"I'm just a believer
That things will get better
Some can take it or leave it
But I don't wanna let it go"
- Believer, American AuthorsThe only way to happiness is to find your own way home but following others can only lead you to theirs and nothing is more terrifying than never getting home.
The Roommate
Radhika woke up to the sound of typing. It was the most annoying thing she has ever woken up to, so she didn't regret expressing her feelings. "Shut the hell up!" She groaned. Her body wasn't ready to wake up yet and her eyes still felt warm with tiredness. She slowly opened them though, inhaling the soft smell in the room.
"Good morning to you too, Sunshine!" The voice replaced the typing on keyboard. "Or should I say, good afternoon?"
"What's the time?" Radhika asked, hiding behind an edge of a blanket, not caring that her voice sounded like a dying crow. She had caught a sight of Nikhil sitting at the table, files and papers piled in stacks. The room, she now noticed, was bigger than she had thought of it last night. Besides the bed, there was the table with two chairs where Nikhil was working, a single couch adjacent to it, a set of cupboards leveled to the wall and a dressing table. The white curtains were still behind the couch, but a little light penetrated through the fibers. It submerged the room in a soft, yellow hue, causing Radhika to curl up in the big white bed involuntarily.
"Two." He answered, resuming his typing. "You were supposed to check in four hours ago."
"And your point is?" She was not ready for this as soon as she woke up.
"My point is, if you didn't come here to woo me, which is very hard to believe, by the way," He gave her a quick glance, "why in the world did you travel over eight thousand kilometers?"
"You have an astral accent." Radhika said in answer. She pulled down her blanket to look at his face. He seemed taken back and was frowning in confusion. She chuckled and answered his original question. "I came here for fun."
Not entirely a lie. She did come here to have fun, but she didn't mention that she came here to find herself too. She didn't tell him that she wasn't here to look at world famous architecture, but to look at the lost art somewhere around the corners of the streets of Astrum.
"Alright, I figured as much." He rolled his eyes. Radhika frowned at his tone. "As per your dearest father's request, I have found two tours you might be interested in. Since it's already afternoon, mademoiselle can't start to have fun until tomorrow."
He handed her two pamphlets. She knew she didn't want them as soon as she saw the first side but looked through them anyway, finally deciding to exclaim, "Ew!"
"Excuse me?" He sounded offended. "Those are the best tours I found in Astrum!"
"If I really wanted to see Astrum's Museums and Palaces, I would have just Googled images!" She said, unimpressed by the photographs printed on the flier.
"Are you bloody sick?" He asked her while Radhika just pouted in annoyance. "Why would you come to Astrum if you don't want to see Astrum?"
"Why is Astrum defined by palaces and towers?" She sat up on the bed now. "Why is India defined by Taj Mahal, New York defined by Central Park and Las Vegas defined by The Strip?"
"Because those are the things that represent them?" Nikhil frowned.
"No! Those are the things that people defined them as! I can Google the name of any city and see it. But have you ever thought about filling blank pages with new ideas? See the world like it hasn't been seen! Explore the places that haven't been explored! I can walk to the best places on earth and know what to expect! I want to walk into strange places and experience something that has never been recorded!" She was talking animatedly now, trying to get her point across. "When someday someone asks me what was Astrum like, I want to be able to tell them much more than Oasis Palace and the god damn museums!"
YOU ARE READING
The Journey (2016)
ChickLitThis story is about a girl who asks questions and a boy who joins her in a journey to find the answers. She is trying to put a puzzle together and he is helping her see the bigger picture. Radhika wanted a vacation of a lifetime, and Nikhil might ju...