"Don't you think you're involving too much in her life? As it is you are hearing her which is a direct invasion of privacy if she comes to know one day," Tyler advised his friend in not getting too attached to Sweety Roulette.
"I don't listen half of how much you do." Rob blurted honestly. "It doesn't matter though. We will get it before she goes back."
He was rocking on the arm chair back and forth when he stopped swinging. "Which means I don't have to go back to the school again! Yes! No more strange foods to eat! You know people over there eat rice and water together. It's like yuck." He made a face, telling tales of his misery in the foreign place.
"Have you tasted what they ate?"
"Of course not."
Tyler rolled his eyes at his stupid friend. "Then how can you judge it on them. It must be their pristine dish."
"And it is not certain whether you will stay back or go there again. Not until I get the locket under my machines."
Rob looked at him like a crazy scientist. "Will I get my mother's locket back in one piece? A sincere request, please?"
Tyler chuckled at his obvious 'trust' in him. "It'll be fine." Rob resumed rocking in the luxurious chair.
"Hey Ty. Turn on the speaker."
Tyler fixedly watched him.
"Oh come on, not like we don't hear her."
"Have you started being anxious as to what is going on with her?" Though Tyler was against the idea of interfering in someone else's life but he went to his system to do it anyway.
"I am doing it purely for the intentions of getting back the locket. Remember the challenge?"
His friend shook his head at his boyish ways, taking a seat in a couch they watched the computer screen showing audio movement.
"..made your favorite. Chicken, meat and fish. Wherever you want, you may start." The father seemed in a comparatively good mood.
"Just look at this con-man being such a wonderful father." Rob spat at the man's audacity of acting like nothing happened in the course of few hours prior.
Tyler did not comment to it as they listened further.
"Careful there, take out the grilled skin and give it to Tessa." A female voice said, must be her mother.
"Tessa is growing fat too. Next year she will be joining hostel as well. Just like her sister." Rowan firmly announced as the listeners heard. "It won't be the same school but one of the schools owned by me. My daughter will study in my school."
Hearing that Rob couldn't help his mouth opening wide. "Was he serious? He is talking like announcing a weather report. And what does fat or slim have to do with changing states?"
Rowan Roulette's next words told him why. "The daughters are gaining weight because of you and your ways of serving them food behind my back." He referred it to his wife.
Rob rolled his eyes, "Egoistic male."
"So, the small one, Tessa will also stay in Odisha but at different place than her sister. Tessa will be occupied in her school for another year and half." Tyler mechanized.
"Yeah I got the idea. No need to repeat that." Rob waved away irritated. "He's deciding everything all by himself! Did he even ask Sweety if she wanted to study there?" He observed Tyler, waiting for his answer.
Tyler shrugged, "Don't remember."
"Look, its not our place to have a say."
"Really?" Rob's eyebrow raised at his friend's uninterested part in Sweety. "While I was there you heard her even in sleep and now you are being apathetic. Any particular reason?"
Tyler looked away doing something in his phone but Rob did not stop at that. He snatched the phone from his friend.
"What are you doing? Give it back!"
"Answer me first. Or.. this will answer me." Rob showed the phone in indication. Evidently, Tyler's eyes went wide when he threatened to pry in his phone for info.
"Okay! I-I uh, I like her okay. There! Now give it back." He let him take the phone back.
"Ouch! What a hurtful confession! You must have known how I called her my girlfriend earlier."
Tyler narrowed his eyes. "That was really amateur of you. She was more repulsed of you than ever."
"Really?" Rob craned his neck to view his friend clearly. Rob possessed these eyes which took all the focus of an onlooker. Naturally, giving him undue attention from prospective ladies. "She sat on my lap.." Just as he said that Tyler keened his ear to listen. Grinning he beheld his friend's stare.
"What did you do?" Tyler finally opened his mouth with hatred in his eyes.
"Oh nothing. I was sleeping with her. Then she went off sliding on my lap. She was so shy she did not wait to meet me."
He laughed at the unhappy expression of Ty.
"You liking her only makes this interesting." Creeping close to his friend Rob put his arm around the latter's shoulders asking permission. "I had a day with her. Can I have a night too?"
"You...!" He escaped the grasp of angry scientist which was good as he was thrown vases, books and test tubes at.
Sweety was surfing through internet on her phone when a message pinged on Facebook.
Opening the chat box, she smiled at the message.
'You didn't message. Hope you reached safely.'
It was from Vincent Lawrence whose friend request she accepted yesterday when she was upset from her father's chiding. After that she thought she committed a mistake to let a stranger be her friend but he started chatting with her and she had her opinion changed about him.
Since then, he told her how he wanted to meet her and was thrilled knowing she was coming to Mumbai as he lived in the city too.
'Sorry for not getting back to you earlier. I reached safe and sound.'
Vincent's reply was prompt, 'Oh, that's alright. Have you eaten yet?'
'Just had my lunch.' Warmth filled Sweety from within seeing him care for her.
They were speaking of easy things when another chat box flooded with messages, earning loud pings.
In order to not grab attention from anyone, she immediately opened the chat box.
'Hi girlfriend'
'Speaking to someone?'
'Now who does that to your boyfriend?
'While you're at it, come out of your house. Have a gift for you
Sweety was lying on her bed when she jerked up on her toes reading the last message repeatedly.
"What? Got bug on your shirt?" Tessa was also lying with her sister playing game in Mom's phone when she saw her sister acting weird.
"No." Arrived a meek answer from Sweety. She was not dreaming, was she? "Papa is out, right?" She inquired.
Tessa confirmed. "Yeah."
"Sweety! Come and help me arrange these."
"Yes, Papa!" Whirling around to her younger sis who hid Mom's phone in an instant while sitting cross legged and a book in front of her. Ignoring her tactic she whispered, "You said he was gone."
"Well, he came back!" Tess whispered too.
Glaring at her sister was not going to help as she had an unwanted visitor she needed to shoo away before he decided entering in.
Messages were flooding her phone, she had to put it on silent to avoid noises. In the mean time she helped her father in stocking supplies he brought that were enough for a month but miraculously they get emptied from the shelves within a week.
"I'll just throw these out-"
"I'll do it!" Sweety grabbed the garbage bag and rushed out the door, closing it shut. Clutching her chest, she gradually walked out towards the garbage can. While transporting the same, she looked for the annoying man who troubled her way much than a normal human should digest onto.
Leaving the bag next to the can, she began taking a round over the house. It was nothing apart from the mailmen and fruit sellers passing in the neighborhood.
She had come over to the end of the lawn her house located on to, finding nothing she began walking back. That was when she slipped with a shriek.
"Oww...!"
"Sorry. Did I make you fall hard?"
"Yes! You stup-" Sweety abruptly blocked the words from erupting, turning her head found Mr. Wilson clad in t-shirt, jeans and a cap. Handsome was a goody word, her mind screamed him hot.
"Come." He helped her up and made her go through the pine bushes her father planted, almost crushing two or three in process.