"What? Why are you here?" My voice was thick from sleep as I sat up, warily shifting away from Lila. Her damp hair hung in coils and the shoulder pads of her yellow, short jumpsuit was soaked with water. She had directly visited me from her swimming date with Raul and I hated to see how her cheeks were flushed in rapture.

"Good she came or else you'll sleep all day. You're your father's daughter. That's who you are," my mother said reproachfully with a pile of folded clothes in her arms. I recalled how I became 'her daughter' whenever I performed well academically. Otherwise, I was my father's daughter. "Stay as long as you like, Lila. Will you have dinner with us tonight?"

"Aai, I don't think she---"

"Yeah, I would love to!" Lila shamelessly plopped on my bed and I had to bring my legs close to my knees, my clammy hands clutching the thin blanket.

"I hope you like okra and paneer," my mother added dotingly, exiting the room. Paneer was for special occasions which meant that Lila was special. I threw the blanket off me, unheedingly striding towards the bathroom.

"I came here directly from Raul's---" I slammed the door shut at Lila's words, flounced inside and stared hard at myself in the oval mirror of the cabinet which was cluttered with Pavitra and my beauty products. There was a long, bright red pillow mark across my cheek and I rubbed hard at it with water, hoping that it would fade away. I knew that mark would have mentally made her giggle. That thought made me scrub harder. Why was she here anyway? To tell me all the fun she had swimming half-naked with that questionable creature? Why wouldn't she simply listen to my warnings? I knew he would have kissed her, that must have been his plan all along, to lure her with his daddy's pool and kiss her. That was why Anthony and I were never invited.

I tied my hair into a tight ponytail which made my scalp hurt (but made me look fresh) and emerged out, to find Lila's face light up. "I came here directly from Raul's house---"

"I know. I saw your video."

"Why didn't you reply?" She blinked in bewilderment and I scoffed.

"I didn't reply? I might have forgotten. I don't know." I didn't care either.

"You won't ask me how it was?"

"I don't know. Don't you always go there since you were a child or something?"

"But this time it was different!" She twirled a coil of her hair around her finger and flirtatiously raised her eyebrows, insinuating at how different it was.

My heart was throbbing loudly in my chest as I prepared myself for the difference. "What happened?"

"He kissed me." She smugly smiled, letting go of that coil which wildly spiralled and a lump formed in my throat.

I knew it. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! However, the knowledge of what was to come didn't soften the blow. All because of Hope. That odd creature Hope which was always hanging upon one's back like Betaal. I wanted to shrug away that Hope, that obstinate, vile Hope which made a fool out of a sane person. "I-I told you Raul's not right!"

"But it wasn't like that. It was nice," she defended him and I peevishly bit the inside of my lower lip. There was no use protecting her from him when she liked it. Alright then, it was her choice. However stupid it was since he would twist her heart into his desired shapes and eventually break it. That was the only way she would learn her lesson. There was no saving her when she didn't want to be saved.

"Good for you then." I sat on my bed, leaning against the wall. I could taste the blood from biting the inside of my lower lip and I could hear the ticking of the old fan which irked me further. "Can you sit on Pavitra's bed? I want some space. I can't sit with you hogging all the space here."

She compliantly did as I asked and I grabbed a book from my nearby shelf, laid down on my single bed and faced the bleakness of the wall. My head felt heavy against the soft pillow. I didn't know what was the title of this book, but I didn't dare to lift a finger, afraid of doing or saying something that I would regret later. I lay there motionless like a rotting corpse.

"I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't for the mess at my house," I heard her dolorous voice like the ache of a widow reminiscing her wedding days. Suddenly, I felt sad for her. But she didn't need me, she was still inclined towards that rich brat. "Is it okay if I stay the night here?"

"Can't you stay at your boyfriend's house?"

I heard her senseless giggles which aggravated me more. "He's not my boyfriend."

"So you just go around kissing anyone you feel like?"

"Everyone will be shocked if I stayed at his place." Her frivolous giggles continued, probably imagining the outcome.

"As if you care about everyone."

Her frivolous giggles turned to puzzled giggles. "What do you mean?"

I let her unanswered question drift in the air around her, stirring her, unnerving her. We didn't talk after that and I didn't know how many hours passed as I stared at the same words in the book, not once turning the yellowed pages. Occasionally, I heard shuffling from where she was sitting, but nothing else. I heard my mother inquisitively enter a couple of times, but nobody responded. I imagined Lila would have smiled at my mother in assurance.

"Dinner is ready!" I heard my mother's shout and got up mechanically, keeping away the unread book and heading straight towards the living room. Seeing me, she continued sarcastically in Marathi, "You know your brilliant father? He got these vegetables from Godrej Basket! Organic food! What nonsense! He has no brains! Why couldn't he buy from the vendor near the park? Why does he have to spend money unnecessarily? He can barely pay off the loan and . . . "

Lila silently sat on the chair opposite to me as my mother incessantly complained about my father (who wasn't at home now) in Marathi, thinking that Lila didn't understand. Lila couldn't speak in Marathi, but she understood perfectly well. I didn't look at her face to catch her amused expression, not from embarrassment, but irritation. I observed the food being served, a generous dollop of special paneer tikka masala on special Lila's floral ceramic plate (normally at home, we used steel plates). Whereas I got more of the dry okra, but I didn't protest.

"You didn't go to meet Jaspreet today?" My mother's sudden question alarmed me as I hastily got up, the dining table shaking from my negligence. "You could have taken Lila with you. After all, you three studied in the same class."

I couldn't have. Jaspreet disliked Lila because she thought Lila was vain and had an "attitude." That Lila didn't care about anyone, but only about herself. I could see today why she thought that.

Without sparing a glance at either of them, I headed straight to my phone which was kept in my room and anxiously checked the messages, expecting a bombardment of where did I disappear and all. To my astonishment, there were multiple messages by her which were all deleted on WhatsApp. Jaspreet never deleted her messages, however nonsensical they were. I called her promptly, but she didn't pick up.

"Your food is getting cold!" my mum vociferated from the living room.

I started typing, 'I'm so sorry that I couldn't come . . . Anthony came over and he's still here, having dinner with us. We had a major fight so I forgot because of all this, I'm sorry."

Fortunately, she came online, a minute after I sent her the message.

'It's okay. The waffles were yummy like always'- Jazz.

Holy hell. She did show up at the waffle place and I . . . If only I wasn't in my deep, pitiful hole because of Lila . . . If only Lila wasn't here.

'We'll meet soon, next week?'

'Sure . . . And hope you're okay?'- Jazz.

She was referring to the lie that she naively believed in and I typed, 'Yes, I'm sure he and I will resolve it soon.'

'Great'- Jazz.

'Yeah. Good night!'

'Good night'- Jazz.

* * *

Glossary :

Betaal- a ghost from the mythological story of Vikram and Betaal.

Godrej Basket- a grocery store.