LOST

12. AADITYA

~ Aaditya ~

"You brought this, didn't you?" Vikram Uncle was fuming with anger when he came out of Sapna's room. He slapped a piece of paper at my face and it fell at my feet.

I bent down and read it.

Sapna, it's time for you to know who I really am.

No fucking shit.

"What's wrong in it? She needs to know the truth." I stated, eyeing him.

"No she doesn't! She's happy! Can't you see that?"

"I can see a lot of things, Uncle. Sapna is not a child. You are making her live a lie."

"Don't you dare, Aaditya. She's our daughter!" Lata Aunty stepped forward, pointing her finger at me.

Just then Rishi peeked out from Sapna's room and said, "She's ready."

I nodded, motioning him to go ahead with our plan of taking her out of there while I sorted things out with her 'family'.

When Sapna emerged out of the room, she stared at each of us with a muddled look while we pretended like we had no sort of interaction a minute ago. I could see suspicion on her face and I wanted to make it go. But right now, I had to handle things my way.

They left without a word.

I turned to Lata Aunty and said, "I am not going to tell her anything. But I will make sure she knows."

"Look, Aaditya," Vikram Uncle's tone carried a warning in it. "If she faces any problems because of you, I won't be responsible for the hell your life might enter into."

I glared at him, immediately hating him for threatening me. "I'm not scared of you."

I grabbed my camera from the table and walked away, not wanting to waste any more time arguing. I knew it would be fruitless. They just won't understand.

Like I thought, Rishi and Sapna were still in the parking lot, and since my possessive self didn't want to leave Sapna alone with Rishi, I joined them.

"Bhai!" I called out and Rishi grinned at me.

He unlocked Vikram Uncle's car and we got in.

"Aadi, why couldn't you buy me something else?" Sapna shifted in her seat to look at me as I had taken the back seat.

Because I didn't want to, I thought.

"What were you expecting?" I asked instead.

"Something cheesy," she giggled and turned in the front.

She was wearing the bracelet Rishi gave her, which meant she really must have liked it.

"This," she tapped the bracelet I had been staring at, "is beautiful, Rishi."

Rishi smiled at her.

I wondered if something was wrong with her. Back home, she was confused and curious and doubtful. And now she had her guards down as she talked bullshit and giggled for no reason.

I didn't mind her being happy, but, was she drunk?

"Are you drunk?"

She gasped, and her hand came flying, landing on my right cheek.

She was definitely drunk.

We reached a commercial building. Sapna and I got out of the car before Rishi parked it in the basement. When he joined us, we went upstairs to the third floor where her office was situated.

She bent down and unlocked the shutter, lifting it above her head.

Glass doors stood ahead of us, painted with lots of colors. Abstract designs formed four letters and I tried to apprehend what they said.

"C-M-I-P," Rishi read.

Sapna nodded and opened them.

"Fuck!" Rishi and I gaped, our mouths fell open.

The three walls that made this place an office were covered in graffiti. The kind of graffiti I had never seen before.

I looked down at where I stood. The tiles were printed like newspapers.

There were photo frames leaning against one of the walls. They were filled with equations and derivations, physics and chemistry.

There was a set of furniture and accessories in one corner. A banana shaped recliner, peeled off where the cushioning was; a pulse-line structure denoting heartbeat lined with books; little flower pots stacked over each other in a tipsy manner.

Her desk sat in the middle of the place. It was a plain desk made of beach wood, with a desktop on the middle of it, a few catalogues and a pen stand. That thing simply stood out in the middle of this extreme ingenuity.

"CMIP stands for –"

Sapna was interrupted by Rishi. "Creative Mess..."

"In Progress." I finished, reading the words scribbled on one of the walls.

"Yes. Actually, I love messy things. You might have understood that by now. But at the same time, when they hold a tinge of innovation that makes it look not-so-messy, they turn creative. Also, I believe that nothing is ever finished or complete. I mean, I haven't reached my goals yet. Yes, I am far from where I started but I'm still not there. I am in progress. So is my work. Hence the name."

It wasn't like we had asked for an explanation, but it was great to hear it anyway.

"That's awesome." Rishi was still admiring the place while I took the camera in my hands and began taking pictures.

"Hey! You're not allowed to steal my ideas!" Sapna yelled at me.

"This is for my own collection." I said without looking at her as I focused on my work.

"You collect interior designers' office pictures? That's super weird."

I ignored her.

She was high. No shit.

We stayed there for a while before heading into the city. Rishi and I were both hungry so we asked Sapna to show us around some popular food joints and she didn't have a problem as long as it let her stay away from home.