Seventeen

Chapter 19

(Arjun's)

"Bhaiyya... Bhaiyya...Arjun Bhaiyya..." Ayaan's voice seemed like it came from a distance. "Bhaiyya, wake up..."

With difficulty, I opened my eyes and sat up. Why did I feel so tired and drowsy?

"What time is it now?" I asked Ayaan.

"8.30 am." Ayaan said, "Are you not going to college?"

8.30? Shit! I am late. I jumped out of the bed and then felt strange. I was dizzy. I clutched my head... To think of it, I feel a bit too strange too. I sat down on the bed again.

"You look a bit strange," Ayaan commented. He put his hand on my forehead. "Burning hot," he commented, "You have a high fever."

Oh... So that's why I felt strange.

"Mom, Dad..." Ayaan called out in a high volume, "Arjun bhaiiya is having fever. Too high temperature..."

"No need to shout," I told him.

Mom and dad came to the room in a second. Mom put her hand on my forehead and gasped... "Too hot." She said, "Let's go to hospital...."

In a few hours, my fever was confirmed to be Dengue. And I was admitted...

I slept the whole day, and the next day as well...

I felt a bit better by the next day evening. So I sat up and was eating the fruits mom cut for me. Ayaan was sitting in the visitors' chair, with his Rubix cube. He had caught up a fascination with the Rubix cube lately and was turning it 24*7. He never got that right though.

"Ah..." Ayaan said, not looking up from the Rubix cube. "I met Adithi today morning and told her about you."

"Adithi is older than you, right," Mom told Ayaan, "by a lot of years. Shouldn't you be calling her 'didi'?"

Ayaan looked up at mom with a 'are you serious' expression.

"What's wrong?" Mom asked, "you call Suhana by 'didi'."

"Suhana di and Adithi are different," Ayaan said. "I mean, we feel like calling Suhana didi as 'didi'... Adithi just... I mean, she is Adithi. She feels the same mental age as me."

"You mean I am mentally 12 years old?" I heard Adithi's voice. She came into the room. The clock said the visiting time of the hospital had started.

"Adithi..." Mom called.

"Hey, Arjun." She waved at me.

What was she doing here??? So pestering. If she is here to tell again to apologize to Ishan or Jiggy or Suhana, she can just go back home. She was silent for a few days and started again?? Annoying.

"Here... I brought you apples." She handed a packet. Mom took the packet.

Adithi came and sat by me. "How are you?"

"Can't you see?" I asked.

She nodded. "Ah...I really hated coming to the hospital." She said, "You know, I kinda hate hospitals ever since I sort of almost died. The smell of medicine and cleansing liquids, makes me feel a bit sick. It reminds me of the happy time I had inside the sea, getting trashed to the rocks."

I began to feel guilty. Her accident was partly my fault.

"It must have hurt bad," Ayaan commented, wincing.