The Chosen Title

"Life is a journey that we experience to reach our destination of self-growth."

"Life is the stage we have to ourselves where we perform our actions to receive an applause."

I hear a groan. Where did it come from?

Right. It came from my mind. Why you ask?

Because everything I just wrote is absolute trash.

Why does this happen? Everytime I have a thought that appears beautiful in my brain, I write it down, and the moment I read what I have written, I don't like it anymore. I hate it when this happens. It makes me feel that I am just not cut out for doing this.

I have a goal in my life. To write something that reflects such an emotion that every person reading it feels it with the same power I intended them to feel. Say, I write a character who feels a sudden rise in adrenaline. The reader, too, should feel the same, which can only happen if I write about something that hits home to every heart and leaves them engrossed in my book.

Am I making sense? Well, I am in my head so guess what, you just have to deal with it.

I jump as I hear my door open. Great, first I had to deal with my crazy self, and now I have to deal with Kelly's crazy self, all by myself. Yay life!

"Mel, come on! I have so much exciting stuff to tell you! Get out of your chair, close your notebook, straighten yourself and meet me in the sandwich bar in 5 minutes. Hurry up!" she screams, as she rushes to our usual hangout to grab a table.

Grudging as I didn't do anything productive in the past half hour, I do as she said, grab some money and head out of my student apartment.

The sandwich bar is the place where you will find all the students who live in the university campus trying to spend some leisure quality time with their friends and significant others. It is run by an old Indian couple, Mr and Mrs Singh, whom I now consider to be my other family. And just for that, I receive a free plate of french fries with my sandwich. Good exists, y'all.

"A pathetic attempt at a southern accent Mel." says Kelly, when I try to greet her in that manner.

"Whatever. Did you order ?"

"Duh, the usual combo. But you have to show Mrs Singh your face for the fries."

"Of course. It has been a while since she came down. Since the past few weeks I have only seen her nephew at the counter, who is so engrossed in doing his mental maths he forgets there is a customer waiting to pay." I laugh with Kelly at the memory, as I go to the counter.

"Good morning Mrs Singh. It's been a while since I saw you." I say, as I lean towards her on the counter for her to kiss me on the forehead.

"Good morning dear. I missed you too. I had gone to attend my daughter's convocation in Australia. She graduated!" she replies with excitement, while bringing out my fries from the kitchen.

"Wow! That's great. My heartiest congratulations to her. Thank you for the fries!" I say, as I take the plate and head for my table.

As I walk past other tables, I see that every table seats friends, who are talking to each other, cracking jokes together, and stressing over assignments, together. That is why I love this place. All of us here are going through the same struggles, and luckily, have found friends who can relate to us as much as we can to them.

I reach my table and sit down when Kelly looks up from her phone screen.

"Ok first of all, the dance is this weekend. Who are you going with?"

"Who are you going with?" I ask, in an attempt to make her forget her question, even though I already know her answer.

"I'm going with Sam, obviously. He asked me this morning. He is the best." She says, with a dreamy look in her eyes. God, this girl.

"So, where is lover boy anyway? Apart from your daydreams, I mean."

"Huh? Oh yeah, he has gone for a ride with his friends."

"I didn't know he had a car."

"He doesn't. He's riding with- what's his name- hot like Justin Timberlake?"

"Uhh.."

"Yes, Darien. You know, his girlfriend from out of town broke up with him." She says with a look that said she was trying to imply something.

"Girl you can't cheat on Sam."

"I would never silly. All I am saying is he is available." Still trying to imply.

"Your point?"

"Oh come on, I know you don't have a date for the dance. Ask him out!" She says, excitedly.

"Ok firstly, I don't need to have a date to go to the dance, I have friends I can hang out with. Secondly, I won't ask a guy out whom I barely know anyway."

"And that would be your chance to get to know him."

"Why are you obsessed with trying to set me up with random guys?" I ask, already exhausted with this topic.

"Because I want you to marry someone someday, so that I get to be your Maid of Honor. You know I don't have sisters, right?" She says, with a pleading look on her face.

What do I do with a person like her?!

"Continue behaving this way and you won't even get an invitation to it." I say with a look of disgust.

"Look, I am in no way desperate. I am not lonely, because I have friends and family who keep me entertained, and you know what, I enjoy being single. Plus, there are way too many hot men on Netflix I can rest my eyes upon for the rest of my life." I say with the air of finality.

"Fine, my empowered friend. You are right, who needs a boyfriend to make yourself feel happy - hey Sam is here!!" She says as Sam walks up to our table. They embrace, and he seats himself beside her, but not before giving Kelly a kiss on her cheek, which makes her blush, and he looks pleased.

Couples can be annoying, am I right? But, as much as I hate to admit it, they are the ultimate couple goals for most of us in campus.

"So, Sammy, what took you so long?" I ask. He hates it when I call him that.

"Oh you know how it is when there are so many people in this world who are just willing to hang out with you. Oh wait, you wouldn't know that, Melly." He says, earning a kick in his ankle by yours truly.

"Kidding, you should know I never talk seriously when I talk to you." He says looking annoyed.

"But forget about me, Kelly tells me you don't have a date for the dance. You know it's a dance, right? You need to have a 'dance' partner to 'dance' with." He says with air quotes.

"You know, if this is all you guys are going to talk about, I'm going back to the apartment. Goodbye." I say getting up.

They don't say much, knowing perfectly well I would never remain mad at them for long.

I am already stressed about my studies and my writing, and now I have the added stress of finding a dance partner for the dance.

I need to make a decision about whom I shall ask.

As I go outside, I realise something.

I didn't introduce myself to all of you, did I ?

Hi ! My name is Melody. I am 19 years old. I aspire to be a writer. And this is the story of the consequences I faced after taking a decision that absolutely changed my life.