Destined Choice ✔

38- "One more chance."

                                                      AYU

"Yes, yes, I've arrived here safely. Yeah... call you back later. Bye." I spoke to Ashima on phone and thus ended my call. I dragged the handle of the luggage and raised my head to see a big white board that wrote 'Brisbane Airport.' I took a deep breath and observed the unfamiliar crowd around me. "I'm here at last." I said to myself.

It took a lot of work for me to come here. For one thing, I should consider myself lucky that I had my passport almost ready beforehand. Jamie used to nag me constantly on having my passport ready for this year, so that I can come over when the time came to. Although I never imagined to come here under these circumstances. I was skeptical about telling my parents before but then I realized that it was impossible not to tell them about it. I mean come on, there's no way I can travel to another country with only a limited amount of money that I had and give them lame excuses as to where I was if they called me. Besides, I had already informed them months before that my supposedly friend Jamie will tour me and my friends to his hometown. I can't tell them the whole truth now, can I? But  they didn't expect it to be so soon and that too when my college was going on. It took me yet another week in convincing my parents, having my passport completely ready and gathering the money for the ride. I even had to borrow some of the money from my friends, promising them that I'll repay them back after sometime. I had told my family specifically not to tell anyone about me going though they couldn't understand why. But deep in my heart, I knew that Raghav will find it out eventually. For now, I didn't let myself be bothered by that because I had more important things to take care of.

I reached outside the airport and my eyes searched for a tall Punjabi guy who wore glasses with a face that somewhat resembled Zen. Zen had offered to accompany me but I insisted not to, since he had to prepare for his exams. This was something between Jamie and I and only I could fix it, if he allowed me to.

I recognized Neal right away since I've seen him in dozens of photos before. "Hi Neal, uh I'm A-ayu." I greeted nervously.

"Don't need to be shy, Ayu. Nice to meet you." He said politely and extended his hand towards me. I took it. Zen had specifically asked Neal to pick me up and take care of me while I was here. I was really thankful to have Zen helping me out this way. I took a mental note to thank him later.

"Uh, thanks Neal but you don't need to." I said when he took the luggage from me but he insisted to let him take it. Geez! He is already aware about the situation. He should be mad at me. I got in the car when I saw a familiar figure sitting at the back seat.

"Akira?" I gasped.

"Ah, excuse my presence young lady. I just wanted to.. you know, check you out." Akira said politely and cleared his throat. "More like what our friend sees that makes him go gaga over you."

"Akira!" Neal eyed him angrily. "Forgive his intrusion." Neal apologized. 

Neal turned on the ignition and started to drive. I stared out of the window watching the night city life of Australia in front of me like a little child lost in wonderland. 'So this is where you live Jamie'  and then as if that thought itself made me snap back to reality. Shit! I almost forgot my purpose.

"Where is Jamie right now?" I asked frantically.

"I was wondering when you'll ask that," Akira said while observing me like a detective. He is starting to creep me out a little. He finally turned his head in front and I let out a sigh of relief. "According to agent SPF05's Jamie is at the Beetles. He's been going to that place for the past three days."

"Oh!" I nodded having no idea what the hell SPA05 or beatles actually meant!

"So you were spying him in secret?" I asked while looking out of the window again.