Blue

Chapter Six

I was walking alone. Sara's house was only a minute walk from my own. It was seven in the evening and the streets were dimly lit.

Although the actual party started at eight, Sara had invited me an hour earlier for something. Maybe she wanted help with the party. And I was not surprised when she had asked me to come through the back door and bring my guitar.

"You're gonna be surprised with what you may find," she had said. Damn, this girl was the mother of drama.

So, here I was walking alone in the dim light, with my guitar on my back and a small wrapped box on my hands.

I never had the chance to ask Aditi for the party. And as far as I knew, she was coming alone as well.

I mentally kicked myself for the hundredth time for not talking to Aditi. She would not have rejected me. I am a friend after all. And I was the only friend she had had when she was alone.

Damn I missed the days when I was not thinking so much about a girl. Actually it used to be the other way around. I never gave a shit about other girls in school. But that hadn't stopped them from asking me for coffee or a dance. So why was I hesitating?

In just a while I could see Sara's house appearing in the distance. It was a small house with faded, violet-colored walls. I wondered if they had ever repainted the walls in ten years.

I had been in there quiet a few times and knew that her parents weren't home that evening. If they were there would not have been a party there. Her father was one angry devil with a serious drinking problem. As far as Sara had told me, he came home every night drunk and had fights with her mother.

Sara hated her father. If it hadn't been for her mother, Sara would not have been living in that mad house, they call home.

But I had to go there anyway. There are certain things in life that you don't want to do but you have to just for the sake of it.

I reached Sara's house and took the small alley on the side to get to the back door. The houses on the other side of the alley looked like they had not seen light for centuries.

I knocked on the door and waited, impatiently tapping on my thigh.

The door flung open and Sara greeted me inside with a hug and a big smile. I hugged long enough to seem polite and handed her the wrapped box.

She was wearing jeans and a shirt, too baggy for her skinny frame.

"So, what am I doing here?" I asked looking around her house; nobody was around.

"Have patience, child." She winked at me sarcastically and led me upstairs to her room.

We took one of the three doors into her room.

"Hey, Samar?" Aditi's voice cut through my inquiries as I entered Sara's room. She was sitting upright on the bed and looked shocked to see me there.

I turned to look at Sara. She gave me a smile and walked up to Aditi, leaving me standing awkwardly as the two girls exchanged glances.

"So, I wasn't the only one to be called early." I said with a bit of sarcasm and much amusement in my voice.

"Nope." Sara said.

"So, again, what am I...we doing here?" I said looking at Aditi and then back at Sara as I put my guitar leaning on the wall near the bed.

"You are standing and I am insisting you sit." She said as she got off the bed and pulled me.

I awkwardly sat next to Aditi, who was silently looking below.

Sara stood in front of us and cleared her throat.