My Neighbour Girl Ch. 02

"Couldn't you ring the bell? You know it's a no horn zone," said I, knowing he did not care.

"I could, but this beast was dying to roar," he said, pointing at the bike. "Look at this beauty, 286cc engine, 7500 rpm torque, and weighs around 140 kg, it's marvelous." His big brown eyes were glowing like that's the only thing he needed to live.

"It is a beauty but how did you get your hands on her?" I asked looking at the bike. "It's not even launched in India, yet."

It wasn't such a big surprise to me. His family was the richest in town, and probably in the state too.

"Well, you know me," he said with his chest filled with a breath of pride.

I wasn't as crazy about bikes as him, but I used to love these things when we first learned to drive. "Now, get off and let me try it," I said, pulling him off the bike.

"Remember when we used to get drunk and go for a tea at night when I had bought my first bike," he said while getting off the bike.

"Yeah, and every time it would turn into a road trip, and we would end up in an unknown place in the morning with a massive hangover," I said smiling sarcastically. "That I can't forget."

"And then we would drink more beer to get that hangover off," he said, punching my shoulder. His arms were bigger than mine.

A flash of light hit both of our eyes. My sister drove in on her scooty.

"Hi guys," she said, taking off her helmet. "Cool jacket." She pointed at the leather jacket Vivek was wearing.

"Yeah, you want it," he joked showing off his jacket.

"So you bought a new one. That makes it like what, your fiftieth bike," she said to Toto.

"Noooo," he said. "It's my eighth." He seemed kind of sad about it. "And you are not allowed to touch it."

"So, your house must be full of these stupid bikes, where are you going to park this one?" She liked to mess with all my friends. "They are all dumbasses," she used to say.

"Oh, I gonna park it right here in front of your house." He teased her.

"Ok Mohee, when you are done with this monkey, come inside. I have something for you." And she went inside. Only my sister called me that.

"Listen," he ignored her. "what were we talking about? Yeah road trip. Let's go for a road trip. You can ride one of my other bikes, or even this one if you want." He seemed very enthusiastic.

"You know I can't. Don't you remember I am leaving for Delhi tonight, plus we are way past the age to do such impulsive and stupid stuff anymore?" I was so tempted by his offer.

"Damn it, man, you are leaving again." He was disappointed. "Haven't you heard from any of your last interviews?"

"No, I haven't. But there are still chances," I said. "Anyhow, this is my last interview."

"Don't worry, you will be hearing from them soon," he said, patting my shoulder.

"Yeah, and if I don't, there is a silver lining. We can go on road trips for the whole year," I said.

"That's the spirit, man." He punched my shoulder again. "Okay, I'm gonna go. Call me when you are leaving, I will drop you off at the railway station."

"Yeah sure," I replied.

He started his bike, the engine roared loudly. He took a U-turn. "You know, we are never past the age to do the stupid stuff," he said and left.

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"What? When you said I have something, I thought you had a gift for me or something," I shouted at my sister, astounded by what she had just told me. "Why would police be looking for you? Did you hit someone on the road?" I asked in a single breath.

"No, it's nothing like that, just hear me out," she said, trying to calm both of us.

"Let's go upstairs to my room." I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the stairs.

My sister, Jaya, was three years older than me, but whenever she would be in trouble, she would come to me before going to our parents. I kind of liked her for that, but whatever it was this time, it sounded like a lot more trouble than I could handle.

We sat on the chairs on the balcony. She took a deep breath. "You remember our childhood friend, from our neighbor, Neha?"

Suddenly, my brain was speeding thousands of kilometers an hour in all possible directions. There was more than ten different feelings at the same time. I was a little happy to hear her name, and for the possibility of hearing any news about her, even if it was trouble.

"You mean 'your childhood friend', but go on." I maintained my shocked face.

"Yeah whatever, she asked me to book a train ticket for her a few days back," she said looking at me.

I nodded in the gesture to carry on.

"She didn't say any specific date, she just asked me to book one ticket for the earliest date. And I booked the ticket for today in the evening from Bhopal to Bangalore. I just dropped her off at the bus station on the bus to Bhopal."

