Two Tickets, Please

13: breathless

"When is the wedding?" she asked, forgetting to note the date before bagging the invitation.

"End of next month. The venue is close to my friend's apartment. I was wondering if you'd be able to stay the night before her wedding so that we could make it a two-day event. We could all hang out the day before, even manage to snag Farah along if we can, go for a drive late at night and explore food spots or whatever you want. Then we can crash at his place and then go to the wedding the next day —"

"Vijay—"

"My friend has a twin sister. We all did our undergrad together. She'll be there if you think you'd be alone among us boys. It won't be awkward, I swear."

"Vijay—"

"And, you don't need to pay anything. They won't even mind. I'll be there, Krish will also be there, so we'll take care of you. I think it'll be fun—"

She clutched his shirt. "Vijay, let me talk, you idiot!" she said and that's when he shut his mouth. "It sounds wonderful. I would love to join you all. I know you'll keep me safe and I trust you. But my parents won't let me."

He thought about it for a while and then with a little tilt of his head, he asked, "How would they know if you don't tell them?"

Her neck ached from looking up at him to talk. As soon as the lady next to her bent down to pick up her shopper bag, she alerted Vijay so that he could take her seat. Only when he did, her neck found relief. "You're asking me to lie to my parents?" she asked him.

"Haven't you ever done that before?"

Nila chuckled. "Fair point. But it doesn't mean I like doing it and that it's easy."

"You don't have to lie. You can just not mention that you are outside and staying with a bunch of boys."

She touched his arm gently before she stood up to get down at her stop. "I'll think about it, okay?"

"I really want you to come," he said softly. His brown eyes resembled a warm cup of chai on a rainy day. She wanted to hide in there.

"I know."

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Nila's bus was late.

It only meant one thing: when the bus showed up, it was going to be packed — a suffocating, sweaty crowd of cranky people returning from their disappointing and heavy day at work. Nila hated that her college ended at the same time most jobs did. Maya complained every day that the local trains were overflowing with people. Sanjay wore a permanent look of distaste on his face when he imagined the traffic. Lilly's shoulders slumped at the thought of taking the crowded metro but she didn't complain much because at least it was air-conditioned. If only the college considered all these things and tweaked the timings a bit. It would help if they let them go at least thirty minutes earlier.

Only when the bus came and she saw the crowd did she realise she forgot to ask Vijay which side he was at. It was too late and she couldn't spot him anywhere so she quickly got in through the tail end. Whenever she travelled in an over-populated bus, she liked to stand in the corners of the bus – just next to the last seat or next to the driver's seat. Never in the middle. It was her one rule. But today, the conductor didn't give her a chance to move to the last seat. He ushered her inside, to the middle. There were three rows of people packing the space between the seats.

She clenched her jaws as someone accidentally elbowed her head. "Sorry," she heard but that didn't help. All that ran in her mind was that there was a difference in the ratio — more men than women. Men all around her, pressing against her, sneezing and coughing into the open air without a care for passing around germs.