Fitoor

28 | Jealousy

Shehnaaz

I momentarily stiffen at his question but instead of anger, I overcome with guilt and fear. Because of the meds, I wasn’t feeling any rage but fear was still lurking around making me gulp nervously.

“I slept over your brother’s childhood bedroom last night since it was the closest one from the backdoor” I answer him truthfully even though Sidharth and I were only asleep for three hours.

I rub the back of my neck nervously while avoiding eye contact and continue “I also kind of requested your brother to stay with me last night because it was late and I was scared. I slept on the bed whilst he occupied the couch” I lie once again and finally after gaining the courage to look at him, I look up and see his frowning face.

Please be convinced...

“Hmm, maybe I won’t say anything to Sidharth. I mean for once he was not being a douche and also he helped you” He says cheerfully and from his expression, I get the idea that he possibly has no clue about Sidharth’s childhood room.

The thought fills me with warmth knowing that Sidharth shared this piece of information with me but not with his brother and a soft smile spreads my lips.

“Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you. We all are going out for lunch and I mainly came here to pick you up” He says nonchalantly and I was about to agree but instead I frowned at the pronoun ‘we’.

“What do you mean by ‘we’? Who else is joining us?” I stare at him confused because normally the maids deliver lunch to our rooms. I only went out once to have lunch and that was with Neha yesterday after the rain stopped.

Ahaan looks away nervously and grimaces for a moment.

“Actually me, you, Neha, Sidharth, Natasha, Sahil, Sameer and Anushka...” He trails off and I stand shocked at the mention of the last name.

“Are you serious?! Where the fuck did Anushka come from?” I stare at him incredulously and raise both of my hands with exaggeration.

Great! This day just gets better and better note the sarcasm.

“She moved out of India three years hack and settled here. We met yesterday at a coffee shop and out of a moment of weakness I asked her out”

“And you thought it would be nice for me to tag along and have lunch with the girl who loathed me because we were good friends. Did I forget to mention the fact that she also happens to be your ex girlfriend?” I ask him bemused because I didn’t know what to feel.

At this point, I was ok with facing Sameer and Natasha because Neha will be there, but having Anushka was a whole different scenario. The best way to define her character would be Janice from the famous sit com FRIENDS.

Nah, calling her janice will be an insult to Janice. At least that bitch was nice to Chandler's friends.

I sigh with annoyance and push myself forward from the bed to get up and change.

“I'll meet you at the front porch, let me go and get changed,” I say begrudgingly while dragging myself towards the closet. From the reflection of the mirror, I watch his face brighten but I don’t linger to hear what he has to say next.

Inside the closet, I pick up a pretty floral dress.