Wish Fulfilment

Marisol wakes up to someone knocking on the door of her dorm. She’d pulled an all-nighter, finishing up all the pending assignments she had for her classes, and then collapsed on her bed after making sure that she didn’t have any work left. It’s Saturday; she was planning on spending the whole day in bed and she really doesn’t appreciate someone banging her door down at what is probably an ungodly hour. So, she rolls over and closes her eyes, hoping that whoever it is, goes away.

The knocking stops for a moment, and then Marisol’s phone starts buzzing. Groaning in annoyance, she pats the bed until her hand connects to it and accepts the call. “Who is it?”

“Marisol, are you at home? I’m standing outside your dorm.”

The sound of Jessica’s voice makes Marisol scramble up, sleep all but forgotten. Shit, she kept Jessica waiting?

“Yeah, give me a second, I’ll open the door for you right away!”

In her mad dash to open the door for Jessica, Marisol stumbles against the door of her bedroom, hits her shoulder against a wall and almost trips over the beanbag in the middle of the living room. She finally opens the door to see Jessica, looking ethereal as she always does, waiting patiently for her. Her smile broadens as she surveys Marisol in all of her dishevelled glory.

Marisol takes a moment to collect herself. She knows, without looking into a mirror, that her hair is a mess of snarls and tangles right now. She’s wearing a faded t-shirt which has small holes at the seams and an old pair of sweatpants. Few people apart from Xion have seen her in them, because both of them are slobs at home. Nevertheless, these are not clothes she would choose to wear in front of people, especially people like Jessica.

Unlike Marisol, Jessica’s wearing a pretty summer dress which is printed all over with a pattern of waves. Her hair is pulled up in a loose chignon and Marisol’s mind is too hazy with sleep to process the sight in front of her.

“I’m surprised you aren't ready, Mari,” Jessica says and Marisol looks at her as she tries to understand what Jessica is talking about before her eyes widen.

“Oh no, I completely forgot! I’m sorry, Jess.” They’d made plans to spend the day together the week before, and the tiny detail about today being the day had slipped Marisol’s mind until Jessica showed up here to remind her of it. “Give me, like, ten minutes to take a shower and revive myself, I feel like I’m half dead right now. Sit down, please,” she says, gesturing to the couch as she gently shepherds Jessica towards it. “Do you want some water?”

“No no, it’s fine.” Jessica demurs as she settles down on the couch as Marisol hovers in front of her awkwardly. God, she’s terrible at dealing with unexpected guests. For a moment, she wishes that Xion was here, before remembering that Xion's staying at their girlfriend’s place until Sunday.

Marisol points vaguely in the direction of her bedroom, managing to say “I’ll be quick, I promise,” and flees.

It is a well-known fact that Marisol Lester turns into a mess around pretty girls. She stumbles around, forgets how to speak articulately and generally makes a fool out of herself. It doesn’t happen all the time, thankfully, but sometimes she’ll realize again that she’s surrounded by pretty girls – all of her friends are ridiculously attractive – and malfunction all over again.

She’s been told by quite a few people that she’s cute, but that isn’t really helpful when it seems like no one seems to want to ask her out on a date. She’s not going to ask anyone either; she’s too caught up in pining for Jessica and Donna at the moment.

Marisol still remembers the first time she met Jessica and Diya. They’d come to Dream Run, the bookstore Marisol works at, a few days before the second term started. Marisol had been so enamoured by them that she’d frozen at the counter for a good while. She'd only snapped out of her daze when another customer had demanded her attention. The highlight of the visit had been when they’d come to the counter themselves so that Marisol could ring up their purchases, and Marisol had nearly swooned when she saw A Doll’s House and a collection of short stories written by Neil Gaiman among the other books. Pretty girls with a good taste in literature? Marisol had a weakness for that combination.

She had heard their names while they’d been waiting for her to give them the bill but she put the whole affair out of her mind after they left. Usually that would’ve been the end of it, so Marisol was more than a little surprised when she entered her Literature class on the first day of classes to see ‘Di’ sitting there as well. Seeing a somewhat familiar face in a sea of strangers, she sat down in the seat beside hers and shyly struck up a conversation with her. Within ten minutes of knowing Donna, she learnt that Diya was very firmly convinced that Byron was a better poet than Keats.

That was enough to break the ice between them and they spent the whole class arguing about the veracity of the claim, and then Diya invited her to lunch so that they could continue to discuss it. She met her friends there – Joy, Jaemi and Rivera, who were Diya’s best friends from high school and then she was introduced to Jessica, Diya’s companion to the bookstore whom Diya proudly announced as her girlfriend.

Oh shit, Marisol remembers thinking when she had seen them together, Jessica’s arms curled around Diya’s waist and her head resting on top of Diya’s. I’m in trouble.

