Just Another Day

'Man proposes, God disposes.'

What do you do, when your actions bring misfortune?

When things turn out to be nasty when you least expect them to be?

When nothing seems viable?

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"Where are you going so early, Khushi?"

She heard Jazz call her name from behind and she turned around to look at her.

"Where do you think I would go other than office on a lazy weekend?"

Jazz quirked at Khushi's curt reply and finally concentrated on her bowl of corn flakes, simultaneously texting on her iPhone.

*

"Give me a minute sweetheart, I will just take two more minutes."

Mom addressed to Khushi, from the kitchen.

She was busy arranging the grocery in the kitchen that they had bought last evening.

Her mother had always been an independent woman.

She never saw her break down even during the toughest times of life, when her dad left the world forever.

Adrienne Vermount, her mother, worked as a Public Relations Officer in a renowned firm and had never let her two daughters feel that something's missing.

However, there was one thing that made Khushi immensely jealous of her mother.

Adrienne didn't have to work on Sundays like her!

"Grrr"

Khushi practically groaned sulking over her mundane life, wherein her Sundays too were as boring as the rest of the week.

Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt when she saw her mother getting out of the kitchen, grabbing her car keys and approaching Khushi.

"Let's go!"

She patted Khushi's shoulders, enthusiastically.

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Khushi kept looking at her, trying to figure out what was wrong, and after a brief period, she finally discovered it.

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"Erm.. mom, you sure you would want to drop me at my workplace wearing an apron over your outfit?"

Jasmine broke into a laughter hearing Khushi's statement, and their mom looked at herself, embarrassed.

"Oops Sweetie, I'm so sorry."

Saying this, she quickly untied the belts of the apron from her waist, threw it on the sofa and rushed out with Khushi towards the car.

Unlocking the car, Khushi sat on the passenger's seat while Adrienne put the key into ignition and the engine roared to life.

.

How desperately she waited for her 18th birthday, no one could ever comprehend.

At least, that would save her from this daily routine of being dropped by her mother to her workplace!

But then again, her worst nightmare was also happening on the very same day.

As in, the results of Southeastern Verman College!

And she was more than sure that the day was going to engulf her in a vortex of disappointment, once again.

So, one part of her somewhat always wanted her 18th birthday never to arrive.

Never could she imagine in her dreams, that life could be this paradox contradictory.

But..

''Never mind!''

She dodged the thought even before it could even fully make its essence felt in her conscience mind. Because she knew if she let it, her day would be diminished into a quagmire full of despair.

She didn't know exactly what was it that seemed so invariably confusing since the past few days, but she felt like as every day came and went, she was nearing something. Something that was beyond her understanding, something that was barely visible, barely tangible, but had a magnitude to spin her off guard. Something that looked every bit of normal but its reality reflected like a rip current in the ocean that could pull you to the deepest depths of the blue, without a forewarning.

Everyday was every bit of normal, yet every day made her feel like there lay something that she was yet to discover, there was a lot more to what met the eye.

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"Don't worry Khushi, next month you would get your driver's license, and you can drive the car all by yourself."

Adrienne said, breaking the silence during the drive., and also breaking Khushi's reverie.

Khushi only nodded, just to show she was listening.

"What's bothering you dear?"

The problem with Adrienne was that she was exceptionally sweet. That too at the wrong hours.

Hours, where Khushi would want her to be tough, to be the typical mother. But she would totally be the opposite.

"Nothing. Just worried about the admissions."

She answered, surprised at the sound of her own voice.

'How could I sound so theatrical?'

She thought to herself.

"Oh! Why do you worry so much dear? I'm sure you're going to make it."

This was it.

Khushi was already suffering with the consequences of that bad entrance test. The last thing she needed was the high-expectation and unshakable trust of her mother that her daughter would always succeed no matter what.

She let out a deep sigh and finally said, "Look mom, things aren't that easy the way they seem to be. I think no one can be a bigger fool than me. I messed it up. Totally. Even the things, I thought I knew, everything!Completely. I won't make it. Southeastern Verman isn't going to be my destination."

.

