Always there for you

It was a bright sunny morning, and while the sun rays hit Diya’s eyes, a gust of wind blew across her face making her quiver a little. She wrapped herself in her warm blanket and turned over to the other side. As she was about to get back to her sleep peacefully, she heard muffled noises calling out her name.

Mrs. Rita (Diya’s Mom): Wake up you little brat! It’s 7:30 already!

Diya sits up on the bed, rubbing her eyes. While she’s still half asleep, she notices the clock hanging on the wall and suddenly comes to her senses, realizing that she had overslept.

Beside her mom stood Dhruv and Sara, two of her closest friends, who were now glaring at her with anger.

Sara: Wake up D! it’s late, we have to be there by 8 am, remember?

Diya, Sara and Dhruv were best friends from school and also had joined the same college. Now, all of them were on a semester break, no, not the fun one, they had to start their internship and had a tons of work to be done during the break.

Dhruv: We don’t have any time to waste. Hurry up girls!

Diya: Yes, yes! I’ll take bath after I get back. For now, I’ll just brush my teeth and freshen up.

Mrs. Rita: God save this child!

Diya quickly freshens up and throws on a light blue shirt with white trousers. She lets her dark brown hair fall down and curls the edges. She then quickly applies sunscreen, lip balm and black eyeliner, which makes her dark brown eyes stand out. She finishes all of this in 15 minutes (Yeah, she’s a pro!).

Mrs. Rita: Take this cold coffee and sandwich I made, you can have it on the way. Also, good luck dear, even your dad asked me to convey his wishes for your first day at work.

Diya: Thanks to both of you. Now, I’ll leave. I’ll just take the coffee. Love you!

She grabs the tumbler of cold coffee, hugs her mom, and leaves with Sara and Dhruv.

Mrs. Rita: Wait, you forgot your lunch bag! (her mom yells)

Dhruv comes back running, takes Diya’s lunch bag and waves goodbye to her mom and leaves in a hurry.

They rush to Sara’s car. Sara, who knew all the shortcuts, takes a different route for the day which helps them reach the office complex within 10 minutes.

Sara parks the car in the parking area and all of them head towards the lift.

Diya: Thank god we made it on time! We still have about 3 to 4 minutes left.

Dhruv: Yeah, we made it just in time.

They head over to the lift to get to the 3rd floor where the office was located and as the lift descends, Diya who was busy chatting with her friends and not paying attention to her surroundings, attempts to enter without looking ahead. She accidentally crashes into a guy who is coming out of the lift. The coffee tumbler she was holding cracks open, spilling all the coffee onto his shirt.

Diya: Oh no! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to...

Ayush: What the hell? Are you blind or something?

Diya: Excuse me?

Ayush: Can’t you see where you’re going? Who rushes into an elevator like that without checking if someone is coming out or not? Look at what you’ve done, spilled your damn coffee all over my white shirt!

Diya: Look, I’m really sorry, but there’s no need to be so rude. I’m happy to pay for your shirt, you can get a new one.

Ayush: Seriously? You think I want your money? Today is an important day for me, and look what you have done. What am I going to do now? I don’t even have an extra shirt.

Dhruv: Hey, I have an extra T-shirt. I thought to hit the gym once I was done with work so I brought it with me. I think we both are of the same size, it may fit you.

Dhruv digs out his T-shirt from his bag and hands it over to Ayush who then looks at the size mentioned at the neck of the T-shirt and gives an assuring nod.

Ayush: Yeah! This is my size. Even though this is not formal, it’ll do I guess, got no choice now. Thanks a lot. I shall return this back to you. I am Ayush by the way, (extends his hand to Dhruv and both shake hands) please can you enter your phone number in my cell so I can contact you later.

Ayush hands over his phone to Dhruv, who enters his number, name and then returns it. Ayush gives Diya an irritated look before waving at Sara and Dhruv, and then heads towards the parking lot.

Diya: Did you see that? Did you see the look that he gave me? What a rude guy.

Dhruv: Don’t worry about him. Let’s go now, it’s already 8 AM.

They all head towards the office. As they arrive, they rush to the reception where Mr. Raghav Gowda was standing. He glances at his watch, then at Diya.