Opening his eyes in the morning, Aaryan saw a weird face right in front of him. Working on the mind, he remembered how he was thrown out by his father at night and ended up in his house. Then Aaryan thought for a second and took a close look at the face, he figured that it wasn't a weird face but his friend with a strange expression. Raheel was laughing at him and was holding a black marker in his hand. Aaryan should have thought of it as something abnormal, but then Raheel said something even abnormal "My parents are coming for the weekend." Aaryan sat up on the couch with a jolt. He blinked his shocked eyes at Raheel. "So you are throwing me out as well?" He asked, knowing, "Yes, but if you think you can handle the Arab parents, then you can stay." Okay, Aaryan knew that the first word was not fine, but the other was genuinely offensive. "Bro, have you ever heard of a Pakistani parent? Do you know how bad they are at nagging?" Raheel's expression matched his. "Uncle Yusuf is literally the politest person I have ever met." Aaryan stood up on this. Defending the honor of his father, he would fight till the last breath. "Politest? Bro, he threw his child out of the house, in the middle of the night and you are saying Politest?" He breathed out, hardly, angrily "That's because he makes rules and you break them," he said, casually shrugging his hand in the air "Your parents are so cool, they don't even make rules"
"Well, Bro, I don't follow them so they don't bother making them- wait, what, Bro? CoOl?" As Raheel realized the word, his legs started to take a step back. "Your parents gave you this entire freaking mansion, you got dozens of cars, a whole hellish music room and the hell everything you could ever wish for," he ended with a sharp inhale. Raheel moved his head up and down, and he did it for a solid minute. "Man, do you know how it feels to live with a gangster?" He was exaggerating it. Aaryan had met his parents many times, and to him, they were decent people. "Man, you should spend a day with my parents so you would know how they can make you count everything they have done for you within an hour. Do you ever have a lecture from your mother when she won't stop talking for like two or three days constantly?" he stopped for a breath. Aaryan still had so much to say but then again Raheel was becoming obnoxious "They care about you and at least they show it. My father behaves like he wants me dead" Before Aaryan could reply with anything, he heard a beep and he knew the gangster– his parents were there "So, do you want to pay a visit to my cool parents, Adrian?" Raheel offered but Aaryan was already standing at the door, he was indeed afraid of his father "Maybe next time" and when the words finished he was already out of the room saying "Bye"
Aaryan ran down the stairs. Wanting to get away as soon as he could, without seeing his parents but Aaryan failed in his mission. As he reached the door he encountered them. The man appeared tough. A cigar in his mouth, a stylishly cut beard, chains around the neck, and rings on his fingers. In short, he looked rich as hell from far. The lady was beautiful, she looked around five feet, and standing in front of that seven feet, strongly built man she looked so small "Salam, Mr and Mrs. Ahmad" he greeted the two of them "Salam, Aaryan, How are you doing?" The man asked and for an unknown reason that tough looking man was laughing "I am doing well, What about you?" he said with uncertainty because Mr. Ahmad wasn't the kind of person to laugh randomly "I am great, Cute Kitten" It was highly and unbelievably strange. Aaryan knew he was handsome, but he never called himself anything like cute, and when it came from a tall, muscular Arab man, it was even more strange. "See you around." Aaryan just said those words and left, yet the laugh didn't leave him. At the door, he saw Roger, who was cracking with his mouth open, and he was actually pointing at him. Aaryan gave him a stare and walked out of the house of weirdos
The only thing Aaryan cared about was how he would handle his parents when he enter the house. He stopped at the door of his house and if everything wasn't making him nervous enough then he saw her.
Aaryan knew her now, it was Mary and in the daylight, she was shining like the prettiest flower containing all the beauty of the world.
And here it goes again, she was still wearing that irritating mask and Aaryan couldn't see her full face.
Mary was standing in front of the door to her house and she looked nervous just like him. Aaryan thought they were in the same situation, and just to exchange a couple of sentences, he walked forward to her. "Do you need some advice?" He offered, and as Mary shifted her face towards him, he felt like drowning in that pair of eyes. They were magnificent, too beautiful for him to handle "Huh?" She asked confused, he zoned in from her eyes "Well, I am really good with this sneaking out thing" Staring at the silent Mary he continued "So, you know you can just jump off the wall- make sure to not make a voice and when everyone is sleeping just hop through the window and Tada! You safely landed back in your room" He finished with a grand smile but Mary didn't say anything and she was too looking at him with a strange stare, he identified it. It was the same stare he had been seeing since morning "What?" he asked and instead of saying thanks for the plan or even giving him a reply she moved her phone forward to his face "What?" He asked again, "Did you wash your face in the morning?"
