Playing With Fire

Chapter 2: In with the new?

Lush, green, rolling landscapes raced by the window as Kajol sat in the passenger seat of her best friend Preity Zinta's car. She'd called her yesterday, right after her big fight with her parents, to tell her she was finally moving out. Preity immediately scoured apartments in the area to find her a place before—in Preity's words— she chickened out and changed her mind. As much as Preity didn't believe her, there would be no chickening out. Kajol might take a lot of crap from people, but once she made up her mind about something, she stuck to it.

"I still can't believe you had the guts to go through with this. I'm surprised your parents didn't have you committed." Preity risked a quick glance at her before her eyes returned to the road ahead.

"Gee, thanks, Pri. Glad to see you have so much faith in me."

"Oh, it's not you I don't have faith in, sweets. It's your parents' persuasion that I don't underestimate."

"Ugh! I know. My mother's been hounding me, trying to make me feel guilty as if I'm letting her down. I hate disappointing them, but—"

Preity whipped her head to the side, completely ignoring the fact she sat behind the wheel of a moving car. "Don't you dare let them make you feel guilty about this! You have done nothing wrong. It's that prick Amir they should be angry at. Not you. Now you know why I never see a guy more than twice." Preity continued to look at her.

"Pri! Get your eyes on the road. You'll get us killed before I even get the chance to go through with this. I'm not changing my mind."

"You need to relax a little bit." Preity took her hands off the wheel and waved them in the air. "Oh, look at me. No hands," she teased.

Kajol tried to hold in her laughter. "Ha, ha. Since when did you become a comedian?"

"I'm not, but I am pretty damn funny, don't you think?"

"Funny-looking." Both girls laughed together. Kajol would have gone crazy a long time ago if not for her best friend. Preity always knew how to lighten the mood when she needed it. She always offered her shoulder when times were tough, and if Kajol had let her, Amir would probably be castrated by now. "So where we going?"

"There's a nice little apartment complex on Main. I've been inside them before."

"And why have you been inside them?" Kajol prodded.

"Black hair, blue eyes, and a stomach so damn rippled I could wash my laundry on it."

"Pri!"

"What?" She glanced at her innocently. "You asked. Anyway, Rohan doesn't live there anymore. Thank God. Things ended badly."

Even though Kajol told Preity everything, her friend held a few secrets from her.

It wasn't that she didn't trust her. Preity just didn't like to admit she needed anyone. She'd been like that ever since they were in high school.

"Anyway, they're really nice and not too pricey since you're supporting yourself now."

Yeah, that was a little problem. She'd never mooched off her parents. She worked at
the firm and had been lucky enough to be able to stash all the money away. She had a decent little savings, but it wouldn't last long. Since she dropped her job right after she decided to move out things were going to get a little tricky. "I need to go job hunting."

Preity took a left on Main Street. "Bet your Papa shit a brick when you quit your job, Didn't he? He lost the perfect employee who did whatever he wanted and never talked back."

Her words touched more than just one sensitive nerve. She hated the fact she always let her parents get away with treating her like a child. She'd let them walk all over her all her life. The part that really hurt was how they'd taken advantage of that. Why did they feel the need to run her life for her? Why wasn't anything she did ever good enough for them? Many nights had been spent crying, wondering what she could do to make them happy.