Aru Shah and the Chamber of Lies

Can't Forget Iron-Man Pajamas!

Aru squirmed in her spot. The tension between them was as thick as a slab of concrete.

"Um, Aru?" Aru's head snapped up as Aiden hesitantly called her.

"Y-yeah?"

He pointed over to the living room. "You can take a seat. I'll be back soon with refreshments."

Aru nodded as Aiden went off to the kitchen. She sat down and after a couple minutes, Aiden walked in with a tray of cookies and milk in his hands and took his seat.

They both didn't touch the snacks. Aru waited for Aiden to say something, more specifically, an apology.

"Aru?" He picked up the glass of warm milk and handed it to her. "Here, you should drink this. I put some honey in the milk. It's supposed to help you sleep better."

Aru stared at it. "Thanks," she said dryly.

Aiden looked confused at her tone, but responded, "No problem."

Aru places the glass of milk down. "But I doubt it's gonna help."

Aiden placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "I know, but I'm still worried, Shah. Just at least try. Please?"

Aru felt like crying. Why couldn't he understand?! Why wouldn't he just leave her alone and let her do what she wanted? Secretly, she knew that Aiden was right, that she should at least try, but Aru was too sleep-deprived at the moment. It took all of her strength to not fall asleep right there. To her horror, tears started to well up in her eyes. She quickly sniffed and rubbed them away, but not before Aiden noticed.

"Aru...?" He asked, looking quite shocked.

Aru abruptly stood up, shaking his hand off her shoulder in the process. "So, you weren't gonna apologize for last night?" she asked quietly.

Aiden's eyebrows furrowed. "Apologize? I-"

"Nevermind," she quickly mumbled. "Forget what I said."

"Wait, Aru, I-"

She didn't stay to hear Aiden's excuse or whatever he was going to say. She was too afraid that she would start to break down and bawl like a baby. Aru hurried out the door, not willing to look back, afraid of what kind of expression her boyfriend may be making behind her.

Later that afternoon, Aru still felt guilty. Maybe she could have handled that differently? She had no idea what was wrong with her these days. It was like her emotions were out of control. Aru sighed and shook her head, trying to dispel her worries about her and Aiden.

She looked around her room. Aru had packed and gotten ready. She surveyed her belongings once more: three pairs of shirts, four pairs of pants, her underwear, a toothbrush, a sweater, a couple packets of salt, and last but not least, her iron man pajamas.

She glared at Vajra, which was as usual, bouncing around her room like a small bundle of infinite energy.

"Can you stop that already? I'm already in a bad mood."

Vajra didn't even pause and kept bounding around. Aru sighed, zipped her backpack, and went downstairs with Vajra following right behind her.

"Mom?" she called.

Her mother, who was sitting at her desk looking through a pile of papers, glanced up.

"Aru?" After noticing her backpack, she frowned and asked, "Are you going somewhere?"

"I'm going over to Kara's place along with everyone else," Aru answered quickly.

Krithika frowned. "I see," she said a little sadly. Hesitantly, she said, "That's alright and all, but, will-will you ask her if she would like to come here for a while?"

Aru was slightly taken aback. She had expected her mother to hold that conversation off for a little while longer. "Sure, Mom. Of course I will. I'm sure she would like to talk with you too."

Her mother smiled and let out a soft gasp. She quickly got up and went back upstairs to their apartment, and came back down just as fast with a book in her hands.

Aru curiously stared at the dark green cover of the book. "What's that?" she asked.

Aru's mom smiled and carefully handed it to her. "I know how much Kara likes poems, and...I was wondering if you could give that to her?"

Aru put the book in her backpack and hugged her mother. "No problem. And don't worry, I'm sure everything between you and Kara will be just fine soon enough"

Krithika planted a kiss on her daughter's hair and looked at her fondly. "Thanks, Aru. Now go. You should meet up with your friends."

Aru nodded, and after hugging her mother one more time, she went over to Aiden's house to use the portal, all while feeling confused and scared at her dangerously growing list of problems.