"Of course" not, Aaryan didn't have time for it as all he was doing was trying to escape that couple of Arab parents. Even when Raheel woke him up, he never had time to wash- and he suddenly remembered Raheel laughing at him as soon as he opened his eyes in the morning. Aaryan took her cell phone from her hand and looked at himself. "Fuck" he cursed as the person who appeared on the screen looked like a kitten. His nose had a black circle, and each cheek had three lines. "Freaking, Ray," he mumbled beneath his breath. "Wash your face," she said, laughing. At that moment, Aaryan forgot about himself, he remembered nothing about appearing like a fool when he heard her laughing, the calmest laugh he had ever heard. Her voice was sweet, her eyes were glittering, and without thinking about anything he lifted his hand to the mask and tried to remove the barrier between him and her face
The moment he removed half of the mask, Aaryan was left stunned. There was a purple bruise on her cheekbone "What the hell are you doing?" Mary yelled. She snatched the mask from of his hand and abruptly adjusted it back. "What is it?" he asked, shocked. "Nothing you should be caring about." Mary glared at him in anger. "But-" Aaryan was about to ask something again when her phone vibrated in his hand. He gazed at the phone and a message appeared from someone named Matthew saying 'Where are you, Mary?'
He looked at Mary and without saying anything he returned the phone. One stared at the message, and Mary looked up at the window of her house, horrified. Following the gaze, Aaryan's eyes located the sophisticated man from yesterday. He was staring at Mary in anger and Mary ran to her house
He washed his face in the garden and it took him like twenty minutes to remove those marks.
As he entered the house, Aaryan forgot about the need to save himself from his father as the only thing occupying his brain was Mary and the bruise on her face. "You got the time to come home?" Asked his mother. For an instant Aaryan didn't remember what was happening in the surroundings and after a second he responded "Mama, I was not allowed in the house yesterday" he stared at his father who was reading the newspaper in the kitchen "Aaryan, would you ever think anything is your fault?" His mother sounded hurt but Aaryan was bore of this tune. He was suddenly furious "Why do you guys always blame it on me? It's not like I was out doing drugs at night!" He shouted. Yusuf folded the newspaper and took a loud, deep breath. "We don't know what our child had been doing outside at midnight, and every worst possible thought would come to our mind," Said his father with a calm tune, exactly opposite to the words. "You could think of something good too. Why don't you trust me?" Aaryan asked, angrily "Do you think you have made an image that could be trusted?" His father asked an absurd question, and Aaryan had nothing to reply. "You just hates me so much that no matter what I do you will think if it as bad, Dada"
"Ryan! Mind your tune while talking to your father" his mother needlessly raised her voice at him. In the reply, Aaryan just mocked a laughter and then he went straight into his room, smashing the door at his parents.
As he got into the room, he took a sharp and angry breath, jerking his head to sides.
His room was messy, with dirty clothes hanging everywhere and wrappers of snacks flying all around him. The only adjusted corner of his room was where a guitar was placed and there were some posters of his favorite band, The Beach boys. Other than that, it was as if he lived in an animal house.
Aaryan jumped over his bed "Why the hell do they have to act like this every single time?" he said in annoyance. Aaryan already had something in his mind and then that argument with his parents just made his mood go worse. He decided to ignore all the talk with them for now
Aaryan fell back on the bad, thinking about the interaction with Mary, the injury on her innocent little face, and the horrific man at the window. To Aaryan, he wasn't scary, but when he recalled Mary's pale face after looking at him, he couldn't think of him as anything but horrific.
As his brain proceeded to think about it, he just fell asleep.
It was just a moment ago when he closed his eyes but Aaryan was up again. He knew he was wide awake on his bed but he couldn't move. Aaryan tried to breathe but he failed. He tried to sit up but he couldn't move even a finger. Aaryan was experiencing some kind of paralysis, he felt as if something was on his chest. No matter how much he tried to breathe or to open his eyes, he failed. He tried to move, tried to speak, make a sound, and yell, but it was all in vain. Aaryan stayed in that unknown state for minutes
After a while, he was awake, gasping for air and there was no one in the room. H. Aaryan darted his eyes around the room, and he never knew what had just happened to him. "What the hell was that?" He asked no one in the room and this experience remained unknown to him