Breathe

02. Aditya Gokhale

Okay, so Radha is passed out on the office floor.

Again.

She's making quite a habit out of this, and I don't know whether to be amused or worried. Sighing, I kneel down beside her, gently sweep a tuft of hair off her face, and look at her eyes. She's fast asleep. Getting back up, I survey the office – no signs of a struggle, computer shut down... what on earth was she doing here, exactly?

She's lying right in between her desk and the door, so my guess is she was trying to find her way to her computer, but passed out before she could. Wait a second. She has something in her hand. A picture, clutched tightly. I bend down once again and deftly remove it. Still on my knees, I look at the picture, and a surge of panic swells up in my chest.

That's me. My eyes are crossed out. A threat? Is that why Radha was down here? To see if she could make some sense of this?

'A–Aditya?' says Radha groggily. She's up.

'Hey Radha McDrunk. How are things?'

It takes her a little over thirty seconds, and a whole hell of a lot of grunting and whining, but she finally sits up. She reeks of cigarettes and alcohol, but then she always does.

'Sorry,' she slurs, as if reading my thoughts.

'I think you were what they had in mind when they coined the term "hot mess".'

'Did you just call me hot?'

'Don't flatter yourself, child. What's this?'

'You saw that, huh?'

'Looks an awful lot like a threat.'

'You are going to take a break for a week or so. Until I figure this out.'

'Like fuck I am,' I snigger.

'Aditya...'

'Forget it. You couldn't survive two hours without me.'

'We just spent a night apart.'

'You know what I mean. You know who sent you this?'

Radha shakes her head, grimacing from the pain.

'It was slid under my apartment door. No identifying or distinguishing marks. No nothing.'

'I see.'

'Aditya, you're smiling.'

'I've never been threatened before.'

'This is not a joke, Aditya. Whoever sent this wants to harm you.'

'Good. I hope they do.'

'You don't mean that.'

'Don't I?'

'No, you don't. People will be hurt if you die.'

'For a day. Maybe even two. But then they'll move on. Everyone moves on.'

'You cannot possibly believe that.'

'And yet I do. The hashtag doesn't matter, only how long it trends. People have a short attention span. They move on to the next big thing before anyone can spell out "fickle".'

'This isn't a discussion. You are going home.'

'No can do. I have to watch Mr. Agrawal's office in a while. Unless you can be in two places at once, I'd give up this silly argument.'

Getting to my feet, I extend my hand. Radha takes it begrudgingly, and lets me help her up.

'Why must you always be so difficult?'