I walked home with Prakash. He did not say a word on the way. He held my hand, supporting me. I noticed that he was running all the way that he was sweating a lot. He did not seem to have let anyone else know that I was not home when I entered home, everyone was sleeping. He opened the door carefully without making a sound and allowed me to relax on the bed. In the meantime, he fetched some water in the jug from the kitchen and poured it for me in a glass.
I took a sip of water and realized that I was really thirsty and without making any delay, gobbled up a couple of glasses of water. When he was assured that I was okay, he asked me, "Tell me about what has happened."
I straightened up and started telling him. After he rushed to talk to Tom, I went to bed and I also missed my mom so bad that I was sobbing into the headrest. As I slept away while sobbing, I woke up, not in his house but I was in my own house in my hometown. Moreover, I was right next to my mom. She seemed to be sleeping and Dad was asleep too. I was confused but I was sure to not get caught by them. So I carefully left the room and walked across the kitchen, that was when Dad too came out. I moved inside my room. By mistake, I hit furniture in my way which made some unwanted noise.
While getting water, Dad heard me and walked towards my room and I had to hide under the bed, just in case. As expected, he opened my room, switched on the light and checked out my room. I was so helpless that I couldn't even turn to my parents for help. I could not tell them that weird things were happening and I was teleporting while sleeping. They would get a heart attack in shock.
I tried and failed at controlling my tears. They scrolled down on my cheeks and the fear of darkness started to creep through me. I started to count one to one hundred. Then I couldn't stay under the bed anymore, so I crawled up to the bed and I wished to get away from there soon. While doing so, I dozed off. When I woke up, once again, I was in a strange place. I finished explaining to him.
"Are you sure that you are not sick?",
I blinked, "As you mentioned, you have been teleporting. And it is not possible for a normal human being to perform that."
"I don't feel anything unusual. Except that every time this happens, it gets the shit outta me!"
"What do you think is the common thing that happens when you teleport?"
"Like what?"
"What do you do before teleporting? Can you think of something?"
The first time when it happened, I was trying to sleep and it had happened the second time too.
"Sleep?", I continued, "I was trying to sleep both the times."
He looked at me in disbelief, "I doubt that, let wait and see."
But it was the truth. Maybe it was too plain for a reason to teleport. Perhaps, I couldn't worry about the reasons, as I was really tired of popping up in uninvited places. I felt pathetic at home, hiding from my dad. Thinking about that, I felt pathetic and once again I broke into tears.
"Hey! It is alright.", he patted me softly and awkwardly. I was not used to this version of him yet, this was why I really liked him more. He had many surprising faces. He cared for me as much as he teased me. It was just like in the past when I almost had fallen tripping, he held my hands to keep me safe and said, "Are you okay?".
He then stood up and went to the mattress laid down there for me and let me use his own bed. A few minutes later, he received a text. "We gotta leave by 6 in the morning."
It was already 2 a.m. I worried if we could wake up early. "I wouldn't get enough sleep."
"No other way, you can't miss the trip. I will wake you up in the morning. Go to sleep now."
"I hate this! Waking up early in the morning.", I whined.
"If you wanna sleep and go late, you can't meet Ashmit in the evening.", he mocked.
"Oh goodness!! I do not even wish to meet him anyway."
"Shut up and sleep already."
I pouted at his remark and said, "Good night."
That night I dreamed of going to school, entering the classroom, I look at my friends as small kids then I realized I was a kid too. I sat down on a bench, which I thought was mine. Suddenly I had bench mates. One was Krithika and the other was Prakash. I was sitting in the middle, to my right was Prakash and left was Krithika.
They were talking to each other, ignoring me and I was afraid of being forgotten by him. They were laughing and I was about to cry.
So I offered them both candy and then I recognized that my voice did not raise. I tried to talk again and again only in vain.
"Sita!!!", someone hit me to wake up.
Prakash was standing there all washed up and ready to go.
"Go wash up. It's 5.30 a.m."
"Uh??? Ahhh! Okay.", I groaned, stood at my feet and went to the washroom.
"We're gonna hire bikes and will be back quickly!", he yelled.
"Okay!"
"When you are ready, join Swara and wait for us."
"Sure!"
I put on heavy fade blue jeans and a long-sleeve black and white striped shirt. My hair was gonna get messed up with the ride, so I simply tied my hair into a bun and looked around if I had something to carry. And yeah, I remembered, I had nothing on me.
Exiting the room, I found Swara sitting on the couch, ready to go anytime soon.
The three guys returned with bikes. Tom was elated, "They charged us a very cheap amount, he is after all my friend's relative."
They had Royal Enfield classic 350 Ash, classic black and Chesnut. Tom was riding the Chestnut, Angad in classic black and Prakash had the ash one. Swara hopped on with Angad. "Join Prakash.", said Swara.
Hesitantly, I hopped on the bike.
"Say cheeeeeese!!!!!!", Tom took a picture of us four.
"Stick to your seat tightly.", Prakash warned, that's how our bike trip began.