Part 4: One Done
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I stood there and watched Aadhi leave right before my eyes. I was in shock, and my heart melted. I felt myself shake for a second, so I sat down. “How’d it go?”, Lakshi finally came back. “Ok…”, I replied. “Only god knows where you were this whole time”, I said aggravatingly. We walked to our lockers together, people in the hallways were looking at us. “You made me sing!”, I said to Lakshi. “WHY?!”, I was very upset. “Well I heard it went well, so you made it better for both of us”, she said as a smirk slipped across her face. I glared at her. “Where’s um…. what’s his name?”, I understood immediately that Lakshi was referring to Aadhi. “Oh Aadhi… he had to go.”, I said, looking down at the floor. “Ughhh… these weirdo partners don’t even know how to do their job.” My sister rolled her eyes. “Let’s get our stuff and go home, I’m hungry.” After placing pounds of books into our bags, we walked downstairs and stood at the door. “Where is he?”, I asked Lakshi. “He should be here by…”
“Now”, as Lakshi said, when she saw Niru poke his head out of the window. We walked to the car and I sat in the seat beside him, as always. Niru is our cousin brother and he is ten years older than us. He’s been taking care of us since our parents’ incident. He was so perfect, I always looked at him as our hero. He had a great personality and he talked and listened to our stories often. He even gave some of his own opinion when we told him about certain issues we’ve been dealing with. “SO how was day 2?”, he asked, he seemed very interested. Lakshi and I glanced at each other. “It was unusual..”, I said. “Really? Why?”, he asked. Niru liked to hear about everything in our lives, I think he enjoyed being our parental figure.
“People were singing randomly”, Lakshi said jokingly. My face went red. “What?”, he asked. I looked around the car, trying to change the topic. That’s when I saw a watch with a pokemon on it. “Ummm… nice watch…”, I said. By the way he looked at me, I could tell he knew I was being sarcastic. “Abi, this isn’t for me”. He put his hand on my head and started messing up my hair, I didn’t even bother to fix it. “I bought it for Krishna.” I looked at him. He looked at me, then looked away, he knew I wasn’t impressed.
We got home and opened the door, Krishna ran down the hallway screaming at us. He jumped into Niru’s arms, and then made a face at us. Niru gave him his watch. “For me?!”, he yelled. “I love it!”, he said. Niru smiled. “And what do you say to him Krish?”, I asked him. “Thank you!”, he said, and he sat on the floor trying to get it to work. Krishna is our little brother and is 10 years old. We call him Krish… it was the nickname my father would always call him by. He can never stop talking, he’s the best at irritating people, and he tries to copy every single thing Niru does. “You guys are finally home”, my grandma said as she walked toward us. We gave her our after- school hugs and watched Krishna fix his watch. “How was school?”, I asked Krishna. “Like always”, he said, distracted with his watch. I looked at Niru and he shrugged. “I’ll prepare your snacks”, my grandma said, and she went back into the kitchen.
So now you’re probably very confused. My grandma and Niru are our guardians and basically our parents because our parents died right after my sister and I turned seven. Niru’s parents lived in the United States because that’s where their business was, they were busy people. So they would come visit regularly. Yes, I am surprised Niru chose to stay with us, but as kids, he was the only one who understood us. The death of our parents… it’s… it’s a very tragic story. I think about them very often, but Niru and grandma make me feel like I have parents, just like every other child.
I went upstairs to my room , the room my sister and I share. Yes… I share a room with her… it’s embarrassing, but it’s the truth. I grabbed the decorated, sparkly box from the top of my closet and I took the book out of the box. My parents gave me and Lakshi this book so we can write what happened in school, and then we could share our stories with them after work. However… that only happened once. I took a deep breath and opened the book. In the book, Lakshi and I wrote promises that we vowed to keep for the rest of our lives. I scrolled my eyes down the list of promises and I found what I was looking for. I checked the box beside “perform the song you wrote for your parents”. I closed the book and held it against my chest. That’s when Lakshi came in. “One done eh?”, she said with a smile on her face. I nodded, and she could see the jubilant expression on my face. That’s when the laptop rang. “Guys come have your snack!”, my grandma yelled from downstairs. My sister ran downstairs because she was starving. I sat on our bed and put the laptop on my lap. I turned it on and there was a video call request from Aadhi.
“Aadhi?! Why is he calling?! And he ditched me!”, I thought. I didn’t know what to do. “Is he gonna yell at me?”. I fixed my hair quickly, looked and the mirror, sat back on my bed and took a deep breath. Then I clicked Answer. Aadhi appeared on the screen. I didn’t know how to make eye contact with him… it was so awkward.
“Hey… “, he said, sounding as nervous as I was. “Hi…”, I replied. My hand was shaking, but I held tightly with my other hand. “Are you okay?”, he asked me. I didn’t know how to respond. Was I supposed to say yeah, I’m ok with you ditching me, or no, you’re a terrible friend? “Look he said”, I did not look. “I’m sorry I left you. That was rude of me. Even if I did have a big problem with you, I should’ve stayed with you because that’s my job. And I have nothing against you. I was kinda mad because you left, and then you sang the song about your parents… it made me wonder if you were hiding something from me. And then when you were talking with some of your fans..”, I stopped him right there. “They’re not my fans”, I said. “They’re nice people who go to our amazing school.” He looked at me and smiled. I felt a chill inside me… and I didn’t know why. “Well I was jealous… I was really being an idiot, I’m sorry.”, he sounded very regretful. “It’s ok Aadhi… I probably would’ve done the same”, which I knew wasn’t true. I would never get the confidence to walk away from anyone like that. “That’s when he smiled at me and said, “so we’re cool right?”. “Yes”, I replied, and that’s when I smiled. “I’m surprised that you care about me this much”. I said. “Of course I do, your Abi, and I’m your friend.” I smiled and told him I’ll see him tomorrow, and then I turned the laptop off. I went downstairs and talked and laughed with Niru, Krish, Lakshi and grandma and told them what really happened at school that day. I told them, because we’re a family.
The next day Niru dropped us off early to school after dropping of Krish because he had to go to a meeting. Lakshi wanted to go check out the library because we didn’t go there since we came to Lakeview, so she went on her own. I went to my locker, and that’s when I saw Aadhi. I was surprised to see him because he told me that he gets to school five minutes before the bell. “Aadhi!”, I yelled. I expected him to respond because he wasn’t upset anymore. Instead, he just ignored me. “Aadhi, Aadhi!”, I yelled, but he kept walking and turned the corner. I thought he said we were ‘cool’, so what happened…? What… what did I do?
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Next Part: Blind Side (Part 5)