The Other Foot

Chapter 7

Freshly written and, of course, unedited, my loves. Hope you enjoy!

"Sushmita Mehta, it's good to meet you too!" The wretched woman who cursed me in this same courtroom was now a lawyer in this new world I was stuck in. Like others didn't recognise me, I assumed she was also not going to be able to. I needed to be careful with her not show my obvious adhorence towards her.

She glanced my way and examined me from toe to head then back down. A chill creep threatened to run down my back but I fought against it and stood upright. "I am Sushmita Soni not Mehta, Mx Agrawal." She corrected me with a stern look. "My lord, as I was sayin-"

I cut her off in the middle and said, "I will be fighting my own case, My lord, and my pronouns are He/Him, thank you." I bowed down to add a bit of theatrics. Tripathi Ji watched my with a crooked eyebrow and Sushmita's eyes carefully followed my moves.

"Mr Agarwal, have you practised law before?"

I opened my mouth to answer the judge's query but just in time the rusty wheels of my brain started working as if being lubricated by the stimuli processed from the courtroom alone. "I am afraid, My lord, I haven't had the chance. But if you could grant me only a week's worth of time, I would be humbly grateful to you!" I need to know the laws of this world and by announcing I was a lawyer would have never helped me in that situation.

"Eh, where do these people come from?" No matter which world he lived in Tripathi Ji could never keep his voice down. He looks up embarrassed watching the few people in the room react hearing his words. He coughs loudly to cover up the act and said, "Fine, take the week. Until then you're under house arrest, and a police officer," his gaze traveled to Yuhi to say the rest, "will always be by your side." I did a little victory dance in my head while keeping a poker face. "But let's not stretch this case, the court has more important matters to deliver justice too."

"Yes, My lord." Sushmita and I both said unison. We glanced at each other and it was as if we both tried fighting through our gaze.

Yuhi's cold hands on my shoulder made me lose the gaze battle. "Do you want to be here all day or what?" She snapped at me in a harsh tone. I couldn't understand what had gotten into her all of a sudden so instead of taking back I just shook my head and followed her lead to leave the room.

We came outside and I waited for Yuhi to make a move since I had nowhere to go. If I was homeless, that basically means I couldn't be under house arrest. Damn, I crack myself up!

A short chuckle escaped my lips as I was laughing at my joke in my head. "What?" Yuhi asked, turning around. The door to the driver's seat kept open as she waited for me to explain my joke then climb inside.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. She didn't buy it but said nothing and climbed inside. "Uh, where are you going?" Yuhi cocked an eyebrow at me from the window thinking I was expecting her to tell me her whereabouts. "I mean, you know I, uh... I don't have anywhere to go. So..."

"So?" Was she really not getting where I was headed or was just not interested?

"So I was wondering maybe you could help me find a place to stay until I figure everything out?" Asking for help was not my thing. the way it made me sound vulnerable and weak was what annoyed the living daylights out of me.

"And why would I do that?" the smirk adorning her lips should have been illegal. it seemed so sensual and killer at the same time that I forgot about my shelter needs for a second.

Regaining control over my emotions, I let out a lame excuse, "Because we are almost friends now?" giving her a lopsided grin, I hoped for it to make it work.