The Price You Pay

The Price You Pay: Chapter 24

It is decidedly cold when we pile into Maya's Ford as we leave for Port Angeles Saturday morning. I am wearing a freshly washed hoodie, a scarf and the Burberry, but my feet are cold in the sneakers that really are made for Phoenix weather.

Well, at least it's dry today. I need a torch to find my way outside it's so cloudy, but the skies aren't weeping, as Renée used to say.

I have spent my Friday working on the Biology assignment, going all out and finishing it before the men came home. Ishani and Sara were off to the pool hall, of course, and I assumed they went there directly after school.

My thoughts kept going back to that conversation I had with Vansh. About him telling me that I was safe, and I believed him. But as I really don't know what possibly to do with this information, I put it to the back of my mind.

I've become proficient at not thinking about things I do not understand or don't want to think about.

In the end, I finally did get to write down that Biology assignment. When he moved to put on some music, he played that same song again. That quiet piano song, the notes almost hesitant in the beginning as the music picked up and it became a soothing piece.

I had walked away, again, alarmed by the memories that song triggered, the memories that were just outside the periphery of my mind. It was as if my mind was purposefully blocking them, because I knew that song was attached to a memory. I just couldn't reach it.

I was hiding out in the library after finishing Biology in the late afternoon, once more submerging myself in those astronomy books I found, when I heard some sounds outside. Huddling in the pillows of the window seat, I could see how Kabir, Angre and Vansh were in the garden playing ball.

Pretty sure I was out of their sight, I looked at them. They were moving so easily, laughing and talking about things I could not hear.

At one moment Kabir jumped Angre and although my first reaction was shock and alarm, they both were laughing as Angre bent over forwards with Kabir still on his back, trying to get him off again.

I felt a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth to see them happy and careless like that.

But that light mood is far-gone now I am in the back of the car as Maya pulls out of the garage. We are going to Port Angeles. To shop.

Ew.

I hope that Ishani will ask for so much attention I will be overlooked. I don't want Maya to spend any money on me. I just need an extra hoodie and I'll be good.

Ishani babbles non-stop the entire way there and just as I contemplate shutting down just to be able to shut out her voice, Maya announces we have arrived.

I unfold myself from the back seat carefully and look around. There are definitely more people around here. But I don't really mind people.

Three weeks ago, at the airport, all those people made me nervous. I find that right now, I don't really care anymore. Although I generally don't like crowded places, it's not the things that happen outside the house that scare me.

"Riddhima?" Maya's voice pulls me from my thoughtful gaze and I look around to face her. "I know this is completely unnecessary, but please… Don't try anything funny."

I gape at her as the meaning of her words sinks in. Did she really think I would try to make a run for it? My reaction apparently is enough reassurance for her, because she smiles and invites Ishani and me to come with her into the mall.

Ishani is talking, talking, talking, and I tag along, listening to her rambling now and again and picking up pieces of sentences about school, clothes, Vansh, Kabir clothes, fabric, clothes, dad, clothes, shoes, and clothes.