Song of the chapter is
I Found by Amber Run

-07-
-Himanshu Arora-
-Present-

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Delmore, Goa
11 November, 2030
6:18 pm

As I stood in front of my old house, a surge of wistfulness rushed over me.

The white porcelain texture had now been reduced to a pale yellow, with cracks and shafts in some corners. The old beige sapele door stood in an untouched glory, the little engravings on it still visible. The small porch had now been covered with the plants that my mom had planted over the years.

Everything was old, yet still the same.

"Babe, are you sure we couldn't have stayed at a hotel or an inn or something?" Dhrashti's voice echoed behind me as she pulled her pink chanel bag out of the dicky.

I turned to look at her as she came and stood beside me.

"I mean, I really don't want to cause any trouble for your parents. You know they are old." She uttered, but I knew that it was mainly because of the exiguity of my house. I didn't blame her. She had grown up in a lavish mansion, with thirty people always at her beck and call. She didn't exactly like houses that were smaller than her bedroom at her parents' villa.

"I'm sure it won't be a problem for them." I said, assuring her. "Plus, they are incredibly fond of you. I'm sure they'll love spending time with you."

She gave me a plastic smile and I returned a genuine one. Ngl, I was kind of enjoying annoying her for a change.

My parents greeted us at the door as we walked up the porch steps. After all the pleasantries and sweet smiles, we finally got to settle down for a bit.

Stepping into my old room, I felt a resurgence of a familiar nostalgia. Everything was still the same as I had left them. My Nirvana posters, the black and white pictures of every famous author that had graced my book shelf, my small typewriter that I had bought with all of my savings --- everything was the same.

I almost smiled to myself.

As I sauntered through the room, my eye caught sight of a familiar picture on one of the walls. As I walked up to it, I realised it was an old polaroid picture.

I pulled on it slightly and extracted it from the wall. The ridges of the photo were a little yellow now and there were slight creases on it as well.

However, one thing was still the same.

Our smiles.

It was polaroid of the six of us.

My smile faltered as I softly grazed my fingers over the picture. Saina stood next to Zizi, with her arms around her shoulder while Kartik and Siya stood next to them, their eyes trained on each other rather than the camera. I had a huge smile on my face, with my two fingers up, making a peace sign.

And next to me, standing in all black, was she.

Veronica D'Rosario.

"Himanshu, are you in there? I'm coming in."

I quickly put the picture in my jeans pocket and swiveled around to find Dhrashti standing at my door.

"Did you need something?" I asked, once I came out of my frenzy.

"I am kind of hungry for onion rings. I saw a hoarding about it when we were coming from the airport and my stomach has been craving for it since." She said, and then continued. "Could you get some for me, pretty please?"

I cringed internally as she pouted her lips at me.

"Sure... I was thinking of going out anyway. I'll pick some up on my way back."

"Great! I'll just chill in your room till then." She said as she walked in and closed the door behind her. I gave her a small smile as I walked past her, towards the door to leave. God knows I needed a break from her.

"Get the good ones, you know with less of the oily texture." She called behind me, as I unbolted the door to walk out. "I'm sure you already know the good restaurants in here!"

A thought crossed my mind as she said that.

"Yeah..... I know just the place."

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The sound of the wind chime crackling softly reverberated into my eardrums as I stepped into the Paper Lantern.

The place had been revamped a lot since the last time I had visited it. After Saina's mother's demise, Saina had sold it off to a potential buyer four years back. It was much more trendy now. The purple neon lights outside had been a clear indication of that. I could feel the laid back atmosphere that had been exuded from the store. The lights were dimmed, to add a minimalistic look to it. The teal booths had now been changed to a dark sangaria, complimenting the white chestnut tables.

I took a seat facing the wall, at our old booth , the one at the very corner, where the two walls met. The strong scent of coffee allured me straight into the line. Minutes later, a waitress walked up to me with a notepad in her hands. She unscrewed the cap off the pen with her teeth and without deigning me a look, asked, "What can I get for you tonight?"

"A breve to drink and uh....two plates of onion rings to go."

As she repeated the order back to me, still without deigning me a look, I dug into my pocket and fished out the money and kept it in front of her.

That's when she paused and looked up at me.

For almost an entire minute, she continued to just stare at me, a curious expression on her face, as if trying to figure out something. Before the uncomfortable scale could increase, I spoke up, "Can I... help you?

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Uh..."

"Oh wait.... Are you like..... famous? Have I seen you on TV?"

"Uh..."

"Wait wait wait, aren't you that author?? The one who wrote that book on the 2019 Delmore tragedy?" She inquired, excitement oozing out of every word.

"Uh..huh." I nodded slowly.

"Oh my gosh! This is so unreal!"

"It's really... not."

