Friendship's Day

We were successfully avoiding each other since the past 10 minutes. I was pretending to be engrossed in my rather non-engrossing macro economics textbook for the lack of anything more interesting to engross myself in. She was doing stuff on the computer. The fact that she was the one working on the computer while I was unsuccessfully trying to focus on the quantity theory of money really had my temperature soaring.

Just as I was preparing to start cursing everything and everyone I could think of for the unfairness of it all, she turned to me and said “See ya around!”

Well, then she left. I had the pc to myself and I didn’t have to put up with a nosy snob anymore. I even had a choice of ignoring my textbook now. It was one of those “granted” moments, like how you wish for something and then God or somebody says “granted!” and poof!- your wish comes true. Only this time I wished I had wished for more. Like her head blowing up due to the straw filled in her head catching fire. Like her realizing that I am the only perfect person in the world and she is just a lesser mortal seeking guidance from the enlightened soul (me, of course). Like her hair being caught in the table fan she was sitting next to and her screaming for help while I point and laugh (evil grin).

But still, something is better than nothing. And so I got up, turned off the computer (who wants to use what “she” uses), and got back to my feeble unsuccessful attempts at understanding the quantity theory of money. I had an exam after all, and I was determined to show “her” that I don’t give in to temptation (logging in to facebook is a temptation when you have an economics exam the next day).

However, my stubborn mind was still devising ways to murder her without being caught. My heart tried to reason that I don’t even know why I hate her so much, but then the intellectually efficient brain was going through the plots it had been fed through the scores of detective novels I had read.

Some half hour passed, and lo, here she came again. Oh no oh no oh no oh no. A long list of exclusive swearing was running through my head. She sat back in front of the pc, gave me a why-the-hell-did-you-turn-it-off look, and switched it back on. The temporary good mood vanished like stains from a shirt washed with surf excel. Why me?

I realized that the only option I had of maintaining my sanity was to move to some other place. But then that was the only AC room, and the room temperature outside must have been sahara-ish. But the heat in my head was intolerable anyways. So I started to gather up my stuff. Just as I leaned to pick up a pencil that had rolled down the table, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was her with a cake. I couldn’t figure out where she had got that from suddenly, and was contemplating witchcraft, when she said “Hey before you go, there is something I want you to have. This cake I baked for all my friends, and I would like to start with you. I know we are not exactly friends right now, but I would like to be your friend. You seem to be so cool and smart. Will you be me friend?”

I was speechless. Of all the possibilities I had thought of regarding a so-called first conversation between us, this was nowhere near even the “least possible” probable outcome. “uh… yeah sure… umm… you are cool and smart too…”. What was I saying? I had gone mad. The shock had addled my so-far-intellectually-efficient brain! But she was smiling and offering me a piece of the mouth-watering sinfully- delicious chocolate-dripping cake. Well the cake had not done anything wrong, so I accepted, and tried to smile back. It must have not looked like a smile because she asked “are you alright?” and looked concerned. I made a genuine effort to smile and even said thanks for the cake.

Then something lighted up in me, and I realized that she wasn’t the villain of my life, she was just another girl like me, feeling alone and lost (not that I was feeling alone or lost), and wanted some friends. She wasn’t the snob, she was the introvert. I was suddenly feeling guilty. To help myself feel better, I gorged on the cake. It didn’t help. All this time she was telling me how she had always wanted to be a friend but I always looked too busy with myself, and how she never gathered up the courage to talk to me, and how I seemed to be cold-shouldering her. I gorged some more.

After an eternity, the piece of cake was over, and so were her indirect allegations of me being the snob. I was going through a major paradigm shift. Well, all’s well that ends well. I wished her a happy friendship’s day. She wished me back. And we actually became good friends (not right away, it took almost a week before I would talk to her without feeling guilty).

All in all, it is a friendship that would probably last long, and I am grateful to her for coming forward.

I only wish I wasn’t too judging. I would probably have gotten a good friend a lot earlier.