CHAPTER 24: I ENVY THE BOYS SOMETIMES!!

“It’s beautiful.” Aanya shook her head in wonder.

The eight children were all huddled together with expressions of joy on some faces, impish gins on others and even slight pain in one!

Three boys were crouching at the front, arms around each other. Three girls huddled over them, half-embracing each other and two more boys stood to the side leaning on two of the crouching boys.

The spiky-haired boy in front was looking upwards at the person behind him, teeth clenched in pain and eyes wide in surprise. The person in question... was a girl with braided blonde hair over her shoulder and both hands pulling the boy’s hair upwards to cause discomfort. The impish grin on her face was unmistakable.

“Hihihi,” Aanya giggled, “I remember this! Was Harshil furious! Hahahaha!”

“He chased me around the whole building after that!” Janya giggled right alongside her friend.

Laughter subsiding, they turned their attention back to the artwork.

Even as Harshil looked up, his arms were around his two buds, the spectacled Aakash on his right and the lean and fit Cabir on his left. The two boys each had an arm wound around Harshil and were flashing peace signs.

But hilariously, using the arms they had wound around Harshil, they flashed peace signs from the sides of the spiky-haired boy’s head making it seem like he had stag-like antlers rising up from his head!

Jatin stood a little on the right behind the grinning Aakash, one arm on his shoulder and the other pushing up his own spectacles with a gentlemanly smile on his face.

In complete contrast stood Jeet, the tallest one in the group. He had circled his arm around Cabir’s throat from behind and was pulling him while flashing a peace sign from the middle of the lean boy’s head. Cabir’s mouth was wide open in surprise. It was a wonder that he managed to flash his own peace signs even in that awkward position.

Even as the two women laughed at Janya’s and the boys’ antics, their gazes went to the other two girls in the drawing.

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Standing right behind Aakash and half-embracing Janya stood the black-haired Aanya. She was leaning forwards a bit and was mussing Aakash's hair with her free hand.

“He never noticed until the pic was taken that I completely messed up his neatly-combed hairstyle!” Aanya gave a lopsided grin.

“And even then all he did was cast an expression of being wronged at you. Sad we never took a photo of his face. It was so cute!”

The two women squealed as if they were teenagers again.

Finally, their gaze fell upon the last girl in the artwork; standing on the left of Janya, her dark brown hair fell freely around her face. The way she clung tightly to Janya showed how close they were. Her cheery smile and bubbly expression seemed to liven up the atmosphere.

“Farzeen is positively glowing!” Aanya spoke a bit wistfully.

“Yeah...” The other woman trailed off as she gazed at the brown-haired girl’s face.

“Well, she was always like a ray of sunshine whenever her best friend was around...you, that is.” Aanya continued as she patted her friend’s shoulder.

“But now...I guess even best friends can grow apart.” Janya gave a sad smile. “I remember those fun times with Farzeen so frequently. Even more so when I started on this artwork. It’s sad how even though she and I were in the same school, we just grew further and further apart in just two years!”

Heaving a sigh, the blonde-haired woman continued, “I envy the boys sometimes!! Even though the five of them separated, they still remained as close as ever.”

“I say that Cabir and Aakash are best friends but that’s mostly because they spent more time together. The real reason the friendship between the five boys remained strong was all because of Harshil. He is like the glue that holds them together.” Aanya mused.

Pondering something she spoke, “It’s just over these last few years that they haven’t reached out to each other a lot. And the main reason for that is because Harshil went abroad these last two years. Without him around, Aakash and Cabir still keep in touch but they don’t stay in contact as much with the other two. Luckily, you two came back last month. I guess the five of them will somehow start talking for hours again!”

“Harshil kept in touch with all the guys but only intermittently. We were so busy these years abroad! I had so many art exhibitions and meets! And Harshil had so many seminars, conventions and especially his research with fellow psychiatrists at Stanford. But it was quite a rewarding experience too!”

“And now I have a personal piece of artwork by the famous artist Janya herself!” Aanya laughed.

“You told me that you wanted a drawing of this pic from my hand. What was the reason? Oh yeah, so that you could brag about how the famous Janya had created something personally for you! You said when I just embarked on my dream to be an artist!” Janya laughed. “You just wished for it as a method of giving me confidence but I took it as a motivation to become famous so I could gift you this!”

“Oh, come here, you!”

Aanya pulled Janya into a tight hug.