Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 34: Internalizing

Nandan? That name sounds so familiar. Where have I heard that before?

My head stings suddenly, as if it's signaling something to me.

"I can't lose you too."

"I don't want what happened to Nandan to happen to her."

My mind echoes to that night back in New York, when my mom was crying in her sleep. She said the name "Nandan", also saying that she lost him. But who is that? An ex boyfriend with a bad history?

As the man comes down the stairs, the sun illuminates his regal-looking wardrobe of a navy blue Nehru jacket and coordinated silver pants. He has a hollow face, with a large yet strong nose, piercing dark brown eyes, and thin lips parted in disbelief.

But the moment I look at his entire brightly lit face, I figure it out. Except for his dark brown eyes, he looks so much like my mom. The bone structure, eye shape, and nose are too similar to ignore. Could it be?

I look at the lady's face, still afraid to see her completely despite how confident I am. I don't know how things will flip upside down more than they already have, but I have to face this head-on. I'm tired of being in the dark like this. It'll bring me closer to the truth, finding out EXACTLY what's going on with me.

I close my eyes slowly and take a breath, telling myself internally that it'll be okay. And then, I do it.

I slowly raise my eyes up to the sari lady's face. The moment I look into her bluish-green eyes, I immediately realize the stakes of what's going on. There seems to be a disconnect because the lady has my mom's ring... but not my mom's face. Instead, I'm looking straight into a mirror.

"Wait-"

And then, it turns black again. Suddenly, everything I see is gone.

Are you kidding me? Who had such fantastic timing?

"SAVI! Oh, god. Please be ok," an accented voice pleads, nothing like how it usually sounds.

Prashanth? What is he doing here?

I honestly expected to drown, but the magic was really on my side. I wake up with nothing but chills and wet hair. Prashanth's two-toned eyes are hovering right above me, so close that I can every little vein inside them.

"You're alive? You moron, what were you thinking? We thought you were unresponsive!" he scolds me as he gently props me up and hands me his jacket since mine is wet from the snow.

"Wait, what about you? This is my favorite jacket of yours."

For the first time, Prashanth widens his eyes in surprise. This is the first time I complimented his clothes, but I didn't think he'd be so taken aback.

"I-hm- Thanks-" but he shakes his head. "No, you're not distracting me. What was that? We come back from training only to see you basically drowned in the lake? You have a death wish, at this point," he says exasperatedly while he slowly helps me stand.

It's not just him, but the entire group isn't here either. It's just Prashanth, Naishal, Divya, and Vaibhav.

"Sarvani, when you said you wanted to take a walk near the lake, I don't think scaring the shit out of Shanthi is what you meant," Vaibhav jokes to which Prashanth whacks his arm. Vaibhav hisses but subtly looks over to me and mouths, "good job" with a little wink and smirk.

"I- I wasn't worried. I'm just pissed. You-hmph. You have to stop doing dumb shit like this! I can't come and save you all the time."

"Just admit you care, Prashanth. Stop being so annoying. You care," Naishal rolls his eyes as Prashanth scoffs. Naishal walks up to me, holding a hot pack that he made with a spell.