project.utopia

Chapter 6 - The Vendor Man

"Get up, you stupid brats!" The shop owner kicked the two kids who were sleeping outside of his stall.

"We're up, we're up," Nera said as she rubbed her eyes and got up, still holding the book she had taken from the orphanage. She shook Aditya who was still fast asleep to wake him up as well.

"Wake up, Aditya. Wake up." Nera whispered to him.

"Five more minutes, Dad!" Aditya responded, sleepily.

"This isn't home Aditya. We've gotta leave or else this guy is going to beat us up." Nera looked up at the angry shop owner, who truly looked as if he was going to beat them up.

Aditya rubbed his eyes and finally opened them to end up looking at an angry, old man who was standing in front of them, looking like he was going to explode any second.

"Okay, let's get out of here," Aditya said as he quickly got up and waited for Nera to do the same, his eyes still on the man. Nera got up and the two of them made their way down the alleyway, quickly.

Once they had turned out of the street they were on and were on the main roads of Wasa, their pace slowed down a little bit. Aditya tried his best to start a conversation with Nera, asking her how she slept, talking about the book or what they were going to do next, but the girl barely gave a proper response back to him. Only one or two words for him. Finally, after walking through another two streets aimlessly, with no proper response from Nera, Aditya asked, "Hey, Nera. Are you mad at me?"

"No, of course not," Nera responded without hesitation.

"Then what's the matter with you? This isn't how you usually act, Nera. Tell me what's wrong," Aditya said, softly, trying his best to be as comforting and nice as possible.

For a long moment, she didn't say anything and kept walking, until, finally, Nera snapped back at Aditya. "Don't try to act like you know me cause you don't. We met two days ago, Malotas. We're not the "bestest of friends" or anything even close to friends, so just leave me alone."

Aditya stopped and swallowed whatever emotion was coming up his chest. He watched as Nera continued to walk forward, not looking back at him and, after a moment's thinking, he jogged to catch up with her as the sun slowly began to rise.

"You're right, Nera. I don't know you. Not one bit. But I do know why you're acting like this," Aditya said as he caught up with the girl, making Nera furrow her eyebrows, curious at what he was going to say

"You can't go back to your home because of what happened yesterday and you're sad," He continued, watching to see Nera's reaction, which was her rolling her eyes at him and whispering to herself, "Me? Sad? That's funny."

"And you're scared," Aditya continued, finally getting a proper reaction from Nera, a look of anger on her face.

"And what the hell would I be scared of, Malotas?" Nera demanded, stopping to face Aditya, her golden eyes burning with the same loath as the one she had against Viraj Malotas.

Aditya smiled slightly and faced her calmly, as he stated, "You're scared that, once all of this is done and we figure everything out, you won't have a place to go. You won't be able to go back home to the orphanage and nor would you be able to come to my home. So, where will you go, Nera?"

The anger and loath behind Nera's eyes disappeared and were replaced by a look of sadness and sorrow with a glint of worry. She was at a loss of words as the glare she had on Aditya turned into a sad, fearful look. As Aditya watched this change in Nera's expression, his facial features softened and a look of worry and guilt crossed over his own face as he realised what he had said and how it must have affected Nera.