《Short Recap》

"I'll miss you." I said at last before turning around and walking briskly out of the hospital to catch an auto rickshaw.

I'd always urged Vinay to be more mature about every decision he made. I should be glad right?

But it definitely hurt that he'd finally decided to be mature about something and that was our relationship.

Maybe the time apart would be helpful for both of us. Only time would tell....

●○●

I heard Vinay follow me out of the hospital building but he made no attempt to stop me and for that I was grateful.

Walking briskly to the end of the footpath i reached the rickshaw stand. A couple of rickshaw drivers had parked their vehicles and were chatting over a cup of tea rather animatedly.

They stopped abruptly on seeing me and flanked me from either side.

"Where do you want to go Madam?" one of them asked politely.

"Kasturba Road," I replied nonchalantly, "Uma Apartments."

"I'll take you, but that will cost sixty rupees madam." He said in response.

The others slinked away slowly, uninterested in the driving to Kasturba Road.

"But that's double the meter reading, bhaiyya!" I argued.

"I know madam. But that area has a lot of traffic. I end up burning double the petrol if I have to drop you there and come back here." He shrugged.

"I'll give you forty rupees." I attempted to bargain, glaring at him.

"I'll take you for fifty. If you don't want to pay that much ask someone else." The rickshaw driver countered.

"Fine." I huffed, rolling my eyes as I climbed into the bright green and yellow three legged vehicle.

I sighed. It sometimes made me wonder how these rickshaw drivers ended up bossing over their customers instead of the other way around. It was funny honestly because I'm pretty sure all marketing gurus say that the customer is the king.

The driver clambered into his seat and turned on the meter just for the sake of it and turned on the engine. With that a row of fancy LED lighting switches on in the front.

I spent most of the short ride rehearsing how I was going to confront my father.

Hi Dad! Thanks for poking your nose into my boring, uneventful life out of the blue. But Vinay's walked out now so basically thank you for nothing!

No, that sounded way too rude and I know that I can't talk to Dad like that anyway.

"Argh!" I muttered, my voice laced with frustration and silent rage.

The auto rickshaw driver glanced at me fleetingly through the rear view mirror and shook his head before switching on his radio that began to blast out some weird depressing remixes of old songs.

When we reached the apartment, I quickly handed fifty bucks to the driver and dashed into the building. On reaching our flat I made my way inside, kicking off my shoes near the door before running to my bed and plopping onto my back so that I was staring at the bare ceiling.

I sighed.

After a moment's hesitation, I dialled my father's number. I decided that the sooner I had the talk, the better it would be for him and for me. If there was anything I learnt today, it was that sitting on feelings was more mentally harmful than a concoction of alcohol and coke.

My Dad picked the call almost instantly, as though he was expecting it.

"Hello, Akira?" his deep voice rumbled through the phone line.

"Hello." I answered, impatient to get past the pleasantries, "Is there anything you've been meaning to tell me."

"No," he answered simply, "Is there anything you want to know? Everything here is as ordinary as it can possibly get."

I rolled my eyes indignantly.

"Cut the act Daddy!" I cried out, "I know everything ok. I can't believe you didn't even tell Mummy! She probably thinks I'm wasting my life away because of what you did."

The phone line remained quiet for some time.

"I take it that you found out about why you're staying with Mr. Karthik's son?" Dad asked solemnly.

I scoffed.

"I had my reasons, Akira." He stated in a soft voice.

"Yeah, I'm very eager to know what they are." I tried my best not to shout.

"For one, I wanted you to put yourself out of your comfort zone more often and interact with your peers. You're a great worker on your own but you tend to shy away from teamwork and in today's world that won't yet you anywhere. Communication is the key to success." Daddy replied carefully, "Secondly, Ashok has been a dear friend of mine since childhood. We went to school and college together and so when he reached out to me I couldn't refuse him."

"I don't care about your noble intentions or whatever! Did you think of what I would feel even once? About how complicated it would get once there were feelings involved?!" I asked, running my fingers through my washed hair in frustration.

My father sighed, "I admit I didn't dwell on that aspect much and for that I'm sorry beta."

I let out a rather humourless laugh.

"Seriously Daddy?!" I questioned, my tone filled with accusation, "You thought that it would perfectly all right to shove a boy and a girl, two raging teenagers at that, into one house and expect everything to pan out like a lovely, sweet story. Did you ever think that maybe along with whatever it was you wanted those two might catch feelings for each other?"

