died, and they were still treated with pity.
She hated it. They both hated it.
So she didn’t mind transferring schools. Originally he had been assigned a dorm, but since there was no room for Bulbul there, he was forced to find an apartment as soon as possible. Using their limited founds, they had only been able to rent this tiny apartment just outside of the campus. With both him and Bulbul going to school during the day, and his frequent night jobs, it never felt small, they were just not that often there.
The only thing that really sucked was that they shared the bed room- meaning he was never able to bring girls with him, which was, every now and then a major cock block.
Together they had found their rhythm. They had found a group of friends that they both loved, and would come over to their place like they lived there themselves. They found a sort of peace in the steadiness that had become their lives.
So when Bulbul had finished high school, and gotten in to same university as well they were both ecstatic. It meant they could stay together. Bulbul however, decided to sign up for a place in a dorm room, much to his dislike.
When she would have been given this shity dorm, with no room to even walk, he might have been able to convince her to stay with him. But instead she was given the biggest room on the whole dam campus. So of course, there was no stopping her.
It annoyed him more than anything that he couldn’t check out the person she was paired with. It did nothing for his sleep as well, he worried about her okay? What if she would have to live with some weirdo?
As it was, he was parking in front of her new dorm flat. The car was packed with all her shit and she was talking happily about …well…something to him, he wasn’t really listening. The flat was big, made of brick, and had a big sign hanging above the entrance that said MUH Cougars in bright red.
Of course, Bulbul lived on the penthouse. She had been all happy about it until Abhi had made a remark about what she would do if the elevator went out of service. Because it was still a dorm flat, that would at some point happen.
Bulbul had been quiet carrying the first box in the elevator. The moment they stepped into the room for the first time, the silence was for a whole other reason.
The dorm, no, apartment was huge. The door opened to the living area there already was a big couch, facing away from them looking at an table that was obviously designed for a TV spot. On either side of the small table was a big window letting it loads of sunlight, and when looking out of them, would allow them to look over a big part of campus. On the right side was a kitchen, an actual kitchen with a bar. And a table.
The room with the kitchen and the living area in one looked – homely. The door on the left side undoubtedly lead to the bathroom and then there were on both sides of the room an door witch lead to the bedrooms. The apartment was probably twice as big as his, and he couldn’t help but be at least a bit jealous of his sisters luck.
‘Looks like you have first pick’ Abhi said as he put the box he had been holding in the middle of the room. Bulbul did the same with hers and walked, almost like a shy child to one of the doors. ‘BHAI!’ she yelled from within the room.
‘What!?’ he panicked when he almost sprinted towards the room.
So Octavia’s room was huge, both the bedrooms were. They were completely identical to each other just mirrored.
Yes, It was official, Abhi was jealous of his sister’s dorm room.
He never even knew such dorms excited. When they had finished getting Bulbul’s crap in to the dorm – which took some time – Bulbul really did have a lot of crap – they ordered takeout food and spend the rest of the day unpacking. – Sometime during the evening they might, or might not have danced together on ‘Wannaby’ by the spicegirls when he found the CD in one of the boxes.
It was time to go home, and he was dreading it, he had never, ever slept without Bulbul in the house, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
After one last hug he walked towards the elevator he tried not to look back, but when he heard Bulbul sob quietly in the doorway he rushed towards her and hugged her, apparently she was as scared as he was.
When he was finally on the elevator on his way down 30 minutes later, he was in a sour mood. God, he was going to buy himself a pack of beer. Or maybe hid a bar or something. Anything to forget Bulbul moving out. But first he still had to go to the reception and ask for a second key. There was no way he wouldn’t be able to get to her as fast as possible in a case of an emergency.
The woman that sat behind the reception desk looked annoyed at the short, spects girl standing before her.
‘What do you mean I have to share?’ the girl asked snottily.
‘Well I’m sorry, but there were just no more rooms available, so you have to share.’ the receptionist sighed. ‘I don’t know why you are so upset, you got a pretty big room.’
The spects girl just looked more annoyed at this ‘Well I don’t care how big the room is, I shouldn’t share a room. When I applied here, they told me I wouldn’t have to share!’
Apparently the receptionist lost her patience when she pointedly handed the spects girl a map containing all the dorm rules en information that Bulbul got earlier as well and a key.
‘I’m sure you will learn to like your dorm mate.’ she said sternly, signaling that the conversation was over.
The spects girl huffed, grabbed her bag that was sitting beside her on the ground and turned away from the reception. Not knowing he was standing behind her, she was shocked when she was suddenly directly in his face.
‘Watch it!’ She jabbed at his face and walked away.
He just smirked and bowed ‘my apologies you’re PRINCESS’.
Suddenly she swirled around and looked with wide eyes at him .He just got up ignored her and looked at the receptionist to ask for that dam key.
It wasn’t until he heard her footsteps go in the elevator and the doors close, that he let out a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding in.