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"Khushi Elise Vermount!"

Khushi hated it.

Whenever anyone addressed her with her full name. For it seemed like someone was charging her against some sin.

And well, her mom just did that.

She sometimes wondered how could she end up having an Indian name when her entire life of 17 years 11 months was spent in America?

Well, it was her mother again. On her visit to India during long back, she had met a little girl named Khushi, and she instantly liked the name, which meant "happiness" in English.

'But why did she have to make her own daughter the namesake of that little girl years later?'

Well, that was Adrienne. She didn't boil a cauldron of thoughts and conjectures before zeroing upon things. Because for her, life had always been do or die. When her husband passed away, she never flinched at the thought of taking responsibility of her two little kids alone. She made a name for herself and gave her kids a beautiful life.

Her faith in life as well as her will power, was beyond ordinary.

She looked at Khushi with her brown eyes filled with affection and continued,

"You don't need to panic sweetheart. I have complete faith that you will clear the entrance and that too with good marks. I'm also sure that the faculty would have been impressed with your interview and would be eager to have you there. So don't worry and relax. All right?"

This discussion would lead her to nowhere good, Khushi knew that pretty well. However, that moment she was ready to give up anything to have that talk ended for good.

So just for the sake of it, Khushi gave her mom a light smile, pretending that she followed her words and continued playing with the on-off key of her cell phone.

"The interview"

Yes, that was the only thing, where she hadn't screwed up.

It went well.

Pretty well.

In fact, the faculty was indeed impressed with all that she had to say.

'So does that mean, I still have a chance?'

Her conscience prompted.

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Before her mind could even think about it, she felt the car screech and come to a halt.

"Verman Times Association"

She had reached her workplace.

Khushi hurriedly undid her seat belt, got out of the car and waved at her mother who always had her face curved up with a smile.

"Bye sweetie! Have fun!"

Adrienne exclaimed joyfully before driving away.

*

Out of the few things Khushi liked about Verman Hills, the best was that it was a small town, with really limited number of people.

Though the misty weather added to the monotony, but

she would always thank her stars for having less people around her.

She hated crowds.

And out of the very, very few things she liked about her workplace was that she had her best friend as her colleague, who also worked there as an intern.

Rebecca Wilson.

A blonde, she was certainly a style icon.

Khushi had no clue how Rebecca always managed to look stylish.

Be it in her ragged night pajamas or even on a bad hair day!

The best thing about her was that she never gave up on Khushi.

Though other than that the other points of her character traits were pretty agitating, but Khushi believed the first point outnumbered them all.

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"Hey! You are late"

Rebecca said, pulling Khushi into a hug at the same time.

"Ah.. Mother and her antics, you know right?"

Khushi replied, pulling back, finally taking a seat, arranging her desk at the same time.

Rebecca: Never mind. So what's your plan for today evening?

Khushi: A date with my boyfriend, followed by a movie in the evening, dinner at a 5-star and getting back home by 1:00 a.m.

Rebecca kept staring at Khushi, her mouth flung open and within five seconds, they both burst into endless giggles, laughing their hearts out.

.

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They have had their worst secrets known to each other, ever since they became friends in Grade II.

And nothing was unknown to both of them about each other.

Khushi never had a boyfriend.

Night outs weren't her forte.

Not that she wasn't ever interested in anyone but nothing was relevant to the extent of being called "Love."

At least that's what she believed.

Though her friends had always found her to be an attractive brunette and also said that many guys had been after her, hoping for a romantic angle, but that never really bothered Khushi.

Not yet.

But that wasn't the case with Ree.

Yes, that's what Khushi called Rebecca.

Silly, she knew. But now she was habituated.

Ree had been in two-relationships till date.

'The last one was serious. Very serious.'

Khushi mentally noted, stifling her chuckle.

For a second, she had believed she would end up seeing them getting hitched as soon as Ree passed out from high school.

But Khushi came out of that delusion, hearing the news of Ree's break up four months back.

The guy turned out to be a cheat.

For the first time in life, Khushi had come across a shattered Rebecca, but she was glad that Ree managed to fix herself back and come out as a strong girl, a strong woman.

