Short Stories By Yours Truly

| #10 Back to Vivek|

Just a fair warning, this is another school assignment and I am not particularly familiar with Indian culture or places, and thus I don't mean any sort of disrespect with what I've written. If you do have an issue with this story, please do let me know so I can educate myself on it.

Thank you.

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Aisley ran a hand through his hair and sighed as he held his phone against his ear, his grip on the device tight like a vice. It was just his luck to have his partner, Vivek, get ill while the two were so far apart. “I’ll try to figure out a way to get there so I can be with you, don’t worry, Viv,” he said to his partner. Vivek was terrified of being ill alone, mostly due to trauma they had experienced as a child that included their grandmother disappearing for days whenever they were feeling under the weather, so the last thing Aisley wanted was for them to be left to suffer alone in Kanpur while Aisley was in Lucknow.

“You don’t need to. I’ll be fine,” said Vivek in their familiarly calming, sweetly melodic voice. Aisley didn’t believe them, not for one second. He knew how they got when they were sick, and that was what motivated him to get home to them.

    “I’m still going to come to you whether you want me to or not. I was already about done with my work here anyway. I’ll try to be there today, just hang in there,” Aisley said, and before Vivek could try to object, he spoke again, “I love you, get some rest and don’t forget to drink something.” And with that, the call was over. Aisley slipped his phone into his pocket as he looked around his hotel room. It wasn’t anything special, but it was more than enough for his two week stay in Lucknow.  The man ran a hand through his hair once again - it was long enough to get in front of his eyes and he kept having to push it back with his hand - before moving to one side of the room in long strides. Aisley grabbed what clothes and other items he had scattered around the room, and promptly stuffed them into his barrel bag.

    Once finished with his packing, Aisley pulled his phone out of his pocket once again so he could order himself a ticket. He needed to get back to Kanpur. The last train of the day would arrive in half an hour. He needed to hurry if he wanted to make it to the junction before it was too late. Aisley threw his bag over his shoulder and walked out of his hotel room, ready to check out of the hotel. It took Aisley no more than five minutes to get checked out, and once he was done, he found himself nearly running in the crowded maze that was Lucknow.

    The city wasn’t the most crowded place Aisley had ever visited, nor was it the most polluted, but the amount of people outside was still tenfold to what he’d grown up around. Aisley had been raised in a smaller city, and though he had lived in big cities since age 15, which was half of his life by now, he still wasn’t quite used to so many people. As he placed one foot after the other in a hasty fashion, Aisley ran through a market, smelling the warm scents of the spiced foods sold there. While running through, he noticed a shop he had bought from the day before. He’d bought a kurta from the shop, intending to give it to his partner for their fifth anniversary. The kurta wasn’t really anything special, it was hand embroidered using the style of embroidery that had originated in Lucknow just like many others, but for Vivek it would be special. Vivek had a special place in their heart for anything related to embroidery and clothes, so Aisley knew they would love what he’d bought.

    Aisley smiled to himself at the thought of his partner and he pushed himself to move his legs faster, to get to the junction with hopefully enough time to spare so that he could take a moment to breathe. Some people would glance over at Aisley as he breezed past them, but he didn’t care. He didn’t have time to. He needed to get on that train and back home. In the distance, a red building could be seen, and had he not been running, Aisley would have sighed in relief at the sight of the train station.