It is only after lunch is over that Marisol realizes that Diya had been talking about the poets’ personal lives while Marisol had been basing her arguments on the basis of their works. Marisol has never been more irritated and impressed at the same time before.

“So, what were you up to this week? I feel like I’ve barely seen you.” Jessica says as they walk down the stairs of the building which houses Marisol’s dorm. They’ve decided to start their day together by having breakfast at Sun and Moon, a popular café near campus which was started a few years ago by an alumnus of their college. “You haven’t been overworking yourself, have you?”

“No, no. I was just busy with my studies and Dream Run.” Marisol says as she checks once again that she hasn’t forgotten anything. Phone, keys, wallet – okay, she’s got everything. “Irene asked me to cover a few extra shifts because Yvonne couldn’t come in. I think she’s caught a nasty stomach bug? Anyway, I was running around like a headless chicken this week. Thank god that it’s over.” She sighs in relief.

Jessica hums as they continue walking. Suddenly, she yelps in excitement – “Look, a puppy!” – and flies off to pet it. Marisol follows at a more leisurely pace, taking out her phone so that she could click some pictures of Jessica and the puppy and send the best ones to Diya. She’s definitely going to thank Marisol for it later.

Diya seems to be online, because she sees them instantly.

aaah cute!! ♥

idk whether I should be jealous of jess or the puppy, haha

send a selfie, mari!

That’s an odd request, but Diya has asked Marisol for selfies of herself or pictures of what she’s doing many times before. Marisol’s used to it. So she readily takes a picture of herself with a thumb up and sends it to her.

Good morning ~

you look good today! 😘

Marisol blushes on seeing the message and she quickly puts her phone away. She sees Jessica come back to her, a happy smile on her face. The sight makes Marisol coo. “Ah, Jess, you’re so cute!”

“I’d say that the cute one here is you, but you look less cute and more hot today, Mari.”

Marisol’s dressed in ripped jeans and a soft shirt, which was the first outfit she had found. Nevertheless, the comment flusters her.

“Alright, that’s enough, now come on. I’m hungry.” Marisol tugs at Jessica’s wrist so that they start walking again. Jessica twists her hand until she’s able to intertwine their fingers together and Marisol does little to protest. She might loudly complain when people try to engage her in skinship but it’s an open secret that she actually likes it a lot. It’s just that she’ll only do it with people she’s comfortable with. Diya and Jessica are on top of the list.

The first time Marisol really got to talk to Jessica was at the start-of-term party hosted by the engineering majors, which Xion had dragged her to by promising that they would ensure that Marisol would have a good time. She had promptly ditched Marisol to go flirt with Rivera when they saw that she was also there, which was a bit unfair considering that it was Marisol who had introduced the two of them.

Parties thrown by engineering students always went a little crazy and Marisol had no desire to get into trouble, so she escaped to the kitchen. She had bumped into Jessica there and they just hit it off, talking about music and books. Then, Jessica had dragged Marisol off to watch her crush her opponents at beer pong.

That had turned into regular meetings, sometimes with Diya and sometimes without, and regular movie nights at Jessica and Diya’s apartment. Marisol likes spending time with Jessica. Jessica coddles her and indulges her in her silly antics, even joins in sometimes and Marisol thinks that she couldn’t be fonder of her than she already is, but then Jessica goes and does things that prove her wrong. Like walking her home after she finishes a shift at Dream Run. Like surreptitiously bringing her chocolate to snack on when Marisol’s holed up in the library. Like listening to her when she starts rambling, and remembering what she says too.

“What’re you thinking about so seriously?’ Jessica asks her, her hand still intertwined with Marisol’s. Marisol turns to look at her, and suddenly Jessica pulls her closer. She squeaks as she stumbles into Jessica’s frame and Jessica puts her hands on Marisol’s shoulders to support her.

“What was that for?” Marisol says, her voice a little higher than usual.

Jessica lets her go at that and gestures to the sidewalk dismissively. “There was a bump, you were going to trip because of it.” She offers Marisol a wide smile, and holds her hand again.

Marisol feels like her heart is going to beat out of her chest from how hard it’s beating. This is too much excitement for her to handle. “Ah.” She hopes that the flush on her cheeks isn’t too noticeable, but it’s a lost cause. She looks up and sees that they’ve arrived at the café. “Oh look, we’re here!”

God is not merciful enough to give Marisol a break today because their server at Sun and Moon turns out to be Diya. Her customer-service smile falls off her face when she sees them, and she rushes across the café with a wide grin on her face. “Mari! Jessie!” she cheers. “What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” Marisol shoots back. “You never told me that you got a part-time job.”

“You never asked, bitch.”

“Since when do I need to ask? You always overshare, and don’t even think about denying it.”

Not even a minute has passed and Jessica already looks exasperated at their antics. “Alright, we’re going to have a peaceful breakfast today. Marisol, what do you want?”

