His Tutor

6: Ballad and Piggybacks

"You seem better today," Vamika says, placing her hand on his forehead, where my hand was a few second ago.

Ahaan pulls away and chuckles, "Yeah, Ishqi looked after me last night." He brings his hand up to the nape of his neck and nervously rubs it.

Vamika stiffens, her shoulders hunching slightly and her toes, poking out of her new sandals, curl. Even at the mention of my name, she doesn't even glance at me. I know she's upset, and that she's playing the silent game.

"Doesn't this dress suit Vamika?" I say in an attempt to appease her.

Carson pops up from the chair and exclaims, "Yep!"

An awkward silence follows until Olivia, followed by Esha and the twins come down. They start to head out the door and we follow. Vamika grabs Ahaan by the arms and drags him with her. Carson quickly follows behind her, trying to keep up with her pace and join the conversation she tries to start with Ahaan. I'm the last to leave, tagging a few feet behind the group.

After breakfast, we head to a carnival. Despite Luke's complaint that it would be too boring to ride Ferris wheels and throw rings at bottles all day, Carson said that there's a haunted house that opens once it gets dark. In the meantime, we went around different booths.

I sigh as Carson tries to win Vamika a giant octopus for the 5th time. He spent 50 bucks on rings to throw on the glass bottles. I'm convinced the game is rigged, and Logan tried to convince Carson to try another booth. However, Vamika had specifically pointed out the one stuffed animal that the other booths didn't have. I'm sure she did that just cause she wanted to distract Carson while he dragged Ahaan off to hang out with her. Vamika says octopuses give her the creeps.

"This is taking forever! Come on Olivia, let's get churros," Esha whines and takes off with Olivia.

"Esha's right, Carson. Let's just go," Logan sighs as Carson takes out another dollar for three more rings. Vamika's playing him, and he's too stupid to realize it. Out of frustration, I grab the three rings and toss them randomly towards the bottles. I grab Carson by the arm, but Luke stops me.

"Ishqi, you won."

I turn around and sure enough, a single ring was around the neck of a bottle.

"You can pick one for Vamika," I say to Carson.

He pouts, "Nah, it's not the same if you won it." He sulks and walks away.

"Hey, Carson," I call after him and he turns around, "she likes kittens better than octopuses anyways." I point to a darts booth with a giant, stuffed tabby hanging from it.

"Thanks!" Carson replies and starts to run towards the booth. I sigh and examine my choices for a prize. I'm not sure what made me choose the octopus, possibly the fact that I was exhausted and didn't want to bother to pick another item, or the fact that Vamika hates the octopus. Maybe I felt like the octopus, a pawn to help Vamika get closer to Ahaan.

I take the octopus with me to buy a soft pretzel, before sitting down on a bench. I sit alone, slowly munching. How did I come with seven other people, but ended up sitting alone with only a stuffed octopus to keep me company? After finishing the pretzel, I bury my head into the octopus and start to drift asleep. I'm close to complete sleep when Esha shakes me awake.

"What are you doing, ishqi? You should be having fun!"

"Yeah, let's go on a roller coaster," Olivia urges while she starts to tug on my shirt.

"I can't."I hold up the giant octopus in my arms.

"Isn't that what Carson was trying to win for Vamika?" Esha takes the octopus and examines it.