When He Barged In Without My Permission

Chapter 42: Touring San Francisco

Part 5: Kaano mein ik dil ki baath sunava ni, tenu hasda vekh ke jagnu mein bhuljaava ni. (Let me whisper a secret in your ears. When I see you laugh? I forget the world.)

Chapter 42: Touring San Francisco

Akshara (Song for the chapter : Illahi from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, listen to it after *****)

My eyes snapped open in the middle of the night. At first I couldn't make out where I was. Darkness loomed from every corner of my view, and it scared the hell out of me. Then I slowly remembered. I was in San Francisco, in the USA, attending my ex-boyfriend's cousin's wedding. Right.

Then I remembered the airport debacle, how Raghav had treated me...all of it slowly came back. How he had seemed to hate me. How he had threatened me into staying. How I had not spoken to any of my friends during the 5 hour ride to San Francisco. How nobody had even bothered asking me why I wasn't talking. The pit in my stomach got deeper and deeper every time I remembered the way Raghav looked at me: cold, and hostile. 

I turned over in my bed, to look out my window. The sky seemed to be lit with stars. I had a beautiful view of the San Francisco bay bridge from my window. It stood there, far away in the distance, a monument of true beauty. I remembered that we had all agreed to go sightseeing the next day.

I had been very excited. There was no work for us in the wedding, except to attend it in the evening. So I had decided to wake up earlier and ditch my fellow companions to go look at San Francisco. When it came to travelling and exploring, I was more of a loner. I liked going off alone, and finding out stuff and buying stuff myself. It was very good for self-love time. 

So that was what I was going to do. 

*****

My alarm rang at exactly 4:30 a.m. I jumped out of bed and quickly had a bath, brushed my teeth, finished my daily business and changed into my touring outfit. It was a black dress that went up to my knees, and had pretty embroidery on the top. Perfect for the warm weather of San Francisco. I quickly tied up my hair into a single ponytail, and then applied a stroke of kohl and a bit of my colored lip balm.

Voila. Ready to go! I checked my phone for the time, and found out that it was 5:10. Cheering internally, I hid my passport under my bed, and took out my purse, filling it in with the usual unnecessary junk that I fill it up with:

1. Lip Balm

2. Phone

3. Nail cutter

4. Pepper Spray (you never know!)

5. hair clips, a clutch-er and a big woolly rubber band. 

6. Earphone, cause music is necessary when you are travelling.

7. A tissue. 

Deciding that I was done, I opened the door of my room and crept out, looking around cautiously. I tiptoed all the way down to the hall. We were staying in Raghav's holiday home. Some of his relatives were staying here too. I wanted to avoid them at all costs. The previous night I had quickly  memorized the route to my room from the main door.

So I was just retracing my steps. I held my breath as I collided with someone. "Who's there?" The voice sounded very panicked. Every corner of the house was filled with darkness, as it was still only 5:30 and everyone was asleep. "Uh..." I started. And suddenly there was light. I blinked, my eyes still adjusting to the brightness. 

When I could finally see, I saw a man standing in front of me. He looked as if he'd set out on a trekking trip. "Who are you?" I demanded. "Excuse me, I own this house. Who are you?" he asked, looking me up and down. "Um...my ex-boyfriend owns this house. Not you." I said, giving him a look.