Of The Stars That Breathe

2. An Akward Meet.

The hot water was slowly running down my body.
I took a flat glob of shampoo from the bottle and started to massage my hair with it.
Aah! It felt really good!
Although I was now relaxed, I couldn't stop thinking about what happened at the bar. Plus me being an overthinker did not provide much help.
The way he had looked at me from his table. The sheer intensity of it...
It could have been out of hate as I had insulted him, but there was something else in his eyes. Something I couldn't comprehend.

And was he really a youtuber?
Had I made fun of someone famous?
Yes! I gasped as I remembered that I had to check him out online to confirm whether he was Cherry....
Umm, what was his name again?
CherryMini-
Cher-

Ugh! Why can't I remember the name?!
But on second thought, it isn't my fault at all. I mean, who has such a weird name that one cannot even remember it?

I gasped yet again as a thought came to my mind. Oh, how can you forget the obvious answer to your question, Ahalya?!
I kicked myself internally for being such a dumbass. Nupur knew his name and I could simply ask her!

I stepped out of the shower after about half-an-hour and wore a red polo-neck t-shirt and white jean shorts. The shorts had become loose. More like I had lost weight. I sighed, maybe I won't have to think about my looks when I get back home. Not only looks, I won't have to think about anything. I will buy the pills and all will finally get over. I would just get over with this...this burden that my life is. I would be free...

Even if he was famous, he deserved what I had said. Matlab, if he had not brought his ego in between, probably main uski insult nahi karti.

By the time I had exited the bathroom and entered the room, Nupur was fast asleep.
Behen ki-

I stopped before I completed the swear.
My brothers had called the night off and went to sleep. Nupur had promised me that we would go and explore the hotel because this was our last night here. Kal subah 11 baje, we are going back to Ahmedabad. And now, she was asleep!
I couldn't believe her! Such a lazy bum of my sister!

But I won't ruin my last night. Probably, the last night of my life...

It was still 10:30 p.m. and if I sneaked back in the room just before midnight, I wouldn't be caught. I quickly combed my wet hair, did a line of kajal under my eyes, grabbed Nupur's phone, because thanks to the stereotypical Indians of my parents for believing that mobile phones ruin a child's life, I hadn't got my own, and tip-toed my way towards the door of the room. I opened it slowly, went out and was closing it ever so slowly...

"Sneaking out, huh?", someone said loudly from behind me.

A familiar sound.

I turned around in horror to find that gulabi-chashma-wala guy smirking at me.
I closed the door, sprinted across to him, pinned him to the opposite wall and covered his mouth with my left hand.

Yaar, what if Nupur heard that sound? His voice was loud enough for her to wake up. Fuck, I am screwed.

I had my face turned to my back towards the door of the room. No sound came from there. Just pin-drop silence.
Slowly, I turned towards him.

We were just inches away. A look of pure horror was plastered across his face. He had not worn the gulabi chashma, but was wearing a regular one with a rectangular black frame. Also, he had changed his clothes. As of now, he was wearing a knee-length off-white bermuda, with matching t-shirt and to top it, an open-buttoned shirt with a hint of baby pink tie-dye splattered here and there. He looked far more good in it. His breathing was fast, anxious on my hand; his breath warming my ice-cold hand.

I raised my eyes to him. They were staring at me as if he had just seen a ghost. That's when I noticed his eyes; really noticed them.
Almond-shaped.
So perfect.
And the colour; black.
Blacker than black hole itself.
I was unable to look away.
Surprisingly, he also didn't look away or blink.

If I concluded that I was bewitched by them, it would have been an understatement. My very own self was being sucked and sucked into the depth of them for I had never seen eyes so beautiful.

Slowly, I lowered my hand and stepped away from him. His face was as pale as an old photograph plucked away from a century-old album.

Akward.
I had made things so akward between us.
And as if that wasn't enough, I had to explain it to him that why did I commit such a misbehaving action directed at him.
Bhen ki-

This time, I completed the swear word.

...

// yun chupke chupke aaya
bin bulaya mehmaan //

~~~

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