Seven Dates A Weekend | RO ✓

07 | the one in which it's finally Friday night

For once, I had gotten tired. I wanted to give it my all. And most of all, I wanted to experience.

"I wanted to be reckless," I told her when she didn't reply for longer than a minute. "I haven't really dated anyone, seriously. I haven't worked anywhere, seriously. All I've had is flings and part-time jobs― events. At one point I need to stop lying to my parents and be able to freely say I am working."

"I know." She said. "I don't blame you for choosing this. To go ahead with this. Just..." She paused, as if afraid to say something. "Just don't get caught up in this. The television, the internet- social media, all of it is fake. Don't get caught up."

Her emphasized words did ring some familiar bells in my head. Some that had registered the first time Aahan proposed the idea. And some that had registered last night, after I had acknowledged the depth of the situation when the ink of my pen bled on the paper.

It was definitely, easy, to get caught up.

"And if I do?" I asked. I glanced a look at the watch sitting on my bedside table.

"I'll haul your ass out of it." She said, and it made me chuckle, glad to know that someone had my back in all of this. "But it would hurt you, I hope you know that. I won't able to help you free from any pain."

I knew. And I hoped it wouldn't hurt sooner then I had expected it.

***

I hated lying to my parents.

If you're Asian, you know exactly how guilty you will be for a single lie you've told your parents. As a kid growing up, I was surrounded by rules and regulations. I had boundaries. I had freedom with a leash bounded to my neck. A leash that was promised to be torn off once I was working and living on my own.

I had been twenty when I first lied to my parents.

Every time I opened the Instagram app or Snapchat app all I could see were people partying and working while I did nothing.

And so I told my parents I had a job. Because, if you're earning, who is to tell you how to spend the sweat you've earned yourself? Who is to tell you how to live life then?

You're working, which means you're making it fine on your own.

For that is exactly what the society had taught us. A working man is capable of a family. A working woman is independent to live a life.

My parents had to be ecstatic to let me go into the world. And I had rejoiced in the total freedom I had 'achieved'. No late-night restrictions of stepping inside the house before eight pm. No restrictions on me eating outside. No restrictions of me staying over at friends. Nothing at all. But every one lie was followed with ten more and it was beginning to get heavy on my chest every time I spilt another one out my lips.

Days had passed into months and so on. Time became a constant reminder of what I had done and the guilt had finally caught up to me. I had achieved nothing.

I wasn't working. I was only doing events a day or two in a week, to earn enough for only to last a few days. My resume had nothing to offer. When I graduated, I was completely a fresher. I tried for every internship there was, but the preference was already passed to the college students instead. There was no room for me and I had missed my chance.