Against All Odds

Chapter 42 Shopping

Niyati's POV

I was tired by the time I reached home.

What? Have you travelled at noon when the sun above is hell bent to make sure you sweat and burn?

The first thing I did was to plop on the sofa. As time passed I don't know why but I started scrutinizing our house as if I was looking at it for the first time.

From the time I was born I had never left the house for more than two days. I had no reason to. It was like I was the only constant in the house. My parents must have traveled as their accident happened when they were returning from out of town. My grandmother was from some other town and she did leave the house when she had to stay in the hospital for her cancer treatment. Ashu spent the better half of her childhood in a hostel. But I never had any reason to leave this house.

Now that I will be staying at Shaurya's house it feels different. To be very frank, I don't know if I am happy or sad. I had made up my mind that I would be leaving this house only after I die.

When times were good, I used to dream of leaving the house to go on a foreign trip and finally when I would get married. Second was never going to happen and I didn't have savings for the first one to make it happen. So, I had left the hope of leaving the house ever. But now, I was going to leave it for a third reason and different reason altogether.

What am I thinking?

I am not leaving. I will be coming back to stay on my weekly off. This is my house, where else will I go?

Deciding to not get emotional over nothing, I thought it was time to do the packing.

Packing? What was I supposed to pack? I couldn't help laughing at myself. I only own two pairs of clothes and a pair of sandals. I don't think it would take a lot of time to pack that.

I am sure the room I will be provided with will be furnished with a bed, and that's all I needed. Not that my room in this house had anything more than that and a cupboard full of clothes, which weren't even mine.

I packed a few photo frames and I was done. Shikhar will have a hard time shifting those for me. Note the sarcasm!

What was I going to do now? Oh no! I totally forgot I needed to check out the perishable items. There were lots of fruits. How about fruit salad. Ashu likes it. We can eat it tomorrow.

Cooking kept me busy and I started enjoying it. I got so carried away that I even prepared some snacks as if it was Diwali. I remembered grandma preparing them. I don't know what got into me. By nightfall I had managed to make two types of laddoos and namkeens too.

Finally I called it a night. I was excited for tomorrow. For the first time I was going to shop dresses for myself. Yay!

******

I woke up startled because of banging at the door. First thing I did was see the time. It was just 7a.m.

As soon as I opened the door I was shoved aside. If I hadn't been holding the door I would have kissed the floor.

" What took you so long? And since when did you start sleeping so late?"

Ashu was fuming, one hand on her waist the other holding a bag.

I just kept staring. I was still half asleep. Why is she here so early? Who goes shopping at 7 in the morning?

" Will you calm down. I told you it's too early to go shopping. How about we take a nap?"

Shikhar entered looking and sounding as if he was dragged straight from bed.

" Are you kidding me? Have you seen her wardrobe?"