7 - Split Second
Maya Sumedh
The doorbell rang halfway through dinner a few nights later.
Everyone glanced up from their food at the same time. Luke, who was seated closest to the door, got up immediately.
“I’ll get it.”
Ma shook her head, quickly putting her fork down.
“Sit Luke, sit, I’ll see who it is –”
He cut her off with a charming smile.
“That’s alright, Mrs. Sumedh.”
Beside me, Sam chuckled into his spaghetti.
“Suck-up.”
Luke smacked him on the back of his head before going to see who it was at the door. I grinned, shoving a forkful of pasta into my mouth. I watched Luke go, sliding the kitchen door shut carefully behind him, the sound of his new rubber blue-and-white Bata house chappals fading as he made his way to the living room. It was quite amazing how he had worked his way seamlessly into the house – he had already gotten into the habit of wearing the chappals and taking off his shoes at the front door, eating with his hands and drinking tea instead of coffee.
He was also, as I discovered, a bit of an animal lover. The night after I told him about Rohan, we had been sitting outside the gate at night, in our pyjamas, leaning against the posts on either side, talking because it was boring in the house and Sam had gone out on a date with Meera. The road was quite deserted, dimly lit only by the half-functional yellow street lamps. A few watchmen were giving Luke suspicious looks because he looked deathly pale in that lighting – we ignored them. As usual, the black stray dog (Blackie, as the neighbourhood kids imaginatively named her) came wandering over to us, her tail rotating furiously as she spotted me.
“Blackie!” I cooed, petting her between the ears and she gave a whine of appreciation. “Aw, you cutie.”
Luke grinned at me, leaning on the opposite gate post. “Is she a stray?”
I nodded. “Yep. She’s friendly, wanna pet her?”
He reached out to Blackie and she sniffed his hand, wagging her tail and allowing him to touch her on her head. After a few seconds she was rubbing against his legs like a cat and he was laughing. I rolled my eyes.
“Hey, are those her puppies?”
I started. “What? What puppies?”
He pointed to something behind me and I turned around and gasped when I saw two small puppies stumbling along the road. Blackie saw them too, and scampered over. But to my shock, she blatantly shunned one puppy, a brilliant white furball aside as she fed the other one.
“Um,” Luke mumbled. “I’m guessing that one isn’t hers?”
“Apparently not.”
And then one thing had led to another – the next thing you know, Luke was walking into the living room cradling it in his arms and he didn’t even have to ask before Ma put down her book and declared “We’re keeping him!”
So at that moment, Blu was curled up in his basket in the corner of the dining room, looking more like a ball of fluff than a puppy. I had named him after the colour of his eyes and the only creative thing about the name was the omission of the ‘e’ at the end. Whatever (at least I didn’t name him Whitey). Sam kept shooting him dirty looks because he was more a cat person than a dog person, as he put it.
Luke had been gone about a minute when I suddenly heard tinkling, girly laughter, and I frowned. Sam exchanged a look with me, pasta dangling out of his mouth and making him look like a walrus.
“That sounds like…”
I got up quickly, pushing my chair back, and sprinted to the front door. Sure enough, Luke was standing there and a petite girl with waist-length ebony hair was hovering in the doorway, her cheeks blazing the most fiery kind of red.
Then she turned to look at me, and I felt a grin spread on my face.
“Layla?”
“Maya! You bitch!”
She squealed and threw herself at me, throwing her thin arms around my neck and I laughed and hugged her back, not squeezing too hard because I might’ve broken her bones.
“Is it possible that you’ve become even skinnier?” I asked, dumbfounded as she pulled away, and she laughed, a typical, nervous Layla laugh.
“Of course not.”
I grinned and looped an arm around her shoulder, turning to Luke, who had shut the door and was watching us with an amused expression on his face.
“Layla, this is Luke, our new….er, house guest. Luke, this is Layla, my best friend.”
“We’ve been acquainted,” Luke said, looking at Layla with a crooked smile lifting one corner of his mouth. Layla giggled a little and I swear she got a few degrees warmer.
I blinked at them for a moment. Was he flirting with her?
Before I could think to react, however, Sam came barrelling into the hall, grinning.
“Lay-Lay! I thought I heard your voice!”
“Sammy!” she cried, opening her arms.
Layla laughed loudly as Sam scooped her up in his arms, and it looked almost funny because he was so tall and buff and she was tiny and skinny. As if to accentuate her skinniness she was like a walking advertisement for Fabindia – she was forever clad in one of their shapeless kurtis with the funky prints. Somehow she managed to pull it off without it looking boring. She wore glasses too, only she wore them in public as well, unlike me. I was forever telling her to get contacts because she had these gorgeous blue-green eyes which I would fucking kill for, but she never listened.
