Lila and Raul were dating. It was surreal how I found out, sitting blankly on the red stool of the bustling food court, smelling the aroma of greasy food and watching Raul enter with Anthony. Before they could even reach our table, Lila caught my gaze, spun around and leapt into Raul's arms with a squeal like the one when we had won the quiz competition. Within seconds, she wrenched away from him and announced, "Raul and I are dating!"

"Hey Tulsi," Anthony greeted me and focusing solely on him, I shook his hand.

"Isn't that great?" I heard Lila chirping almost to herself like the relentless singing of a foolish bird.

"It is," Anthony said, awkwardly disengaging his hand which I didn't realize I was clasping.

Raul didn't bother to acknowledge me as he continued to smile broadly at Lila, sitting next to her and finding some excuse or another to touch her hand or her hair. I met Lila's inquisitive stare with my chin up and refused to smile back at her when she beamed at me like a child whose pampering grandparents bought the toy which his parents had denied. My dry throat was burning and goosebumps were all over my arms, the sight of Lila warming up to that prick made me feel uneasy.

Anthony had got up from his seat and I hastily grabbed his wrist. "Where are you going?"

"Getting our orders," he blushingly referred to the colourful fast food stalls. "It'll take a-a lot of time to get food because of the crowd. We should get our food now. All of us can't get our food because someone else will take our table."

I let go of his wrist and got up too. "True. I'll come with you."

"It's okay---"

I was already two steps ahead of him. "You would want help to carry the trays, right? Come on, then."

I didn't care to check on the couple and strode squarely, knowing that Anthony was following me. There were groups of hungry customers everywhere- McDonald's, Subway, KFC, Sbarro, Dominoes. Red, yellow, green flashes all around like a broken traffic light blinking with all colours and setting off cars of people in different, haphazard directions. We joined the long queue at Mc Donald's and I saw Anthony's lips move, but couldn't hear him over the wailing of a baby behind us.

I stood on my tiptoes so my ears were near his lips and asked, "What? What are you saying?"

"I-I think you should go . . . way."

"Away? You want me to go away?" I barked in his ears.

"No, no, no." He pointed at Subway and repeated shamefully, "Subway. Subway."

Another cry of the baby pierced my ears and my toes started hurting. "Why?"

"To take Raul's order. It's a long line here and till then you could take his order from Subway."

"What? What?" I pretended to not hear and continued shouting in his ears.

"Raul wants a chicken teriyaki sandwich from Subway and---"

"What?"

"---coke. You can't hear me? Raul wants a chicken teriyaki sandwich from---"

"Forget it, I can't hear you!" I slumped down and feeling my entire, anxious feet touch the ground, I relaxed a little. Fortunately, the mother carried away the harassing baby and I could notice everybody's physiognomy become calm again like the stillness of water after recovering from the fractures of ripples. I could see that Anthony was breathing normally now.

"What I said was---"

"Never mind that. Tell me, how was your day today?"

He was perplexed, but he replied to my question first, "It was-uh . . . good. How was your day?" I scoffed at that to which he confusingly smiled. "Also Tulsi . . . If you don't mind, Raul wanted a chicken teriyaki sandwich from Subway so you could take that order till---"

"Look, we're nearly there," I interrupted, indicating at the three customers in front of us. "It won't take a lot of time."

As opposed to my words, it did take a long time and Anthony resorted to cracking his knuckles. "How was your day?"

"What?"

"How was your . . . day?" he reiterated slowly as if comprehending his own question and wondering if he had said something wrong.

"You already asked me that."

"Oh." His shifty eyes never met mine and those bony knuckles kept on clicking. "What do you want?"

Lila.

I laughed at the absurd thought that popped in my head and glanced at a flummoxed Anthony. "Oh, no, nothing."

"You can have a burger. There's a Mc Spicy, Maharaja Mac, Mc Aloo Tikki---"

"I can read the menu," I mumbled to myself as his eyes were glued to the displayed menu board.

"---Mexican Aloo Tikki, Mc Veggie and in wraps there are---"

"I'll have a Mc Veggie," I said quickly with a false, grateful smile.

He nodded, revising some names under his breath and before he could resume cracking his knuckles, we had arrived at the counter. The short lady with arm-pit stains and a strong lavender perfume gave us a curt greeting. Her fingers were urgently hovering over the keyboard as she waited in anticipation for our order. She wanted to send us off with the bill as soon as possible and attend to the next ten, impatient customers behind us.

"One medium french fries, no, one second, sorry. Tulsi, do you want french fries?" Anthony asked with his eyes still focused on the red menu board.

"No, thank you."

"One medium french fries, one coke---"

"I want a coke too. Or Mirinda if they have it."

"We don't have Mirinda ma'am," the lady said.

"One medium french fries, one coke, one Mirinda---"

"They don't have Mirinda, Anthony. She just said that."

He stopped concentrating on the menu and his cheeks flushed. "Sorry. One medium french---"

"One medium french fries, two coke. That's it?" the lady said crisply which infuriated me.

"No, that's not it," I snapped. "Also one Mc Veggie burger."

"Tulsi, I---"

"It's okay. You did well," I said, watching the lady print the bill.

It was when both of us were asked to go to the other counter to collect the food, Anthony said in a small voice, "I wanted a Mc Spicy burger."

"We can go and order---"

"No, it's okay," he pleaded, taking hold of the end of my shirt sleeve.

"No, we're paying for this food. We aren't getting this for free. This isn't prasad that we can't order twice. Come, come."

His desperately pulled the end of my sleeve now before dropping it. "Please no . . . It's okay, I can have a sandwich from Subway."

