Edge Of Seventeen

12. Heart Of Hyacinths

"Can you believe it?", I asked looking at my phone screen in disgust, "They've sent us a new revision exam timetable today. And the exams starts tomorrow! This is so not fair".

"Life is not fair Zoya", Rahul said matter-of-factly as he examined the hyacinths in our balcony with interest while I sat at the dining table scrolling through my phone.

We'd had a half day at school and mom wasn't at home. So I had called over Rahul.

On Riya, the pseudo romance expert's suggestion.

But it turned out, Mishti's nefarious predictions about Rahul were one hundred percent false.

All we had done in the last one hour, was have an incessant conversation over a lemonade that we managed to squash out together in the kitchen. And kissed. Like, a couple of times.

It was only today, that I had realised how easy it was talk to Rahul. Almost as easy as it was to talk to Riya and Mishti. In fact I had told Rahul a hundred stories about Riya and Mishti already.

"Can I take some of this home and plant it in my balcony too?", Rahul asked pointing at the purple flowers.

"And what will you tell your parents?"

"That I got them from the balcony of the most beautiful girl in the world".

I choked into the glass infront of me that was full with juice ten minutes ago, "Now beautiful girls in the world are going to come for a fight with you Rahul".

"You should really..", he stopped mid sentence as we heard the unmistakable footsteps outside the door.

"Mom's back home early!" I said getting up so quickly that I almost fell over, "You need to hide", I said urgently turning to Rahul.

"Why?", asked Rahul "I'll just tell her I came to borrow some chilli powder or something".

"Yeah, you came past three buildings to borrow chilli powder, did you? Rahul are you stupid?"

"Maybe"

"Rahul, please go and hide somewhere for a bit. I'll distract her and then you can take the lift and go down".

"I'm not going anywhere", Rahul said distractedly rubbing the soles of his feet "I'm not a coward Zoya".

"This is no time to be chivalrous Rahul. Come on", I said coaxingly, "Don't make a damsel beg. Come on, hurry up. Rahul... babe... sweetheart... honey... pineapple..".

"Pineapple?"

"Okay, custard apple. Will you hurry up?"

The doorbell rang wildly.

Why was mom ringing the doorbell? She had her own keys.

I felt all too relieved instantly. It was clearly someone else.

I darted to the front door and peeped through the key hole.

It was Mrs Kashyap!

"The landlady is here", I turned and mouthed to Rahul. But the problem was Rahul wasn't there.

He was bolting into the kitchen to hide. Bless him.

I opened the door by a creak and said, "Yes, aunty?"

"Oh it's you Zoya, is your mother at home?"

"Of course not!", I said trying to make it look like she'd made a big mistake so that she would feel embarrassed and might go away quickly.

"Oh, I should've known", Mrs Kashyap said looking very flustered.

It had worked!

But I also felt slightly guilty so I added, "She won't be home till six in the evening, aunty. Do you want me to tell her anything?"

"Um..no dear", Mrs Kashyap said "I'll call her up myself".

A loud clatter came from the kitchen.

Rahul!

Mrs Kashyap narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Come on, there was no need for so much drama. It wasn't like I'd been sleeping with Rahul here.

"I heard voices from outside", Mrs Kashyap said watching me intently.

"I was talking", I shrugged.

"To yourself?"

"On the phone"

"I heard two voices"

"Video call"

"But.."

"Bye", I said shutting the door quickly before Mrs Kashyap decided to do something vicious.

Like walk in and search the house.

"Uh..Rahul I need some help", I said hurrying back into the kitchen.

"What help?", Rahul asked putting back the plate he had knocked over "I thought we had established the fact that I'm not very good at trigonometry".

"I can manage trigonometry by myself", I said "No, I need you to help me by leaving right now".

"Why?"

"Because I don't want anyone to think we're fucking up here".

"That's very colourful for a good girl, Zoya", Rahul said raising his eyebrows, "I'd have thought language like that was for riff raff like me."

"Get out Rahul".

"Why is that fat lady coming here anyway?", Rahul asked looking annoyed "Did you guys not pay your rent? Just kidding!", he added seeing me open my mouth to protest.

"Must be something about water usage or something like that", I shrugged, "And one more thing Rahul, I can't come to see the Enchanted Stone on Saturday. Not with this new stupid revision exam holding us up for the next two weeks. I'm very sorry".

Rahul had invited me to go and watch his band play that Saturday. He was dying to meet Riya and Mishti and had asked me to bring them along.

But now the new timetable that had popped up on my phone screen had squashed the plan.

"No problem", Rahul said but I could hear the hurt in his voice "We can move the plan to another weekend".

"But.."

"Butts are for sitting Zoya", Rahul said "The band might be going for a tour at the end of this month so you and your friends can come and watch us in Mumbai after we come back".

"That might be ages away".

"So what?"

"Rahul are you sure about this?", I asked tentatively.

"Zoya, I will never ask you to skip school or exams to come and hang out with me, alright?", Rahul said, "My band is going to be around forever but your board exams are going to happen only once".

"My hero! What a selfless heart!" I said sarcastically.

"Shut up! Now I'm going home. And you go and study".