Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction.
TW: Sexual Assault
Not proofread. Please read note at end, if you make it there.
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Hashtag ArPri: 2
"Priya?"
"Priya!!!"
Priya sat in the very narrow and dark staircase of their flats, just outside her house with the lukewarm tea in her right hand. She was lost in her thoughts watching the rain drum against the ground.
"School pogala?", her neighbor, Vinothini akka asked her.
She simply looked back out.
"Ada aama, pei mazha la. School leave vittutaanga laa? Appa, amma kadaiku poitaanga laa enna ?".
"Aama ka", she replied wondering if the rain would be so heavy that it would flood the houses on the ground floor.
"Indha mazhai la ponumaa?".
"Appa eppo kadaiku leave vitaaru?", Priya replied. Come sunshine or flood, her father always opened the store, their only livelihood.
"Keezh veetla thanni varaama irukanum. Illena, ellarum inga namma veetla dhaan", Vinothini looked down the staircase as she spoke to Priya.
Water logging was a common issue in their locality, but Priya didn't think today's rain would cause that much of flooding anyway.
"Seri ipdi veliya ukkaaraama veetukulla po", her neighbor instructed before walking back into their house.
She anyway needed to heat the tea but her feet refused to move. She could hear SPB croon an old melancholy from the open door of some house on the ground floor. The pattering of the rain seemed to add its own back ground score. Either the song drifting from the floor below or the sound of the rain, offered some kind of solace that kept her glued to the staircase. Her mind inevitably went to the wretched evening from three weeks ago.
She stood up not wanting to let her mind go there and walked in to her house shutting the door behind her. She turned on the TV to some movie on KTV and walked to the kitchen to reheat the tea.
Just as she walked back to the living room, their landline rang very loudly.
"Hello?"
"Madam, enna laam nyabagam irukaa?"
Priya couldn't help but smile at the voice from the other end.
"Dramatic much? Naalu naal munnadi dhaan paathom? Thursday la?"
"Naalu naal de loosu! Enaku sutham ah Rathna kooda lunch saapda pidikala"
"Saapdaadha"
"Priya!!!"
"Sivaangi!!!"
"Why did you have to go pick Biology?"
"Computer eh veetla illaama epdi de Computer Science eduka mudiyum?"
"Pch. Idhellam oru reason ah? Ellathukum ready ah excuse vechuko"
"Naa enna de panna? You go ask your computer science teacher? Why does he have to keep classes during assembly daily? As if computer science makes it to any cut off. Why did you have to sign up for Computer science Olympiad?", Priya sighed.
