Maybe this was about time Jessica confessed to Ember but he brutally rejected her before she even said those three words. Rhea pitied her and decided to leave them alone as they talked. She went back home while Jessica stayed beside Ember.
"Don't worry, I've already got a boyfriend. We're in a relationship for two years now," Jessica reassured him that she was just teasing him by confessing to him and she knew the one he liked was Rhea. He begged her not to tell Rhea about it and Jessica promised him her sincerity.
Ember laughed awkwardly, "So, what are you doing these days?" He asked.
"Fashion," She said, "I was gonna go out to the fabric market this Saturday with Raj. I just thought someone might like to accompany us," Jessica patted his shoulder.
"That's wonderful. I'm sure you'll find a great partner who isn't American," He smiled and began thinking of an excuse to ditch her.
"Like Rhea. Aunty told me to take her so that she can buy some ornaments for Diwali. She'll be the third wheel in my date with Raj, again." Jessica lied.
Now, Ember was thinking of an excuse to tag along "Well, I guess I can help you with that and ensure there's no third wheel," He twirled his hair. She smirked, "Of course you can,"
"Where are we gonna meet?" Ember asked her.
"You seem excited" She said.
"Where are we gonna meet?"
"Stop ignoring me!"
"Where are we gonna meet?"
"Outside the Metro station in Rajiv chowk. Reach there by eleven in the morning" Jessica finally gave up on that blonde mess.
"Got it, thanks," Ember smiled.
. . .
Jessica returned, whistling to herself. She entered Rhea's room and sat on her bed while Rhea sat on her study table. "What did you both talk about?" She asked.
"Why are you so curious?" Jessica asked. Rhea seemed irritated because that wasn't an answer to her question. She didn't like having another question to her question. "You look happy. Did he say yes for going out with you?"
"Ember has a crush on someone else," Jessica said and Rhea was hit by a shock, "I should ask Raj to dye his hair blonde, it just looks so beautiful! Like the colour of love," Jessica bubbled but Rhea was still preoccupied by her previous statement.
Ember liked someone and he didn't tell her, "Friends never hide anything from each other," She mumbled as she looked into her book "What a jerk," She felt angry and looked back into her book, "So, you talked to him about his crush?"
"Yeah, and being a good friend, I arranged a date for him too," Jessica said.
"What are you, a dalal?" Rhea said, "Wait, do you know the person he likes?"
Jessica smiled "I do,"
"Who is it?" Rhea asked as she turned towards her.
"He told me not to tell you," Jessica said.
"Do others know? Like AJ and Meenu?" Rhea asked.
"I guess everyone knows except you," Jessica said "Man, he must really like you,"
She looked back into her book "Did I do something wrong?" She looked bothered.
"You did forget him, didn't you?" Jessica looked at the ceiling. Rhea didn't say a word after that.
There was complete silence in the room "So, this Saturday Raj, Ember, that girl and I will go on a double date. Who knows what happens? Maybe the next time you see Ember, he's with his new girlfriend," Jessica got up "I need to prepare for that so I'll take my leave, bye"
Rhea looked at her, "I wanna go too," She said.
"Why? You always turn me down whenever I ask you to accompany me,"
"I'm not accompanying you. I wanna see that girl he likes,"
Jessica laughed, "Alright, Rajiv Chowk metro station then, at eleven this Sunday," And she left her room. Rhea looked at the door and then started outside the window.
Soon, the silent streets turned into a bedlam of voices. Kids screaming, a group of middle aged women taking evening walks together and old ladies sitting together on the green grass, gossiping. Teenagers roaming around the streets with their bicycles or skates.
Rhea walked towards her balcony and looked aside, at the park beside her apartment building. She looked at the sky above her. It was a beautiful shade of pink and orange, with the sun setting towards her right and Neel's balcony in front of hers. She looked at his balcony. A blue tub was kept beside the washing machine and clothes were hanging on ropes before the steel railings. His mother did laundry that day. She looked at his window. The curtains were drawn, perhaps he wasn't home.
As the warm breeze passed through his room, the white curtains swayed, peeping through the canvas board kept in his room. She looked at it and remembered Ember.
"You're so beautiful when you're painting and smiling, I could watch you do that forever if I could,"
Imagining him laughing like an idiot with some other girl was heartbreaking. All the moments they shared, she didn't want him to share them with another girl. She wanted him to only look at her. And if her painting could achieve that, then she was ready to take a chance. She went inside her room and sat with a blank, white paper in her hand. She didn't have a paintbrush so she decided to sketch for a while. She sat in the balcony with a chair in front of her. She held the paper over a notebook and laid down her pencil colours on the table before her.
She looked at the colours and picked up a bight topaz shade. She made a line with the pencil colour. She could feel the roughness of the paper and the voice of the pencil as it rubbed itself over the coarse paper crept into her ears, reducing its own life to brighten a page as it slowly left its carcass on the paper, the pencil went sliding down. It wasn't as bad as she imagined it to be. Then, she quickly took a U-turn before coming till the end of the paper. She did that again and again until she started forming curved lines and then circles.
The circles weren't very smoothly done. She moved her wrist away from the paper and rotated it "I've grown so rusty at this," She smiled as she took a yellow shade and made a circle. Then, a baby pink, dead maroon, lemon yellow, soft red, vermillion hue and a cherry blonde. The colours overlapped each other in a matte fashion "Aw man," She complained "I forgot its pencil colours. They aren't mixing!" She said and suddenly something struck her, "Hold on," Suddenly, something struck her and she ran out like the naked Archimedes.
She got into the bathroom and filled a mug of water. She ran back to the balcony and kept the mug beside the colours. She dipped the pencil in water and then applied it on the paper "Not as good but okay. It still looks pretty," She chuckled as she looked at the picture.
"You know, you could've just used a paintbrush," She heard and looked ahead. It was Neel. He was eating sweet corn from a white porcelain bowl while standing at his balcony. She hid the picture behind her back.
"I'm not interested in what you draw, so don't bother hiding it" Neel continued eating, "Wait, actually keep hiding it. Bet it's gonna be something so bad it's gonna make me wanna instantly kill myself after looking at it,"
"Nobody is showing you anyways!" She said. She picked up her colours and went inside her room. She closed the door and sat on the floor. She looked at the picture of the sun. A sun she made from her hands.
She moved her hands over the paper. The colour was dry and dead. But the picture couldn't be more alive. She got up and looked around. She took a tape from her table and moved the curtain over her door. She pasted the picture on the door, took a glitter pen and wrote at a corner "The sun is blonde and so are you" She smiled and covered the door back with the curtain.
'Thank you for coming back, Ember.
And thank you for bringing me along'
- To be continued
Arorhea Laghari
Can't I Touch Your Heart?