The Unnaturals . Book 2

Part 4 Tumult of Youth

Chapter 4

Tumult of Youth

As the 10 days of the festival continued , Duke and Piku saw each other only from afar .

They were pulled under by the tidal wave of duties constantly thrown at them .

'PIKU !! ' ... 'DUKE !! ' elders calling out to them to do their bidding was a constant refrain . They were surrounded by a mass of people and lonely throughout .

Duke ran back and forth between the main house and the temple grounds .

Piku worked as his father's assistant , maintaining ledgers and calculating the day to day costs of shopping for this enormous 1200+ strong 'family '.

While Piku was trying his best to ignore Duke , Duke took every opportunity to talk to him and smiled at him from afar . Piku noticed everything but pretended not to . He was well aware of another set of eyes watching him . He knew that he had to be careful . Shyama's eyes followed his every move like a pair of piercing daggers .

He made sure that they didn't have any privacy to talk about what happened between them under the tamarind tree . He had come to the conclusion that to erase the kiss from his mind was his only way forward . He tried his best to behave as if it didn't happen at all .

Duke , on the other hand was floating on a cloud of happiness . He was completely unaware of the storm that afternoon had created in Piku's mind . He thought the kiss had the same impact on Piku as it had on him .

Of acknowledgement , of acceptance and reciprocation of love . His heart was overflowing and he couldn't contain his joy . He went about doing his duties with an absent minded smile on his lips . In a cloud of his own . Thankfully no one questioned his constant glow . They were all too busy to pay him any heed .

The boys were too busy to talk anyway .

One morning Duke saw Piku standing in the temple courtyard going through a check list of groceries . The produce was strewn in front of him and he was counting them one by one along with his father . Duke was passing by and seeing them joined them in the courtyard .

He greeted Bhatcharji moshai , Piku's father , and stood next to Piku . He looked up at him and smiled , suddenly feeling shy .

He said , 'Have you eaten breakfast ? They are serving luchi and aloor dum in the field today . Wanna eat with me ?'

It was an ordinary everyday question . Normally there'd be no reason for Piku to refuse . They're best friends after all . But every glance , every smile , every sentence from Duke felt laden with hidden meaning to Piku . With Shyama and Godai's words ringing in his ears , he couldn't even eat a meal with Duke in peace .

Piku didn't look up from the list . He said , ' You go , I've eaten already . '

'Ok ' Duke replied as he stared at Piku , willing him to look at him .

Piku turned away and continued counting .

Duke was surprised . It looked like he was receiving the famous Piku silent treatment and he had no idea what he'd done this time . He got no chances to ask .

'Duke !!! ' An aunt called out to him .

' Yes Pishi ? ' Duke responded automatically .

' What are you doing , just standing there ? Didn't your Ma send you to get the final list for today's donations ? Lazy boy ! This is not the time to stand around staring into space ... Go finish your task ! ' She said and walked swiftly away .

Duke looked at Piku and smiled regretfully .

Piku didn't respond .

**

Duke recalled another time when Piku was being sullen like this . He remembered Piku's anger when he spent the day in Nando's house .

His father was visiting his friend from the next zamindari and took him along. He didn't like Nando but had no choice in the matter .

What Adhiraj says , goes .

He ran straight to Piku when he returned. But Piku ignored him completely .

'Nando sneaked some wine . We hid in the garden and drank straight from the bottle . Nando was going overboard as usual , and got completely drunk . Pikuuu , are you listening to me ?'

Duke had pulled an unresponsive Piku to himself and draped an arm over his shoulder .

' Then that idiot puked all over himself . It was pink !! '

Piku had silently shrugged his hands off . Duke had put his other hand on his shoulder and leaned underneath Piku's face to look at him . Piku had turned away .

He continued , not discouraged by the silence . He was used to Piku's mood swings .

Paying no heed to Piku's angry expression he said , ' It looked like he was puking blood . He'd even managed to get some weed . He sends his servants to get weed from the village . Do you know ? He's got a girl in Calcutta . He was telling me about someone called Alice . He's done It with her . And he peeps into his cousin's room and watches her . He asked me to join him . I declined of course !'

' I'm not insane . ' He'd added with a saintly expression on his face .

Piku had finally been goaded into talking .

He'd glared at Duke and said, 'I hate this guy . Why do you have to be his friend ? Just look ..he's a Peeping Tom , he steals ,' Ticking off Nando's sins on his fingers one by one ..

' He smokes ganja , has pretty wonderful morals ! God knows what he's up to when he goes to town . When does he study ? He's giving the matrics with you , right ? He's bound to fail . Disgusting fellow , and you spent the entire day in his company . A complete degenerate bastard like that! '

' Ohh , who cares what he is ? I went because Baba dragged me along . I don't like him either but he's fun to know . He's like the catalogue of what not to do in life . ' Duke replied, just glad that Piku was talking to him again .

' Pikuuuu , will you stop being angry with me now ? If Baba forces me to go , I have no choice , you know that !! '

He'd said, hugging Piku and had received a grudging smile in return .

**

As Duke watched Piku working with his father , he started thinking .

Piku was like this with everyone Duke talked to . Not just the likes of Nando .

Nowadays Piku didn't like him talking to anyone other than himself .

A sudden realization hit him .

' He's jealous ! Does he want me all to himself ? Oh , why didn't I think of this before ? Stupid boy , he could have just said something instead of getting angry and cold shouldering me at the drop of a hat ! '

Duke smiled at the thought . Many of Piku's outbursts and silent fuming anger made sense now . 'He's possessive of me and I didn't even notice it ! ' he thought exultantly .

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