Sam put her down and then for a moment the two of them were just grinning stupidly at each other. I rolled my eyes, snapping my fingers to get her attention.
“I swear sometimes I think you love Sam more than you love me,” I said, grinning, and anticipating the blush on her cheeks – because that was kind of true. She’d had a major crush on Sam forever. It’s so terribly cliché – best friend’s brother, all that typical crap.
Layla was taking a gap year too – in fact, she was a month younger than me. But she, not like me, was actually doing something productive with hers – she got a job at Times of India. The freaking Times of India. Her dad had all kinds of bigshot connections, so a few weeks after graduation, wham-bam and she’s employed full-time.
“Come on, come on, the parents miss you,” I told her, linking my arm through hers and dragging her to the dining room. Sam and Luke followed behind us.
“Maya,” Layla hissed in my ear, elbowing me. “Who is that guy?”
I chuckled quietly. “I’ll tell you later.”
She was grinning madly; I could see it from the corner of my eye.
“Ma! Dad! Look who’s here!” I announced, parading into the dining room and shoving Layla in front of me. “Let the fawning begin!”
And begin it did. My family, Sam included, showered Layla with affection because they could never do it with me after I crossed the age of six. So for the next half an hour she was the centre of attention (“No aunty, I really can’t eat anymore.” “Oh, I was just in the area and I haven’t seen all of you in so long.” “This pasta is wonderful, aunty.”)
She was from one of those funky Anglo-Indian families so her genes were spectacular – she had a small button nose which Sam loved to tweak, almond shaped eyes and full pouty lips. She also had that horribly polite way of speaking that’s so cute you feel like biting something– she said ‘pome’ and not ‘poem’ and ‘flaar’ and not ‘flower’ and ‘Auntie Priya’ and not ‘Priya aunty’. All in all, Layla D’Souza was the full package of sweet, nerdy girl, complete and total opposite of me. In some weird way she held me down so I didn’t explode, and I made sure she went out to have fun once in a while. It worked, strangely enough.
She squished between Luke and Sam, and I flashed her a grin from Luke’s other side when he wasn’t looking. She pointed her fingers at him discreetly while he was talking to Sam, and then licked her lips in a most un-Layla like thing to do, but she had those moments sometimes.
I nodded, shooting a glance at the parents to make sure they weren’t looking, and then I fanned myself with the back of my hand, taking a sip of water, and she giggled into her plate.
“Something funny?” Luke questioned suddenly, looking between the two of us. I waved my hand at him.
“Oh, nothing.”
He narrowed his eyes at me but I held his gaze. Then he shrugged.
“Layla, can you pass the salt?”
Layla looked up at him, a little startled that he was talking to her, but then nodded. She reached across Sam for the salt and passed it to Luke.
“Thanks,” he told her, giving her that smile again. That adorable crooked one.
She bit her lip. “No problem.”’
Sam glanced at me behind Luke, raising an eyebrow and I shrugged, turning back to my food.
Dinner passed nicely with Ma scolding Layla for being so busy and not dropping in and Dad asking her about her job, and Sam just generally poking fun at her and making her blush like a tomato. Just as we were about to finish up, Luke suddenly turned to me, a funny expression on his face. I raised my eyebrow at him, my mouth still full of spaghetti.
“Um, what?” I mumbled.
He grinned a little, and then leaned close to whisper in my ear. I tried to ignore how his breath was brushing across my skin.
“Is it just me,” he said in a low voice, “or does Layla have a little crush on Sam?”
I laughed out loud, and he pulled away, looking at me.
“Is it really that obvious?” I whispered back, and he chuckled.
“Well, yeah. Or maybe I’m just perceptive.”
“Yeah…no.”
Then Ma spoke up. “Layla, sweetie, are you staying the night?”
Layla looked at her with wide eyes. “Oh, no aunty – I don’t want to impose –”
“Oh shut up Lay,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You’re spending the night. I’ll drop you home tomorrow.”
She grinned at me.
“Haha…okay.”
We cleared up dinner and then Ma and Dad retreated into their respective studies for work.
“Movie night,” Sam declared, as we put away the last plate.
“Yes please,” Layla agreed, scooping Blu up in her arms as he trotted into the kitchen. He blinked at her, looking surprised, but decided that she wasn’t worth the effort it took to bark and snuggled into her neck.
Luke put his hands on my back, pushing me along to the TV room. Sam and Layla followed.
