Sarayu

Chapter 6

"You got to see her in a half saree? Lucky! I wish I could see Vaishali in a half saree some day."

"Don't worry Krishna, it would never happen." Rahul and I started laughing, but not so loud that Vaishali would hear it till the bathroom she was in and that the parents downstairs would hear.

I heard the parents talking about Diwali and life these days with these phones and all, so they didn't hear it, and Vaishali didn't come out and murder me, so she didn't hear it either. Just when I thought that, she came out.

"Wow Abhi, your master bedroom is so clean! I explored the entire room, it was cool!"

"Thank the lords you didn't go through my closet!"

Rahul comes in and says, "Why, do you have all the pictures of Sarayu you stalked or your diary with your thoughts about Sarayu's gorgeousness?"

"Oh shut up Rahul!"

"Wait, let me rummage through," and I run to "tag" Vaishali to stop her from going through my closet.

She opens the door and I close my eyes. She found it.

"What the hell are these Abhi?"

No, no, no.

Krishna softly "yelled", "Woah dude, that's way more than my collection!" Vaishali looked at him, confused.

The closet had some of Sarayu's belongings I found, like one of the beads that fell off of her anklets, the piece that broke off of her necklace, one of the pages that I accidentally ripped from her book, that type of stuff.

"You've got to be kidding," calls Rahul.

"Nah, not really," I reply. Then they all start asking a series of questions.

"What are you going to do with these?"

"Um, keep them."

"But why?"

"Memories."

"What if Sarayu finds out?"

"Then I'm going to propose to her I guess, because I wouldn't have another option."

"And what if she rejects you?"

I didn't have an answer. "Come on buddy, answer." Luckily, Subbu called us downstairs to have lunch, but I was still thinking about my answer to the question.

What if she rejects me?

She might not like my tastes, my modernity, my detachment with the Indian culture (which was slowly fading out), or anything. I couldn't really change my personality, because I sort of had no guarantee that she would like me one day. I had to wait, for quite a while.

Everyone left, and it was 8 at night. I was doing some school workAkshara came to my room, for the first time in the season I should say. "Thambi?"

I said, annoyed, "Bruh don't call me that, please."

"Dude what happened, why are you getting so annoyed?"

"Nothing."

"Is it a girl?"

How the hell does she know? I tried my best to not let her know!

I reply, "Huh?"

"I saw the Ziplock with the beads and bindis."

"How does everyone find out?" Then, I realized. "Wait, do you know who the girl is?"

"If I did, then I should've found out about that dude as well."

Okay, that was a long story that she was talking about. When she was in her senior year of high school, which was about three years ago, this dude had a huge crush on her for three years apparently, and she never knew until the last month of high school, and he never ever told her about it.

"True though."

"Are you going to end up being that shy guy?"

"Nah, I'm going to tell her someday."

"Ah, thank god, you are my brother after all. Fine then."

"Why did you come here. You come over very rarely."

"It's been a while, so casually."

"That sounds fishy, but I'm going to trust one last time."

"Shut up, and good night."

She closed the door, and I resumed working, but I guess God was hitting me hard. I was studying for an English quiz for the next day, and the presentation the teacher posted was themed in red. I tried to concentrate, but the folder I took out was red. When I went downstairs to get a drink of water, my mom told me to get some kidney beans in a bowl, and the bowl was red, and so were the kidney beans, and so were Akshara's pajamas.

Everything was red.

Red.

Red.

I tried concentrating, but it wasn't working.

Her red bindi. Slightly red cheeks. Red half saree. Red kumkum.

Wait, where are my thoughts heading to? Kumkum? Oh god, help!