The Vows We Exchanged

Chapter 17: The Rain

"Here, have a seat." Gwen offered as she switched on the lights of the Drawing room of her flat. Mayank followed her in through the main door, dragging his left leg inside. He landed himself on the sofa against the light green wall with textured leaves.

"Man, it hurts!" He cried out in pain. Gwen closed the door and took a look at him. His left leg and right arm were all beaten up. His wet clothes which were now all covered in a little mud and soaked in the puddle water thanks to the punches and kicks he received.

When the people in the area had heard the police siren and her little call for help while she was busy teasing him, they rushed for her help. They mistook Mayur for the attacker and attacked him directly without warning. Until she was able to stop them all and make them realise they got the wrong guy, Mayur was already squirming in pain.

She noticed that a few fingers of his left hand were bleeding just like his nose. There were a few bruises on his uncovered face and his mask had earned itself its first crack. She simply watched him sympathetically as he held his forehead in his hand with eyes closed as he laid on her sofa.

It took her a minute to snap out of her guilt and to realise that her sympathy wasn't going to help him heal. Quickly getting rid of her bag and keys, she headed in to her bedroom to get some first aid. Kneeling down beside the sofa, she opened the first aid kit just to realise that he'll need to first take a bath to rid of all the mud from the puddles.

"Umm... hey?" She began politely in a soft voice.

"What is it now?" He asked in a little frustration.

"Why don't go and take a bath to clean all that mud first?" she offered pointing towards a small passage leading to the bathroom. He slowly slid his hand down from his forehead to his eyes. Then separating the fingers into two groups he allowed his eyes to take a look at her. For some reason, the look in his eyes gave her shivers. The way his eyes seemed scanning her body, it made her a bit uncomfortable. "Hmm..." he let out a sigh and sat up straight, still maintaining his eye contact. Then suddenly averting his gazing onto the floor he said. "Yeah that's right. No one would want a stranger to mess their sofa with mud all over it, would they?"

"No... I didn't mean it that..." Gwen tried to explain herself in refusal to the accusation. But Mayank cut her in the middle with a simple "Shut up."" adding to the already tense atmosphere. "Just go and fetch me a towel, will ya? And please tell me you do have some male clothing cuz I'm not gonna wear any skirt even if it means to stay soaked all night in this muddy outfit." A little giggle escaped her lips as she unconsciously tried to imagine him in a skirt. "Don't worry 'bout that. I'll get you some of Barry's dresses. They'll be a little shorter in height, but I guess it'll be better than wearing any of my skirts." She giggled again as she stood up and fetched him a white towel.

Mayank moved into the bathroom with no delay. Gwen too, went into Barrys bedroom in order to pull out some clothes for him. She could hear the rain outside to have increased quite a bit. It was only a few drops when they had entered the building.

She opened Barrys cupboard and trailed her finger over the various shirts. Barry had a liking to try out weird stuff, especially food and clothes. He had his little wardrobe filled with punk jackets, bad boy sweatshirts, street racing sleeveless T-shirts, Indian formals. He even had a trek suit hanging in there.

After thinking a bit, she pulled out a baby blue T-shirt with silly smiley on its front centre. Barry had mistakenly picked the bigger size in that sale this summer. It was so long that even she could have used it as mini dress if it had been just a few inches taller. She went ahead and grabbed Barrys blue track pant and then placed them near the bathroom door.