I let out an exhausted breath. "Alright. Whatever you like."

It took another fifteen minutes to order at Subway since Anthony couldn't decide which vegetables he wanted and my suggestions only increased his dilemma. I pressurised the waiter into making the most horrible chicken teriyaki sandwich covered in five layers of chilli sauce. Raul should feel the burn tomorrow morning in the washroom.

Anthony paid for all the food despite my objections and we carefully balanced the trays, dodging the throngs of people as if we were in some Sonic Dash game. Lila immediately asked about our whereabouts and why we had been so late to which Anthony responded politely. Raul briefly looked up from the white paper cups which he had arranged in a straight line on the round, ochre table. They had already gotten a large french fries which was untouched and a bottle of Bisleri water with these cups.

Raul showed his 'magic' with the paper cups where he hid his large keys with its Thor keychain under one, shuffled the cups and when Lila was asked to guess the cup with the keys and she chose the right one, he squeezed the paper cup from the sides where he held the keys and revealed the empty surface. All of us could even hear the jingle of the keys as it dangled inside the cup that he held, but Lila and Anthony clapped in pleasant surprise and rapture. I shoved seven fries in my mouth and forcefully swallowed them with coke.

I bit into my burger when from the corner of the eye, I saw Anthony give the subway sandwich and his wallet to Raul. Anthony's wallet that Raul thoughtlessly put in the pocket of his jeans. I realised sourly that it was indeed Raul's wallet and he had paid for all this food. Instantly, I spat the burger in its wrapper and folding it, kept it away. My eyes locked into Lila's who was observing me closely and I frowned at her, compelling her to look away.

It seemed as if the events of that ominous day were challenging my existence and the situation got worse when suddenly, I felt cold liquid trickle down my head. Drip. Drip. Drip. It soaked my hair and dribbled down my face. The same wailing of the infant pierced my ears and I could feel the sting in my eyes. It happened in slow-motion, each drip testing my patience as the dark liquid dotted my lemon yellow blouse.

Raul roared in laughter like a satiated Satan, almost falling off the stool and I jumped up. The miserable mother apologised profusely at me while patting and rocking the crying baby which clutched a now-empty paper cup. I could see only Raul's guffawing face through the drip, drip, drip, his face magnifying into a mass of blurry black (the colour of his t-shirt) in the drops of translucent liquid which plummeted from my strands of hair like lame, dew drops. Anthony and the mother's worried voice echoed in my ears, embarrassing me more. I dashed in search of the washroom, my sticky head bumping into people who clicked their tongues in disapproval.

I stuck my head under the running tap water in the sink of the pristine washroom, the water cooling the burning tears in my eyes. The lump in my throat dissolved like hard ice on a sweltering surface. I harshly washed my hair drenched in coke, ignoring the stranger who was applying lipstick next to me. When I lathered my hair with the bubblegum pink hand-soap liquid, she gave me a look which hinted that I was a lunatic and left.

"You weirded her out," I heard a familiar voice followed by a short giggle and I hurriedly began washing the soap from my hair. The soap trickled down and permeated my eyes, blinding me. Fear strangled my mind and I wildly looked up, the top of my head colliding against the faucet. An agonising cry escaped my lips as I rubbed my eyes in vain.

Within seconds, I felt soft fingers massaging my eyelids and I stopped writhing like a person on fire. "What-What are you doing? I can handle this."

I felt her firmly grip my swatting hands, bringing them down and continuing to clear away the soap in my eyes. "Let me do this for you! I'm your best friend after all. Oh no . . . This must hurt a lot . . . Today seems like your worst day ever."

"Who said that? Accidents happen to everyone. I was having the best time with Anthony, FYI. Anyway, why are you here?"

"Remember the pact our mothers made?" To always accompany each other to the washroom when we were out of our homes or school.

To put an end to her unnecessarily stroking my cheekbones, I stepped back. "I'm fine now, you can go back to your boyfriend." I could finally see her with my bright red eyes, her small face devoid of its usual skittishness. "You can seriously go now. I don't need help. If I wanted, I would have called you."

"I can be around even when you don't want help," she said in a disappointed voice, puckering her lips. Again, I stuck my head under the tap, this time cautiously since I could still feel the throbbing on the top of my head. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about Raul and me earlier. Dating and everything. He proposed to me just yesterday night!"

"I don't really care about you telling me now. I'm happy for you."

"You don't sound happy." I was struck by her frankness as I quietly let the water flow down my face. "Are you mad at me? Is it because of me going to the US and not telling you? Or is it because of me dating Raul . . . "

I inhaled sharply, forgetting the water which gushed in my nose and triggered a series of haggard coughs. I shrugged away her hand which tentatively touched my back to soothe me. I didn't need any soothing. "I'm doing great. You can go."

"You're weirding me out too."

"Exactly. Go!"

"No. You know me, I like weird." She grinned and coquettishly leaned against the sink.

Shaking my head, I pulled a bunch of tissue paper from the dispenser and dabbed my face with it. "I'm going home."

"What? Why? No, don't go! Your hair will dry in a minute!"

"I have to help my mother with packing and stuff."

"Stuff? You're lying! Stay, all of us can watch a movie together. Pleaseeeeeeeeee."

I let out a frustrated breath, feeling the heaviness momentarily leave and weigh on me again. "I didn't have a good day, okay? You were right, today is the worst day I ever had. So stop forcing me to stay. Please." I thrust the used tissues in her hands which spilled to the floor and headed out of the washroom, smelling like toilet hand soap and soda.

* * *

Glossary :

Prasad- religious offering of food by the temples to the devotees who visit them.

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