"At first, I thought, there must be someone going with her or someone waiting for her in Bangalore. I asked her what it was all about."

"What's wrong with a girl traveling alone?" I interrupted.

"Nothing, except she has never traveled alone in her life. She hardly left the town two or three times, and even then there was always someone with her," she replied. Her eyes looked concerned.

Now, I was worried too.

"It turns out, she is running away," she said.

"What do you mean she is running away?" I was shocked and waxed.

"Running away as in running away from her family and her husband. You know her husband is alcoholic and abusive," she said.

"No, I don't. You never told me." Now I was beginning to understand what Neha was talking about when we met, well actually what she was trying not to talk about. "Anyway, why would she run? Couldn't she go to her parents and divorce him?"

"She wanted to, but her family wasn't supporting her. Her mother said she should accept her fate and live with it, that divorce was not an option. Plus, her husband is a very rich and powerful person. I think her father owed him a lot of money or something."

"How could you let her run all alone?" I was losing my mind.

"I tried, but she is as stubborn as they come. And she was really miserable and desperate. I couldn't think of any better option myself. This was probably her only solution." She was holding her head in the guilt of doing something horrible.

"What if she got caught?" I asked almost immediately.

"I don't know. Give me a break. I was just trying to help her. And it seems that you are more worried about her than me." My sister was freaking out now.

"Yeah, about that. I don't think the police will be after you," I said trying to appease her.

"Hello! I booked her ticket from my account. I even made the payment with my debit card. What if they track her down at the railway station, then they will get to me." She looked really afraid.

"You are overthinking it," I said, smiling. "It's not FBI. It will take them a week to file a report for a missing person. Even after that, they are hardly going to do anything about that. And even if they do get to you, which seems very unlikely, our parents know enough good lawyers to keep you out of trouble."

"But that means our parents will find out about it, and that's trouble in itself." She smiled but still looked worried. I always wondered how people are able to express multiple emotions on their face, all at the same time.

"Don't worry, I will be there for you. From what I have heard from you, Neha was really in need to get away from her family and her husband, and you just helped a friend in need, it will be worth it." I was relieved that she was beginning to relax.

"It's good that you booked the ticket from Bhopal and not here. The buses from here never ask for name and ID. Chances are, they will never find out about the train ticket," I said confidently.

"It was her idea," she said admiring her slyness. "She also said that she is going to get off somewhere between Bhopal and Bangalore, so even if they find the ticket booking, it wouldn't be easy to catch her."

My heart was jubilant to hear that, 'Sexy and smart,' I thought. "She seems very good at this running away thing."

"Well, she was planning this for the last two months," Jaya shrugged her shoulders in uncertainty.

"But that still leaves her an inexperienced young girl, all alone, in an unknown place. She didn't even tell me where she is going to go. She wasn't sure herself. I'm really worried about her."

"I'm sure she will be fine." I wasn't sure she would be fine. 'Two months,' that is the exact time when we met. I couldn't help but wonder "Did I put this idea into her mind." If that was the case then It was a terrible misunderstanding. I had put her on a very dangerous path.

"She seemed very different to me." Jaya was hesitant to talk.

"Different how?"

"I'm not sure. Whenever I met her after her marriage, she was always very timid and unhappy, but today she was like a different person. She was running away and she didn't seem to care how dangerous this could be. She was very confident, there was not a trace of fear on her face, she looked happy." My sister paused for a moment. "I think she is having an affair. I think both of them are running away together, she and her lover."

That last statement hit me like a punch. My heart started throbbing, as the severity of the situation settled in my brain. "Does she have a phone with her?" I asked.

"No, she threw her phone somewhere so no one could track her down. But I asked her to call me whenever she will get the chance."

"Okay, I need you to listen to me carefully. Act totally normal as if nothing happened. Don't talk to anyone about it. The more people who know about it, the more are the chances that she will get caught, and that would be very bad for her."

She nodded.

"We will talk about it more on the phone, but right now I need to leave." I looked at my phone for the time.