“An Americano, please. And pancakes!” Diya looks mildly disgusted at the order and Marisol shoots a glare at her. “Shut up, Diya.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Diya says, looking at Jessica with wide eyes and a pout. “See Jess, she always treats me like this.”

“Yes, yes,” Jessica says with a placating smile, while Marisol grumbles at her side. “Diya, I want pancakes and a glass of orange juice.”

Diya hums as she notes everything down on a slip of paper. “Alrighty. I’ll be back with your food in about fifteen minutes!” Marisol watches Jessica and her fond smile as she watches Diya sashay away. It’s in quiet moments like this that she feels like an intruder.

Jessica turns back to Marisol. “Tell me about the book you’re reading right now. You told me last time that you wanted to read something spooky. Did you find something good?”

Thinking about books always makes Marisol cheer up. “Yeah! I read Carmilla the other day, and I loved it. It’s so gripping! The homoeroticism, the thing Le Fanu did with the names and the fact that Le Fanu wrote such a good story with a female vampire before Dracula? Amazing. I kinda wish I had a cat so that I could name her Carmilla.”

The last part makes Jessica burst into giggles, and Marisol feels proud for a second. Then she calms down and asks Marisol seriously, “Do you want her to be a vampire too?”

“Who?”

“Your cat?”

“What? Are vampire cats a possibility?” Marisol says. “Are there any stories or news reports about vampire cats? Wait, I have to check this.” She takes out her phone and goes to Google. Jessica stays quiet for a while, and then shows Marisol a picture of a sphynx cat.

“Wha- what is that? It looks terrible!”

That statement makes Jessica gasp. “How could you say that? Look, it’s so cute!”

“Jessica.” Marisol looks at Jessica seriously. “This cat looks like a cross between a naked mole rat and Gollum. It’s hideous.”

“You have no taste,” Jessica says with a sniff as she puts her phone away. “Mari, the food’s here.”

Diya puts their food on the table before rushing off because the café is filling up now with people who had the same idea as Marisol and Jessica. They continue arguing over the sphynx cat, Jessica stubbornly insisting that it’s cute and Marisol adamant that she is wrong. Then Jessica tells Marisol about how she hates the project she’s working on for one of her classes, and Marisol shares how she nearly got into trouble for submitting an essay late but the professor accepted it in the end.

“What now?” Marisol asks as they’re waiting for Diya to come with the bill, empty plates lying in front of them. Marisol doesn’t want to move for a while, and she can see that Jessica feels the same way. “Where are we going after this?”

Jessica shakes her head. “I have no idea until lunch.”

“Then take her to Dream Run.” Diya says and Marisol sits up straight, startled by her sudden appearance. “Both of you can laze around and read, and then I can pick you up after my shift ends and we can all go for lunch.”

“That’s a good idea,” Jessica muses as Marisol tries to hide her excitement at the prospect of going to Dream Run to just read and look at books, instead of working. Judging by Jessica and Diya’s smiles, she didn’t quite succeed.

Diya is many things – loud, dramatic, chaotic. Her voice is like siren song and anyone who has attended an event hosted by the Music Club has instantly fallen in love with her voice. If people aren’t charmed by her singing, they’re attracted by her magnetic personality instead. She has a strong will, has good opinions and morals and isn’t afraid to say what she believes is right. Diya’s immensely popular among the freshmen and sophomores in their university, and with good reason. Even the seniors know about her.

It’s a coincidence that she even began to talk to Marisol.

If anyone saw Diya and Marisol interact, they wouldn’t believe that the two of them were close to each other at first. They bicker with each other over the smallest things. They have differing preferences and opinions on a lot of things, and even if there’s something they both agree on, Diya will be contrary just so that she and Marisol argue about it. Most of the time, the arguments turn into discussions that Marisol actually enjoys. They work well together too.

Marisol likes spending time with Diya. They never run out of things to talk about and even if they’re not speaking to each other and working on their own, the silence is never truly empty because Diya always hums when she’s doing something by herself. She does it unconsciously, and it never fails to endear Marisol, even if it annoys her sometimes. Marisol thinks that Hell would have to freeze over to make Diya stop singing. She loves to tease Marisol but is always careful to not push Marisol’s boundaries. Diya makes Marisol try out new things when they’re together too – Marisol started watching dramas because of her.

If Jessica brings comfort to Marisol, Diya makes her brave.

She likes the both of them too much. Marisol has tried to suppress her crushes on them, but they never quite seem to go away. Honestly, Marisol doesn’t want it to go away.

She just hopes that they won’t break her heart too harshly.

Diya finishes her shift at the café and picks them up, after which they go to The Bean Shot. It’s a small restaurant which is gaining popularity for their Instagrammable drinks and décor, the good quality of their food and the Open Mic Nights they arrange. As Marisol enters the restaurant, she shivers. Maybe it’s because the aircon is set at a lower temperature. But it’s a hot day, so she disregards that and moves to the closest empty table.

