A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.

Roy H. Williams

Riya's POV

   Once again, I was packed and whisked off to the airport. My family came from my house, and I was with Madhan and his family. It's going to take a while for me to call his family mine too. I was honestly surprised to see that Madhan packed only a duffel bag.

   When I questioned him about it, he said that while coming, his suitcases were filled with gifts, and he had a couple of clothes at home, so he didn't feel the necessity to waste space on his stuff.

   My mom said that she was going to ship every little thing that belonged to me. She told me that the next time I would come back, I would be welcomed by a HALF empty house. I rolled my eyes. I didn't own that many stuff.

   Let's see. Twenty salwars, six dresses, eight pajamas, twelve sarees, six jeans, three Anarkalis, ten stuffed animals, my fifty odd novels, okay never mind. Maybe she wasn't exaggerating. I wonder if Madhan's house would be big enough to house all of these things, along with me. I'm sure I'll will need two rooms. I hope he has a three bedroom apartment, since there's no way in hell I'm sharing a room with him. I have never shared my room with anyone. Why would I start now, especially with someone who's big enough to occupy the whole bed?

   I chuckled at the thought of Madhan being chucked out of his house since he had no room to stay in. That earned me some curious glances, but I shrugged it off.

   The parting this time wasn't nearly as bad. I say nearly, since there was crying, but the little part that was NOT bad was cause no one except me cried. I've seen SO many movies where families were crying like they were attending a funeral because the son and daughter in law or vice versa were leaving.

   Pfft, so much for wanting a cinema-like scene at the airport.

   The people who aren't boarding the flight cannot get past the waiting room. Madhan and I had already checked in the bags, with great difficulty I might add, since my suitcase was over the weight limit. I had to take out my huge make-up kit, since that was enough for the bag to go down by a quarter.

   I sighed. It was a handy old make-up kit.

   "I'll get you a new one. I know a shop that sells one just like this, " Madhan offered.

   I narrowed my eyes at him. "Do you wear makeup?" I asked, arching an eyebrow.

   Madhan look offended. "No. Of course not. I was looking to by one for Reshma, and I came across that one. It was my third choice since this kit is so huge. You look so beautiful without makeup. Why do you need one any way?"

   I suddenly felt devious. I swiped a finger across my cheek and showed it to him. The horrified look he gave was one that was well worth it.

   I laughed as I heard him mutter about how he didn't believe it when he saw those trolls where they show the girl wearing three layers of make-up or something.

   Don't get me wrong. I don't always wear so much make-up. I knew I was going to cry a lot, and I didn't wanna look horrible after that. Hence the three layers. I recalled the evening as I was applying foundation. Reshma was looking through my collection and was totally in awe of it.

   I was pretty surprised actually. I thought she was the not so girly kind a girl. It didn't occur to me to give it to her then. Now that I knew I couldn't take it with me, I knew exactly what to do with it. No one would take better care of it than Reshma. Once the luggage check in was over, we headed over to the waiting room where our families were. We had two hours left to go. And I really wanted to spend it with them. So did Madhan, since he barely gets to see them anymore.

   Reshma was busy talking to my brother, Ajay. Our parents were talking animatedly too. I had to clear my throat to get their attention.

   "My luggage was a bit over weight so I had to take this out," I said.

   My father laughed. "A bit? Darling, your suit case had a belly."

   I groaned as everyone laughed heartily.

   "Well, since I can't take this with me, I'm going to give this to Reshma," I said, looking directly at her.

   Needless to say, she screamed, but at the same time, someone else shouted no.

   Everyone turned to look at Madhan.

   "Why?" I asked him, playfully, arching my eyebrow again.

   He gave me a pointed look, which I conveniently chose to ignore.

   "Don't mind my brother. He's a bum. I'll take extremely good care of it and use it wisely, " Reshma said, feeling starry-eyed.

   Madhan scowled, as I smiled triumphantly, but I could still see the appreciation in his eyes. He's impressed, I thought, smugly.

  Not for long, babe. Not for long, I thought, evil.

   One hour whisked by in fraction of a second, and we had to leave. I cried once more, removing the second layer of makeup I wore. After the final goodbye, we walked to the nearest restroom. The place was eerily empty. There was a mirror on top of every wash basin, and every bathroom stall had toilet paper in it.

   I adjusted my yellow sundress and redid my hair. Once I decided I looked decent enough, I grabbed my purse from the counter and strutted out.

   Madhan was patiently standing outside with our suitcases. He seemed relieved when I came out. Oops, someone really had to go to the loo.

   "Sorry, I had a lot of adjusting to do."

   "Indeed. You look better now."

