Serendipity [Temporarily Discontinued]

Chapter 7

Piyali watched her brother while she distractedly read her book. Piyush was flying paper planes while being perched on the balcony fence. Piyali had taught her brother to make paper planes a few days ago and since then her brother had gone ballistic in making them. The good thing was he would clean the mess up after he was done playing. At least there were a few things her mother did right, even if her absence was conspicuous. Her mother was a quintessential business woman. She was away from home most of the time; she didn’t have time for a family and worked late nights at the office. Piyali had heard something like she was being promoted or something along those lines. Also she had heard some disturbing things like her mother finding a guy in the office that she had particularly started liking. This was the reason why she tried to stay out of conversations between her aunt and her mother. Things that were discussed were too personal for her liking.

“Piyush, be careful. Get off the ledge, will you?” Piyali laid her book down on table and walked out of the room. But she made sure to check if her brother was safe inside the house and not hanging out in the balcony before she left the room. Her brother was the dearest person alive in her life. She didn’t want him to be scathed in anyway.

Piyali walked down the stairs towards the kitchen to grab a bite. The house was awfully quite. Her aunt and uncle were at the company party that mother had invited them to. She had asked Piyali too but Piyali being Piyali had refused. She couldn’t pretend to talk to people whom she didn’t know and act like it was normal. Piyali was bad at pretending and she was even bad with elders. Exchanging niceties with unknown individuals with a smile was not Piyali’s forte. Sometimes she thought of herself like a hybrid of introvert and extrovert. Although she was afraid she was going to become a full blown introvert one day.

The only thing Piyali could find in the refrigerator was afternoon’s left over chicken. She decided she would make sandwiches for herself and Piyush rather than being famished to death. Piyush entered the kitchen just when Piyali was about to rip the bread packet open. “Mummy is getting people over. She said she’ll get food.”

“Who people?”

“Don’t know.” And just like that Piyush waltzed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Piyali blindly dialled up her mum’s number and was instantly got the voicemail in response. She rolled her eyes at herself for thinking that her mother would be available. All her life she had gotten nothing but busy tone or the voicemail in return to her calls. Why will today be any different?

Piyali bored out of her mind and not wanting to sit around and wait for her family to arrive, she called up Viyaan. Viyaan was the closest thing to a friend she had right now. He had become such an integral part of her life now.

A few minutes later she was full on ranting spree over the phone with Viyaan. “She has been such a bad mother. I can’t believe she got a boyfriend. I mean who does that?! Why did she not tell me?!”

The doorbell rang just as she started with her rant about her mother’s boss. “I personally don’t like this Latiff guy.” She opened the door absentmindedly. She turned her back to the door and continued ranting. At a subconscious level she knew she should be careful about opening the door without looking. “He seems like a creep to me. He made mom slack through her office work and now suddenly promoted her. Who does that?!”

“I do.” The gruff unfamiliar voice made Piyali turn around. A thousand things flashed in her mind that voice belonged to whom. But she did not imagine that when she turned around she would see her mother with her hand over her mouth, a guy in waistcoat with shock in his eyes and a man in suit with a commanding personality standing with his hands folded over his chest.

Without even an introduction Piyali knew who he was.

Crap.

O-O