"We only have to juxta...."
"If I hear one more sentence with the word juxtapose, I'll...." I replied cutting Yusuph off
'You'll do what?, fry me a dragon" he replied equally cutting me off.
I sighed knowing it was fruitless trying to elicit a serious reaction from my friend Yusuph. This was his way, he thrived on making fun of every little situation. The more you tried to get him serious, the more fruitless an endeavor you realized it was.
The day's problem was the word juxtapose. Somehow somewhere, he'd woken up that morning and gotten it into his head to apply the word in a sentence almost every chance he got. I'd heard the word so much, it was bordering on frustration.
We were headed towards the hostel after lectures to get something to eat and probably get a few hours of game time. Such was our schedule on most days, as only Yusuph in our group of four stayed on campus. We used the opportunity after a morning class to relax in his room, trying to pass time before it was time for any other classes later in the day.
If I had to describe him, the first thing I'd think of was that Yusuph was the glue keeping the group together and we were having the time of our lives.
Time would fly and semesters would pass, but the group still held. We'd been in many arguments, which after all the shouting and screaming, which we would always reply Oh we're not arguing, we're only having a loud discussion to people who were wondering what the noise was all about.
It was the beginning of another semester, and as much as I would be missing my family, I was equally looking forward to all the fun I would be having with my friends. As usual I, Harry and Peace had arrived in school, Yusuph once again would be the last to arrive.
We weren't having any classes yet, so we spent most of our time hanging out and just having some good time. Unfortunately there's a difference between a good time and a GOOD TIME. Without Yusuph around, there was always the feeling of something missing.
It was a Saturday and we were having one of our loud discussions.
"Sincerely speaking...."
"You're doing that thing again. The Yusuph thing" Harry cut me off
I was about to argue that I wasn't doing anything and there was no such thing as the Yusuph thing when I realized he was actually right. Subconsciously I'd been repeating the two words at the beginning of almost every sentence and indeed it was the Yusuph thing.
'What exactly did he say is holding him back home?" I asked
"Sincerely speaking, I'm not sure" Peace replied, and we all burst out laughing.
It wasn't everyday that guys would admit to missing one another openly. Even though we didn't say it out loud, we all knew we were missing our friend's influence on the group.
The conversation would move on to other things, but in those few seconds, we'd all shared a small but important moment in male bonding. The funny part for me was that, even when Yusuph resumed, no one thought it important to tell him about the conversation. It was enough knowing that we all cared about each other.