Vows of Misfortune

14.

The alarm on my phone didn't ring until it was eleven-thirty. My head throbbed as I shut off the incessant alarm and rubbed the grogginess away in my eyes. Ugh. I had so much to do today. I had to finish the rest of that lecture and then get ready to watch another one today.

I took a quick shower and shuffled out, still feeling like crap. Jose uncle was in the kitchen and when he saw me, made an exaggerated gasp.

"Romir forgot his lunch," he said, cursing. He took the lunchbox and slapped a hand on it in a 'damn it!' motion before shaking his head. I narrowed my eyes.

If I said something — anything — I knew Jose uncle would go 'why don't you go take it to him?'. It was all his master plan. I knew it was, which was why I ignored him. I went to my designated area on the floor behind the glass coffee table and opened up my laptop. While I waited for it to load, I could hear Jose uncle grumbling about the forgotten lunchbox.

"What's going to happen to him? What if he goes hungry?"

I tilted my head back and up at the ceiling. God. Jose uncle was going to be the death of me and if I didn't say something he would actually kill me. "What do you want, uncle?" I deadpanned.

He beamed like the sun had shone down directly on him and whirled around to me. "Romir couldn't find his lunch in the morning. I found it sitting here on the couch."

I crossed my arms. On the couch, he said? "And I wonder who did that?"

"That's besides the point here—"

"I know what you're trying to do, uncle."

"Please, Arshia," he came closer, eyes wide in desperation, "he doesn't like eating out when he's working. Just deliver this quickly and come back. Unless you have classes right now."

I checked the timetable that I set up on my notes. I'd already missed half of my early morning class and the next one was in an hour or two. Damn. Lying to Jose uncle was only going to make me feel guilty.

"Fine," I relented, pushing myself back up off the floor.

Besides, I had to keep my end of the bargain and be amiable with Romir for things to work out in the way I wanted it to. We couldn't be bickering and fighting like this in public when Varun and Claudia were around, back home in England.

"I'll text you the address while you get dressed."

I got dressed and headed out my room wearing a simple blue blouse top and dark jeans with my signature black and white worn sneakers. My phone pinged and I saw that I had a text from Jose uncle with Romir's work address.

"I'll get going," I said. Jose uncle only shot me a sly smile. Grabbing the lunch box from him, I headed out and went down the marble stairs and out the front door. Now I needed to find an auto rickshaw that would take me where I wanted to go.

It didn't take long for me to stand out in the sun and get burnt half to a crisp as I got inside the auto rickshaw. I was thankful for the driver who had actually went halfway up the road and then seeing me wave my arm up and down like a maniac, drive back around to pick me up.

I told him the address and we were off, rumbling away. The mechanic place was a little further away, closer toward the main strip of the road where all the shops were lined up. And it was bigger than I'd imagined.

There were a few men out front talking to the owner of a white Hyundai, the hood popped up. Others were lugging toolboxes and working on cars in the inside of the garage, with one car lifted practically into the air. I had no idea what was going on but really, I didn't care.