Where parallels meet

The Birthday Party

(not proofread)

Niharika's POV

By the time I reached Lara's residence it was 11 past 40 . It was supposed to be an all day party . But I felt guilty for coming late.
Ringing the doorbell once, I anxiously waited outside.

It was a small white bunglow,well furnished. Lara lived alone, sometimes her boyfriend would sleepover. Her parents now lived in California. Lara herself worked in a software developer company. As you could see,they paid well.

The door opened with Lara throwing herself upon me.
"Where have you been?
You know I called the police?...damn! Girl you got me all anxious"
She said at a stretch while hugging me.

"Lara, I can't breathe"

"Oh, sorry!" She said, releasing me .
"But are you okay?" She asked anxiously.

"Yeah I'm fine,but can we talk inside first? The heat is killing me." I said.

"Ofc. My bad" Lara said embarrassed.
I laughed to ease her up.

We went inside the living room where the party was organised. Lara was wearing a royal blue silk saree and absolutely killing it.

"Btw...damn! You look firee in this saree" Lara stole my words to my surprise.

"Don't be ridiculous", I rolled my eyes.

Honestly I wanted to look good today but not after what happened earlier.

She introduced me to the other people present in the room whom I finally noticed and my introvert self got all awkward. Most of the people were dressed in traditional attire, even some of her foreign friends too.

There were her parents, her
boyfriend Sam,some of her relatives, her friends Jimmy, Susan, Rachel, Somi, Komal, Ridhhi,...and I didn't remember all.

After I told her everything that happened Lara couldn't stop praising me to the point that I finally got irritated.

It was lunch time. Lara's mom cooked everything herself,all Indian dishes.
To be honest getting to eat home food away from home got me overwhelmed.They couldn't stop asking me questions about India.
Her friends were all nice but I'm not much of a talker ,so I mostly sat at the corner of the room with a glass of juice.

"Hey!" A boy suddenly came up.

Lara introduced me to him earlier but I forgot his name.

"Hi" I said timidly.

"Well...I guess you already know,but I'm Eddy, short for Edward," he said.

"Edward as in Edward the vampire?"

I couldn't help relating his name to the book 'Twilight' and instantly regretted it because he made a 'for real?' face.
But he controlled his expressions quickly and gave a little chuckle and repeated my words in response to which I could only give an awkward smile.

Gosh! My communication skills are gonna take me down.

"You're interesting," he said.

I didn't really understand what he meant but thankfully Lara came to my rescue.

"Heyy! Nihar! You have to see this"
Then she showed me someone's fb post that says "Indian girl in saree saves CEO of Markus"
I read it twice.

It's about me right? Because there was a picture of me too from back. But what's with CEO of Markus? Whom did I save?
I looked up at Lara with confused eyes.

"CEO of Markus! Damn you hit it big times!"

"Who's CEO of Markus?" I asked with pure innocence, honestly I'm not up to date with business personalities.

"It's a big company in US, they manufacturer bikes , motorbikes, sports bikes etc. And you know what they are also sponsoring Orion for their concert here!"

"Damn! Really?" Now it was something I should be interested in.

"Yesss" Lara said,her eyes shinning.

Lara and I were both going to attend Orion's concert in 5 days. But she had a front row ticket while mine was in the farthest row.But it's okay, at least we could go there together. She promised to video call me from the first row lol.

Deep down I had a faint hope that this CEO of Markus guy could get me a front row ticket but then again not like I'd go up to him and ask for the favor. My dignity wouldn't allow me to do so.

We kept talking about Orion.
I started stanning them while I was in my second year of medical school.
Life was stressful as hell. I was a scholarship student. While others went partying and to trips with friends I kept myself busy studying because I had no other option. I never had the luxury of having a boyfriend.
I was socially awkward, introvert,had friends less than my fingers in a hand.

I stumbled upon Orion...or more accurately Rex,in a facebook post. Paradox was it was a hater's post. People were being really mean to him in the comments section. So, I felt the need to know this guy and what on earth he did wrong to receive all these hate. That's how it started. Gradually I came to know all the members and started liking them all. They brought me the relief of mind I was looking for. They gave me a shelter,a place to hide. I've been saving money since my internship days just to meet them once and finally I was here. It'd been 6 years. I was 26 now.