As usual, Jessica and Diya sit beside each other while Marisol takes the other side of the small table. It’s little things like this that make her feel that liking the two of them is only going to hurt her eventually. The two of them are so good together already, why would they even want a third person in their relationship?

Marisol doesn’t want to make herself sad when she’s in public, so she turns her attention to the menu. “I want a pizza,” she announces. “And the cheesy garlic bread.”

“Chicken drumsticks and noodles for me,” Diya says. “Jessica, you’ll have the tetrazzini again, won’t you?”

“You know me so well,” Jessica says happily and Donna gives their order.

After their server leaves, Diya groans. “I’ve been thinking about coming here to eat all morning and now I’m starving. I hope the food comes soon.”

“We can play something while we wait for the food to come,” Jessica says while pointing to the shelf filled with board games which is behind Marisol. Marisol turns around and blanches.

“No Monopoly,” she says firmly. “Absolutely no Monopoly.” She still remembers the last time they all had played Monopoly with vague horror.

Jessica seems to remember that night vividly too, because she nods her head decisively. “We can play ludo today.”

Ludo turns out to be a safer option, although they still manage to cause some chaos. Marisol and Diya trade barbs as they target each other and whenever one of them knocks one of Jessica’s pieces back to the starting point, Jessica glares at them and pouts. Marisol thinks it’s cute, and when she voices the thought Jessica glares at her even more while Diya laughs delightedly.

Their food arrives and they set the game aside to devour it, splitting the food so that everyone gets a chance to try everything. The meal is satisfying, and Marisol feels comfortably full after they finish. They split the bill, and amble out of the restaurant with no idea about what they’re going to do next.

“Let’s go back to my place?” Marisol suggests and the others agree, so they start the walk back to Marisol’s dorm. Diya and Jessica keep glancing at each other, having a wordless conversation Marisol can’t understand. It makes her feel a little uncomfortable, so she keeps quiet and walks on. Suddenly, Diya stops and turns around to face Marisol.

“Marisol, I need to- no, we need to tell you something.”

Jessica yanks at her arm, her face filled with alarm. “Diya, not now!”

“Please,” Diya says quietly. “It’s been long enough.” Jessica looks at her for a long moment before she lets her arm go, and both of them face Marisol again.

Marisol feels more than a little alarmed at how things have escalated so quickly. “What’s going on?”

“Marisol.” Diya takes a deep breath. “Jessica and I- we like you. A lot.”

The world seems to slow down around Marisol. “I’m sorry,what?”

Jessica speaks this time. “We like you, Marisol. Like, romantically. We have feelings for you.”

Marisol’s eyes are so wide that she feels that she can do a passable imitation of an owl by now. “Really? But why?”

“Why do we like you?” Diya asks her. When Marisol nods, she looks astonished. “Why wouldn’t we like you? You’re amazing. I’ve never met someone like you. You always do your best at whatever you set your mind to. Your patience is endless. You’re so cute that I wish I could take you with me and never let you go. Oh wait, is that creepy.”

“What Diya means to say is, we never even knew that there was something missing in our lives until we met you.”

Marisol almost feels like this is a dream.

Diya comes closer and clutches Marisol’s hands with her own. “Marisol Lester. Mari. My Marisol. Do you remember the day in Lit class when you said that if a boring day felt like an infinity, then how many infinities would there be in a lifetime? Mari, I want to spend all the infinities there are by your side. And Jessica too. She says that she’s not good at words, which I disagree with, but she’s still made me the designated speaker. Mari, do you like us?”

Marisol can feel that Diya’s hands are shaking, so she holds them with one hand and beckons Jessica closer with the other. When Jessica is close enough, she grabs her hands too. This was really happening, and it isn’t a dream this time. She is not going to let this chance go.

“Listen, I have had an embarrassing crush on the both of you since the first time I saw you. I like both of you. So, so much.”

This time, Diya and Jessica’s eyes grow wide. Marisol giggles at the expression on their faces. “Really. I mean it.”

“Will you date us?” Jessica says suddenly, a little desperately. Marisol nods.

“I’d love to.”

“Mari, can I kiss you?” Diya blurts out. Marisol would love nothing more. But-

“I’m not kissing you or Jessica here, we’re in public.” Marisol tries to sound stern, but the next thing she says ruins the entire effect. “But I’ll reconsider if we get home quickly.” That makes them perk up.

“What are we waiting for, then, let’s go!”

They head off, Marisol in the middle of the two girls she likes, adores, can’t get off of her mind, still holding their hands. She grips them a little tighter, and it feels like she’s holding her whole world in her hands. It feels perfect.

***

Written by Rayna Mukherjee

Edited by Shailaja Yasmine Das

Illustrated by Sarah Aziz