Beauty and the Boy from the East

Chapter 10~ Confrontation

(AN: I have no idea what’s going to happen yet. This chapter’s gonna be hectic c: oh yeah! >:D bring it!)

>> Back to narrator’s original POV. (Akash’s)

There she was again. As soon as I went to feed Rex, she came behind me watching me.

“Need some help?” Aish asked.

I left the bag of food open and left to water the pot plants in the garden. I sort of felt guilty, leaving her there. But I wasn’t exactly her servant; I just helped my dad perform his duties. I didn’t have to talk to her, I didn’t need to. She knew by now I was ignoring her. But she was always over-the-top and sort of…annoying. Of course, she’s nice and perfectly lovely it’s just she asks me so many questions that I don’t want to answer. I’d told her most of my memories and I didn’t want to entrust her with more. For a while I thought we would never really talk again, until last week when she tried talking to me.  

I rolled my pants up and dragged the hose with me to water the thousands of plants in their garden. It was beautiful really, it was like the garden I visited for my 6th birthday. Clean, near and orderly. They were colour coded and ordered so it seemed like a flora rainbow from the above levels. In the middle was a few fountains and bird birches. The Singh’s (Aish’s family) were decent folk. They didn’t believe in keeping birds locked up. The birds liked this garden, although it was just a corner of the courtyard.

The front yard too, was pleasantly charming. It had a playground that now is unused, and on either side of the lake was hard stone. The lake was rectangular and directly in front of the house, like the Taj Mahal’s entrance. I suspected they purposely did that. The dogs were in the front yard, one on either side. Tall pine trees lined near the gate separated this house from the cruel outside.  I actually thought it was sad. All this beauty must have costed many millions of rupees, yet that same money could have built hundreds of homes for the poor. But the rich have always been proud. Why live in a ‘slum’ when you can afford a mansion?

“Akash can I ask you something?” I was sure it was Aishwarya’s voice.

“Yeah?” I said, immediately bored as I paused to water the last plant.

“Do you forgive me?” I turned around and saw the pain in her eyes, but she’d gotten stronger.

“For what?” I replied, tonelessly, refusing to meet her light brown eyes directly.

“I-I don’t know,” it was a scared whisper that replied.

“Look Aishwarya,” I held her hands inside mine, and her eyes stretched. “Just forget me, everything I’ve said, don’t tell anything about me. Okay?” I sighed and let go of her hands.

>> Aish’s P.O.V

“But I love you!” I wanted to say. Except I couldn’t. It was too painful to look at any part of him any longer, so I ran back to my room.

That day a part of me died.

>> Akash’s P.O.V

I hated playing the ‘bad guy’, but I didn’t want to hurt her even more, at a later stage in our friendship. She didn’t understand.  It hurt me too, but I knew what I was doing would protect us both. I sighed and returned to my house. There was not a cloud in the sky but he felt like it had already sunk below the horizon.

(AN: YAY HIT 100 reads and doubledigits in chapters w00t, thanks for your support guys <3)