Little girl's wild side

Chapter 25

When they reached Sindhu's place, it was almost midnight. Gautham stopped the car outside Sindhu's place. Then he turned around towards Sindhu who was happily sleeping with her seat pushed down to max and her legs hoisted over the dashboard in the front. She looked extremely peaceful and content. Gautham almost did not want to wake her but then he reached out and shook her awake.

Sindhu blinked several times. She lifted her hands to rub over her eyes. But seeing as she never bothered to wash her hands after having snacks, Gautham hurriedly grabbed her hands.

"Your hands are not clean. They still probably have spices from potato chip you had earlier", Gautham said but Sindhu was still not fully awake and a little groggy so she did not comprehend what he was saying. By reflex, she tried to reach her eyes with her other hands. Gautham let out a sign and held back both her hands with one of his hands and reached out with his other hands, tidied her hairs that were falling over her eyes and tucked them behind her ears and lightly rubbed over her eyes. Finally, Sindhu fully opened her eyes and looked around confused.

"We're home," Gautham said.

Sindhu's throat was dry so she did not reply, just nodded and simply got down from the car and collected her bags quietly. Gautham parked the car inside the house and took his own bike from there. When he came to the front of the house, he saw that Sindhu had not gone inside yet. She was standing with the support of the walls with her eyes still closed. But as soon as she heard him rolling his bike out of her house, she opened her eyes and waved him to come near. When Gautham went near her, she leaned into his embrace circled one of her arms around his waists and said in a dry voice, "Dive safe. Goodnight." But she did not let him go right away; she stayed in his embrace for a couple of minutes more before finally letting him go.

Gautham reached out rested his hands against her cheek and said gently, "You go get some sleep. I will talk to you later."

Sindhu simply nodded and Gautham backed out to his bike. Once Gautham left, Sindhu went inside. To her surprise, lights were still on. Aruna- her mum was lying on the couch and watching some English series in T.V. Sindhu tiptoed towards Aruna to surprise her but when she went near, she saw that Aruna was actually sleeping soundly. Sindhu carefully switched off the TV and then went to her room. She brought a blanket and covered her mum. She then adjusted her mum's head over the pillow properly.

After that Sindhu sat beside her and just stared at her with a gentle gazing.

Sindhu's emotions were very complicated when it came to Aruna. She hadn't talked properly to her in 4 years when she was in Bangalore. Even before that, she always had a slight grudge against her mum. But right this moment when she thought of how she might go away from this place and how her mum won't be the one to wake her up every day, Sindhu felt like crying. She felt heaviness in her chests that made it hard for her to breathe.

After a long while Sindhu calmed down. Then she leaned down and gave her mum a soft kiss over her forehead before going to her room to crash for the night. But just before going to sleep, Sindhu called Gautham.

"Hello" Gautham voice was heard from the other end.

"Did you reach home??" Sindhu asked.

"Yes," Gautham replied.

"Okay then sleep tight. Goodnight." Sindhu said and hung up straight away without waiting for Gautham's reply.

Gautham chuckled and kept his own phone aside. He actually got used to this side of Sindhu. She was not a typical blushing bride. She was as far away from romance as a person possibly can be. She never wasted time with sweet talks or expected any elaborate gestures from him. In fact, every time they ate together, it was always in a fast-food restaurant. They are yet to actually go to any sort of fancy cozy restaurant. And from what Gautham had observed that will never really happen between them. She did everything practically. And she cringed away from anything clichéd like candlelight dinner or long night phone calls filled with sweet nothings.

For a person looking on the surface, it was easy to actually misunderstand Sindhu, because she acted extremely spoilt and frequently threw tantrum when she was with people she truly trusted and comfortable with. And it was more so with Gautham than anyone else for some reason. She practically acted like a kid around him. But in reality, she was actually pretty caring and considerate towards him. You will just have to take a deeper look to catch on it.

Like this afternoon when they were starting from Bangalore, Sindhu insisted that she be the one to drive. But from what Gautham had observed, Sindhu did not really like driving cars. Even when coming to Bangalore, she only drove a short distance when they almost reached the city. She was more of a bike person obviously.

So Gautham was initially confused as to why Sindhu was acting cute with him to let her drive but 10 minutes into the drive, Sindhu pretty much ordered him to take a nap. That is when Gautham realized that Sindhu must have guessed he would not have had a good night's sleep the before night. So she let him take rest in such a roundabout way.

But it was not just this one thing. She does small things that you would not know if you are not paying attention. Like how whenever they walk side by side on the road, Sindhu almost always ends up on the left side of the road. Thus keeping Gautham away from the vehicle. Or how she is always the first person to cross the road.

She will also remember small details about him. Like his food preferences or his movie preferences.

But again, Sindhu will not choose everything in his favor always but she will alternate it fairly.

Sindhu was the most self-sufficient girl Gautham had ever come across. And he was still waiting for the day when she will actually ask for something from him.