"Oh my gosh, can I get a autograph please?"

I realised, looking at her face, that she wasn't going to let it go.

"Alright....sure."

She grinned and pulled out her notepad and placed it in front of me. I looked up at her again, indicating that I needed the pen as well. It took her a second before her her eyebrows rose as it finally dawned on her. She hurriedly then handed me the pen as well.

As I finished signing the page, I looked up at her for assistance. She merely stared at me with a giddy expression.

"Uh...your name?"

"Ohhhh! Shefali!"

I gave her a short nod and wrote her name at the end and passed the notepad back to her. She gave me a wide smile as she tucked the notepad back in her apron pocket.

"I'll get you your order right away!"

Saying that, she traced her steps back and went back to the kitchen area. I shook my head at the odd encounter.

About fifteen minutes passed before she brought me a cup of breve with a warm smile.

"Your onion rings are taking a while. I hope you don't mind."

"No, absolutely not."

She returned an even bigger smile and walked back into the kitchen.

As I took a sip of the coffee, with it's temperature burning the epidermis of my tongue, a familiar sound of the wind chimes reverberated through the place again.

A second passed before I turned and looked back .

"Well well well, if it isn't Mr. Famous himself."

A bright grin etched on my face. I placed my cup down and stood up as she ran up to my booth.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" I asked as I met her halfway.

"It sure has." She grinned and pulled me into a tight hug. I clasped my hands around her waist.

"It's good to see you, Himanshu!"

I chuckled softly. "It's nice to see you too, Zizi."

As we parted, she ruffled her hands through my hair. "Gosh you look so sophisticated! It's giving me the icks."

I chuckled. "And you haven't changed one bit."

Flipping her hair, she grinned. "What can I say! I was and will always be awesome."

Laughter ricocheted from our throats and filled the atmosphere of the diner.

"I honestly half expected that you'd come, you know, given your incredibly busy schedule now that you're famous." She vouched, crinkling her nose as we sat down at the booth.

"Trust me, I'm not that famous." I decreed.

"Maybe not in the entire country, but this town? You're practically their showstopper. The only reason half of India knows about this dank place is because of your book." She stated.

I rubbed the nape of my neck. "Not sure if I should be flattered or scared of the fans."

She grinned. "You show-off!"

"What? I ain't joking. I'm not exactly the best person to deal with fame and popularity, you know that! I mean I was practically invisible the entirety of my high school years." I retorted.

"Yeah, well, that was until we became the talk of the town for being brutally tortured and blackmailed by psycho killer." She surmised casually. "So chances are you'll survive."

"Hopefully." I blinked hard.

She gave me a rueful smile. "Can you believe it's been 11 years?"

I nodded negatively. "Feels like yesterday."

"Doesn't it?" She said, looking away. "It's like....one moment we were kids, just doing random shit, and the next moment, we were thrown into adulthood, to be scavenged by wolves."

I nodded slowly.

She looked at her feet and then at me again. "Anyway, there's no point crying over our fucked up past. Life gave us some lemons, we made a lemonade. That's what matters."

"True." I agreed as I took a sip of my coffee. A moment passed before I continued, "So did you hear from any of the others? Are they coming?"

"Not that I know of." She answered. "Although Siya did post a picture of an airplane wing flying in the clouds on her insta story. So there's a chance they might be coming."

I smiled. "Classic Siya."

"I have no idea about Saina though. I hope that weird husband of hers lets her come." She continued.

I nodded.

"And about the other one...." Zoya drawled as I took a sip of my coffee. Looking up, I found her looking past me, towards the entrance to the diner. "Say the devil's name, and here she comes."

I followed her line of sight and turned around.

The sonorous chimes reverberated for a third time as the door slowly opened and she stepped in. Her hair was shorter than before, the ends resting on her shoulders instead of her waist. The deathly pallor on her porcelain face however was still the same. She had even grown a few inches taller. And just like before, she still carried heavens in her eyes, like one of those old Greek tragedies.

In a merlot stained long sleeved shirt and navy blue flare jeans, with her cross necklace resting on her chest, she whirled her head around as if to find a waiter. I watched as she adjusted the straps of the duffel bag that was slung over her shoulder. I watched as she pressed her lips into a thin line, like she usually did when impatient. I watched as her doe eyes slowly and gradually moved and then halted as they met mine.

And time just paused.

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omo! omo! omo!

my angsty babies are finally together again!!!!!wohooooooooo!!!!

how do you think himanshu will react to veronica's re-entry in his life after all these years? how do you think veronica will handle everything?

and how much time are you willing to give zoya before she starts re-shipping these two?

so much more to come! stay fucking tuned loves :)))

and don't forget to vote, comment and share the book as much as possible!

love,
Bosedisha