Can't I Touch Your Heart?

Chapter 12 If I Could Pick It Up Again

"That brat humiliated me in front of the entire office," Mr Zed said as he sat beside a huge man in a pub.
"It's just a kid. Ignore him,"
"No," Zed looked into his drink, "I'll make him pay a heavy price for it,"

. . . 

The doorbell rang and Rhea opened the door. A short girl stood there. She had a small waist but thick thighs. She wore a tank top and high jeans, mascara on her eyes and a poppy pink lipstick. "Arorhea!" She hugged Arorhea and left her covered in her strong perfume, "How are you, babe?"
Meet Jessica, Arorhea's cousin and the diva of the family. She is nineteen, a fashion guru by profession and owns a Youtube channel just on fashion and gossip. Living in south Delhi, her Hindi accent sounds more foreign than foreigners themselves.

"Jessica," Arorhea moved away from her, "Hello!"
"Oh Jassi, welcome dear. What brings you here?" Mrs Laghari asked from the kitchen while doing the dishes.
"I was here for a quick fashion store review. Thought I'd meet my fashion blind cousin," She smiled and grabbed Rhea by her shoulders, "I tried to get a rickshaw but like, no bhaya would stop for me you know. So, like, I just called for a cab," She said as she dragged Rhea to her room and closed the door.

Jessica sat before Rhea on her bed, "I got some clothes for you," She winked as she threw a top at her, "Try this on,"
"What is this? Underwear?" Rhea looked at it.
"No baby," She said, "It's a camisole. All pink and cute. I designed it. I got matching shorts too. Raj picked them up with me,"

Raj Dubey confessed to Jessica in the graduation ceremony of their school. They've been together ever since then. She's studying fashion designing, meanwhile he is studying business management and together, they are currently working on an online fashion shop which they can open right after they graduate college.

"I'll go buy some fabric tomorrow. You wanna come?" Jessica asked.
"Nah, tomorrow is Sunday. I want to rest, I am tired,"
"I mean, of course you're tired after being in the presence of such a hottie" She brought her phone towards Rhea, with a picture of her and Ember standing together, eating a kulfi. Rhea blushed and tried to snatch the phone from her, "Delete that!"

"Hmm, lemme think about that one," Jessica looked up, "No,"
She ran away and Rhea ran after her in her room. They ran in circles until they both got tired and lay down on the bed, "You didn't tell me you met Ember, not fair, huh!"
"You know Ember?" Rhea looked at her.
"Dude, I met him when I went to meet you in Kerela,"

"I..." Rhea scratched her head, "I don't remember,"
"You were very small back then," She said, "I was like nine. I thought he was girl," She laughed, "He still looks like a doll, man," She looked at the picture.
"He doesn't," Rhea said.

"You're just jealous that your boyfriend is prettier than you, boo! Now get up, I wanna try this camisole on you," 
"He's not my boyfriend! I don't even like him like that," Rhea removed her shirt and Jessica began doing the buttons at the back of the camisole, making measurements from a pencil, "Keep lying to yourself, sweetie. As it has been said," She smiled as she wrapped a frill at the bottom of the camisole, 

"Love and cough cannot be concealed.
Even a small love," Her brown eyes looked hers, "Even a small love,"

Rhea blushed and looked away, "You'll fall in love before you know it," Jessica hummed.
"But I don't want to fall in love, because everything that falls, breaks"
Jessica looked at her and slapped her thigh, "You think of only negative things, na?" She laughed and wrapped a ribbon around her thigh, "I'll make a frill drop from the top to the ankles, like this,"

"Oh my God, that would look beautiful!" Rhea said.
"I know right?" Jessica laughed, "Back to Ember,"
"Oh God,"
"You can't force chemistry to exist when it doesn't, in the same way, you can't deny when it does, honey,"

. . .

Rhea stood at her balcony that evening with a packet of kurkure (crisps) in her hands.
"Yo," Neel stood at his balcony. She gave a quick look to him.
"Where were you?" She asked.
"Helping mom with unpacking some stuff. Plus I needed to move her bed a bit towards the window" Neel replied.

"You can move an entire bed?!" She exclaimed.
"Well, is it that difficult?" Neel said.
"Could you move my bed towards my table too?" She asked
"Yeah, sure. What am I? Dewan packers and movers?" He said, sarcastically. Rhea looked down an the ground.
"Idiot," Neel said as he shook his head.

Rhea looked at the sky, thinking why she even bothered painting after such a long time. Neel looked at her. She looked at the sky, just the way Ember did. She looked at the orange clouds float. The day was ending and she couldn't do anything to stop it. Flowers in the flowerpots beside her were dying away slowly. But, you can prevent death.
If you don't want something to die, paint it. And it will live on that board forever. 

She couldn't remember how did she ever get into painting but she remembered why she got out of it. It would just bring so many memories. Memories of someone she wanted to forget. Was Ember that someone? But why would she want to forget a friend?

Unless he wasn't one.

The sky reflected on her brown eyes, which was now dark. It was night already. She had spent an entire evening in thinking. The outcome was nothing and neither was the process fulfilling.

Neel got into his room and closed the curtains. He switched on the light and opened his cupboard. He opened the first drawer. It had a huge canvas with a green line dividing in it two halves. There was also a color palette and a set of paintbrushes kept inside a transparent pouch.

He took a canvas stand from another tall cupboard and arranged the canvas on it. He kept a chair in front of the canvas and sat on it with the palette. He picked up the largest paintbrush and dipped it into a bright shade of brown. He pressed it on the rough canvas and brought it down, making a brown line on the canvas. There was this bright brown line just beside the green line, going in the same direction as that of the green one. Neel looked at it for sometime. He kept the paintbrush aside and picked up the canvas.

The paint was an acrylic one so it had dried already, but not the wounds in Neel's heart. He kept the canvas back into the drawer along with all the other stuff. He washed the paintbrush and gently tapped it on a newspaper to dry it off. As he tapped the paintbrush, he closed his eyes

'I don't want those blue lines to contaminate this white maze again,'

-To be continued

Can't I Touch Your Heart?
Teach Me The Art of Living