Sweet and Salty ~ (GxG) (Book 3: The Sweet and Sour series)

Involuntary Cohabitation

"You look beat", Urmi asked scanning Satyavati's visible dark circles with an worried expression. Even though Satyavati planned not to form close bonds in the new school, somehow Mara, Urmi and Purvi grew a liking to her in a single day.

"Couldn't sleep in the new place?", enquired Mara, "Missing home already?"

"Kind of", Satyavati yawned, "I will be used to it in no time."

Knowing that the girls looked up to Hera, Satyavati couldn't tell them the real reason to why she couldn't sleep last night.

No it was not like Hera bullied or misbehaved with her. In fact Satyavati expected as much but the girl simply told her to mind her own business and buried herself in her books, not even looking back.

What kept Satyavati awake was not Hera's attitude but her heart-wrenching, late night sobs.

Even with the slight discomfort of being completely ignored by her roomy, Satyavati was settling down pretty well in the new place. She arranged her books on her study table, ate some snacks Devjani packed for her before leaving, used the common phone on the office of the dorm manager to talk to Devjani for a while and had a peaceful dinner with her newfound friends.

She was gone the moment her head hit the pillow. Her body was at the limit of exhaustion. But as her midnight thirst for water pulled her awake from her deep slumber the first sound she heard were the muffled sobs. At first she thought it was her imagination. Cause the cries were broken and almost inaudible. But lying still in the dark with her ears perked up, Satyavati could easily tell that her roomy was trying to control her tears under the blanket.

Those hushed, almost inaudible sobs had so much anguish in them that Satyavati was frozen under her blanket. She had no reason to like Hera but those muffled cries broke her heart. All she wanted to do was to go to the girl and give her a tight hug.

But all she could do was to lie there wide awake in the palpable darkness, unable to move at all. With a parched throat and a body that refused to move and let the other girl know that she was awake, Satyavati laid in the bed with eyes wide open for how long she didn't know.

At some point, her tired nerves caved in and she fell asleep again.

When Satyavati's alarm rang her awoke from sleep Hera was already gone. Satyavati dragged her tired body into the shower and quickly got ready for the class. Entering the class her eyes automatically were drawn to her designated seat.

Hera was sitting on the chair in the same pose Satyavati found her the first time last day. One of her hands on her lap, the other rested on the table, her jaw nestled on her palm and her dreamy eyes fitted somewhere distant in the horizon out the window.

Hera's eyes were lined with kajal. Despite that she wore no makeup. Satyavati knew she needed no makeup. She was breathtaking even without it. Even the kajal was there to hide her swollen, sleepless eyes.

Satyavati couldn't tell the reason but her heart suddenly skipped a beat and then started pumping in her ears. She couldn't tear her eyes away from Hera. It was not only that she looked like an angel without wings, looks barely made Satyavati's heart skip a beat twice. There was an underlying tone of agony behind the casual posture of the girl.

Before last night Satyavati was irritated with Hera. She thought the girl was just an egoistic brute who enjoyed bullying the newcomer in the class and expected to get away with it because of her popularity. But after hearing those distressed sobs in the dead of night she knew there was more to the girl than what met the eyes.