Alternative title: What exactly went down that night?
***
After Shivay left, I hop in the shower to get the reek of alcohol off me. The warm water washes all of it away. I lay there in the bathtub for a few minutes. Almost dozing off. But the ringing of my phone wakes me up. I roped the bathrobe around me and stepped out.
It stopped ringing before I could reach it though.
A missed call from Rudra. I was about to call back but It was 11.40 and I almost fell asleep in the bath. I need some sleep. I'd call him tomorrow. So I changed into a loose shirt and PJs.
I looked at the bed before me. It was soft, white linen, built for the cause of comfort.
But I felt no sleep coming over me. So I explored the room. I set the air conditioner to a minimal and started opening doors. To the balcony, to the closet, to the bathroom. There was one more. I think it went to a lounge.
So I pulled it.
The room was vast for a lounge. It had several pillows stacked up on the ground and the far end wall, was a glass one, giving a view to the night outside. The room was stacked with a mini-fridge and a cozy hearth of fire. The fire lit up, burning slowly as she switched a button. It felt like a new room altogether.
I opened the mini-fridge to hunt for water. But it was filled with wine bottles. And they didn't look like the good ones.
There was a wooden table between and I settled in. I take a breathe in and out. But when I take another, tears fall down my cheeks. My tears.
I don't know why. Is it because of Lafin or because I was alone?
The incidents of tonight became clearer in my head then. I knew that I had to deal with the aftermath of it later. I just didn't know that later would be here so soon.
***
She hated other people touching her. Even on the plane, she was scared. She had dashed the doctor's hand away in her faint sense of consciousness.
Annika continued sobbing as the other door she hadn't noticed, opened.
Shivay paced in with a butter knife in his hand, alert and searching, " Where? Where is it?"
She stopped crying," What?"
"The insect- the cockroach, that has you crying."
"There's no cockroach," she said, looking into the garden ahead. It buzzed with crickets, a mosquito bit her cheek bringing her back.
She leaped back, staring at the door," How did you come in here?"
"Let's see," he rubbed his chin, thinking of some bullshit answer, "first I heard you crying, then I thought what's the best way to save you? Then this magical door came into view and I thought hmm, should I let this cockroach eat Annika or let her live another day to scold me," he smiled wide.
She could not stop smiling through the tears, "And you chose the latter?"
"You're alive, aren't you?" He smirked. Indeed, Angel or not her room was being watched over.
It was clear to her that this was not a private lounge as it was shared by a couple of rooms.
"As you can see there's no cockroach, so you can go back to whatever the heck you were doing."
"Nothing," he lapsed into a pillow on the opposite side of the table, "Just Scrolling through some sports on the television."
"Yes that," she said, her eyes going back to the dark garden as though she would start crying the minute his door closed.
Instead of the half-open door, Shivay moved towards the mini-fridge.
He pulled out two bottles of cold wine and placed it on the table."
"SHIVAY?"
"What? Is this less?"
"Keep it back!"
When he stared at her, he could see how much she wanted to punch him. He still had the guts to speak, "Our drink off is incomplete, Annika."
It pained Annika, the reason why and the things that happened after came rushing back, but Shivay cut her out of it, "So, Shall we continue or do you accept defeat?"
She eyed the bottles, then Shivay. She could tell him to get lost and he would leave.
But what else did she have on her to-do list? She was just going to wallow in her sadness, instead, she could get drunk and wallow in her sadness with this guy- enemy friend person.
The plan that involves alcohol just sounded better. She snatched the bottle, chipped off the cover and took a neat sip as she murmured, "Never."
***
With only one-fourth of the bottle left, they were neck to neck now. On the scale of winning as well as drunkenness.
"I-I thought this wine was bad. Because of the packaging," Annika mumbled, almost drunk.
"Never judge a book by its cover," Shivay was a lot more saner than her, "It might even be worse," he said staring at the bottle.
She laughed, coughing, "Cold. It's too cold."
Annika almost put the bottle away.
"So do I win?"
Annika sipped from the bottle again, "Not a chance Malhotra!"
Shivay squinted his eyes, "Malhotra?"
"That's your surname right?"
Shivay's drink fizzed up his nostrils as he laughed, "Yes, that is my surname for sure."
By the next minute, Annika had almost finished the bottle, "This is too boring. Let's play truth or dare noww."
Shivay nodded, reaching his last sip too, "So Truth or dare?"
"Hmm, Dare!" Shivay chose.
Annika gave it a thought, but started with a simple one, "Find the most beautiful thing in this room."
"Just find?"
"Okay kiss the most beautiful thing in this room," she said, imagining Shivay kissing the fire hearth or the wine bottles.
But he held on to his face, "How do you kiss yourself?"
Annika wheezed, but then started showing him how. She was so stark drunk.
But it doesn't happen. Shivay copies her but ends up pouting like a fish.
"This is not possible," Shivay said giving up, "give me another dare."
"There's no interesting dare here Shivay," she tilted to her left, her head falling.
Shivay extended his bandaged hand forward, holding her head upright, "Okay then I choose truth."
"For Truth, hmmm," Annika blinked, her head was still bent on his palm, "Tell me the last thought you had."
"Nooo," he waved it off.
"What? Tell me," she said, "Rules are rules Shivayyy."
"You'll laugh at me."
"Maybe but rules," she was almost asleep when he said, "Okay."
Shivay removed his hand, and came closer to whisper it, "You know when you asked me to kiss the most beautiful thing, I - I thought of you."
Annika looked at him, his eyes. He was not lying. She bent closer, whispering something back, "I'm-I'm not a thing Shivay."
Shivay almost laughed, "but you are the most beautiful."
Annika felt more of the angst. Right in her guts. Everything was rolling upside down in her. Like someone was stabbing her with a knife made of her favorite dessert. Like her heartbeat was playing on full volume and everything else was on mute. She felt like she was on a falling rollercoaster with no end. She felt un-earthed.
Annika stuttered, almost backing away, but Shivay stayed there. Both of them were so dazed in alcohol.
She almost felt like she was this close to him before everything felt torn within her.
She swept closer, unable to use her conscience, "I don't know why, you seem like someone I know. Like someone, I've lost. You don't seem like the enemy. Why?"
"Because I'm not." He held her soft face.
"We aren't just two crazy people who hate each other because there's something more we feel. we were together, Annika." He winced.
She blinked, not getting a word.
"I was so crazy for you!" He laughed, "Of your blush, that went redder when you were angry, that was mostly around me. I was crazy over your stupid antics to call me at work. Stupid me to think I could stay away after I picked up your call. But the most I missed you when you forgot who I was. And it's my fault. Everything. I should've never -" but then he couldn't speak because she kissed him.
She backed away, a second later, "I-I don't know whatever this but you have amazing lips," she said, staring at his shocked face.
"Thank you?" He said, puzzled. He touched his lips and whispered, "We should probably never do this again."
But Annika was too lost, "Hmm?" She whispered, her eyes moving to his face, that beautiful white face, she held, "Or, or, or. Hear me out. We should do it again?" She asked with a lopsided smile.
There was a second of hesitation in Shivay's spine, "Yeah, good thinking," he said before he kissed her again.
***
Words: a perfect 1500
This is a super low-key chapter. Not much drama, only them<3. Next week, the drama continues.
Now I shall vanish, into a parrelel universe called my real life.
If you're still reading, thank you! You just made my day sunshine!
See you next week!