Silently Falling in Love: Race (THE EDITED VERSION)

Chapter 22 - Trip to Boston

Alex – September 1993

I heard the constant knocking on the door, and before I could even get up Arjun ran to the door knowing it was Anjali.

He opened the door and immediately Anjali dropped her backpack and threw herself around Arjun wrapping her legs and arms around him, "I missed you! How are you feeling?"

"I missed you too. You could have come and visited me I wasn't contagious," he said hugging her back.

Anjali slid down and looked at Arjun tenderly, her eyes looked tired and sad.

"I know I could have. I purposely stayed away so I could get used to you being so far away from me. This has been the hardest week of my life."

"You're telling me! I couldn't agree with you more," I said as I gathered my stuff for the trip. "You could have taken me into consideration and come over and given me some relief from a whole week with this bozo. At least you know how to handle him."

"Sorry," Anjali said.

"Princess over here isn't finished packing yet!"

Anjali turned back to face Arjun and gave him a look of disapproval and quirked her eyebrow but didn't say a word.

Arjun slowly moved backwards.

"Is Alex, right?" she finally asked.

"I just need five minutes," he said, moving backwards as fast as he could to the bedroom.

"Oh fuck, Arjun, your five minutes means you haven't done shit! How much stuff did you need to unpack from the trip? We were only here for a week! The rest of your stuff is being mailed to your place in Boston which I'm sure you did not pack, and you left for your mom to pack!" she chided and walked quickly behind Arjun following him to the bedroom. "Really how hard was it to just do your laundry and repack everything!"

"I was sick!" he said.

"For a whole week!" she shouted back.

"Are you two sure you didn't elope while you were in Africa?" I piped in behind Anjali.

"Stay out of it!" Anjali and Arjun both said at the same time.

I put up my hands and walked backwards, "When you two lovebirds finish saying hello and telling each other how much you missed each other, I'll be ready and waiting in the living room."

Arjun rolled his eyes at me.

"For god's sake Arjun tell me what's left to be done."

Too scared to talk he pointed to the four stacks of things, well maybe four mounds of things that still needed to be packed.

"There is no way this is just the stuff you took on our trip together. The backpack can't hold that much."

"Amar bought me a few gifts," he cowered.

Anjali stared at the empty suitcase and then looked around the room and assessed all the stuff.

"See those two heaps of crap? You fold those into this suitcase, and I'll get the rest of the stuff in your backpack."

For the next twenty minutes, they packed silently. I turned on music because the anger running through Anjali was palpable and the silence was too hard to handle.

When they were finished the only word Anjali said was, "Ready."

Arjun nodded and grabbed the suitcase and walked behind her. I bet he missed our mom; she would have packed for him without yelling at him.