LEECH

CHAPTER SIX - SAMAIRA (NOW)

Neil is mad at me because apparently I ignored him.

Preparations for Cluster have begun in school with much gusto, which means that all the teachers are busy in something or the other. I don't even know why this event is so important to everyone. Most of the students have already begun missing school. Periods are way shorter so that kids have time to prepare for the inauguration function. And Aisha's running around all day like a madman. Which means most of the classroom is empty for the last two hours, which subsequently means that Neil sees an opportunity to spend more time together.

My boy is clingy, the type that would spend every moment with me if he could, but we don't often get opportunities like that. Today, we did, but I didn't stay back even though he asked me to.

In my defence, today was 'volunteering day', and I couldn't be late. Vaani's dad owns the Solace Hospital, although he isn't a doctor himself. Me, Aisha, Tara and Vaani accompany him to the hospital twice every week as volunteers.

Uncle drives us to hospital in his car, but he's a busy man, and if I had waited for Neil, I wouldn't have been able to go today at all. Yet, even as I tell myself it's not my fault, I still keep thinking about the hopeful look on his face as he asked me to wait for him. He'd said he had something to give me. Now, I don't know what it was, or if he would still give it to me after today's fiasco.

It's not even that big of a deal, and he's probably not even that angry. He can never be angry with me for too long, anyways. But I still cannot ignore this nagging feeling of guilt in the pit of my stomach.

Presently, Aisha is munching on a granola bar beside me. "Phew." She mutters. "I'm so hungry."

My stomach grumbles softly at the same time. Thankfully, they didn't hear it. Hospital days always leave me feeling pleasantly exhausted. It's fun running around doing chores, though.

Vaani frowns at her. "No one told you to skip lunch break at school, but you did anyway. Now suffer."

"I was with the drama team! The juniors...they are concentrating too much on the theatrics. We have to work on syncing their actions with the audio..."

Aisha drawls on and on about the complexities of a mere skit, which I don't think is that difficult, to be honest, but the juniors are less experienced and get scared easily. I know because I was in their position too, once upon a time.

Sometime during Vaani and Aisha's bickering, I end up zoning them out. I recognize that it's happening, but it is almost like...I can't get out of that cage. I don't know why it happens, or how to stop it, I just know it does and that's it.

"....ra...Samaira!" Aisha's voice penetrates through the thick fog that my mind went into. My head snaps up, looking at her, and she's staring back at me with narrowed eyes. "Is something wrong?" She mouths.

I shake my head. "Yeah, what were you saying?"

"Vaani was saying that a kid almost puked all over her dress today." She replies. Vaani scrunches her nose and pretends to throw up.

I smile. "There's gonna be a lot more throwing up in the future, Vans."

"When I said I wanted to volunteer to get 'future experience', I didn't mean I wanted to get puked on." She grumbles, and I can't help but laugh. Aisha rolls her eyes, mumbling 'dramatic' under her breath.

She checks her watch. "Vaani, why don't you go and ask uncle when he'll be coming down? I have a class at 5:30."

"Uhh, okay." Vaani says. "We'll eat something on the way home." She rushes to the other side of the building, probably to her father's room. Perks of being a hospital director's daughter, I guess.

I think I've lost my appetite. Almost like I'm hungry, but I don't want to eat.

"Now, mam." Ash comes to stand in front of me, pinning me with her gaze. "Will you tell me what's wrong with you?"

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing. You've been yucking my yum the whole time we've been here. So either you tell me what in the world is bothering you or we stay here the whole day. I'll tell Vaani to block the doors so you won't escape."

I sigh. "It's...really nothing important. It's just Neil. He's...angry at me. Or more like, upset with me?"

She gives me a droll look.

"He told me he had to give something important to me today. But I think it slipped off my mind and then I just left. And now he's unhappy." I look at the floor.

"So, what, did he expect you to take his permission before leaving or what?"

"No, but he said it was something important —"

"He can give it to you now. Or tomorrow. What could it be? Not like he's proposing today or something. You're still sixteen. Chill."

I smile, but it's rueful rather than happy. "Still, I don't want him to feel like I don't value him."

Her head snaps up at that. "Value him? He doesn't think you don't value him, Sam. And he'd never say anything like that. Wait." She pauses, eyes growing wide. "Did he say something?"

I fumble with my phone, opening our chats to show her a snippet. "No, but...look."

She peeks in, squints for a moment, then stares at me with a perplexed look.

"What?" I ask.

"What?" She says,

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

She opens and closes her mouth for a minute like a fish. "Sam, there's nothing wrong. He's texting you all those sickeningly sweet kissy emojis and the heart emojis and he just wrote 'love you babe'. I don't know what you're talking about. He seems fine."

I chew on my lips. "No it's...something's off. The vibe —"

"Or." Aisha interrupts. "Maybe you're overthinking and looking too much into it." She smiles reassuringly and wraps a hand around my shoulder. "Look, you need to stop worrying, okay? It's just Neil. Even if something is wrong, you both can discuss it tomorrow. Now stop being sad. It doesn't look good on you."

She tugs my lips with her fingers, as if trying to curve it upwards. I chuckle, slapping her hands away. "You're not even in a relationship. How can you give better relationship advice than me?"

She shrugs, wiggling her eyebrows playfully. "Everything I say is right." She says in a sing-song tune.

And she's right. She is. She makes sense. I'm the only one who doesn't.

Vaani emerges from the office, making her way towards her. She slaps Aisha on her butt, which leads her to squeal and threaten the other girl.

"I told dad, he'll be here in ten minutes and..." She narrows her eyes at me. "You look sullen. Why do you look sullen?"

"She was sullen. She won't be anymore, right, Sam?" Aisha asks, and I just nod meekly.

Maybe one day, I wouldn't be worrying about problems that don't exist. Maybe one day I'll be all unbothered and carefree and won't have to think about each and every interaction every night. One day, I'll be able to do that and more.

That day is not today. And maybe, just maybe, that's...okay.