“Tonight, Layla gets to choose,” Sam declared, putting an arm around her shoulder. I smirked at her, throwing my hands towards our expansive DVD collection.
“It is all yours, Ms. D’Souza.”
She shrugged and flopped down on an armchair, still holding Blu, who was already asleep in her arms.
“I want to watch Cocktail.”
I blanched at her. “We don’t have the DVD,” I lied.
She rolled her eyes.
“Right there,” she pointed out.
I groaned and shook my head. “Layla, why are you so obsessed with Bollywood? Every time you come over all we do is watch Hindi movies.”
“Hey. Don’t diss Bollywood.”
“Bollywood sucks,” I growled, crossing my arms. “Except for a few movies.”
“I side with Layla on this one,” Luke said from beside me. “I’ve never watched a Bollywood movie before, and India is famous for it.”
“The motion is seconded!” Sam chirped, raising his hand. I rolled my eyes at him.
“You’ve been to too many MUN’s, Sam.”
“Whatever. We’re watching a Hindi movie.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. But we’re not watching Cocktail. Please. I can’t stand Deepika Padukone.”
Sam glared at me. “Take that back.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
Luke poked me from the side and I accidentally let out a giggle. Fuck.
“Luke,” I whined. “Stop that.”
“Then come to a consensus already.”
I huffed out a breath. “Okay….I don’t mind watching anything directed by Aamir Khan. And I think we have Black, why don’t we watch that?”
Sam made a face. “Black is too depressing.”
“True,” I agreed.
“How about Rang De Basanti?” Layla suggested. “That way everyone’s happy. And we get to ogle Kunal Kapoor.”
I wrinkled my nose at her. “Kunal Kapoor? Lay, please.”
“Girls,” Sam moaned. “Hurry up and decide already.”
“We should watch something really Indian,” Lay said. “Like, Vishal Bhardwaj or something.”
“I’m sorry, are you forgetting that we an American to translate for?” I asked her. “I’m not translating a bloody Vishal Bhardwaj movie for him, I can’t understand those fancy village dialects as it is.”
“Let’s watch Kahaani, then,” Sam said randomly.
I nodded vigorously. “Yes. Thank you. I love that movie.”
“I’m just going to sit over here,” Luke said, sidling over to the couch and plopping down. I grinned at him.
“Kahaani, then?” Lay asked, and Sam and I nodded.
“Kahaani,” we agreed.
Sam dug out the DVD and I took the place next to Luke on the couch. Sam occupied the other armchair next to Layla after quickly dimming the lights as the movie started.
“Are you my translator?” Luke said quietly in my ear.
I nodded. “Yeah. But you don’t need translation in the first five minutes, so just watch.”
It turned out that translation was much harder than I thought it would be. On the plus side I got to snuggle up to Luke’s side so he could hear me when I spoke, because I couldn’t talk too loud so as to not disturb Sam and Layla. Luke’s arm around my shoulder was a little distracting when I had to translate the important bits.
But hey, I wasn’t going to complain.
*
The movie finished two hours later and as the four of us got talking, Layla’s head was drooping on the back of her armchair. I had migrated to the floor next to the chair, so I reached up and poked her awake.
“Lay, wake up you idiot. We have to stay up the whole night and have ice cream, remember?”
She blinked at me, and then Blu crawled up her lap, licking her on the chin once. She scrunched up her face and then sat up.
“Sorry, I had a long day.”
“Coffee time!” Sam crowed, jumping up quickly and running out of the room. He definitely didn’t need any more caffeine.
“Are we having a late night tonight?” Luke asked, standing up too. I glanced at the clock, sitting down on Layla’s stomach. It was nearing midnight.
“I guess so,” I told him. Layla groaned under me and shifted to get more comfortable.
“Maya, get off me.”
“Swap?” I asked her.
She grinned, and we swapped places. She sat down heavily on my stomach then, settling in.
“Ugh, there’s no more fat for it to be comfortable,” she complained.
“Well, I’m sorry I’m too thin,” I said, rolling my eyes.
Luke was staring at us, halfway to the door.
“Girls,” he muttered, shaking his head.
“Luke,” we retorted, and I grinned at him. He just grinned back and then left the room, presumably to go help Sam with the coffee, shutting the living room door behind him. I watched his back retreat through the glass and then spoke.
“I wish Sam would just ask you out already,” I mumbled, leaning my head back on the armrest of the chair. Layla turned pink and then looked down at me.
“He doesn’t like me, Maya. I’m just waiting for the day I’ll get over him.”
