The Wrong Number

56

Before her mother could answer, her father said, "Well, if you eat it and it tastes so-so, she made it. Otherwise I did." Her mother gave him a playful shove and said, "We spent the entire afternoon deciding on the menu."

Ruhan gulped, feeling guilty. "Aunty I'm sorry if this caused you a lot of trouble, I didn't-" he was cut off by her mother saying, "No, no, no it was no hassle at all. It was refreshing to be able to cook for someone else. Come, you must be hungry after the drive." She gestured to the table which had four plate settings on it. Alankrita, who had been watching Ruhan's interactions with her parents in silence, took a seat, and Ruhan sat next to her. As Alankrita's mother was about to start serving out the pulao, a loud beeping began from the kitchen.

"That's the oven," her mother said, "Kanna can you go see if the soufflé is ready?" Alankrita nodded and stood up from the table. "I'll be back in a moment!" she said, looking at Ruhan and went down the hall, leaving him alone with her parents. The next few minutes saw very mundane conversation.

"How's school?"
"It's good, uncle."
"Getting good marks? Alankrita told me she's having group studies with you."
"Yes, aunty. She's helping me with the sciences."
"You have nice friends, huh? They like her too?"
"There's no reason not to, aunty, she's a really nice girl."
"You'll make a wonderful son-in-law."
"Uh," Ruhan smiled weakly and her parents started laughing.

Ruhan cleared his throat and started fiddling with his phone, like he always did when he was nervous. For some reason he found himself opening his messaging application. At the top of the screen, he saw that he had an unread message from Crazy Stalker, dating back to almost two weeks ago. He hadn't replied yet? Come to think of it, ever since he had begun hanging out with Alankrita, he'd hardly texted her at all. He realised it wasn't very fair of him to have done that. His thumbs twitching, he decided to say hi.

'Hey. I'm having dinner in Alankrita's house.'

He pressed send. He heard a buzz and jumped in his seat, thinking Alankrita had returned. It was just her phone, and he sighed. Her mother raised an eyebrow and said, "Messaging her secretly, are we?" she smiled. Ruhan paused, confused. "No, aunty, that wasn't me. Coincidence, I guess," he laughed quietly. He typed in another message under the table.

'Sorry gtg. Her parents are here too.'

He heard another buzz. He glanced at Alankrita's phone, contemplating for a moment, and then reached for it. Usually he refrained from being nosy, but his curiosity got the better of him. He read the words on the lock screen.

Two new messages from Ruhan

His breath caught. For a second, he couldn't understand- did Alankrita know someone else with the same name? But then everything started coming back to him piece by piece and it slowly started to make sense. He set her phone back on the table and focused his eyes on his plate as the two adults sitting opposite him were engaged in a conversation of their own.

"I do some tae kwon do"
"I know Maroon five's your favourite."
"You can't trust me, you know that, right?"

He blinked furiously, willing himself not to cry. Alankrita was Crazy Stalker. Alankrita was the girl her been texting all this time. Alankrita had lied to him- several times, and what scared him was that he didn't know if she had been honest about anything at all. Had all this been a prank? Learn what she could about him so she could run her mouth to everyone at school and god knows where else? He gritted his teeth and inhaled slowly. He'd even let her in on things that were never supposed to leave the four walls of his house. If she went and blabbed to some magazine that would be the end of his father, and his family.

He clenched the tablecloth in his fist, so tight his fingernails threatened to rip through it. His heart felt like it was getting squeezed tighter with every beat; he didn't want to believe what his brain was telling him. He pursed his lips and took a deep breath and held it, fearing that if he let it out it would come out as a sob.

"Ruhan, are you okay?" Alankrita's mother asked with a concerned look on her face, "Do you need to use the bathroom?" He shook his head quickly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, aunty," he tried his best to keep him voice from breaking.

He could not stay here. Not after whet he'd just discovered. Fingertips burning, he typed a message furiously and hit send. After a short buzz from beside him on the table confirmed that it had been received, he pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. "Uh, aunty I think I'm feeling a little sick. I'm going to go home." He said, looking down. "Oh, I'm so sorry, baba," she said, and when she reached out to pat his arm he flinched away, saying, "It's okay, thank you for the dinner." He pushed his chair back in and took a step towards the hallway, the front door at the end of it. He heard her father say, "You didn't eat anything. Can we give you some in a box to take home?" and when Ruhan shook his head, he tried, "I'll drop you home?"

Just then, Alankrita walked in holding a big tray with a flat soufflé on it.

"I could have sworn it wasn't in the oven for that long, but I guess it tastes the same, haha..." Alankrita's laugh died in her throat and she stopped in her tracks at the arch to the dining room when she saw Ruhan looking at her with wet eyes. "What's happening?" she asked, confused at the scene in front of her. "Ruhan isn't feeling well," her mother said worriedly and Alankrita looked at Ruhan and said, "You should have stayed at home if you're sick."

Ruhan took a step towards her. "The only thing I'm sick of is your stupid lies."

Silence followed Ruhan's pointed statement and Alankrita finally managed to squeak out a, "What lies?"

Ruhan laughed bitterly. "What lies? What lies? After everything you did you have the gall to ask me what lies?" Alankrita inched away from him, slightly afraid at his raising tone. "I-I don't kno-"
"If you don't know, why don't you just ask Crazy stalker? You two seem to be closer than I'd thought."

Alankrita felt like the world under her feet had been yanked away. She found herself unable to formulate words. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her father begin to get up, but her mother placed a hand on his shoulder and he sat back down. "Kanna, what is this?" her mother asked, her voice level. The two teenagers ignored her. "Ruhan," Alankrita murmured, already choking up, "I was going to tell you-"

"When?" Ruhan yelled, making Alankrita and her parents at the table jump, "After you tell all our friends what a chump I am? After you post all of our conversations online? Shit, I can't trust a word coming out of your mouth."

Alankrita's lower lip started trembling, "Ruhan, I'm so sorry, I wanted to tell you but I couldn't bring myself to do it I just-" she took a jerky breath, "I just didn't want to mess anything up, I mean we were having so much fun together-"

"Do I look like I'm having fun right now?" Ruhan hissed, his eyes reddening further with every passing minute. Alankrita's grimaced, her guilt etched on her face, and tried to say something. "I-I can explain if you could just- just give me a minute-"

He shook his head at her sardonically and walked past her to the front door. She turned and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him but he violently shook it off, taking long strides away from the dining room. He was halfway through the door when Alankrita began, "No, please, I never meant to hurt-"

Her sentence was cut short by him slamming the door.

Alankrita fell apart as soon as the door swung shut. Her chest heaved as heavy sobs crept up her lungs and out her mouth. Crying into her hands, she slowly sunk to the ground. She heard the heavy footsteps of her mother approaching. "Aloo, what happened?" her mother cooed, kneeling down beside her. Her mother wrapped her arms around her and tutted. "Did he hurt you, kanna?" Alankrita managed a weak 'no' before whimpering incoherently. What had she done?

*****