A GIRL LIKE YOU

42

"I want to see my daughter!!!"

My heart beats quickened. Oh my god! Is that dad? What is he doing here? How did he get here? Oh my god. Shit. Fuck. Shit.
"Right now!" Dad's voice jolted me and I sprinted across the room, opened the door and ran downstairs.
That was probably not a good idea.
The muffled voice of Ansh's dad came along with his mom's. I quickly rounded the corner and spotted my dad standing there with fury in his eyes. Ansh's parents stood as I faced their backs and someone else behind my dad, I couldn't see. Mom?
I walked two more steps and came in complete view of my dad.
"-Will you calm down?" Ansh's dad said.
"Calm down? She's been AWOL for days now. This girl told me about her whereabouts." Dad gestured behind him and side stepped.
Preeti! I gasped. That little bitch. Asshole. This is her revenge. How cheap. How-how...Oh god I want to kill her.
"And now I'm here and you're not letting me in!" Dad finished.
"That is because you are shouting. Let's be adults and calm down and I'll let you in and I'll call your daughter. Okay?" Ansh's mom calmed my dad down.
"Come in." As soon as they side stepped to let Dad and an apologetic Preeti( Why the fuck is she apologetic?) inside, Dad spotted me.
I breathed and calmed my insides down. Okay. What should I do? Go with him? Talk to him? Make him understand? Go hide under the bed? Ask Ansh to take me away?
Definitely the last one.
Dad didn't waste any time. He quickly closed the distance between us in 2 steps and took my wrist in his hand. He tugged at it and walked right out of the front door. I followed him dazed.
God, when did I become such a doormat? Why the fuck I can't stand up for myself anymore? Where is that girl who would fight bullies in school for her friends? Where is that girl who would stand up and call people out on their shit? Where is that girl who would-
"Why the hell have you not been picking up my calls? You know how many people I've called. Its almost been a week Kiara, I was on the verge of going to file an FIR!" Dad started shouting as soon as he slammed the front door and turned around to face me on Ansh's porch.
Dad's been calling? I thought he didn't call after our last conversation? Wait- did I blocked his number then? Yes, I totally did. I blocked him the next morning. Shit! He must've been worried sick.
"And then I go find that Preeti today before she entered her work place. I had to threaten her to get information. She wouldn't tell me whose place you were at instead she said she'd show me."

So Preeti almost got harassed by my dad. Serves her right! But wait- she didn't tell him until she got harassed. Okay. I thought she was a bitch. She also didn't tell him that I was with Ansh. She'd showed him that means I could probably still make up a story about this place being one of my colleague's parents home as long as Dad and Ansh don't do a face off. I'm positive that Dad recognise Ansh very well. I hope Ansh is still sleeping because I wouldn't know how to handle shit right now.
"How can you be so irresponsible? Have you for a second stopped being selfish, Kiara? Have you thought of your mom? What she is going through right now? She's been drowning in guilt, she wouldn't eat, she had to listen so much from the neighbours and everyone about how her daughter ran away from her wedding with someone after running off the guy she should've gotten married to in the first place!"
Now I'm feeling guilty. Mom. Shit. She's been so cruel that day to me. I always blocked her thoughts out of my mind ever since then because they would only lead me to the visual of her shouting in my face 'What did you do?' and then those words send me back to 6 years ago when I was in the car drunk and ran over that guy and my then boyfriend shouted 'What did you do?' before he took off without helping me clean the mess that we've both created.
Dad's eyes probed me to answer his questions.
I took a deep breath. Time to Woman Up. No more of this shit. I can't be a victim anymore. I have to take responsibility for my mistakes and have to stand up for what's right for me. I have to be strong, for myself.

"Dad.. I'm telling you this, last time. Aarav did not run away because of me. He ran away because he wanted to be with a girl named Meera. If you don't believe me then you'll have to wait for him to get back here. Because I know he will get back, sooner or later. He can't possibly have that many leaves from his office. I'll ask him to tell you the real truth and not the version of truth you believe in."
I stressed on each and every word as I spoke. I didn't let my shaky breaths shook my voice or my stare to dwindle from dad's. I stood up for myself.
"Just say hypothetically I believe what you said. Then answer me this, why the hell did you took off, if you didn't do anything?"
"Because you were disappointed in me. Mom shouted at me. I was fucking vulnerable dad. I didn't know what to say or do to make you believe that it wasn't my fault. You would never believe me. And I didn't know how to do deal with things. I was alone and heartbroken over mom's reaction and taking off was the only thing I could do to keep my sanity."
"You know that your mom only shouted because you weren't upset? Your reaction to Aarav leaving wasn't what she expected. So yes she assumed that you had planned it all along."
"The reason that I wasn't bawling my eyes about Aarav leaving that wedding was because I didn't want to get married to him dad!"
"What?!"
"Yes I didn't want to get married to him. I didn't feel any connection with him. He was never the guy I wanted to end up with. So yes I was happy that he left. I was relieved to not end up being a wife of a person who was in love with some other woman. I was relieved to not endure his stupidity and how he never treated me as a priority, for the rest of my life. Yes, I was fucking relieved that he took off because I don't know how that marriage would've lasted!"

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