SAY YOU SAY ME

CHAPTER 11

"Aru? Wake up, beta."- Arushi's mom nudged her. She felt her daughter's forehead and it was burning.

"Aru, how did you catch a fever?"

"Maa, don't worry. I think it's seasonal."

"It isn't even monsoon. I'll get your dad here."

Arushi's mom went out of her room to her dad's. This was something Arushi's mom always did. A little something would happen to Arushi and the first thing her mom had to do was to call her dad. Rest of whatever actions were to be taken would be taken by her dad.

Arushi sat straight up and tried to get down on her feet only to find her head spinning.

She immediately sat again on the bed and kept her head on the bed rest, heaving a sigh of fatigue.

Arushi's dad entered her room and went by her side caressing her.

"I called up Ahaan. He'll be here in a minute."

Arushi looked up at her dad with a tired look.

"Baba, why Ahaan?"

"What do you mean why Ahaan? He's a doctor, such a competent one. Whom do you call when you're on fever then? The fire brigade or something?"

Arushi smiled at her father.

With the help of her mom, she went to the washroom and got freshened up a bit, brushing her teeth, washing her face and combing her hair that resembled the fluffed-up lion's mane.

She reclined back on her bed under her kitty blanket when the doorbell rang and she knew who it could be.

"Ahaan!"- she could hear her father's voice

Ahaan came to her room and sitting close to her on the bed touched her forehead. He took the thermometer from Arushi's mom and put it in her mouth while looking at the wall clock to keep a note of the time.

"Thank you, beta for coming at this early hour. You must have been sleeping."- Arushi's mom said.

"No worries aunty. I am quite an early riser. By the time you called I was done with my bath already. So, no issues at all."

"Why does he get so professional when someone's sick? Could have said a hi or a hello first"- Arushi thought looking at Ahaan grumpily.

"Where's Khala?"

"She slept late yesterday. I didn't wake her up but left a message on her phone."

"Good, you do have some common sense, I see."- Arushi smiled weakly. Ahaan smiled back.

The temperature read 101-degree Fahrenheit.

"Aunty, please get her some breakfast. She needs to take a paracetamol after that. That should help with the fever."

"Oh yes, I'll bring breakfast for you both right away."- Arushi's mom went to the kitchen.

"But Aru, how did you get a fever? You don't seem to have caught a cold."- Arushi's dad said.

Both Ahaan and Arushi were thinking what could be behind this sudden fever of hers when she exclaimed- "I could have been bitten by the lizard! Oh my god, a lizard bit me, a LIZARD BIT ME!"

"Arushi, come on. Lizards don't bite people."-Ahaan said. How could someone even come across such an explanation?

"Of course, they do. I had heard of a lizard that bit a person and the person turned blue."- saying so she frantically started to check for any bluish marks on her arms.

"Did you change your bandage yesterday before sleeping?"

"Of course..."- Arushi was about to answer when she realized how yesterday night while wishing her good night, Ahaan specifically told her to change the bandage of her injured foot lest it catches infection. But she being dead afraid of antiseptics didn't have the courage to change the bandage herself and fell asleep with the old bandage. She made a face and smiled awkwardly at Ahaan. Ahaan could get a hint of what was to follow.