He looks up at her and Misha's skin burns, his eyes are electrified, "It's a heartbeat," he says dubiously.
"It's M, A, M, A, M, A. I know it because my grandmother made this for us, you remember her right?" Misha knows if Aakash is lying, he would never lie about her grandmother. Because no matter how much Misha has hurt him, she had seen her grandmother talk about him, the fondness in her eyes when she talked about Aakash, of course he would never pretend not to know her grandmother.
Aakash has the same blank expression on his face, and it makes her blood drain from her face. Aakash Acharya doesn't remember her, or her grandmother. "What have you done?" she whispers, her heart screaming inside her chest.
And he frowns at her, "I really don't understand what you are talking about."
And at that same time, Rishabh the ice cream guy chooses to interrupt their conversation with a large container of Mint chocolate ice cream with Rainbow Chocolates on top. He tries to clear his throat deftly, but it comes out as a sound of a foghorn. "Um I have your order of large mint chocolate chip ice cream, should I put it on the table?"
Misha wants to take that hideous bowl and throw it out the ice cream parlour, cursing at her highest pitch at the universe. Why did you do this? What she does is, snatch the container from the guy with ferocious intensity, before taking a detour at the counter and taking extra two spoons while the girl stares at her as if she's a crackhead, maybe she is, she snarls at Aakash who stares wide eyed standing close to the guy Rishabh as if he was sacred that she would eat him alive, she wants to, "Follow me." She barks.
Aakash nods his head, startled, his eyes bulging wide from his eye sockets, he doesn't move an inch.
"I said, follow me," she turns when she gets at the door and he's still there, she glares at him.
The guy, Rishabh squeaks and clenches his green apple sweater in his fist, pushing Aakash towards the door in fright; Aakash stumbles to the door making a not too proud sound at the back in his throat, and then stands straight and proud one foot cautiously away from her.
*****
Misha has eaten half of the mint chocolate chip ice cream, but it's still not enough. Her heart still wants to burst away from her chest, and she still has plethora of profanities kept aside for universe. She glares at the upcoming sun peeking from between the red clouds, and imagines throwing the container at the sky but then her trainers would be better option, but as she still wants to eat this damn mint chocolate and still wants to walk, she lets go of that idea, she deserves it, she has not slept in 18 hours and her brain and heart is still electrocuting.
Her eyes move to Aakash still sitting on the side of pavement, staring at the picture as if it's some prototype for an alien technology being planned to advance on human population. She glares at his ethereal brown curls sprouting to his one eye as if they were planning to make Michael Angelo out of him, and turns towards the cafe, where Sammy is still working for her midnight-morning shift, glancing out once in a while raising her eyebrows, she ignores Idhant's face stuck to the small little corner glass near the display's white vase, c[ro1] learly investigating on her and Aakash on the orders from Sammy, Misha doesn't mind, Sammy was quite shocked when Aakash politely told the Selena girl that they will meet the next afternoon after their classes and then demanded right away the picture in Sammy's back pocket.
Misha turns to Aakash and tells him in a very calm voice that clearly didn't belong to her, "The picture isn't going to change if you keep looking at it."
He looks up at her, a clear look of unbelief in his black gold eyes, "How is this possible? I don't believe it."
"I didn't too," she says feeling tired, "at first," she adds.
He looks at the picture, then up at her, "Are you sure it isn't some devious plot to squeeze me of my money or something, or worst to involve me in some scam."
She rolls her eyes and eats another spoonful of mint chocolate, "I don't need your money my mother has plenty." She says chewing the caramel rainbow chocolate, the mint and the chocolate combination easing the nerves that the next word brings "And I can't afford to get involved in a scam, considering, I have already fought with my parents and haven't gone home in a year. They'll go mad." She doesn't tell him that she has fought with them because of him, that's another day's tale, she doesn't know how much he can afford to digest.
"So you mean to say that we are some childhood friends that got separated at thirteen and then I came to your grandmother's home for you every day even when you were far away in Australia. And you also mean to tell me that you met me on 23rd December last year and you declined to know me when I kept asking you again and again if you remember me, first that is quite rude," he says pointing the picture at her, he doesn't realise that he is also glaring, "Second," he says with a mocking laugh, "that is a pathetic story."
Friends, that's what she told him they were, it somehow quite manages to poke the pain inside her even more. "Not remembered," she points out, "I didn't remember literally, I didn't decline intentionally." She says voice a tad bit high.
"Just because it rhymes doesn't mean its right." He says getting up from the fetal position. "Also," he glares at Misha quite impressively considering the fact that he was hiding away from her minutes before, and now his height is towering above her even more because she is sitting, and that irritates Misha even more, besides the fact that he has forgot about her, how can that even be possible? Was there some sort of chemical available in the market that they took and forgot everything about each other the moment later? She wanted to scream so loud she didn't even know how she was controlling it. "You have been eating that alone," Aakash glares at the ice cream, "I can literally smell the chocolate and mint from here."
Misha gets up as fast as wind blows when it's storming in the night, and hides the mint chocolate chip protectively under her arm, she needs it. She glares at the sudden glaring sun, now she will have to protect her ice cream from two accomplices.
Aakash narrows his eyes, and Misha's breath hitches, she didn't realise his eyes could be more gold in the dawn light, she hears birds crowing and announcing that morning was not far ahead, and decides she has to run away.
She takes a turn and literally starts running on the biting pavement, the cold morning wind slashes on her face like a fine edged sword, and she sees Idhant's eyes widening on the cafe glass near the white vase, where his face is stuck on the glass with a maddening glee, just as she about to make a turn with a victorious yell for being accomplished in saving her favourite ice cream, a hand snatches across her arm and drags Misha back with such a powerful force that the lovely container falls from her hand and her beloved mint chocolate ice cream falls and spills on the pavement like a cherished broken dream.
She turns towards the assailant and with all her might, feels the crack coming in from all parts, and shatters it all out with a scream that makes even her ears ache, all the frustrating energy boiling inside her gut, coming out of her like a burning loud molten lava, except it's her throat burning and she is the one who is screaming, she feels like she can't stop.
Aakash's eyes widen, and he trips back a thousand inches away from, hands on his ear.
"You better not," she points her finger viciously in his direction, her chest heaving up and down, her voice thunderous, "you are buying me an ice cream, large size, mint chocolate, rainbow chocolates on top, right now."
Aakash nods his head so furiously it takes him less than 0.5 seconds, and starts to walk in the direction of the Ice cream parlour with the speed of a falcon.