The Roommate Therapy ✓

B1 • Philophobia

This is not how I wanted my life to be.

I want to be loved. Again.

Maybe that's why I think I like Akira. She's kind and generous. She's smart and driven. She's everything I want to be again.

Scoffing at the direction my thoughts had taken, I stood up abruptly and slipped my feet into my sneakers.

I needed to get a bloody life.

●○●

"Sir, your bill is five hundred and forty rupees." The lone cashier in the supermarket said without glancing up.

I handed her the cash and picked up the cloth bag of the things I'd bought and made my way out of the store.

The bike ride to my house was short. Less than fifteen minutes. I wished it could have been longer so I could at least think of a decent topic of conversation with Mumma.

I contemplated going around the house to back door and leaving the bag of cooking oil and vegetables there but I found my legs taking me inside.

"Vinay!" my mother ran to me delightedly, "How's my boy?"

"I'm fine Mumma." I answered, pulling my lips into a smile as I hugged her lightly.

She smiled brightly, ruffling my hair, before firing up the stove and placing a pan on top of it.

"I made aloo-paneer paratha today. There's still some stuffing left, I'll quickly make one for you." She said, opening the fridge and bringing out the leftover stuffing.

I nodded silently, my thoughts drifting to Akira. I wondered where she had stormed off to. Maybe Neel and that annoying twin sister of his. I'd seen the three of them together often.

I really hoped she wouldn't take all the things I said to heart. I said them in the spur of the moment. To get her to leave me alone so I could figure out my thoughts. But I knew I had screwed up.

"What do you think?" my mother's voice interrupted my chain of thoughts.

"Huh?" I looked up, confused as she set a plate of hot paratha with a dab of melting butter on top of it.

"About Harsh joining the same college as you." She replied, looking at me expectantly.

I shrugged, diverting my concentration to the delicious food in front of me.

Mumma sighed quietly to herself before sitting across me at the table.

"Beta, how long are you going to keep running away from us?" she asked sadly, "Aren't you tired of fighting us all the time?"

"Mumma please don't start your emotional drama again." I frowned, "You know why. So why do you keep asking me the same question again and again?"

"Because I'm concerned about your future." She said, raising her voice slightly, "Writing and all is good. But you need money to survive. All I'm saying is that become a good engineer work for some time, then you can write all you want. Even Chetan Bhagat went to IIT and IIM before he turned to writing."

"Please," I huffed, "I don't have time for all this. I'm doing engineering now. So the least you can do is stop bothering me."

"You tell me how much more time you want then." She continued with a small frown, "We need to address the issue some day, right?"

The doorbell rang and my eyes shot up instantly, letting out a sigh of relief knowing this was my time to make a dash.

"Papa?" I asked with a raised brow.