I woke up to the voice of my brother the next morning. My alarm would've been a thousand times better.
"What is it? Just let me sleep." I groaned.
"Let you sleep?" he scoffed. "We have a plan to initiate. Did you forget about it already?" How does he have so much energy in the morning? Did he have a spoonful of coffee powder?
"No I haven't forgot about it. It was my idea. But torturing me with your voice and face in the morning is a bit too much." I said.
"Ha-ha. Very funny. You hate me, I hate you, what's new?"
"Why are you bothering me?" I sat up, finally waking up from my slumber.
"I have all the stuff required for tonight and Sanjana has prepared everything for the both of you." He informed me.
"That's great. I'd thank you but I really don't want to."
"I know you love me." I did.
"Fine. Now get your ass out of here I need to get ready."
He left my room. I stood up from the bed and walked towards the bathroom to take a shower. Just then my phone vibrated. It was a message from Dr. Vanessa, my gynaecologist that my shot was due the following week and I needed to be there as soon as possible.
If the plan works, I'll be in London before Monday. I will be back home. I thought.
After a quick shower, I changed into fresh clothes and made my way downstairs for breakfast. My father was sitting on one end of the dining table and my brother on the other, not even looking at each other. My mother was nowhere to be seen. She was probably getting ready for another get together with her friends. It was better that I didn't see her.
"Good morning, Naina. How are you?" My dad asked. I acted normal, as if I didn't know about his deal. If I acted upon it, our plan would've blown up and I wouldn't have been able to go back.
With the most fake of my smiles, I said "Good morning dad. I'm feeling great. How are you?"
"I'm good. It has just been hard at work these days."
"Oh, I hope whatever is bothering you soon goes away." I said, referring to myself but not letting him know. My brother knew, of course, and he scoffed slightly. Dad just eyed him without saying anything.
I turned my plate up and served myself. But it was weird that I was not feeling like eating at all considering I ate a little at the dinner with Ashwin but threw up after coming back. So, I just had a toast with butter on it and a cup of coffee. I ate half of the toast and finished up my coffee.
As I got up to go back to my room, my dad called my name.
"Naina, what's wrong? You haven't eaten anything. Are you feeling fine?"
"Yes dad, I am okay. Don't worry. It's just that I ate outside yesterday and I've lived in London for so long, it's a big change being home so my body is just not accepting the change so soon."
And I hoped of it being the same way.
"Okay. But if you feel something is wrong, you will tell either me or your mother. We will call a doctor for you." I saw that this time his concern was real. It just didn't feel like my own father would use me in a business deal like that.
I smiled and turned to my brother.
"Vivan, I need to talk to you. Can you please come to my room once you have eaten?"
"Yeah sure. I'll be there in a minute." He replied and I could feel my father piercing a hole through my head with his stare. He was probably thinking how I could be okay with my brother being gay. He didn't want me to talk to my own brother. Our parents themselves hadn't talked to him for more than a year. They expected the same from me but I wanted my brother to be happy for who he is.
.
"I am calling Ashwin. He will be here with Shiv and then we all will leave. Okay?" I asked my brother and Sanjana who were sitting on my bed.
"Yeah, that's fine. Are we going to tell mom and dad that we are going on a picnic? No offence but that sounds lame." My brother said.
"Yeah, we can't exactly tell them what we are planning. So we have to stick with lame for now." Sanjana answered for me.
"Exactly." I added.
"Okay fine, call them." My brother rolled his eyes.
So I did. And then, after a while we were all in the backyard.
"How exactly do we take your bags to the car without anyone noticing. No one takes that much luggage on a picnic." Shiv pointed out.
"We don't have much to start with. This was supposed to be a short visit to my parents, we didn't know my dad wanted to marry me off." I stated.
"What if we do this at night? I mean the flight is after midnight. What would you do all this while?" Ashwin said.
"You do have a point but both my parents will be home at night. No one is here right now. Just the servants. And the security cameras."
"Don't you think they will inform mom and dad that you left?" My brother said.
"I see you have a point. What else can we do? I can't jump off my window at night."
"Well..." Sanjana said. She probably was going to suggest I jump off my window.
"No! I'm not jumping off my window."
"Oh come on, I will catch you. I know you will like that." Shiv said, earning an elbow in the ribs from Ashwin. He flinched in pain.
"Not the time to be cocky, Shiv." I said.
Then an Idea struck me.
"Picnic baskets." I said.
"What?" they all asked, confused.
"We could store our things in picnic baskets. There is not much to start with. Maybe two or three will do. No one will suspect anything. We can buy luggage bags once we are out of here."
"I didn't know you had a brain." Shiv said.
"I agree. But apparently she does." My brother said, siding with him.
"Not as funny as you think." I shrugged and rolled my eyes.
"I am going to pack everything! This is so exciting. I will pack everything in picnic baskets and then I will pack everything into luggage bags! It's a party for me." Sanjana said, Grinning.
"Is she damaged?" Shiv leaned in and whispered in my ear.
"Most probably." I whispered back.
It didn't feel weird being around him and joking with him after what happened.
"Naina, can we talk?" Ashwin said.
"Yeah, what's wrong?" I said as we walked away from the three nutcases.
"I'm really sorry it has to be this way for you. I wish we would've met in different circumstances."
"Hey, it's totally fine. You don't have to apologise. I want to leave. This is the only way." I said with a smile.
"Okay then, Friends?" he asked.
"Of course. I would like that."
"Stay in touch. We still have to think of a permanent plan." He said with a smile.
"I will."
.
Everything was packed in three baskets. Shiv and Ashwin helped carry them to the car. I was already in the driver's seat.
On the way, we stopped by the mall to pick up luggage bags. I bought two trolly cases which Sanjana suggested. She could tell by just looking at them if our things will fit in them or not.
Once we were back in the car Sanjana suggested we stop somewhere so she could arrange everything in the new bags. Once that was done, We were back on the road again.
It was getting darker as we drove around the city. Around 9 p.m., We stopped at a restaurant to have dinner. All of us sitting together, eating, laughing, having fun. I wondered if we would ever be able to do it again.
"Wait, how are you going to get out of the house?" I asked my brother.
"Well, for starters, they don't want me there. So that's not a big problem and secondly, I am coming with you both to London. I have spare luggage at your place remember? I will take off to New York from there."
"And you didn't think about telling that to us before?" Sanjana said. "I would've packed your stuff too."
"Sanjana calm down. You will get to unpack once we reach home." I told her.
"I'm going to miss you guys so much." Shiv said.
"No you won't. Don't lie." I replied.
"No I won't." he said and we all laughed.
.
At the airport, we were standing around in a circle just outside the entrance.
"Now listen to me, both of you." I said to Ashwin and Shiv. "If something happens to my car while you are driving back, remember what will happen?"
"Yes, you will remove our skin and then cut us into pieces." Shiv said.
"And then what?"
"You will make us listen to your mom's voice for a whole day." Ashwin added. "That's a lot of torture, don't you think?"
"Yeah, well it is, but it will be worth it." I grinned.
I hugged Ashwin and said goodbye. Then I moved towards Shiv.
"You are an idiot." I said and hugged him.
"Not something I haven't heard before. You need to work on your insults." He said while hugging me. His hands tightened around me one last time before letting me go.
I walked off into the airport with my brother and my best friend. I didn't bother to look back.