Dil Jaanta Hai | ✔

four

||CHAPTER 4||
《¤》

Saturday rolled in quickly, and before I knew it, I had almost completed a week in Delhi.

I kept staring at the ceiling, too lazy to get up, and too awake to go back to sleep. Sunlight streamed in through the slits between the curtains. My eyes landed on the clock on my desk, realization hitting me that Daadi would be leaving for her morning walk soon. I rolled over on the bed until I reached the edge, right arm dangling down, as I tried to touch the laminated flooring out of boredom..

The door knob twisted and the door opened slowly. Without moving from my position, I knew who it was. "What are you doing here?"

Arnav entered the room and closed it behind him. "Can I doze off here for a bit?"

I looked at him for a whole minute. If it wasn't so early in the morning as 7 a.m., my eyebrows would have been raised and eyes would have popped out. Instead, I sighed and rolled over again, my back now hitting the cool wall against which my bed rested.

"You've cocooned yourself in the sheets with all that rolling," he mumbled, trying to pull the sheet I was wrapped and tangled in. "Arey give na!"

"I am going to ignore you," I replied. With forceful and harsh tugs, he was able to free the sheet and wrap himself in. "Kyu aya tu yaha?" (Why are you here?)

Through closed eyes, he replied, "You said you were going to ignore me?"

Before I could pull the sheets back and let him die of hypothermia in summer, he held onto his side tightly, "Geez, sone aya hoon, ladne nahi." (Geez, I'm here to doze off, not fight.)

"Tere bed mein termites hai kya?" (Why? Do you have bed bugs in your bed?)

"Holiday mornings Dad doesn't let me sleep late. If I am not up and out jogging before 7:30, let's say Daadi can't help me either."

"Ooooh, Golden child problems," I teased. He didn't reply.

When I thought he was sleeping, he opened his eyes to look at me. "Why do you avoid me so much Vika?"

"Didn't Mumma say I ignore everybody? It's my hobby."

"I'm not everybody, I am your twin. Why do you hate me so much?"

"What makes you think I hate you?" Did I ever say I hated him?

"Well, we don't talk, we're not attached, we don't know what the other likes, we don't even know about each other. Ever since you've come back, I've tried to give you some time to break the ice because I know shifting isn't an easy decision for you. Heck, even I can't swallow the fact that my twin is back and is living with me, after eight years-"

"And how many times in these eight years have we seen each others' faces?"

I bit back my tears. I had always felt inferior to him, ever since things between our parents started being a bit edgy, but I wasn't going to bring that up, not today.

"You never called me either. Last I saw you was when I was in Mumbai to meet you and Mom three years ago, and you were leaving for a party! You didn't even stop by to meet me!" he pointed out.

I smiled, not totally heartless. "And you did? Their divorce wasn't supposed to affect us, Arnav. You weren't the one being shipped off to Mumbai. The least you could do was like, email me or something? For all I know, you must have felt amazing, being the only child in this house; no fights over the remote control cars, no fights over the bunk beds, no fights over who Daadi loves more, no fights over who gets more gifts on birthday, no fights over whose favorite food Ratan Kaka cooks, oh, and best of all, no fights over who sits on Dad's lap during football matches, even though I'm pretty sure it didn't matter back then anyways." It was always him who won them after all.