If it's not forever...it's not love

Avantika

Avantika POV
 
'Why are the police there?' I ask.
'We banged the car, that's why! And they think I am under eighteen, so they wanted to call my parents. That's why Shrey called you guys. And that's why he is my brother,' she says with absolutely no change in expression of her face.
'How old are you?' I ask her.
'Seventeen,' she says.
Fuck. Is she serious? She's not even eighteen!Old pervert.
  'Then what are you doing with him?' I ask,shocked.
'I love him!'
'Love?' I ask. 'He's just using you! He just wants to sleep with you.'
   'But he has already slept with me.'
   'He has?'
   'Quite a few times and he is still with me. And Avantika, he's really good in bed.'
  If you ask me, she looks at least twenty. And she is too hot to be seventeen. But that's not what I am concerned about. I am shocked at the ease with which she had started discussing her sex life with me.
Anyway, I am not too interested in the discussion. In fact, I am furious and take it out on the car. I put in gear and goes full throttle on the accelerator.
  'Where are we going?' Deb asks.
  'Home,' I say.
'And where is she going?' He point to the girl in the back seat.
'She is coming with us,' I replies.
'And Shrey?'the girl asks.
' I don't give a fuck,' I say. I am angry and I push the pedal all the way down.
 
A little after we get home, Shrey drops in too. We are sitting in the drawing room and no one says anything. I steal a glance at the girl. Despite the dead serious look on my face, she is unfazed. She sits cross-legged next to Shrey and is least bothered.  I hadn't noticed it before but she is quite tall – around five eight – and a little too skinny. She looks a little those anorexic models on Fashion TV, though with a bigger cleavage. But her face still has a kid-like glow. Her long hair is a mix of black and golden brown, strangely enough, she is only seventeen.
  'I didn't know Tiya wasn't eighteen!' Shrey finally says. I guess her name is Tiya, after all.
'How does that matter?'the girl protests.

Everyone is looking at me to react. I know that I am looking like a mafia don presiding over a gang meeting. My cold stares are scary and posture is menacing. I know why I am taking this so seriously. I had a screwed up past. I had gotten into drugs and alcohol pretty early in my life. I had many flings before Deb and I I blames them for the years I had lost drug abuse. So every time Shrey starts sleeping around with someone young, I freaks out. And this girl is seventeen! And I am very angry at Shrey and Tiya.
********
Deb POV

I don't think I am getting laid tonight.
'Come. You're sharing a bed with me,' Avantika says.
'Why?' Tiya protests.
  'Because I am asking you to.'
  'Why should I listen to you?'
   'My house, my rules. Though, you are free to go home. I can call your parents and they will more than happy to pick you up from here,' Avantika says.
   'Fuck.'
   'Now come with me,' she says and takes her away. The girl look at Shrey, blows a kiss, and winks at him. He responds. I look at Shrey. I so want to kill him! I had things planned with Avantika and he just came and ruined everything.
  'You're such an asshole,' I say.
  'Why? I didn't know, okay? She said she was nineteen!' Shrey insists.
   'Whatever it is, had it not been for you, I would have been getting laid, fucker.'
  'Had it not been for Avantika, I would have been getting laid too. Why does she have to behave like her granny?'he protests.
I give him a waring stare. We don't exchange a word and get into the bed. Such a waste.
    'You think they are doing something?' Shrey asks with a smirk.
   'Fuck off.'
I fantasize about Avantika and what we would have been doing and slowly drift off to sleep.

When I wake up, I find that Shrey and Tiya have already left. Avantika still looks angry for what happened the night before. I think she is making a big deal out of it so that she doesn't have to sleep with me . Maybe, she doesn't lust me anymore. I look at myself in the mirror. I am not that bad looking. She has made out with the worst versions of me – like when I had a paunch and really long rope like hair! And once, when I had kept an ugly beard as I thought it was cool. The beard is still there, a little less bushy, though. It's there to hide my ugly face.
  Despite my attempts, she doesn't talk much and leaves for office. Every time Shrey does something like this, I have to bear the brunt of Avantika's anger too. When will she understand that no one, absolutely no one, can make Shrey mend his ways?
  As soon as Avantika leaves, I open the website for NYUC Academy, New York again. I call on the numbers given on their websites but there is no respond from their side. It seems like it has been eternity that I have read the diary and the suspense is killing me. But I am very bad at resisting temptation — naked girls (read : Avantika!)and books without endings. I can't help but want to open them both. A very dirty pun intended.
   I want to know more about the dead guy, what his name was, where he lived, what he did, everything. All I know is that he is obsessively in love with the girl. And such love needs to be confessed not hidden. It has never done anyone any good.
   Even if Avantika left me today, I would tell her everyday how much I love her.....till my last breath. Ah! I am so in love with her. There are days when I just sit and stare at her. Those are the days when I really feel lucky. She is so perfect and so freakishly beautiful. Suddenly, I think and I can't recall the last time I told her that I love her. So I pick up the phone and dial her number.
    'Hey!'
    'Deb? I'm working! I really can't have phone sex right now,' she says very seriously.
    'Is that the only thing I call you for?' I am a little taken aback.
When I had pick up the phone to dial her number, the only thing I felt was love, but she is branding me as a lusty bastard!
  'Yes, When was the last time you called me and said something nice?' She whispers into the phone.
   'I called to say that now!'
   'Of course you did,' she says sarcastically.
   'Oh c'mon! I really did.'
   'Deb you don't have to lie. It's okay. I know you love me. Yes you try to get me naked half of the time. but I love you for that too. You are my boyfriend and it's great to have a boyfriend who gets turn on by a mere touch. Makes life a lot easier.'
   'But I do love you!' I protest.
   'Yeah, yeah,' she say. 'And yes, I might need to go out tomorrow morning to London for a couple of weeks. A project is stuck there.'
   'What? Tomorrow? For two weeks? And you are telling me now? Tell them you can't go!'
  'Just a few days, Deb. Okay, I really need to go.' She says and disconnects the call.
  Almost immediately, I find myself in depression. A couple of weeks without sex? I mean, love? No Avantika for the next two weeks? That's disastrous! I have not learn to be without her. She makes my life possible. This can't be. She will have fun in London and I will rot here in LA and wait for her?
  I am angry and unreasonable. Well, she has work there.....but whatever. I am not staying here and missing her. This is unfair. I know my senses are over reacting  and I know why. I am restless to find everything about that guy. And Avantika is the only thing that has kept me and can keep me from thinking about it. I will go crazy thinking about that mysterious girl, the dead guy, and the burnt diary if Avantika goes away to London.