||CHAPTER 4||
《¤》

Saturday rolled in quickly, and before I knew it, I had almost completed a week in Delhi.

I kept staring at the ceiling, too lazy to get up, and too awake to go back to sleep. Sunlight streamed in through the slits between the curtains. My eyes landed on the clock on my desk, realization hitting me that Daadi would be leaving for her morning walk soon. I rolled over on the bed until I reached the edge, right arm dangling down, as I tried to touch the laminated flooring out of boredom..

The door knob twisted and the door opened slowly. Without moving from my position, I knew who it was. "What are you doing here?"

Arnav entered the room and closed it behind him. "Can I doze off here for a bit?"

I looked at him for a whole minute. If it wasn't so early in the morning as 7 a.m., my eyebrows would have been raised and eyes would have popped out. Instead, I sighed and rolled over again, my back now hitting the cool wall against which my bed rested.

"You've cocooned yourself in the sheets with all that rolling," he mumbled, trying to pull the sheet I was wrapped and tangled in. "Arey give na!"

"I am going to ignore you," I replied. With forceful and harsh tugs, he was able to free the sheet and wrap himself in. "Kyu aya tu yaha?" (Why are you here?)

Through closed eyes, he replied, "You said you were going to ignore me?"

Before I could pull the sheets back and let him die of hypothermia in summer, he held onto his side tightly, "Geez, sone aya hoon, ladne nahi." (Geez, I'm here to doze off, not fight.)

"Tere bed mein termites hai kya?" (Why? Do you have bed bugs in your bed?)

"Holiday mornings Dad doesn't let me sleep late. If I am not up and out jogging before 7:30, let's say Daadi can't help me either."

"Ooooh, Golden child problems," I teased. He didn't reply.

When I thought he was sleeping, he opened his eyes to look at me. "Why do you avoid me so much Vika?"

"Didn't Mumma say I ignore everybody? It's my hobby."

"I'm not everybody, I am your twin. Why do you hate me so much?"

"What makes you think I hate you?" Did I ever say I hated him?

"Well, we don't talk, we're not attached, we don't know what the other likes, we don't even know about each other. Ever since you've come back, I've tried to give you some time to break the ice because I know shifting isn't an easy decision for you. Heck, even I can't swallow the fact that my twin is back and is living with me, after eight years-"

"And how many times in these eight years have we seen each others' faces?"

I bit back my tears. I had always felt inferior to him, ever since things between our parents started being a bit edgy, but I wasn't going to bring that up, not today.

"You never called me either. Last I saw you was when I was in Mumbai to meet you and Mom three years ago, and you were leaving for a party! You didn't even stop by to meet me!" he pointed out.

I smiled, not totally heartless. "And you did? Their divorce wasn't supposed to affect us, Arnav. You weren't the one being shipped off to Mumbai. The least you could do was like, email me or something? For all I know, you must have felt amazing, being the only child in this house; no fights over the remote control cars, no fights over the bunk beds, no fights over who Daadi loves more, no fights over who gets more gifts on birthday, no fights over whose favorite food Ratan Kaka cooks, oh, and best of all, no fights over who sits on Dad's lap during football matches, even though I'm pretty sure it didn't matter back then anyways." It was always him who won them after all.

Silence followed my statement, but when he did try to say something, footsteps were heard. The faint noise of the door across my room opening was heard, as my Dad asked for him. "Arnav? Maa, woh jaag gya kya?" (Arnav? Mom, has he woken up?)

From some other corner of the house, Daadi replied, "Jogging karne gaya hoga. Arvika so rahi hogi." (Must have gone jogging. Arvika is asleep.)

Not that he had asked about my whereabouts.

"Agle hafte se use Arnav ke saath bhejunga. Let her first get adjusted to this place again." (Will send her with Arnav from next week.)

When the noise diminished, Arnav turned to me. "Damn right, you are. No fights over anything, because I had no one to even talk to. It was a fucking amazing feeling to be lonely."

With both my hands tucked under my head, I let him continue.

"Jab koi poochhta thha, do you have a sibling, I used to say yes. I do. But mujhe nahi pata woh kya kar rahi hai. Mujhe nahi pata woh kaisi hai. Mujhe nahi pata use kya karna pasand hai. The only thing I know is that she is my twin, and she lives with our Mother.

