"I literally don't know why the hell he hasn't asked you out yet," Lee complained, stowing the folded clothes delicately inside the closet. I was grateful for her intervention, but it was a reluctant gratitude. I liked my room like I liked myself - messed up.
"I know, right? I'm getting tired of his shameless flirting," Art said, lowering her feet from my desk and swiveling on my chair to face me. I squirmed under their gazes.
"Why're you guys looking at me like it's my fault? It's really not. Or maybe it is, I dunno," I swung my feet, resting limply on the bed, to the soft texture of the green carpet. It caressed the soles of of feet as I drew patterns on it with my toe. The carpet became a darker green when swiped my toe forward and lighter when I moved it backwards, and this phenomenon seemed considerably more engaging than our conversation.
"Hey," Art leaned closer to me conspiratorially. "What if you ask him out?"
"I was kinda thinking the same thing," pleased, I muttered, covering a yawn with the sleeve of my black hoodie. Sneaking a glance at the mirror, I found that my eyes were reddened and hair tousled. Art and Lee hadn't said anything when they'd barged into my room and found me crying my eyes out, primarily because it had now become a tradition for the three of us to cry on our birthdays for no reason. None of us really knew why it happened, it just did.
"Oh, shush," Lee scolded. "If he wants it, he'll come get it. Let the girl keep her dignity."
Art scoffed, pouncing up from her seat and dramatically brandishing her iPhone with the vigour of a pirate with his sword. "Dignity! It's nothing but an excuse for those too afraid to get what they want. What if he's thinking the same thing?"
"No, he's a guy. Guys don't think like that," Lee stated with confident authority, beginning to pick up the books strewn all over my room. I sighed. This girl was going to clean up my room and kill the homeless vibe I was trying so hard to establish because somehow, the homeless vibe helped me study better.
"Why?" I asked, aware that Lee wouldn't answer. She didn't.
"Anywho, here's your birthday present," Art chimed, zipping her bag open and rummaging through it for several seconds. She pulled out a pretty white asymmetric top that made me praise her sense of fashion.
"Thank you, Art. It's lovely, and it'll cover my ass, so Ma won't mind," the dress dangling from my grip, I wrapped my arms around Art in a sweet hug.
"You're wearing this to the party," Art muttered into my ear. "We're throwing a party for you. Shh, don't say anything, the guys will kill me. I just don't want you ugly cry in front of others out of happiness."
"What're you two whispering about?" Lee asked, positively alarmed, shoving the last of the misplaced books from the hanging flower pot back into the bookshelf. I tried my best to remember why the hell I'd put it there, but couldn't.
"We were saying what a big bloated git you are," Art grinned, swinging her bag onto her shoulder. She snatched up a couple of dices of guava that Ma had called and ordered me to serve my friends, unceremoniously shoving all the cubes inside her mouth at once.
"Okay," Lee drawled, as if she couldn't decide whether Art was lying or not. "Anyway. Adi, we can't just have the birthday girl shopping with us looking like a hag. Go change, I'll help you put on makeup. It'll be a great girls' day out until the guys show up at Domino's."
I went in to change, smiling to myself. The smile melted into nothingness the moment I remembered Sharmaji again, how he would feed me free sweets whenever I told him that it was my birthday. No more free sweets for you, Aditi.
-
Maroon 5's Sugar is an unbelievably happy song, but hearing it blaring through the speakers suddenly reminded me of 2014 and made me feel deflated. I annoyed myself. This wasn't supposed to happen. All the popular people of Edelweiss Academy were dancing around at Ever's house, along with their hot friends from out of town, for my birthday, and it wasn't even 6 o' clock yet. I was supposed to be feeling important.
The unease in Troy's smile was subtle, but I immediately caught on. I was sitting on the arm of a jet black armchair, and when Troy sat down on it, it dipped a little, making me wobble. He held two mugs full of a yellowish liquid, and offered me one. I sighed. "You guys keep forgetting that I don't drink."
"And you keep forgetting Mama Richards has a huge stash of apple juice," Troy said funnily.