   "See. I told you make-up does wonders. I wore five layers of foundation now."

   God, I love torturing him. I had to fight back the urge to laugh, as I saw his eyes bulge.

   "Be right back," he said quickly and rushed into the restroom.

   I looked around at my surroundings. There was a flurry of activity every where, which was surprising, since it's one o clock in the midnight. In front of me was the board where they mentioned the flight details. To my right, was a long corridor, with shops on each side of it. To my left, was the escalator by which we had to use to reach our gate number.

   Just as I finished reading our flight details, Madhan came out and asked if I was ready to go.

   "Nope."

   "What? You need to apply lipstick now?"

   I rolled my eyes and chose not to reply to that. "Nope. I want a burger."

   Madhan nodded and lifted the handle of the suitcase. "Let's go then," he said, as he begun rolling it.

   I rolled my purple SkyBird suitcase, right behind him, occasionally bumping into his suitcase.

   He sighed and slowed down to walk beside me. I could tell he was struggling to walk slowly, since his legs were so long. Deciding to be a little coorperative, I tried to walk a little faster. His pacing seemed a bit steady now, and I knew he was grateful, since the next thing he said after sitting comfortably at McDonalds was, "That eye brow arch you did was pretty impressive."

   "Why thank you, Madhan. It took a while for me to get it though, " I said, humbly.

   "I always keep trying but I never get it," he said, lightly grumbling.

   He raised both his eyebrows, making it appear like he's a mildly lost panda bear.

   I laughed as I arched both my eyebrows alternately.

   "Hey, don't rub it in my face," he whined.

   "I want a McVeggie Burger, large. I'm absolutely famished, " I said.

   He nodded. He motioned for the waiter and gave his order along with mine.

   We waited in silence, as we pondered about what was going to happen next.

   Ten minutes later, our order was ready, and twenty minutes later, we were out.

   "Gate number sixteen, right?" I asked Madhan, confirming what I saw on the board before.

   "Yeah. It says go right," he said, pointing at the sign above a few meters away.

   We rolled our luggage to the gate entrance and had to wait only five minutes before they started boarding.

   Flight 286 is now boarding, the flight attendant announced.

   The checking process went smoothly. I smiled as I walked through the vent which leads to the airplane. It brought back memories of family vacations, and dreams of Aakash and I traveling.

   I tried not to think of him as I reveled in it. At the entrance of the plane, two other attendants smiled, and welcomed us aboard. There was quite a queue in front of us, and we had to wait till the others placed the suitcases in the shelves above. Our row was three rows from the last, so we had to wait even more longer.

   Finally, after what seemed ages, we found our seats. Madhan placed the luggage above and ushered me to sit inside. I didn't oppose since I absolutely love the window seat. I mean which girl doesn't?

   Then Madhan sat down.

   And do you know WHAT happened? I don't even think you can GUESS what happened.

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   HE WAS SO HUGE THAT HE LITERALLY SAT ON ME.

   Okay, I'm exaggerating. He sat on one of my thighs.

   "Ooof, get off me, Madhan," I screeched. "I can't breathe."

   Madhan got up immediately, hitting the light bulb on top, and breaking it.

   "I'm so sorry, Riya," he said, feeling extremely sorry.

   I felt a pinch on my hand and looked down in dismay. One of the glass pieces pierced me, and I was bleeding in not one, but four other places.

   The Flight attendants were obviously not the least bit pleased. They were disappointed that he didn't by two tickets for himself for which he obviously blew up, saying that the price of ticket was the cost of his house.

   This, of course, displeased them even more, and they looked sorry for me. They said they would have made arrangements for us, but because of his outburst, they said that we had to adjust.

   "What are we going to do," I asked, quite worriedly.

  "Riya, get up," Madhan said.

   I got up obediently, and was dismayed when I saw Madhan adjust himself in a way he was comfortable seated.

   "Now sit," he said.

   I looked at my seat. In math, we take delta x, which means it's a small amount of x, right? Well here, it was like delta seat. I looked at him in horror.

   "I'm sorry, " he said, as he took out the magazine in the front pouch.

   Please wear your seatbelts. We are about to take off.

   I squished myself into that tiny space I had and felt sick. The flight attendants were sweet enough to hand me band aids which I gratefully wore.

   I think it must have been half an hour by the time I couldn't take it anymore? Luckily the seatbelt sign went off, and I was free to stand. I excused myself and went to the restroom, and when I came back, Madhan was comfortably seated.

   "Dude, I can't sit there!"

   Madhan looked hurt. "I'm really sorry. I can't do anything about it."

   "Yes, you can. Have you ever tried weight reduction," I spat, as I went to look for the flight attendant.

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