Aashiqui 2

Part eleven

Aarohi

I toss and turn in my bed, trying my hardest not to think of the little interaction I had with Rahul Jaykar today.  I arrived home pretty late and I really need to go to sleep soon.  I'll have plenty of spare time tomorrow to think of this, just not now. 

"You sung my own song better than me" I hear his voice echo in my ears, making me smile to myself.  Ugh I need to stop thinking about him. 

I reach to turn my night lamp off and finally settle down, making myself comfortable, and pull the covers over my head once my eyes start to feel heavy.

"Aarohi " I hear an extremely faint voice yell out.  I pull my covers off my head and look in the direction of my window, which was covered with soft white curtains.  I stay frozen for a second to check if I hear the voice again, but eventually pull the cover back over my head when I don't hear anything.

"It's nothing" I whisper to myself, trying to make myself believe I'm just hearing things.  I look at the time and mentally scold myself because this is not the time to be playing mind tricks.

"Aarohi " I hear the voice yell again after a moment.

I rip the covers off of me and sit up this time.  I turn my night lamp on and drag my feet down on the side of my bed to stand and make my way to the window.  I push a part of the curtain aside to get the view of the outside on the front of my apartment building.

I see Rahul leaning against the side of his car as his eyes quickly travel over all the windows of the building, and stop when they land on my window.  His face lights up as he brings his hand up to wave at me.

"Oh my god" I breathe out.

I stand still for a second, trying to process what's currently happening.  Rahul Jaykar is standing outside my apartment, calling out for me in the middle of the night.  I would say I'm shocked but I feel like that word doesn't even come close to the feeling I'm experiencing right now.

I quickly realize I haven't waved back, so I also bring up my and repeat the gesture.

"I wan't to talk to you, can you come down here?" he shouts on the top of his lungs, as if I'm standing I'm standing miles away.

"Shhhh" I hiss, looking around to make sure no one heard him.  "I can't come down there right now" I whisper- shout, giving him an apologetic look.

"Ok then I'll come up there" he says acting like climbing a five story building is no big deal, and walking towards the gate to start climbing over that.

"No no wait! I'll come down" I tell him, which makes him stop for a moment and then nod and step away from the gate.  I know I'm going to be getting in much more trouble if someone sees him breaking in to get to my room rather than me going out to see him. 

I let go of the curtain and rush back to my closet to grab a thin shawl to cover my arms in. I wrap it around my body and start walking towards the door, but stop in my tracks when I see my reflection in the mirror.  I look at myself for a second and smile, feeling the heat on my cheeks.  I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and fix my pyjama shorts. 

When I'm out of the building and reach the gate I see Rahul leaning on the front of his car with another bottle of whiskey in his hand.  I take my flip flops off and take them in my hand to throw them over the gate, so I can start climbing the gate.  I catch his attention, as he nearly drops the bottle in his hands, and rushes over to to me once I reach the top of the gate. 

"What are you doing?" he questions in a slurred voice, as I climb down the other side of the gate where he was standing.  I put my flip flops back on and hold on to his wrist, puling him away from the gate.

"What happened?" he asks.

"Come on" I whisper back to him, ignoring his question.

I take him to the other side of the car, so if someone was to look from their window they wouldn't see us.  I duck down and sit on my knees, pulling him down with me, so we're both sitting on the ground beside the car. 

I examine his face for a moment as the light dimly reflected off his skin.  "I'm not allowed to meet anyone here" I softly tell him.  "If my bar manager sees me he'll deduct a day's salary".

"I'm sorry" he immediately whispers back, which makes me nod my head in disapproval.

"Don't be, you didn't know" I say to him with a smile, which makes a smile appear on his face as well.

"I had to come here" he tells me.  "We never got the chance to complete the conversation we were having at the bar"

I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.  "What?"

"You wan't to be a singer don't you?" he asks adjusting to sit more comfortably on the ground.

I look down at my hands which folded in my lap, and start thinking for a second and realize I've never actually thought about singing as a career.  I sure do work in a bar, but this is only meant to me temporary.  As much as I love singing, the career of a singer is never something I've ever thought of, and maybe that's because my level of ambition in life has always been very low.  I come from a very small town and when I came here, all I knew was that I needed money so I could provide my family with a roof to live under and meals to eat.  In desperate need to money, I took any job I got, and started saving up so I could send some money back home.  So being a singer is something that just seems too good to even dream of for me.

I continue to look at my hands.  "I don't know, I guess" I finally say, but it comes out as more of a question. "But who told you that?  Just because I sing in a bar wouldn't necessarily mean I would want to be a singer"

"You did" he simply replies while extending his legs so they're stretched out in front of him.

I tilt my head and squint my eyes while looking at him.  "What do you mean, I didn't say that" I ask as I chuckle.

"You didn't need to say it because during your performance your eyes said it all" he says, as he leans his head against the car to look up to look at the dark sky. 

"That look told me everything.  The passion in your voice told me everything" he says, leaving me at a loss of words. 

"It was the look a child'd face holds when it looks up at the moon and wishes to touch it"