2|| Whispers in the Wind

22|| strings by mail

Kalyani

It was 2 AM. 2 AM meant that in exactly 17 hours, she would be meeting Sarah Wesner. 17 seemed like a lot, but it would fly by quickly, she was sure. Of course, she could back out- but that was not an option. She owed this to Aria and her friends.

Kalyani checked her Strings by Mail package. It was nearly there, to her relief.

Still, nerves overpowered any happiness she felt, and her leg began to jump. It felt like something was lodged in her throat. Her room was too empty, too silent. Maybe talking to Aria would help. She dropped her a text and waited.

Seconds later, a message popped up.

Ariiiaaa😎😎

can't sleep either?

kalyani

Nope. Can you come to my room?

In a few minutes, Aria was twisting the handle to Kalyani's room. 

"Hey," she whispered. She moved to the bed and sat on it cross-legged. "I'm actually terrified. We're inviting some strange woman to our house and she may or may not get eaten by this freaky ass ghost."

"Well, when you put it like that." 

Aria giggled, flopping down next to Kalyani. "Gods, if mom hears us she'll skin us alive."

"Let's hope she's knocked out, then," Kalyani said.

She studied Aria for a few seconds. It was nice, being able to look into a mirror image of yourself. Except these days, Aria looked much less tired. There was more color to her face, contrasting the bags under Kalyani's eyes. She lifted up a hand and her sister followed. Then, she flipped Aria off.

"Dude!" she laughed, mirroring the motion. "Hey, how are things with Wilder?"

Kalyani pursed her lips. "Alright. I mean, I really do like him, but we haven't gotten much time to just relax and talk about things since this whole thing started. He was really sweet after the argument you and I had."

"Yeah. When I grow up, I want to be just like him." 

A pause.

"You know, I didn't really trust him in the beginning," Aria admitted. "Remember that feeling I mentioned?"

"Yeah. What was that all about?" 

Before Aria could elaborate, Kalyani's phone began to buzz. Somebody had started a video call with the whole gang. Aria moved closer to her and hit accept.

The caller was Evelyn. She was in her living room and looked apprehensive. "Hey. Oh good, you're both here! Let's wait for the others," she said in her best outdoor voice.

"Shh! My parents are sleeping."

"Oh, sorry," she whispered.

Next to pick up was Wilder, who was stuffing what Kalyani thought looked like dumplings into his mouth. He had a drink she couldn't identify next to him. "Hi, I'll talk in a bit- need to finish these before mom gets home." In the background, a pretty girl who looked like Wilder passed by and walked into the hall.

Evelyn's eyebrows shot up, and Wilder shrugged.

Leo popped up just then. His glasses were gone and he had clearly gotten out of bed moments ago. "Uh, guys. It's 2 AM. You kind of woke me up."

"Your beauty sleep can wait, Leo," said Evelyn. "We need to talk about today. How are we planning to get Roxanne to show up at Kalyani's house? She doesn't know our plan with Sarah."