"Wait, your train is past midnight. Isn't it too early?" she asked anxiously.

"Yeah, but Toto asked me to meet him. He will drop me at the station." I grabbed my shoes and bag and headed downstairs.

I said goodbye to my parents. When I was touching their feet for their good wishes, they said "Give them your best, son. Nobody deserves this job more than you." I knew that wasn't true but they are my parents. I said I will. This wasn't the first time I lied to my parents. But the situations were not as serious as this before. I knew I was going to disappoint them.

Jaya was standing on the door. She wished me luck and said, "I'm sorry to burden you with my 'situation' when you have your own things to worry about."

"It's nothing." I hugged her.

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I was holding the call letter for my job interview in my hands while walking on the footpath. I looked at the beginning of the letter.

I read:

"Dear Mr. Mohit Sharma,

We are pleased to say that you have been shortlisted for the interview at ......."

I took out my phone and called Toto. "Hey, are you still up for the road trip we were talking about earlier?" I asked as soon as he picked up.

"Yeah, but what about your job thing? I mean, interview, what about... "

"There is something more pressing that I have to deal with," I interrupted. "I will tell you all about it on the way." There was no time for puns.

"Sure man, so where are we going?" he asked little seriously.

"We will start with Bhopal."

"Okay, I will come to your home and pick you up."

"No need, I'm standing just outside your house." I was already looking at the schedule of the train Neha was going to take. I knew all the passwords of my sister's accounts. I checked the last booking and I had all the details I needed.

Toto came out on his bike within a minute or two. "So, what's the deal?"

"How long does it take to get to Bhopal?" I ignored his question.

"Well, by bus, three hours. On this, at most two and half hours," he said, pointing at his bike.

"Let's make it in two." I handed my bag to him and asked him to scooch.

"You can take another one, I am driving this." he insisted.

"Com'on, it will kill more time, which I don't have. Besides, it looks pretty comfortable on the back seat," I argued.

"Alright, be my guest," he agreed. "If we have an accident, just make sure I die, or my father will give me a slow death." He could make a joke in worse situations, that was one of the reasons I was friends with him.

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I jumped from the bike and ran toward the Railway station as soon as I stopped the bike on the side of the road nearby. The parking space was full and Toto has to stay behind with the bike so it doesn't get towed. The stars seemed to be in my favor as the train Neha was going to board was delayed for one hour, which is pretty usual for Indian Railway. Honestly, I was counting on it. The announcement board showed that the train would be arriving at platform number three, so I took the overbridge to get there and started looking for Neha.

It was so crowded at the platform, it seemed almost impossible to find anyone. I started staring at every girl's face who resembled Neha's physic. The platform was almost half a kilometer long and I completed a whole round, looking at every face. People were pouring out from everywhere.

After ten minutes, when I had completed two or three rounds of the whole platform, my mind started considering the possibility that I might not find her. A wave of fear spread through my body, my hands started shaking. I remembered the conversation I had with Toto along the way. After I was done telling my whole story, he seemed very disappointed and mad at me. "It's so unlike of you to do something erratic and stupid. You are ruining a good chance of having a nice job and a good life, because of some girl who, from what I think, used you for her pleasure and now is running from her family," he had said.

"It's not that simple." I tried to placate him.

"From where I am standing, it's pretty simple. You can't seem to see it because, maybe, you are thinking about your penis. And the worse thing is, you tricked me into helping you by lying to me that we are going on a trip. Let's say you do find her, which is highly unlikely, but even if you did, what are you going to do then? Are you going to convince her to go back to her abusive husband?"

I hadn't thought about that at all. My only concern was to find her, to know that she was safe. Despite his disagreement and a feeling of betrayal, he still came with me. I would be in his debt for life.

My head bounced back to the present from those thoughts. My eyes felt a little glassy and my breath, a little heavy. My head started spinning with the feeling of self-doubt. I was beginning to think that I had made a huge mistake coming after her, that I should have gone for the job interview. At the same time, I thought, what if something bad happened to Neha, would I be able to live with that, ever. My phone rang, it was Toto. I answered.

