9
𓂃𓊝𓂃

The day after Dusherra was a Sunday. My stepmother was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, and Bela and Hema were asleep. I thought Ratan had gone to work since I couldn't find him in his room. I grabbed the broom from the back of the kitchen and opened the front door to the front yard. The morning rays of the sun pierced through the mist that lingered in the air. I stopped sweeping the verandah as I heard someone's footsteps approaching me. I raised my head to see Apoorva walking towards me.

"What are you doing here?" I dropped the broom and walked towards him.

"Just stopping by." He said and winked at me. I won't forget till the day I die how winsome he looked when he did that. His black, curly hair turned a shade of brown in the daylight. "You forgot this." He extended my cloth bag to me that I left at the Rathore house last Friday after school, and I completely forgot about it. "I came to give you this back." He said.

"I would've fetched it myself. Anyways, thanks." I replied, taking the bag from his hands.

"What?" I asked, seeing him stand there even after fulfilling the purpose of his visit.

"Aren't you inviting me inside?" He smiled like a clown.

"What? No." I knew my stepmother would scold me until my ears bled for making him come home to give me the bag I forgot at the Rathore house.

"Why not? Let me meet the rest of the family." He said and walked towards the house. I instantly rushed towards him and pulled his hand, pinning him against the wall.

"I said don't!" I shouted in a low voice.

"Are you scared of me?" He asked in a slightly higher voice.

"Shut up!" I said, covering his mouth.

"She will hear you." My heart was in my throat. He tried to say something, but it came out as gibberish since I was covering his mouth. I realised what I had done once I felt the sensation of his lips against my palm. His brown eyes were piercing into mine as if they were trying to reach into the depths of my soul to discover my secrets. I think we stayed like that for an hour until he tried to say something again.

"She won't hear me if you have your hand covering my mouth." He said, as I removed my hand from his mouth.

"I said leave!" I said, trying to hide the embarrassment.

"Okay, okay. I'm going to." He said while a female voice came from behind us.

"Apoorva." The voice was calm yet terrifying. We looked in the direction from which the voice came. Apoorva's stepmother stood in front of us with a cold gaze that could pierce through a rock.

"What is all this?" She asked as she walked towards us. At that point, I completely lost all my senses. I was trembling with fear from head to toe.

"Nothing. I just came to give her the things she forgot at home." He said.

"You should've given it to the servants to deliver." She said as she judged my whole appearance. I think it was the first time that she looked at me properly, even though I have been working at their home for months.

"You should go home. Your father is asking for you." She said to Apoorva. He didn't look at me when he left. Maybe he felt sorry for creating a situation.

"You." She said to me. "Inside." She gestured towards the door.

"I need to speak to your mother." She said once we were inside. "Where is she?" She asked, observing my tiny house. Her body language made it clear that she didn't want to be there.

"In the kitchen." I pointed my finger towards the kitchen.

"You go to your room." She said as I was about to follow her to the kitchen. So I did what I was told. I went and stayed in my room. I heard them talking in the kitchen, but I couldn't hear the conversation clearly. My head pounded with tension, and I felt fire crackling in my stomach. I knew it was something serious from Jaya's approach towards me. She looked at me like I had done something wrong. Their conversation lasted for an eternity, or it felt like it because I was anxious. My stepmother came rushing towards my room, a few seconds later after their conversation ended.

Her nostrils were flaring in anger. "You are not going back to school tomorrow!" Her words felt like a blow to the head. I stared at her in disbelief.

The words got strangled in my throat. "Why?" I asked after mustering up the courage to ask.

"Don't you dare talk back to me, girl." She said and shut the door with a thud, leaving me shattered like the broken mirror in my room.