“Yeah, and you’ve been waiting for what, five years now? Six?”
She twiddled her fingers, looking down. “Well…yeah.”
I tutted. “One day he’ll realize that you’re much better than hoes like Meera.”
She chuckled. “Meera’s not a hoe. I like her.”
“She’s a hoe,” I stated stubbornly.
She flicked my head. “Shut up. It’s not gonna happen.”
“But I want you to be my cute sister-in-law,” I said, pouting. “Maybe I should just tell Sam –”
“No,” she interrupted. “Just no.”
I stared at her a moment.
“Why do you like my brother though, Lay? I mean, he’s…Sam.”
She blushed a little.
“Well…exactly.”
“Elaborate,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I dunno, he’s Sam. He’s cute, and funny, and he’s one of those guys who isn’t a jerk despite being drop-dead gorgeous, you know? And he’s so smart. And he has a sense of humour. He doesn’t mind goofing off, he doesn’t care what people think, he’s creative. He sings for God’s sake. And he likes Harry Potter, which is like a huge plus.”
“Lay, everyone likes Harry Potter.”
She gave me Lay-specialty withering look and I grinned at her.
“Yeah, but I see where you’re coming from. I don’t know about the drop-dead gorgeous part though…”
She laughed and hit me again.
“You’re so abusive,” I complained, rubbing my head.
“I know. But you love me anyway.”
I grinned at her. “Yeah.”
At that moment Sam and Luke came bursting back into the room, Sam carrying a wobbly tray with four ceramic mugs balanced precariously on it, and Luke carrying a box.
I raised my eyebrow at the boys as they set the stuff down on the coffee table.
“Taboo?” Lay asked, looking at the box.
“Also known as the best game ever,” Luke declared.
“You take the words right out of my mouth,” I said, grinning.
“Me and Lay in one team,” Sam said quickly. Lay agreed (no surprises) and scrambled off me to join Sam on the couch. Luke sat down on the armrest of the armchair I was sitting on. Sam and I exchanged a look. We both prided ourselves at being rather good at Taboo and our competitive streaks prevented us from letting the other go easy. When we were in the same Taboo team, we usually massacred everyone else, but this time was different.
“We’ll go first,” Sam said, and grabbed a bunch of cards from the pack. I quickly went over to kneel behind him, looking over his shoulder at the cards, to check if the words he was using were okay. Luke held the timer.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready,” Sam said.
The first card was ‘Llama’.
“Okay,” Sam said, looking at Layla, “In that Tintin comic where Tintin goes to South America there’s that one animal that keeps spewing its saliva on him –”
Spit was a Taboo word. I guess spewing saliva was a new way of saying it.
“Llama,” Lay said immediately, and Sam grinned, discarding the card.
The next card was ‘Chocolate’.
“That time when you were six years old, and you came over, and in the kitchen….”
“Chocolate!” Layla squealed, clapping excitedly at this forgotten memory which I was clearly not a part of. I huffed as Sam shuffled to the next card, chuckling.
“Um….the gold coins in Harry Potter.”
“Gallons. Oh, gallons.”
The cycle went on, and in a minute the two of them managed to finish seven cards.
“We can beat them,” Luke said confidently, handing the timer over to Sam.
“I’ll guess,” I told Luke, picking out a bunch of cards and handing it to him. He grinned at took them. He turned sideways to face me.
“Three…two…one…start.”
Luke glanced at the first card.
“Old guy with funky hair,” he said.
“Einstein.”
He chuckled, picking the next card. “Yep. Okay….second element in the periodic table.”
“Um, helium?”
“Nerd,” Sam coughed, but Luke nodded, taking the next card.
“A few days ago, I told you that you’d make a good…”
I grinned at him. “Lawyer.”
Wow, he’s good at this.
“Okay, um….Facebook helps you dash and share with the people in your life.”
I struggled to remember the Facebook homepage, but then it hit me.
“Connect!”
Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.
How the fuck did he remember those things off the top of his head?
“Abstract noun for ‘connect’,” Luke went on.
“Connection.”
He glanced at the next card. “Uh....Tchaikovksy composition.”
“Swan Lake.”
“Half of that.”
“Swan.”
“Ugh,” Sam grumbled as Luke grinned and discarded the card and took the next one.
“Um...glossary and...?”
“Appendix?” I guessed.
“Yeah,” he said, laughing. “Okay...we watched this commercial on TV the other day, a L’oreal one for shampoo that strengthens your hair from the...?”
“Roots!” I said excitedly.
“Singular,” Luke said quickly.
“Root!”