"Akira, do you fancy Ashok's son?" my father asked hesitantly.

"Yes," I swallowed, angry tears dancing at the edge of my eyes, "For the first time since you and Mummy left for Delhi, I felt like something was right. So many horrible things have happened this year- Mrs. Pinto's accident, getting fired from TYCHE and now...."

I burst into silent tears, my chest heaving uncontrollably as my lips quivered.

I lowered the phone from my ear and tested it against my chest as I sobbed. I heard the faint sound of my father's voice calling out my name from it.

After a moment I switched on the speaker and kept the phone back on my chest before closing my eyes and croaking out, "I'm still here."

"Thank goodness!" Daddy let out a relieved sigh, "Child, I just want you to know that I'm terribly sorry for what has happened. I truly am."

I shrugged to myself, remaining silent.

"I need some time to think Daddy," I said finally, "I'd really appreciate if you would give me some space. Also if Mummy doesn't know about this marvellous arrangement please tell her and ask her to call me. I really miss her..."

"I will..." he started.

"Bye." I cut him off abruptly, uninterested in dragging the conversation.

I stared at the ceiling in the dark mindlessly, too exhausted to get up and change. And before I knew it, sleep had caught up with me.

●○●

"Oh my God!" Roshni squealed excitedly as I told her about the recent events, "I can't believe I spent so much on that Amazon Prime subscription when I can just sit back and watch your life unfold, Akira!"

I groaned loudly.

"I can't believe that's your first thought when I'm going through a midlife crisis." I said in an annoyed tone.

Roshni shrugged her shoulders.

"If it's any consolation, Vinay looks depressed. He has bags under his eyes," she quipped, "It's not like it's any easier for him."

"Oh." I answered morosely.

"See Akira, I'm telling you this is just a phase," Roshni sighed looking at my frown, "And anyway I ship you guys really hard so I'm definitely not going to let you fall apart because of some stupid deal made by your fathers. I'll even shove Vinay and you into a locked room without food for days if I have to, so just chill."

"Just chill!" I muttered under my breath, shaking my head, "That's easy to say."

"Look, Akira..." Roshni started, rolling her eyes but stopping abruptly, "Oh hi Lara!"

"Hey sweetheart!" Lara twiddle her fingers in response, "What were you two talking about it?"

I stared at the fat spine of the chemistry reference book in my hand.

"Oh just the usual, you know..." Roshni laughed, "The weather and ammonium nitrate production in Beirut. You do know where that is right?"

I bit back a snort as she frowned. I felt a little sorry for Lara but I had to admit it was hilarious to pull her leg.

"I don't know about the ammonium nitrate thingy, but I do know that it is the seventh most expensive city to live in, in the world." She shrugged, taking a seat at our canteen table and slinging her bag on the edge of her chair.

Roshni blanched at her unexpected response and nodded before taking a sip of her cutting chai.

"So I was thinking that the three of us haven't had much time to get to know each other well so can we have a girls' night sometime?" Lara asked with a zealous grin.

"I uh..." I smiled apologetically.

"Wow that's a wonderful idea!" Roshni cut me off mid sentence, "This is exactly what we need! Right Akira?"

I shot my meddlesome best friend a questioning glare. She widened her eyes and told me to go with the flow.

"Yeah, ok." I nodded after some silent arguing with Roshni.

"Great!" Lara clapped her hands together, pleased at how things were panning out, "Let's have an early brunch and a spa day. Ohmigawd, I'm so excited!"

I cast her a bright smile.

"Neel is going to be so happy to find that I'm finally getting along with you two! Oopsy, I wasn't supposed to say that." Lara frowned for a moment.

"No it's all right," I laughed, "Anyway, I should get going to class. I'll text you guys later, ok."

With that I got up from my seat and slung my tote onto a shoulder before making my way out of the crowded cafeteria.

I think it was time to give Lara a chance. After all life was all about taking chances right. And despite what I felt, Daddy had been right. I needed to let more people into my life.

So this was me trying to begin again.

●○●

For some reason I like Lara and I also think that she'd be a great friend.

I'm sorry to have left you guys reeling after the previous chapter....

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QOTD: Have you ever had an unexpected friendship?
I've had a few. And the most unexpected of them all are the friends I made here on Wattpad. Novel_Worm InBlack_01 JariaMirza14 leo_and_muffins