WHEN FATE BRINGS YOU HOME

CHAPTER 10

"All that's left is to disinfect."

Gentle breeze caressed my face as I sat in the open area of the apartment looking at the beautiful night sky. Hera is eyeing me from head to toe, her wine glass gently touching her lips.

"You seem to enjoy his company a lot, don't you?"

She played with the glass in her hand, rotating it and sliding it up and down as the liquid in it took the momentum of the glass. Her face is filled with excitement as she took a small taste of the wine she was torturing until now. It's always safe to reply her with a question carrying the same vibe. If I defend myself, she'll torment me with that for the rest of my life.

"What about professor White Shirt, he any good?"

With that we continued our drunken giggles. Wine and gossip was part of the terms and conditions I had to check for becoming friends with her. Now, it's part of my life too. When Ridha came by yesterday she dropped a bottle for three of us each. We agreed on keeping Ryan's and not letting him know.

"What about the party, Tara?"

Ridha had been recently chattering a lot about this huge party that's coming next month. And I'm not even sure if she knows the host cause she didn't even know how to explain her relation with him/her, a friend's nephew's cousin's- my brain stopped trying to listen right at that. Though she gave me a vague idea of the whole event- drinks, drugs, lights, unknown faces, music, dance and a very big house full of opportunities to bump into the love of your life. She met her American boyfriend in a party hosted by the same person two years back. And yes, India knows nothing about this. When I pointed out a possible headache of what to do if someone from the university shows up, she answered pretty confidently saying that the place is too far for the university people to budge in and although the whole city is invited (overemphasis), only the cool people attended. And it's totally fine for me, Hera and Ryan to come since we fit in the category.

"Who'll drive us in and out, Hera?"

"We can figure that out."

I was really not in place to be thinking about partying. My two month trial of professor Gerard's lab will start soon. And the same goes for her too. We're scientists. At least, act like one.

"It's a month away, Hera. We can talk about this later." 

"It's our first party here and we're going."

There's no point in arguing with a tipsy Hera Singh. It always ends up on either me accepting her demand or her throwing the rest of her wine on me. It happened enough times to reveal a pattern. And it's not like we were out everyday partying till 3 A.M, tossing ourselves in the dead streets of South India. In the twenty four years of being on this planet, the only parties I attended were birthday parties of my friends, or any other celebrations that took place in or near to my or my friends' family. A new year party is truly fun when your dad is waiting just outside the club waiting for the countdown to be done. And here with no one watching us we do have full freedom but that just scares me even more. I'll have to avoid this thing at any cost. The change is too big for me right now.

A call interrupted my thoughts. My brother appeared on screen when I picked it up. 

"You can do the cleaning, Hera."

I headed back to my room leaving her to the rest. I can still hear her mellow voice which mostly said it's not fair and come do it yourself, you-. 

"Yes, Bro?"

"Will you tell mom and dad if I say a secret?"

"As Loki says, that entirely depends on the rest of the information you're about to give me."