First Impressions

Chapter Nine

Neha stayed in a lofty, high rise building on the 10th floor.
We entered the elevator with each one of us carrying a suitcase each. The driver was going to carry the second suitcase but was stopped by Neha who decided to carry it by herself.

You have got to agree with me when I say that the kind of silence that you have everytime you are in an elevator is truly awkward.
And it is more awkward when you have along with you a weird stranger who keeps having unusual type of hiccups.

I and Neha exchanged glances.

But soon enough the weird stranger exited the elevator at the fifth floor and as soon as he went out Neha had a hearty laugh which she had been controlling till that time.

The elevator stopped on her floor and we moved out to her flat, me following her from behind.

She turned the key in to the door and it flung open to reveal a well furnished, spacious house.

I entered behind her removing my footwear.

I examined her huge living room, it was quite big and spacious with the fall ceilings and Marble floor tiles. There was no one else in the house, not even a single servant.

I began glancing through her cute childhood photos in the living room with her parents and cousins.
Her features still looked the same- the twinkling brown eyes and the beautiful smile that could win anyone's heart.

I saw a tall woman in one of the photos whom she was hugging. Guess it was her Mom because she had the same brown eyes like Neha.

"This must be your Mom" I stated, pointing to the picture hung on the wall while Neha was hanging the keys onto a key stand.

She turned back and glanced at the picture I was looking at.

"Oh This? Nope. She is my maasi. She looks similar to Mom" she said in that chirpy voice of hers.
She showed me her mother's photo and sure enough both the sisters looked quite alike with the similarity of the brown eyes.

I could tell Neha, being the only child of her parents would have been a very well pampered and loving daughter.
But not the spoilt brat kind, I tell you.

"Come I will show you the rooms"
I followed her through the living room towards a passage wherein there were two bedrooms quite opposite to each other.

"This is my room." she said flinging the door open to the room in the left.
The en suite bedroom was well air conditioned and furnished beautifully, the curtains and walls painted her favourite shade of blue.

The walls and the study table had been hung or rather beeen decorated with pictures of Neha with her friends in numerous occassions- Birthday parties, college trips with the familiar faces of Piya, Ishaan, Swati, Mohit and Aryan but there was one picture among them that caught my attention.

It had been kept on her table seperate, away from all her other photos.
There was a guy standing with her whom I didn't recognize and both of their faces looked as if they were forced to pose for the photograph.

Neha looked younger in the picture, the innocence in her face almost tangible. The guy was, on the face of it, taller than her, his weird black hair falling all over his forehead, his head was tilted to the right and he was wearing a blue jersey.

There was about a one feet distance between them. He looked a little older than her; How little I just can't predict.

"I haven't ever seen him I guess. Who is he?" I ask and then turn to my right to look at her.

I guess I did the wrong thing. To take away a smile from a cheerful person's lips is definitely defined as a wrong thing in this world. Isn't it?

I could see her smile fade away and her eyes becoming darkened, a much darker shade of the brown that it is.
I could even tell she was thinking something deep.
Not that I was a mind reader or something.