"I can't find her," I said, clearing my throat which was heavy with all those feelings before he could say anything. I think he felt it in my voice.

"Are you okay," he asked.

"I don't know, man. I'm so sorry, I dragged you into all this."

"Hey, Hey, calm the fuck down. You're kind of losing it, man. Besides, that's what friends do, they drag each other into their own shit, so stop apologizing." He was being the mature one now. I guess I needed him to be because I was actually losing it.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"On platform three, that's where the train will be coming," I replied, taking a deep breath.

"Isn't there still one hour for the train to come?" he asked.

"Yeah," I understood what he was getting at.

"Did you check the waiting room?" he asked again.

I had already started running. "I could just kiss you right now."

"Please don't." He hung up the phone.

I entered the waiting room, breathing a little deeper and faster due to all the running. It was relatively less crowded than usual. I looked at my phone, it was one o'clock in the morning. There were some people sleeping with their legs spread along the long chairs, some were sitting straight and dozing off from time to time.

There was an old couple on the chair by the wall, the lady was sleeping with her legs occupying the whole chair and her head in her husband's lap, and the man was awake and looking at some magazine, it looked kind of romantic. There were four boys right next to them, busy with their phones; the guest room has one hour of free wifi service.

I wasn't totally sure I would find Neha there; my heart wished that I do, but a part of me was preparing itself for the disappointment. I swept the whole room with a furtive glance. I didn't know how she would react if she saw me here. I did not see her anywhere in the room.

My eyes stopped at a person sitting in a corner. It was a man, maybe in his mid forties. It caught my attention because he had long hair, dyed reddish brown. His face looked puffy and his eyes were distinctly red. I was sure he was high or maybe drunk. I noticed he was constantly staring at something. I looked in the direction he was looking, but did not notice anything specific. He has a creepy look on his face, which I was very familiar with; it wasn't a good look.

The man stood up swiftly and started walking, he was definitely drunk. He passed by some chairs where some ladies were sitting and stopped at the end of the last chair. There was a girl sitting at the far end of the chair.

"Ohh my god, that's her." I gasped. She was wearing a black jacket with the hood on her head, constantly looking down at her phone. I was about to run to her but my feet froze.

"What am I going to say to her?" My brain repeated the conversation I had with Toto on the way. I stood there trying to think of an explanation about how or why I was here.

The creepy man stretched his black, leather jacket and deliberately sat on the seat close to her, there was a lot of space on the other side. She noticed the man and shrunk in fear. She tried to lean away from him but there wasn't enough space.

I had to make a move before the creepy man made his. The creep leaned back, putting his right foot on the other knee and started moving it up and down. Neha kept looking at her phone but her body made it clear how uncomfortable she was. I started walking toward her. The man stretched his arms and brought them down slowly, brushing her shoulder with his right arm. She jumped from her seat in fear and stood up and I was standing right in front of her.

Her face became totally blank, her eyes wide open. I grabbed her by her right hand to balance her.

"Hey, what are you doing here? I was looking for you outside," I said laughing, trying to act normally.

"I... I was...." she was still trying to comprehend the situation. She looked at the creepy man. He was looking away like nothing happened.

"The train is still an hour late. Let's go get some tea or something." I pulled her attention from the mishap which was about to happen and pointed her towards the door of the waiting room.

"Yeah, let's get out of here," she said, softly exhaling in relief. She turned to grab her bag which was resting near the chair's leg. I noticed she was wearing blue jeans. It was the first time I had seen her in jeans. They complimented her long legs and especially her beautiful ass.

We got out of there and started walking. It was a little cold outside; fortunately, we both had our jackets with us. Most of the shops at the platform were closed, even the tea shop. Neha was walking along with me while looking down. She didn't speak a word, just kept walking without even looking where we were going. I myself, couldn't find a word to say, so we walked silently.

Her backpack was big and looked heavy but she was carrying it with comfort on her shoulders. I knew she was strong, physically. I had seen her working chores from when we were young. At times she was even stronger than me.