Till Forever Falls Apart

9). Anika

ANIKA

I woke up startled because of some sound. Then, I realized it's my alarm, which I forgot to turn off.

Ughh... Why did I forget this? It's the weekend. The only time when I can sleep without having to worry about getting late.

Now I won't be able to go back to sleep. Great start of the day.

I need chai now. I won't be able to function unless I have some caffeine in my system. So, I went into the kitchen and made two cups of chai.

Ayla tried to get me hooked on coffee, which was never gonna happen. Yeah, if given a choice between coffee and tea, ninety-five percent of the Indian people, will choose tea. Including me. She didn't succeed, but I did. Now she also drinks chai with me.

Chai is love. Also, golgappe. And momos. And chole bhature.

Oh, god how much I miss them.

I took one cup to Ayla's room.

"Good morning, sleepyhead. Get up. Here's your morning tea." I said.

"Hmmm." she said sleepily.

"Ayla, your tea. Drink it before it gets cold."

"Hmm... thanks." She mumbled.

I went to the balcony with my cup of tea. It was a cool and breezy morning. A strong gust of wind blew across my face and suddenly all I wanted to do was dance.

I went into the living room and played the song 'Mitwa' by Shankar Mahadevan. As the thrumming of music whispered into my ears, I began to dance.

I closed my eyes and swayed my hips with the music.

Arms flailing in the air, I whirled around and whooped my happiness into the sweat-stained air. Foot forward. Back. I couldn't remember the last time I did this.

Between college, my job and searching for a studio, I didn't have the time to dance anymore. And it was like a piece of me went missing, but at this moment I was whole again.

Slowly, the song came to an end.

I opened my eyes and came face to face with Ayla.

I gasped and kept a hand on my chest, "Oh God! You scared me. Don't sneak up on me like this."

She shrugged her shoulder, "I was enjoying the show. You know... you rarely dance now, but when you do..." she said and then blew me a chef's kiss.

I just smiled and sat beside her on the couch.

"You know we should go out tonight. My shift is ending early today, and you also work only until five in the evening on weekends. What do you say?" She asked excitedly.

"I don't know. You know I have to go search for a perfect place for my academy."

"Yes, I know. But if you keep overworking yourself, you won't be able to do anything. You're allowed to have fun, you know."

She's right. I have to stop being so hard on myself. I could waste one night on myself.

"Okay fine. We'll go."

"Great. Now go get ready. You're getting late for your job."

"Oh god. I totally forgot about it. What's the time?" I asked in a hurry.

"Chill, you still have an hour to get ready."

"I need to get going." I said while going towards my room.

***

After dealing with the last customer in the queue, I turned towards Sasha and asked, "You know what I love the most about weekends?"

"Early shifts?" She asked while raising her eyebrows at me.

"That too. But mostly because I don't have to deal with that evil old lady."

She started laughing and then suddenly her eyes went wide and with a horrified look, "Umm, Ika...she's standing right behind you."

"What? No fucking way!" I said loudly before turning towards the counter. But there was no one there.

Sasha started laughing so loudly that her eyes started watering.

With narrow eyes, I stared at her and said, "Ha! Ha! It's not funny, Sasha."

"Come on admit it. It's a little bit funny. The way you got all panicky when you thought she was standing there." She said, while wiping her tears.

I just rolled my eyes at her.

Suddenly she got all quiet, her eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped.

"Holy shit! Zane Sterling in our coffee shop." She said.

"Yeah, I'm not falling for that again." I said, while smirking.

"No Ika. I'm not joking. Seriously, Zane Sterling really is standing behind you."

"Yeah, yeah. And I had lunch with Vicky Kaushal yesterday." I said.

Suddenly, a voice boomed from behind me. A deep, gravelly voice.

"Who's Vicky Kaushal?"

I slowly turned and I guess, at this point, there's only one thing to say.

Oh fuck.