A small burst of laughter erupted from my mouth as I graciously accepted the mug. "Thanks, dumbass."
"You're sad," Troy stated monotonously, but he didn't question my sadness. Do guys get sad on their birthdays for no reason too?
"You're worried, why?" I asked, the sweetness of the apple juice biting through my tongue in a refreshing swirl. Where I was sitting, a purplish disco light fell on the mug from time to time, making the liquid look like a potion from Snape's cauldron.
"West isn't here yet. The three of us were supposed to give you a guitar together, we bought it last week. But we can't do it until he shows up," Troy mumbled, stretching his arms.
"Oh my God, is this for real?!" I grabbed Troy's neck in a hug despite knowing that he was extremely likely to spill the beer on my new top any moment. "You weren't supposed to tell me that, by the way."
"I know, I just didn't want you to ugly cry with happiness in front of everyone," he said through a charming grin.
"You and Art are so made for each other," I laughed, letting him go. Troy immediately spilled his beer on his yellow tee with delight. Neither of us reacted at this point because we both knew that this was coming.
"Why do you say that?" he asked with the soothing innocent eagerness of a toddler, setting down his mug on the floor next to the armchair.
"You two keep saying the same things all the time. By the West- I mean, by the way, thank you guys so much for everything. I can't believe that you did this for me. It means the fucking world," I said, drying my eyes with my fingers before the tears could spill.
"Aww. Stop saying this over and over again, it's not much. We'd do anything for you, Adi, you know that. We love you too much," he consoled, and a tear managed to escape from my eyes. I quickly wiped it off.
"Stupid cheesecake."
Troy's phone pinged with two texts. As he pulled out his phone and read them, his face became slightly red with excitement. "Er, Adi, Ever's calling us. West is here, we want to give you the guitar. Please, please act surprised, or else the guys will kill me."
My excitement was convincing enough for Troy to let out a relieved sigh to himself. Pulling each Troy and Ever in tight embraces, trying to ignore the fact that I barely reached as high as their chests, I faced West. He seemed strangely zoned out as I made to hug him. Wanting to smack myself across the face because of how shy I felt, confident that he would make fun of me, I pulled away, mentally preparing a comeback. But he gave me nothing except a troubled smile and a soft 'happy birthday, midget'.
"The credit is West's, really. He said that you told him that you want to learn the guitar, so," Ever said, scratching the back of his head, sporting a charming lopsided grin. West said nothing.
Smiling, I took the Yamaha guitar in my hands. It was much heavier than Doc's. Dr. Amiruddin had taught me to play 5 Seconds of Summer's Youngblood on his old guitar last year. Sitting down on the armchair, I started strumming on the chords, trying my best to remember the thing. It wasn't hard. Somebody turned off the music from the speakers, and when I looked up, several people had congregated around me. "I- I'm not that good, I can barely play-"
"Do you see anybody saying that you're Ed Sheeran?" Ever said, smiling. "This cost all three of us months of pocket money. It doesn't matter how badly you play. We just wanna see you play it and be happy."
I looked at Lee. "Why's your boyfriend such a cheeseball?"
Letting out a breath, I started singing. My singing voice wasn't terrible, it was almost nice. As my fingers glided over the chords, they emitted a beautiful melody. "Remember the words you told me, love me till the day I die...Surrender my everything 'cause you made me believe you're mine...Yeah, you used to call me baby, now you calling me by name...Takes one to know one, you beat me at my own damn game...You push and you push and I'm pulling away...Pulling away from you...I give and I give and I give and you take, give and you-"
Looking up at the scene before me, I froze. Ruby Tilde was pulling West away from the living room into the kitchen, her arm laced around his like a snake coiled around its prey. He wasn't protesting in the slightest. "That's it, I forgot the lyrics."
A few people applauded reluctantly. And even though I'd been preparing for a heartbreak from the moment I'd met him, I felt a tug at my chest. It was a surprisingly weak tug. I supposed that horrible things are considerate too - they don't come alone, they bring some of their friends around. Because when you're already hurting, more hurt hurts a little less.
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