The Owl Tattoo

Chapter 7

The next time I met Slok was the most awkward meeting of my life. And awkward in my life is a daily occurrence. It was the first time since Afraa and I started seeing each other four months ago that we decided to spend the night together. Slok had gone off on some business and the flat they shared was empty. When Afraa asked me to bring my night clothes for our date the coming weekend, I literally had to breathe in a paper bag. That was before I started muttering, "Not happening" over and over again.

By the 500th time it hit me that Afraa had become very quiet. I turned to look at her and her eyes were red and tears threatened to fall over. It hit me like a freight train that she thought my 'not happening' was a response to me sleeping with her and before I killed myself, I hugged her as tight as I had never hugged anyone in my life before. And once again like a chant I kept on saying, "I didn't mean that, honey." Honey got replace by love, baby, sweety and all the while she buried her face in my neck. After final sniffle she let go of me and asked, "Why don't you want me?"

That kind of floored me. I didn't want to tell her I had been dreaming of her for the last three nights. I managed a quite, "I don't want your brother in the next room while we...you know."

"My brother?"

"Yeah! Slok...remember him? Your brother you share your flat with...?"

"You fool. You twat of a bad excuse of a girlfriend! You made me cry! Slok is going away for the weekend! Which is why I called you over, you idiot!"

Wow! Afraa was doing a whole lot of flooring in one day. "Slok isn't going to be there?"

She grinned. "No, he's going away. Now will you come?"

I grinned like a fool too, "I'd love to."

Long story short: after a beautiful dinner and after-dinner 'party' when we were finally ready to call it a night, we had lost the inhibitions that came along with a first time. At about two in the morning, I went to the kitchen to get a bottle of water before falling asleep. There I was, wearing only a semi-long top that hardly was enough to cover me, when I heard keys jingling at the door. Panicking, I opened the refrigerator door to hide myself. A very tired Slok came in, threw his keys on the dining table and his bag by the door. He pointed his face at Afraa's room and bellowed (it was the middle of the night, for God's sake), "Afraa, I am home."

Then almost painstakingly slowly he turned towards the kitchen and saw the light emanating from the refrigerator and shouted (once again, two-thirty in the night, people), "FUCK!" Afraa barged in that exact moment, flooding the room by hitting the light switches. She was wearing an inside-out tee and a pair of shorts. She had in her hands the most beautiful piece of clothing I had even laid eyes on: a bed sheet. Slok had found his voice and if looks could kill, I'd have already been buried a hundred years ago.

"What the fuck is this, Afraa?"

"Bhai. I thought you were away for the weekend."

"So I have inconvenienced you by returning home, have I?"

"Bhai, it's not a big deal, Bhai."

"Not a big deal? Jesus, Afraa!" he was squealing which was getting on my nerves.

I got so angry that I slammed the refrigerator door loudly behind me and stood in front of them to loudly say, "Afraa, how old are you?"

They gaped at me. Slok drew in a sharp breath. Afraa threw me the bed sheet and in that moment I could have kissed her to death and she replied, "Twenty-one."

"Great! Twenty and twenty-one. Slok, did you know those numbers are bigger than eighteen?"

Buried and reduced to soil nutrients now.

"You'd do good to remember that, Slok. Afraa, let's please go sleep. Good-night, Slok." I basically push Afraa inside her bedroom and closed her open mouth shut before my courage ran out.

I guess somebody was pretty impressed because it was after four in the morning that we finally slept. In my sleep, I said the three words I hoped she wanted to hear.

"I love you."

And she said four I wished were untrue, "My brother's jealous of me."

My mornings-after were never weird (hard to fathom, I know). Mostly because it was very much predefined and pre-decided whenever I spent the night not alone. I woke up at nearly ten and found Afraa staring and smiling at me (in a totally non-creepy way). She had freshened up and was wearing a jeans and a tee now. I rub the remnants of sleep from my face and smile back. Then it hits me, my 'bravado' from last night and I cringe.

I ask her if Slok was still in and she affirms that today was basically the worst day of my life. I clean up and leave the safe confines of Afraa's bedroom. Slok looks up at me once before going back to his newspaper and cup of tea. I stand there like an insolent child at the principal's office. Slok once again looks up at me and points to the chair farthest from him. I sit.

"So...", I say.

Silence.

"Slok, how have you been?"

"Good." Silence. "You?"

I breathe a sigh of relief. If this idiot was asking questions, he was halfway where I wanted him. I replied, "Good, too. Listen, Slok, your sister is not some damsel in distress and I'm not taking undue advantage of her. We are both consenting adults. Can't you see that? That she means to me exactly what I mean to her."

He folds his newspaper meticulously and says, "There's time yet to decide who the damsel in distress is. In the meantime, I'd like to not know when you do what. Go a bit quiet the next time. It was three in the morning, Pri...she's my baby sister, Priyanka!"

"I know. I'll take care of her, I swear. It's not a fling, Slok. I know you are wary but you really have no reason to be."

"My baby sister and a girl friend. My common sense is in overdrive. Trying to figure who to threaten..."

"Threaten?"

"You know, like, go up to a guy, stare him down and say, 'You are dating my baby sister. Keep her happy or I'll chop your balls off.'"

I gulp and he laughs throatily before continuing, "I do that for friends and for Afraa. But this time I don't know which side I'm up for..."

"Don't worry, Bhai. Pri and I are on the same team."

I hadn't even noticed when Afraa had come in the room but after what she said it was a pretty regular Sunday. I was staying over at me friends' house, having a lazy day of movies and pizza one of them just happened to be my girlfriend and the other her brother. 

Hi! It's kind of a smaller chapter but more drama is upcoming!! The next chapter might not be exactly three days later but fingers crossed! As usual, please, Vote, Comment and Share if you like the chapter.