Roommate (ASHAANGI)

Sixteen

Unknown: you're the best little thing that has ever happened to me.

Unknown: let's not play hide and seek, baby. I know where you are at ;)

Saesha frantically gets off the bed, confusing Akshay in the process. She brings up her hand to bite her nails but realizes Akshay has his eyes trained on her. She turns around to see him watching her every moment.

"What's wrong?" He frowns at the sudden change in her mood.

"I forgot to submit my project before coming here. And my boss is asking me to come back as soon as possible" She surprises herself when she realizes she hasn't stammered while lying smoothly.

"Do you have to go back now?" He asks, unaware of her lies.

"Uh yes. Can you check if there are any tickets available? Please?" The desperateness in her voice was what surprised Akshay the most. He knows there is something else going on but he can't bring himself to ask what it is.

"Sure" He nods and quickly unlocks his phone, searching for the train tickets. Saesha paces around the room impatiently, and her eyelids start to get heavy. She quickly rushes to the washroom and opens the water tap. She splashes the water on her face and realizes it's way too hot. Quickly bringing up her hand to muffle the outcry, she then looks at the water to realize she has opened the hot water tap. She curses under her breath and opens the normal water, and washes her face again. Wiping her face on her sleeve, she exits the washroom and notices Akshay staring right into her soul.

"Were you crying?" he asks, looking at her reddened face from wiping on her sleeve.

"What? Who cries in 2 minutes?"

"Why is your face red?" she quickly walks over to the mirror to see he ain't lying.

"I accidentally poured hot water on my face" She laughs under her breath, nervous by his never leaving eyes on her.

"Did you book any-"

"No"

"What? Why?" Saesha looks ready to have a mental breakdown.

"There will be no trainsavailable until the next week. All the trains going to Chennai are fully booked now" he slowly gets off the bed, knowing what exactly is going to happen next.

"What? No. Shit shit shit shit-" Saesha goes on with her "shit" anthem

"Relax. You don't want to faint again" Akshay walks towards her with a glass of water and hands it out to her. She quickly gulps down the water in one go, surprising him and herself in the process.

"I need to go there. I have worked... Really hard on my project" her voice cracks when she thinks about all the things Ajay could do to her.

"Hey, I know it's not okay. We will find a way, okay?" Akshay tries his best to calm her, but she shakes her head, in an attempt not to let her tears fall which are threatening to spill.

"Saesha, Stop. You're hurting yourself" She doesn't realize what he is talking about until he pulls her hand off her arm, which she has been scratching without her knowledge.

"What do I do now? I want to go back" her voice comes off small with desperateness.

"I tried other ways of going back too, but they are unavailable because of covid" He says slowly.

"No no no no no"

"Maybe you could ask your friend to hand over the project to your boss?" Akshay suggests.

"what? Oh.. No no he can't do that"

"Why not? You both work in the same office"

"He... He is.. He is in his hometown" Akshay looks at her concerned