One Cuppa Chai

•11•

I wasn't complaining or anything.

"You should also come.." My mother insisted to Mrs D'Souza who was magnanimously waving her hand gracefully.

"Come on, only now we can go around like this. When will you go then?"

Mrs D'Souza chuckled when my mother and her friend were kind of bullying her to join in.

"You're coming, Sylvie." Lalitha auntie finalised when she couldn't come up with a proper excuse.

Mrs D'Souza shrugged her shoulders, "It's really based on what he says."

My mother rolled her eyes, "As if," She muttered and Mrs Jha suppressed her smile.

I tugged at the pallu of my mother's saree to get her attention.

"Keys?"

She deposited the bunch of house keys in my hands and I exited because I had a performance tomorrow that I had to be practising for.

Not that it concerned me much, but Kabir had managed to (again)  influence me with his cheesy dialogues.

If he was intending to treasure our performance, I had to make sure I was doing a decent job.

First, I cut my ragged, unpolished fingernails in the balcony because it will hinder my playing and will give me bruises for sure.

Then I picked up my ancient guitar despite my unwillingness. Master told us specifically that he didn't want any of us playing with notes otherwise chappals will be flying in our direction.

My memory wasn't that reliable so I copied some of the chords in a little piece of paper and stuffed it into the pocket of my guitar cover.

I let my sister in when she returned from college and sat back with my guitar.

Strumming the strings, I closed my eyes.

Feel your voice.

As I prepared to unleash my inner Beyoncé, I felt something sloppy on my skin.

My eyes flew open and I saw my sister towering over me with a ceramic bowl in her hand.

"Ew, what's this?"

"It's an Ubtan facemask," She stated as I took some off the goo and sniffed it suspiciously."You've tanned so much, I'm doing you a favour. I know tomorrow is your performance."

I cringed as I was attacked with more swabs of the yellowish mixture.

I put my guitar down, so much for practising.

"I feel itchy," I grumbled.

"It's the lemon. It's natural."

"Hmmph."

I heard the mechanical chirp of the doorbell and I flew to attend to it. "Is your kitty party over ma? Remember us?" I spoke and then I released the chain to the door.

I assumed it was my mother.

Saloni stood by the door with a tiffin box in her hand, "Er, my mother asked me to give this to you?"

"Another customer? Grab her!" My sister commanded from the kitchen and I followed suit.

"You're going to get the skin treatment of your life, Miss Jha," Siya said with an air of a professional.

"I am?"

"Yes, now relax and sit here. We'll start with cleansing your skin first..."

"Can I wash this off now?" I spoke between my teeth from the living room.