Adi: If they hear you calling them ‘the old people,’ we’ll be getting ready for your funeral.
Tani Bug: Why am I on this group? Can I leave?
His heart clenched at the sight of her words.
Vik: If I can’t leave, you can’t leave.
Vedu: Why can’t you leave?
Kimi: Cos we are familyyyyy. And we stay together always!! In good, in bad, in torture, in freedom…in shitty groups, online and offline.
Reh: Shut up Kimi. Now listen up people…wedding ready also means a bachelor party right?
Vik: Did you switch to the groom’s side, Reh?
Reh: WTF? Why would I do that?
Adi: Because they have the bachelor party. I think our side is a bachelorette party for the women.
Reh: Only the women??? How is that fair?
Vik: I’ll make you a deal. When you get married, we’ll throw the mother of all bachelor parties. For now, will you shut up?
Kimi: He has a point @Tani Bug. Bachelorette? You, me, Vedu…and your friends?
Tani Bug: I have no friends.
Reh: I’ll be your friend. Take me along.
Kimi: Shut up Reh.
Kabir’s heart ached even as he smiled reluctantly at the idiots who were his family, his true family.
I have no friends.
It hurt more than he could say to read those words. She was his best friend as he’d been hers but she was right…there was no one now. She’d left them all behind to come back to India. She’d left them behind in a bid to leave him behind.
A knock on the door drew his attention and he glanced up to watch his band stroll in. Noise crashed into the room, loud and unapologetic. They walked over, making themselves at home, and irritating even Varsha into a smile.
“I have a studio booked for you guys. I’ll text you the details. Be there at nine in the morning. David,” she snapped suddenly. He jumped, almost dropping the TV remote he had been fumbling with. “Don’t be late or I’ll come to your room and drag your lazy arse out of bed.”
David grinned, his eyes lighting up with mischief. “Promise?”
Varsha rolled her eyes, ignoring him and looking at the others. “Nine,” she said again. “AM not PM.”
She stepped closer to Kabir, lowering her voice. “Think about what I said. She refuses to take the latest payment until you speak to her.”
“Good. Let her die in squalor then.” Kabir lit a cigarette and took a deep drag. The nicotine filtered into his lungs, centring him.
“Kabir.” Something in Varsha’s voice that sounded an awful lot like worry had him glancing at her sharply. “I think it’s betterto know what we’re dealing with than stay in the dark like this. I know it’s hard for you but please, think about it. One conversation and we know what we’re fighting. Or maybe there is nothing to fight and she just wants to reconcile? I don’t know…but we will not know until you speak to her. She refuses to talk to anyone else.”
Reconcile…a strangled laugh stuck in his throat. Reconcile with the only blood relative he had? The one who’d tried to stab him in the throat?
His phone pinged again. The Shit Stirrers were busy, he thought, watching the unread messages piling up.
“I have nothing to say to or hear from her,” he said briefly, dismissing Varsha and picking up his phone. He tapped the group open. His breath caught in his chest as he saw what they’d sent.
Pictures.