She was good now.

At first Khushi thought, maybe it was just a pretense. But her theories were proved wrong, when she found her gelling with everybody normally and also being her usual self.

*

"Type the matter and then arrange these copies on the basis of the importance of the story."

Their superior assigned them the task and headed towards his cabin.

Rebecca let out a loud sigh, making Khushi look at her with astonishment.

"What's wrong?"

Khushi asked, concerned.

"You think Kevin really meant that?"

Her question made Khushi least interested once again.

She looked at my computer screen and replied-

"Ree, we have had this discussion many times before. Will you please get it out of your freaking head?"

.

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Kevin was their senior.

Not only in terms of age, but also in terms of position at their work place.

The guy assisted and guided them with their work, when they were new comers at the Verman Times Association.

A tall fellow with an athletic build, Kevin had a dusky complexion, making him quite the conventional "tall, dark, handsome" material and his looks were enough to make girls go gaga over him.

Rebecca was no different.

There was no doubt that he and Ree would indeed make a good pair, just that it was too quick to decide.

Rebecca had just recently recovered from the trauma of a broken relationship and Khushi didn't want her to face anything similar in the future.

And the grip on Khushi's thoughts had strengthened even more, when she had received a text from Kevin last night.

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'21.45 Kevin: You were looking smoking hot today, Khushi. Will you go out with me next weekend?'

The text had made Khushi shocked, at the same time disheartened.

She had instantly called up Ree and forwarded her the text at the same time.

She could feel Ree was disappointed with the text and her constant calls soon after, proved Khushi darn right.

Rebecca was always in love with the feeling of being in love.

And Khushi for a change wished if she could make any amendment to that.

*

She came out of my reverie when she saw Kevin standing in front of them, a big grin plastered on his face.

She could already feel the ambience not amicable anymore and the awkward quotient was rising in the air quite dramatically.

For the sake of formality, Khushi greeted him "Good Morning," and looked back at her computer screen, pretending to be so busy that she had to type 1000 pages and the world was ending the next minute.

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"Miss. Vermount, I have an important task for you."

Khushi heard Mr. Jones, their superior addressing her.

"Yes sir?"

"Here is the dummy of the front page Solus Ad."

He handed Khushi a piece of paper, being so careful as if it was the most important thing in the planet and he didn't want to make any mistakes.

"This ad needs to be the limelight in tomorrow's edition. Make it as attractive as you can. Type in the details carefully."

"And do the proof reading properly. Victor is on a leave today, so I need you to make sure everything's all right," he added.

Khushi had never seen Mr. Jones being so extra cautious about anything till date. He was a very calm-headed man.

But today.

'Well, doesn't matter.'

She mentally said.

She tried ignoring everything else and just focusing on her work and so she diverted her attention to the new piece of information that she had to work on for tomorrow's edition.

'Wayland Exotica'

Khushi's face lit up reading the details of the ad that she had to draft.

It was one of the grandest events in the town organized by the Sciarrone Groups- one of the most influential families in the whole of South America.

"Sure sir. I will handle it."

Khushi assured Mr. Jones, while getting back to work, commencing the procedure to frame the print advertisement.

Mr. Jones assigned some other tasks to the fellow interns and finally disappeared into his cabin.

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Khushi was trying her level best to concentrate on her screen, but it seemed too difficult, since from the corner of her eyes, she could feel a pair of eyes gazing at her.

'What does he want?'

Khushi wanted to ask him directly, but then she didn't want to even talk to him, knowing his ultra-perverted mind would not really have anything distinctly novice on the decency front.

Kevin's lusty gaze kept bothering her.

Her concentration completely broke when she found another pair of eyes gazing at her, as if she were some stuff to be eaten and gulped right after.

Khushi could make out easily, Rebecca was insecure.

It was quite obvious.

She felt like running out of there.

Her insides were shouting and she could sure as hell wish, at that hour even a fire alarm could have been a savior, to pull her out of this mess! A mess where she was being sandwiched between others' cold war!

