Serendipity [Temporarily Discontinued]

Chapter 3

There was a constant buzzing nearby.

It was an insistent, continuous and equally irritating buzz that was messing up with her sleep.

Groaning and turning just enough to stretch her arms out towards her night stand, Saee Mahajan reached out for her phone. With groggy and sleepy, out of focus eyes Saee forced herself to look at the caller ID. She groaned again.

It was her dad.

"What work do you have at... five in the morning?" Saee tried to keep her voice low and calm. She had had a long night. She was out partying with her neighbours as they had recently moved in last week. They were a weird bunch of people. She had gladly accepted the invitation that her new neighbours had presented her. Being in a new city meant having as many comrades as possible especially localities as it proves to be very helpful.

"Can't a father call her daughter?" Her father's stern yet love laden voice spoke from the other side.

Saee rolled her eyes. Her father could be comical at times. Calling at such an ungodly hour meant that he had something obnoxiously irrelevant subject that will be something Saee will shamelessly ignore.

"Yeah right dad. You would call at five in the morning to just casually talk to me. Please dad, I'm your daughter. Don't take me for a fool." She shoved her bed covers to the side and sat up on the bed. The sun was just about rising at the horizon. From her apartment window she could see only a fraction of the sun rays. The building in the front covered her view. Damn building.

She audibly heard her father sigh on the other side. Saee could perfectly imagine her father's expression at the moment. He would be having a frown on his face and a hand on his forehead completely and utterly flabbergasted at her response.

"Dear," Saee rolled her eyes again. She was doing that a lot today. "We need to sit down and... talk. You can't just run away and..."

"Dad, please. Stop."

"But beta..."

"Please..." Saee had to strain her voice to get her point through. She did not want to have this conversation early in the morning. On the retrospect she did not want to have this conversation ever. "Just spare me this conversation today. I have a party to attend and I don't want you to spoil my mood in any way. So bye and I'll talk to you later... maybe." Without waiting for her father's reply Saee disconnected the call. She threw her cell on the bed and fell backwards on the mattress. She stared at the ceiling with a blank mind thinking of nothing in particular. She just wanted to focus on anything but the phone call from her dad.

***

"And then he crashed into me! I went totally off balance and fell straight on my bum! It hurt, like... a lot." Piyali animatedly narrated her incident with the guy in the hallway to her friend in India, Neerav Talreja. She laughed and she saw Neerav laugh through the computer screen too. She had been Skyping with him for like an hour now and she couldn't get enough of her life out in words yet.

Neerav had been her friend for past six years. They had met online and had bonded over their mutual liking of a soccer club. They had quickly hit it off with each other. Slowly and gradually they had been acquainted enough to ask each other about trivial matters happening in their lives. They had exchanged numbers soon enough and had been since talking to each other outside the social networking site.

Heaving for breath and trying to not laugh anymore, Neerav tried to hide his laughter with a smile. Piyali noticed how his cheek was indented with a slight dimple and laughter lines were evidently present near his eyes. He seemed genuinely happy to be talking to her right now. Piyali felt overwhelmed.