"Jab Daadi mujhe playground me le jaati thhi, I used to see the swings you used to play. I would just stand there and watch the ghost of you swinging higher and higher, and how I could never swing as high as you did. I still sometimes do that, and maybe both of us have lost ourselves there.

"Remember the photographs in the hallway? Ham theen saal ke thhe jab Mom ne woh photo-shoot karwaya tha. My new friends would ask kaun hai ye log, and I would always be tongue tied. Ratan kaka would ask what I would like to eat, and I don't know why but your favourite gobhi ke parathe would always be what I wanted."

"I never liked gobhi ke parathe. I used to say that only to piss you off."

"Do you think I don't know that? That is why I used to have it. I missed getting annoyed by you, I missed annoying you!"

After a few moments he spoke again. "I know you think that Dad doesn't love you, and isn't happy with your decision of coming back, but the truth is after you departed with Mom, he wasn't a lively person anymore. Remember our weekend getaways? Just you, me and him? They stopped right after you left. He misses you too, Vika. And I don't think you notice how much he worries about you."

"Weren't you here to doze off for a bit?" I muttered with the same straight face. "I didn't let you in so that you could tell me 'bout your pitiful life."

When I finally woke up at 9:47, Arnav wasn't there anymore. I pulled the curtains away, letting the sunlight fill the room completely.

Brushing my teeth, I started pulling the sheets out to make my bed. Unmade beds were my pet peeves. Hearing some noise from the dining room, I quickly washed my face, changed out of my night suit and let myself out.

"Good morning beta," Daadi greeted me before I even saw her.

"Good morning Daadi," I sat beside her, watching Arnav's friends crowd the dining table. "Ye chachhundar subah subah kya karne aye hai?" 

"Dining table par baithkar nachenge tho nahi," Karan replied. "Khane aye hai." 

"It's our tradition," Arnav explains. "Wanna join us?"

I glanced at the variety of food on the table, consisting only of some poorly cut bread, jam spread over it, corn flakes sprinkled on top, and five glasses of watermelon juice circling the fruit basket. "Ratan kaka nahi aye hai kya?" 

"Aye hain," Daadi answered, passing me a glass of water. "Fikr mat kar, yeh unhone nahi banaya hai."

"Clearly. This looks like preschoolers having fireless cooking lessons. Cornflakes on jelly? Ugh."

"Excuse you, it's extremely satisfying. Sweet and crunchy," Ritwik defended

"Before the summer break, a girl told him she finds guys who cook attractive," Karan explained. "Since then... we're all making it a thing. We realized it was time to be a bit... What's the word? Oh yeah, self-sufficient."

I raised an eyebrow. "And... for how long will you follow this authentic tradition of unappetizing diets?"

"This is our third week," Vansh answered, walking out of the kitchen with a delicious smelling platter in his hands. "And like always, I am the one who makes something edible."

He glared at Ritwik who didn't wait for him to set the plate on the table, diving right in.

"Are those pancakes I smell?" I smiled at him. "Whoa, all mine," I grabbed five of them, shooing off Ritwik's hands.

"Excuse me, but you are not a member of this tradition yet," Karan objected, trying to steal my plate.

"Because I am the jury," I smacked his arm away.

Ignoring my mother's call for the fifth time, I busied myself on my phone with the English textbook open in front of me. The boys were in Arnav's room, and in spite of their half-hearted invitations for me to join them to play Call Of Duty, I was least interested in their company.

Three knocks rapped myy door and Ishita walked in without waiting for a response.

"Barge right in," I muttered under my breath.

"I think I'll need to wash my eyes because what is this that I am seeing?" Her high pitched tone drummed against my earbuds. "Dude, tu padh rahi hai?"

"Haan, so tata-bye-bye."

"Oh my god," she paced my room before jumping down on my bed. "Tu kitni boring insaan hai yaar. Saturday ko kaun padhtha hai?" 

"You're very much welcome to join my brother and his friends to play COD."

"Gahh!" She sighed dramatically. Walking over to me, she slammed shut my book, pulling me up by my hand and dragging me out of my room, walking straight into the one across mine. "You can't fool me by playing all nerdy okay, I have seen your Instagram. All 264 posts in them."

"How very subtle," I commented. "Do you have a fan account too?"

"Would much rather have an only-fans one. Now come on, your bro thinks we can't smash their asses in COD."

_____

Namoshtaii!

How many of you are nervous for your exams? I am, dude 11th is tough and so is life.

Well, anyways, read, vote, comment and promote ;)

~chaashnee.