Journey To India

Chapter 6

“They will be here any minute." Somya said to me for the fiftieth time that night in her strong Indian accent.

Somya and I were both at the Juhu Beach of Mumbai. As it was my first night in India, she agreed to take me on an Indian diner with some of her friends. Right at this moment, we were at the Juhu Beach waiting for her friends to arrive. We had been waiting  for  the last forty-five minutes, and every five minutes she would say to  me, ‘'They will be here any minute' but unfortunately that minute hadn't yet arrived.

The beach here was really beautiful; the moon was up high tonight, causing a lot of moonlight to be shined on us. The sand of the beach glistened under the moonlight, and the sea was a deep shade of midnight blue, almost matching the colour of the starless sky. There were a lot more people out here than I expected. At least there were more people out here than there would be in California at 8 PM. Apparently, as Somya told me earlier, Indian people tend to eat and stay awake till late. There were some shops on the sand still open. One of them was a shop of 'gol-gappa'. I knew this  because I had went their earlier, along with Somya, to taste that; they were indeed very tasty. They were actually a crispy, oiled kind of edible round small bowl, smaller than the size of my hand, filled with mashed potatoes along with a syrup made of, what the shop vendor called 'imli'. To be frank, I had never ,in my life, heard of a thing like that. But it tasted great, so who cares.

Both of us were leaning on a wall at the beach, waiting for her friends. The people who passed stared at us. Somya explained to me that it was a common thing for a foreigner in India to be stared upon. But, I still  felt uneasy.

After what felt like an hour, Somya's friend arrived. There were two boys and a girl, all around the same age as me. Somya introduced me to them. The girl was called Prachi. She had beautiful black hair which ended at her waist, just like mine. Her eyes were a deep shade of brown; they had a certain depth to them and were very inviting. Her whole aura was very inviting. Her skin was very tanned, but she looked good. She was wearing a blue, ripped up jeans, along with a baggy, grey t-shirt which said 'I'm too good to be yours' and was accompanied by a winky face. It was funny to look at, but she pulled off the look with great ease, and it looked good on her along with those hunter ankle-high boots. She was also very skinny, so it suited her.

Next, Somya introduced me to Aryan. He was the shorter one of the two boys. He came up to my shoulders and it seemed that he was younger than me by a year or two. He had pitch black hair accompanied by the same colour eyes. His eyes had a certain depthness and inviting aura to them, just like Prachi's. They were quite similar to look at ,if you looked very closely, except the color of their eyes. Like Prachi, he was also wearing a ripped up, blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt.

Out of curiosity I asked, "Are you brother and sister?" pointing at both of them one by one with my first finger.

Prachi smiled warmly at me and said, "Yes." Instantly I liked her.

"Now, let's meet this guy right here." Somya said cutting us off and pointing at the third guy "He is Rey. Like I told you earlier, he is actually from California. He is my Aunt's brother-in-law. Long story, cut it short. This is his first visit to India." She said ending the introductions.

Rey was  the tall guy, he was taller than me, and I was quite tall. So you can imagine how tall he was. Unlike Prachi and Aryan, he wore black jeans, a plain white shirt ,and a black leather jacket. He had greyish-blue eyes. His eyes were like you could get lost in them. They kept many secrets and dark passions. It was evident from his eyes. He had fair skin and that jawline every boy wanted in High School. His hair was a mixture of brown, hazel and blonde, and it was dishevelled and pointed in all the directions. It was the kind of head a girl has when she wakes up in the morning, but on Rey, it looked hot. Well let's just admit it, he was hot.

As I stood there almost checking him out, almost, he yanked his hand forward for a handshake. I reached my hand out and shook his hand. When I looked up from his hand, I noticed that Prachi and Aryan were gazing dreamily at me. It was like they were analysing how I was, or to be exact, how I was from California. I won't blame them actually. Unlike most Californian's I had a fair skin and brown hair. So you won't exactly label me as a Californian by first look.

"And guys this is Siara." She added as an after thought.

It was silent for a moment but Somya broke it by saying "Let's go, guys.It’s are getting late." And with that, we left making our way to an Indian hotel right across the street.

~~~~

"Here's your order ma'am." The waitress said while serving our food. All of us had ordered chef's special ,so all our food items were the same.

As soon as the food arrived, we all started eating it like it was the last meal of our life. Apparently, we all were very hungry, so I guess it was justified.

After a few moments of silence, each and every one of us started talking. Prachi, Aryan and Somya started talking about something in Hindi. So I was zoned out from there. As Rey also didn't join them in conversation, I guessed that he also didn't know  a lot of Hindi.

"What do you do in California?" Rey asked me out of the blue, while I was about to put a spoonful of what they called 'Hyderabadi Biryani' in my mouth. His accent was typical American, pronouncing each word slowly, but it didn't quite seem from California; it seemed more from Texas.

"I'm a travel agent." I replied to him after having a spoonful of the golden coloured rice. "You?"

"I help my father with his business; he owns a firm in California."

"Hmm." I figured out that  if his father owns a firm in a place like California, then they must be pretty rich.

"So what do you like?" He asked me, his grey eyes piercing into my blue ones.

"What do you mean what I like?"

"Well, like, what do you like to do the most? Your passion in life." He explained  to me.

I thought for a moment, though it didn't need any thinking. "I love to travel from place to place. I'm a traveler. Traveling is my passion." I almost ranted to him. "Also I love reading books. It's one of my other passions." I added as an after thought.

"Interesting," he said with a smirk "What do you like about travelling, anyway?"

"Everything," I replied without any hesitation " about it interests me. The thrill of going to new places, meeting new people, getting to know more things. Everything about travel interests me." I said the last part staring into his eyes intensively. He stared right back into my eyes, with as much intensity,  if not more. It was as if we were having an eye game. The one in which the first one to blink losses.

"Ahem." Someone coughed from my side. I tore my eyes away from Rey and looked to  see who it was. It was Prachi who coughed. I soon understood why she did that, cause apparently while having our staring contest we had leaned into each other, quite a bit further.

By this time we had all finished our dinner. The waitress came and took our plates. "So who's ready for some party?" Prachi chirped in while we were leaving.

~~~

A/N

Hey sorry for the long wait. I was supposed to update on last Friday, but I was sick so I couldn't write. Sorry. And after that our school opened, so it was hetic. Anyway I hope I made up for it by this long chapter (It was longer than usual). Also thanks to you guys who are reding this. I'm getting far better responses at this than I ever expected from anyone. I love you all for that. I'll keep it short To the side is the character banner of Siaramade by @_sillyandcrazy_. Please vote and comment what you think. I'll update again when I can, but the updates maybe a bit unregular cause my exams are approching. I hope you understand it. And this chapter is dedicated to @It'sRenuka for supporting this story. Also Rey is played by Jake Abel.

Love you all,
Yours,
Elena