The Scenic Life

Chapter 22

                          •°•

As the clock ticks closer to 12, my anxiety gets worse and worse. My leg doesn’t stop tapping the ground in a frenzy, like the alarm clock in the morning which doesn’t stop blaring right in our ears. My head had started to ache silently since about an hour now. Three coffee cups are scattered across the table top beside my bed, undoubtedly the culprit of my anxiety.

When the clock strucks twelve, unlike Cinderella I change out of my clothes and go to vihaan's room. I knock on his door twice, and go inside when he says its open. I see Vihaan is sitting with his back towards the headboard of the bed, the laptop on his lap. He looks and smiles a bit, a smile which makes his lips inch away little by little, like a kid awed by the fireworks for the first time. He signs me to sit beside him, and I hesitate for a minute. I look over the room and try to find a spot or a table where we can sit without our hands touching.

To be honest, I am still very anxious. I don’t know what to make out of that kiss. I don’t know what to say now that I am here, I don’t what to do. Should I be nonchalant or cold and unbothered? This is so overwhelming.

In the end, I give up on overthinking, and just climb up on the bed and sit a considerable distance away from him. He turns towards me a little bit, I thought he would say something but he just nodded and turned his attention back towards the laptop.

My anxiety has hit the roof of the room now. So I inch a bit closer to him, not because of his sad face, but because…I don’t even have a reason now. I shut my head for a moment, but not before it goes into an overdrive about his growing smile when I moved closer.

He says, “They're coming online in a minute,”

I nod, he continues. “Have you told viki what we're going to do today?”

I shake my head. No I hadn’t told viki about our plan, I felt like I needed to tell her with everybody. A genuine reaction was needed, or else people were free to think anything because she was close to me after all that happened.

“khan is going to be there right?”

I knew that she was going to be present, we had talked through all of this with khan before we decided to put the pedal on this plan. She was hesitant at first, just like me, but I guess she must've also been frustrated living like a prisoner in the jail for a crime she didn’t commit. Just like me.

I feel nervous about this ordeal that is going to take place. The strong, cold blooded mask I always had on has been slipped away, ran away and drowned in water, disintegrating in fumes.

Vihaan takes a look at me and bravely takes my hand in his, holding it like a golden flower who is going to vanish if he doesn’t hold on tight. Like he's afraid I'm going to slip away due to all this pressure. I love that he knows i feel nervous without me uttering a word. All the other times, I I would’ve had to grow courage to tell people why I am quiet and anxious.

Unsurprisingly, with him, its easy.

He squeezes my hand, I squeeze back. “don’t worry, this is our time. Your time.”

I look into his eyes, and nod my head.

And then the laptop lights up.