New Beginnings

5-Joint rooms

After a long wait, I was finally called for dinner. In reality, they had called me in ten minutes but every minute felt like an hour as I was sitting idle and was getting bored.

We all gathered around the dining table. Rajveer uncle sat on one end of the rectangular dining table, while the other end remained empty. Aunt sat beside me, but close to uncle's seat whereas the twins sat across me.

Food was really tasty but it was hard to gulp it down because of the awkward silence and their not so secretive stares.

Dinner at home was never this silent. Mom and dad made sure to keep it a lively affair. I hope this silence wasn't a regular occurrence here, or I would never be able to eat properly.

Even though I didn't like the silence, it was still manageable but this constant staring was getting unbearable.

"Is there something on my face?" I finally asked, annoyed by their antics.

They all smiled sheepishly, well all except Raghav, who kept on eating without caring about what was happening around him.

"Sorry dear. We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It's just...." Uncle started apologizing but Rishi completed the sentence, butting inbetween.

"It's just that we don't know how to interact with you as you have come up as a shock to our lives."

"I mean, you have come as a surprise in our lives." Rishi changed his sentence while gulping a bit, upon receiving a death glare from Aunt.

I smiled tightly, knowing the exact meaning behind his words and resumed eating.

                            ~~~•~~~

It got quite late, when we finished clearing the dining table after having dinner.

"You must be tired. Come, I will show you the room," Aunt said, motioning me to follow her.

"My bags?" I asked looking at my luggage which was placed in the living room.

"Ah! Don't worry about them. Raghav, Rishi, bring Trisha's bags upstairs." She ordered the twins.

They looked irritated upon hearing her order but nodded nonetheless.

"I can pick them up, myself," I said not wanting them to hate me for making them do manual work.

"What nonsense! You are already tired. They can do this much." Aunt waved off my words even though the guys looked like they were a second away from accepting my idea.

Sighing they picked up the luggage and moved upstairs. Aunt and I followed them.

Wait a minute! Upstairs. No, no, no no. There was only one room upstairs and while giving me the tour, Aunt said that it was the Twin's room.

Sharing a house was different, there was no way, I was going to share a room with them. That was totally unacceptable. At this moment, even sleeping on the floor felt like a blessing.

Much to my horror, Aunt stood outside their room.

I stopped her before she could enter the room, the boys had already gone inside.

I turned towards her with pleading eyes and requested, "Aunt, I am sorry. Please don't misunderstand but I cannot share the room with the boys. I know they are your kids but...."

Before I could finish, she bursted out in laughter. Looking at my confused face, she managed to control herself.

"Come with me," she said still chuckling and took me inside the room.

"Look at the right side of the room. See that door, it takes you to another room. Actually these are joint rooms, connected from inside but they have only one way out. The other room will be yours," she explained with a smile.

"Oh!" I muttered dumbfounded by the information.

I was so scared. Thank God! I wasn't going to share a room with them. But...

"Umm...so I have to go through their room, whenever I have to enter or exit my room?" I asked in a dreadful tone.

Aunt nodded sympathetically.

"Sorry for annoying you, but I have one more question," I said hesitantly.

"Go on. It's not like you won't ask if we say no," one of the twins said, looking annoyed.

I knew their names, but I wasn't able to distinguish them. Hopefully, I would be able to do that after few days.

Giving him a stink eye, I asked my query, "Why would you make one of the joint rooms as a guest room?"

"It wasn't a guest room. Raghav had to give up his room and share mine as there wasn't any extra room for you." From the words, I depicted that it was Rishi who explained.

No wonder, Raghav kept glaring at me. After all, he had to give up his room for me.

"Sorry," I apologized to him.

"No dear, don't apologize. It's not your fault. Either way they both had a choice. It was Rishi's room or Raghav's, they decided it themselves who would give up," Aunt said, trying to assure me and then left the room after greeting us good night.

I turned towards Raghav with a confused face and asked him, "If you gave up your room willingly, then why were you frowning the whole time?"

"Oh No! He didn't willingly gave his room. He had to as he lost in our game," Rishi said chuckling.

"What game?" I asked curiously.

"The game we have used to make all the decisions from childhood," Rishi said mimicking a boxing pose and yelled out,

"STONE PAPER SCISSOR!!"

I bursted out laughing after hearing him. Rishi too joined me in laughing while Raghav sat there pouting angrily.

Laughing seemed like a gift today. This was the first time, after that dreaded day when I had an actual laugh. Or else, these days were filled with fake smiles, just to make good impression on the new people in my life.

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