The Scenic Life

Chapter 15

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After the moment yesterday evening, things didn’t get awkward as I had expected. I was grateful for that. But there was a difference between how we were interacting now. There was no sarcasm, no rolling of eyes, no stiffness of body when our arms accidentally touched each other.

It was almost like we had never hated each other. Or more precisely, he had never hated me.

It has now been over a week we've been in Rajasthan, and it has been wonderful. All the places that we visited were magnificent. I clicked a lot of pictures of myself, at some point I even asked Vihaan to click a few of my photos, which I don’t regret because they turned out beautiful.

I'm in the middle of searching for the black dress I had packed, when he comes out of the bathroom, pointing his thumb over his back,

“You can use the bathroom if you want,”

I nod, taking my dress which had hid itself in the corner of my bag and head towards the bathroom.  I turn around midway and tell him, “Get ready, Neha is coming to pick us up.”

He looks at me and nods, but then speaks up,

“Hey uh, could you tell me something? I don’t know what to wear, I have taken out two t-shirts though. Can you help me choose?”

I smile to myself. I can't believe he is asking me to help him, its quite endearing seeing him like this. He picks up the two shirts and holds it up for me to see. They're both quite simple, one is plain lack while the other is light gray with a small recurring pattern on it.

I look at them and then look at him back. I do this for a while, irritating him in the process, but he doesn’t say anything to me. After quite a few minutes, I relent and decide that the black is the winner.

Black against his skin with that hair?

Phenomenal.

I shake the thoughts immediately, shocked at what my mind conjured up just at the image of a black tee. I clear my throat, and point towards the black one in his hand. He looks at it once, and then nods his head,

“I wanted to wear this too, you have good taste.”

I laugh, “If you already had decided what to wear why ask me?”

He stalls his movement,  then looks at me,

“I was confused. The gray looked great too!”

I continue laughing and go inside the bathroom, ignoring his cries about how its completely normal to be confused.

I look in the mirror at myself, flushed cheeks, tanned skin and fluffed hair. I feel beautiful, I feel happy. I feel like I can do anything in the world. If I knew just travelling would bring out these hidden feelings of happiness in me, I would’ve come here sooner. My mind tries to tell me its not just the travel, but I ignore it. Like I ignore my heart.

I get ready while hozier's music plays in the background. My my eyes lined, my cheeks blushed, and my body dressed in the most flattering dress I own, I get out of the bathroom.

My hands shape down the dress across my thighs, and go near my bed to put my clothes in my bag. I can feel Vihaan's eyes on me as he sits on his bed, wearing his black t-shirt with a leather jacket over it. I ignore his stares, because I fear he will see my cheeks blush.