It was insane to have a guy gaze at you like you were some mini celebrity, when you didn't even feel the same for him.

But beyond insanity was when you have your best friend gaze at you, making you feel guilty about things you shouldn't even feel guilty for, in the first place!

She fervently wished for a way out of this ordeal.

*

It was 6.00 p.m. in the evening.

It was dark.

Khushi tried to focus but she couldn't stop her ever agile mind from pondering. About things from this afternoon.

The lunch time at office had never been this boring.

But today was different, no doubt on that.

What else can one expect, when you are stuck in the middle of a love triangle, you don't even want to be a part of!

She groaned at the thought.

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Khushi had typed everything finally.

She never knew her typing speed could be like the speed of a bullet. But today she was ready to experiment and attempt everything that could get her out of that awkward situation.

"Three more to proof read, Khushi. Just three more."

She mentally consoled and motivated herself, looking at the piles of sheets on the table and then at her computer screen, which still had three more files to be proof read.

She wanted to go home.

Caught in this weird situation, she was suddenly missing her room, her cozy bed, her silly mother and her not-so-friendly yet cute sister.

Actually, she just needed to get out of office.

PRONTO.

She needed a deep sleep and then a heart-to-heart conversation with Ree, perhaps.

''Yes, that would help.''

She was sure.

With a sigh of relief, she turned to look at Rebecca, who was busy typing something, her face totally lacking any sort of interest in whatever she was doing.

"Ree, I'm not feeling well. I think I would go home. Do you mind proof reading these files, for me?"

Khushi said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Ree looked at her with a blank expression on her face, trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

Before Khushi could utter anything further, she saw Kevin standing near her desk.

"Don't worry. You go home. I will do the proof reading. I'm here till late night."

He said to her, very politely.

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'God, another bummer!'

That was the last thing she needed.

Every time, she took a tiny baby step to attempt making things better, a giant monster would crash her with its foot, ruining everything.

And coming to Kevin, even his apparent chivalry made her feel disgusted.

Khushi was about to say something when he once again intervened,

"Don't hesitate Khush, I will do it for you. You don't look fine. You better go home."

"Khush???"

'How dare he!?'

That bratty loser nicknamed her?

''What the hell!''

Khushi could see Rebecca's mouth forming an O shape and her face became completely shattered.

This was it.

She needed to get out of there, anyhow.

The only way it was possible at the moment was by following Kevin's words.

Without any further ado, she reluctantly nodded, complying with his offer for help.

He gave Khushi a sly smile, happy that she agreed to take his help.

Khushi quickly closed all the documents, which were already revised, leaving maximized screens of only those documents, which needed proof-reading.

She arranged everything at her desk, shoved her things into her purse hurriedly and turned to leave when she heard Kevin ask-

"Only these two files?"

"Yes. Only those."

She replied quickly and lashed out of the door, desperately craving for some fresh air that could put an end to her untimely conundrums.

.

''Oh! How much I missed this.''

Oxygen!

"Finally."

Those hours inside there had made her feel as if she was choking to death any minute.

She was not at all a very good people person. She had a very close, small, and tight circle. And if anything went even remotely wrong or awkward within that little sphere of people she got, she felt like she would get a panic attack. And today's scene actually was no different.

She stopped a cab hurriedly and was about to get inside, when the realization dawned in her head.

"Oops, it wasn't two files. It was three."

She recalled her little mistake wherein she had accidentally closed an important file to be proof-read and told Kevin there were only two files to be re-checked instead of three.

She instantly thought to rectify the mistake and notify

Kevin of the same when her mind conspicuously opposed the thought.

There was no way, she was getting back there.

At least, not until she was done having a proper discussion with Rebecca.

'But the document!'

Her conscience reminded her. But her ever apprehensive mind couldn't take the heavy juggle anymore.

She exhaled, giving it all a pass, convinced with her justification that she needed a peace of mind for the time being and got inside the cab.

This ignorance of hers was just a mistake. A small one.

But she was completely oblivious that this little mistake was actually going to cost her a lot. Starting from the dawn of tomorrow.

**