He was grinning as he took the next card. “Robert what?”
I blinked. “Um...plant?”
“Yes!” Luke cried just as Sam yelled “Time up!” loudly – too loudly.
“Wow,” I breathed.
Luke grinned at me and ran a hand through his hair.
“We make a good team.”
I raised my fist and we did a fist bump. “Oh, yeah.”
Sam and Layla had eerily identical expressions.
“Oh, it’s on.”
Luke Waters
After two whole hours of Taboo, we decided to wrap it up. Maya and I beat Layla and Sam, by a narrow margin, though – those two had more inside jokes than I could count (it was also only after a while that I realised why Layla seemed so oddly familiar to me – she was the girl in the photograph that was on the wall in Maya’s room) but Maya was quick to understand what I was saying and her clues were amazing. We actually did make a good team.
Sam and I offered to clear up (though I’m not sure why), so Maya and Layla went up to Maya’s room, bidding us goodnight.
“I’m beat,” Sam mumbled, gathering up the coffee mugs onto the tray. “Unless you want to play another round of Halo or something…”
I chuckled, putting away the Taboo. “Nah. You go to bed, I’ll just…read or something.”
“You read?”
I laughed at his question. “Yes, Sam, I read.”
“No offence, but you don’t seem the type.”
“Yeah…I get that a lot, for some reason.”
He chuckled, straightening up with the tray in hand. “I’ll go put this away.”
We cleared up in the next ten minutes, and then Sam crashed in his room. I went into my own. I could hear light music and giggling from Maya’s room, so I guessed she and Layla were planning on staying up till later. I took a long shower, and when I stepped out it was close to three o clock in the morning.
Fucking jetlag.
I checked Skype and Facebook, but Leo wasn’t online on either of them.
I took out the only book I’d packed – The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger, and settled down in bed. I wasn’t in the least bit sleepy. At least I knew I wasn’t the only one – Maya and Layla were still awake, only quieter.
At around four, my throat felt a little dry. I was thirsty. Normally I couldn’t have been assed to go downstairs and get water but Blu was downstairs too, and he must have been lonely, so I decided to get him up as well. That is, if Maya hadn’t already.
I made my way out of my room, and knocked on Maya’s door. There was rustling noise and the door was opened by Layla.
“Hey,” I said, and she smiled at me.
“Hey.”
“Um, do you guys have Blue with you?” I asked.
She chuckled. “Maya’s just gone down to get him, actually. She was hoping you’ve forgotten.”
“I should’ve guessed,” I muttered. “Okay, thanks.”
I started downstairs, and Layla shut the door. When I made it to the bottom of the stairs, I heard a thud from the kitchen and a loud cuss word.
Maya.
I walked towards the doorway. The light was on. Maya came into sight. She had an ice-cream tub set on the kitchen counter, digging into it with a scoop, but it was too hard. Blu was sitting at her feet, watching her. She dug the scoop in once more, her narrow shoulders trembling with the effort, but it slipped again.
“Need help?” I asked her, walking into the kitchen, and she jumped, spinning around to face me.
“You scared me.”
I walked over, taking the scoop from her hand. To my surprise, a light haze of pink coloured her cheeks as she stepped away. She leaned against the counter, facing me as I scooped out ice-cream liberally into the two plastic bowls kept on the side.
“Gossiping session?” I inquired.
She chuckled, fiddling with the bottom of her black camisole.
“Kind of, yeah.”
The ice cream was cookies and cream flavored.
“Mind if I taste?” I asked. She shrugged, and held out a spoonful from her own bowl. She was obviously expecting me to take the spoon. Instead I just ate the ice-cream while she was still holding it.
I grinned at her as she blushed and took the spoon back.
“Thanks,” I said, swallowing.
She pressed her lips together, quickly picking up both bowls. I bent over and picked Blu up, who was literally whining for attention, his tail wagging fiercely. Cas would’ve been all over him if she saw him.
I looked up at Maya, who was watching me, just standing there with the two plastic bowls of ice-cream still in her hands, a little miniscule glob of ice-cream on the bottom of her checked boxer shorts. Her glasses were perched on top of her head again, and her hair was loose.
It was a thought that crossed my mind for a split-second, but in that split second, I wanted to kiss her. The thought caught me off guard. I didn’t know why, but I wanted to just step forward and wrap my arms around her, I wanted to feel her lips against mine, because there was just something about her.
Just for a split second though.
Then she shifted from one foot to another.
“Goodnight, Luke.”
Maybe more than a split second.
“Goodnight, Maya.”
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a/n: thoughts on layla?