• Eternal Night •

13

"I think I can be a model!" Rudra said as he flexed his muscles while looking in the mirror.

"Hand or feet model?" Soumya quipped. "Cause let's be real, you don't have the face for modelling."

Shivaay spat out the juice he was drinking. Annika shrieked. "Shivaay!"

She handed him tissues while he laughed along with Om and Gauri. "What the hell Soumya! You don't drop facts like that when I am having liquids!"

"Sorry bhaiya!" Soumya chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Rudra frowned. "I am not handsome?"

"No..." Om started but stopped after seeing Rudra's face. "I mean yes."

Annika laughed. The whole conversation was stupid. But she needed stupidity right now. Her heart felt way too heavy.

Interrupting the argument, Annika said, "By the way guys, Shivaay and I are going for a weekend holiday. Thought that I would let you know."

"What?" Shivaay sat up in surprise.

Annika smiled looking at his face. She had thought about it a lot and finally consulted Doctor Shetty along with Prithvi. They had allowed them to go for two days. And she was fine with it. She would do anything to spend all her time with him anyway.

"Surprise!" she winked making Shivaay's heart flutter, this time in a good way.

***************************************

"When did you decide this?" Shivaay asked as he helped Annika fold the clothes.

"At night," Annika answered. "When you were sleeping. You see, I get a lot of time to think when you aren't spouting your usual nonsense."

"Ah!" Shivaay carefully folded her top and kept it in the bag. "Makes sense."

"It does..." mumbled Annika with a smile.

"But how did Hitler Prithvi allow it?" mused Shivaay. "I can almost imagine him breathing fire on hearing this idea."

"Well..." Annika shrugged and was about to say something but stopped when she noticed Prithvi standing at the door.

Shivaay continued. "You know, when we were kids, I used to lie to him all the time. I used to tell him that I am going to study with a friend. I used to go and watch movies instead. And like, really bad movies."

"Achcha?" Annika nodded. "What else?"

"I also used to sign on my remarks sometimes..." he chuckled while folding his jeans. "And once, I took Shalini Aunty in place of Mom to my music class. You see, the sir there had a major complaint with me. According to him and his dumbass, I played the drums wee bit too aggressively. What does that even mean? I was good. I was passionate. And then instead of being thankful for a student like me, he used to crib that I always break the sticks. No sense at all."

"Sad!" Annika commented.

"I know!" Shivaay shook his head. "Then there were fistfights at school. Always. My god. Every time I hurt myself, I would lie that fell down from the swing or something. Till the time I was 15, everyone in the house thought that I cannot swing."

"Oh!" Annika looked at him like she was seriously listening to him. But couldn't control anymore. She burst out laughing and sat down on the bed. When she moved, Shivaay saw Prithvi standing at the door, listening to whatever he was saying.

Shivaay's eyes widened. Prithvi crossed his arms and made a face. "Go on. I am listening."

Annika laughed harder. Prithvi stared at him. "Bad movies huh?"