Tattooed

Everywhere

II

Meenakshi looked out of her balcony while braiding her hair. The chilly morning air was always so relaxing in Glasgow. The weather was always calming, maybe a bit too cold and gloomy for her liking at first, but she was used to it now. July was always the rainy month and as promised, it was drizzling. She stood there and held onto the balcony railings. The cold drops of rain actually felt good against her skin. The past day had left her a little troubled, but that was finally gone. If she didn’t live alone then maybe she wouldn’t have to feel that way in the first place.

It was true, while she wished she didn't have to live alone, there wasn't a choice in the matter. Avinash was busy with the organisation, Parth was with him, and Anushka had work to do and her—

She jerked at the sight of Zach walking down the sidewalk across from her apartment. He was wearing an overly large backpack and held a duffel bag in his hands. He was probably listening to music, which was the only explanation for the headphones the size of saucers. She wanted to hide before he saw her. Too late for that, he had already seen her up in her balcony. He came to a halt and waved.

She turned around and left, and no, she did not wave back.

Two long, gruelling days later, Anushka called.

“What’re your plans for tonight?” she asked as she made her way to her car.

“Nothing, not a thing,”

“Cool, let’s do dinner. You’re cooking.”

“Don’t I always? What do you want?”

“Surprise me. Also, I want something saccharine and sinful.”

“I’ve got a cheesecake chilling in the refrigerator?” she asked expectantly.

“I knew there would be.”  

Meenakshi missed her best friend. Sure, they always found the time to meet but even so, it wasn’t like she had much else going on in her life. School and Anushka had been her only contact with the outside world, apart from Zach, whom she’d recently picked up off the streets. She shook her head just thinking about it. There was no way there was going to be a repeat of that with anyone ever again. For all she knew the boy was a murderer or a rapist and yet she’d let him into her home! She chastised herself over it through the ride home. Then, she decided to let it go. It wasn’t like she’d ever run into him again, let alone invite him home.

When she had been looking through her kitchen reserves and found that she needed many things if Anushka was coming home for dinner too, the decision to go to the store with said best friend was made.

The doorbell had barely finished ringing when Meenakshi opened it.

“I need a few things. Let’s go,” she said as she locked the door behind her and pulled her best friend along.

“Nice to see you too, bestie. Did you cut your hair?”

She turned around and laughed. “Yeah, sure. I ran off to cut my hair without telling you.”

“You’d better have not.”

Anushka was really a weird one, and Meenakshi even knew it. It was only three days after they’d arrived at Glasgow seven years ago that Anushka had gone and chopped off her beautiful long hair. She glanced at her. Till date she thought she looked a little like something out of a comic book in her strange bob cut but she never said so.

 "So, what's going on with you?" she asked as they reached the store, the chilly evening cutting through skin and bone, just rushing up to pull up a cart. They walked into the aisles, waiting for Anushka to catch up whenever she wandered off and carted some dough and vegetables. Some curry leaves and strawberries, and that’d be that with shopping.