My Neighbour Girl Ch. 03

"I am going to regret this," he said in the same voice.

"Dude, would you just tell me what the hell are you talking about?" I asked him seriously this time.

"Go to the bedroom," he spoke.

"This is your idea, go to the bedroom?" I said sarcastically.

"Shut up and just go to the bedroom," he shouted in vexation.

"Okay, okay!" I walked into the bedroom.

"There is a cupboard on your left."

"Yes."

"Open it."

"Okay," I said as I pulled the doors of the wooden cupboard open. "It's empty."

"There is a safe in the midsection. Do you see it?"

It took me a while to recognize there was a safe in there; it had numbers on it. I guessed it had a pin or something. "Yeah, I see it," I replied with a little excitement.

"Enter the pin '4843'."

"Dude, I don't want your money. What am I gonna do with cash?"

"What did I tell you? Shut the fuck up and do what I am telling you."

I entered the code and the safe opened. There was no money in it. My eyes lit up as I saw the thing Toto was leading me up to. It was a key. Not just any key, but the key for Toto's 'Royal Enfield 550cc' bike. Now I understood his pain. "Why would you hide a bike's key in a safe with a security pin?" I started laughing at my naive friend. Suddenly I heard a huge laughter. It was Neha standing right behind me. She was laughing so hard, she almost fell down on the bed and kept laughing while holding her stomach. It was refreshing, seeing her laugh like that.

"Is that you laughing at me?" Toto was annoyed more than ever.

"No, it's Neha. You wanna talk to her." I put the phone on loudspeaker.

"No, just tell her to laugh while she can because I just changed my mind. You can put that key back in the safe."

"I'm so sorry, Toto. Sorry Vivek," Neha spoke while trying to control her laughter. She failed badly and started laughing again. I turned the loudspeaker off and went out of the room. I could still hear her giggling from the living room.

"Just put the keys back," said Toto pretending to be angry. He is not easily offended. I have hardly seen him angry ever.

"C'mon man."

"I hate that girl."

"Alright, do it for me."

"Yeah, alright. Just don't let anything happen to her."

By 'her', he meant 'his bike'. He hated Neha's guts for laughing at him like that.

Over the next hour we discussed our plan to leave without anyone noticing. Neha was sitting in front of me. She listened to our conversation keenly. Then I went to check the bike in the basement garage where Toto had instructed me to find it. I decided to take it out for servicing although it was in good condition, even for a long ride. We planned to leave early in the morning so that no one would notice anything.

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At 4:15 in the morning the basement garage echoed with the roaring sound of the beast that was our ride for this adventurous journey, not very subtle if you don't want to be noticed by people. Fortunately, it only woke up the guard who was supposed to open the gate, so far so good. It was terrifyingly dark and cold outside, but we were dressed accordingly. A thick blanket of smog wrapped the streets, ubiquitous throughout, exposing the truth, the disgraceful nature of this modern city and the people in it. It was poetic that the poison we released through our vehicles and factories throughout the day, settled back at nights to invade our lungs. The roaring sound of the engine of my bike reminded me how much I was part of this misdeed too. I couldn't help but laugh at the joke which we were living in.

"What are you laughing at?" Neha asked me curiously.

"Nothing. It's just, I can hardly see what's in front of me."

"Just be careful," said Neha, grabbing my shoulders to balance herself. A jolt of nervousness rolled through my spine. The horrors of that dream were still lingering in the corners of my heart.

The ride was slow but comfortable. We had replaced our backpacks with two saddle bags wrapped on each side of the back seat; they could also be carried as backpacks. They belonged to Toto; he was always infatuated with these kinds of travel gear. Both Neha and I were wearing helmets, which was pretty unusual in the city; people hardly wore helmets in these areas. We mostly avoided the traffic lights where there could be cameras. I had hardly any experience in hiding from people or running away. I kept thinking about all the spy movies I had watched and what the characters did to run from the police or the enemy. I wondered how practical those ideas were, but that's all I had. Neha used Google maps to maneuver through the side roads to avoid toll gates as we left the city behind. We passed through random villages and deserted places. The fog had mostly faded, and the first rays of sun were hitting the planes; the weather was still pretty cool. It was almost six in the morning when we stopped in a village to get some breakfast. We weren't planning to stop unless absolutely necessary so we refilled our water and moved on.

As the day got brighter and clearer, it became inescapable not to be mesmerised by the simple beauty of the land, a verdant plateau which was endemic to these countryside, the fresh cool air which seemed to clear my head from all the doubts and insecurities. There was a strange happiness inside me, and I think Neha shared the same feeling too. She slowly slid her hands which were resting on my shoulders down to my waist and wrapped around it. Our helmets hit and made a small sound as she rested her head on my shoulder. Only this time I didn't hesitate, and no shiver ran through my spine. I adjusted the rear view mirror on my left side to see her face. Her eyes were closed, and her lips were stretched in a gentle smile.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. We stopped a couple of times for lunch and snacks. By six in the evening, the temperature began to drop again. We had covered a little more than three hundred and fifty kilometers and our bodies were begging for some rest, but we were in the middle of nowhere, so our only option was to keep moving.

Around seven thirty, we reached a small town called Mohna which was somewhat hundred kilometers away from Gwalior where we were headed. I didn't want to stop, but our bodies had given up, so we decided to rent a room in a lodge or something. After asking around for a while, I found there was only one decent lodge. I asked for directions and a person pointed me towards further north.

The lodge wasn't very hard to find, after all it was the only legal lodge in town. I walked to the counter where a middle aged, bald man with a chubby face was sitting behind it. "I wanna rent a room with two beds for the night." After that bathroom incident, I wasn't going to be presumptuous about anything concerning Neha. The man didn't respond. He seemed to be lost in some sort of bills and records on his notebook, his round glasses resting but a little above his nose tip. I knocked on the desk to get his attention. The man behind the desk moved his head up and adjusted his glasses as slowly as he possibly could. "That would be eight hundred rupees," the man said while taking a look at me from top to bottom.

As I was taking out the money, Neha spoke from behind me, "How much for the single bed?" She took off her helmet at the same time and her long brown hair spread around her shoulders like a water fountain. I turned to the man behind the counter who was looking at Neha, actually staring at her with his jaw hanging and eyes wide open. I knocked on the desk again.

"Single bed is five hundred rupees," said the man suddenly trying to compose himself.

"We should take a single bed, don't you think?" Neha asked me.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I mean it's fine if you are not comfortable with a single bed."

"No, I'm pretty comfortable with a single bed." I wasn't. I passed the money to the man behind the desk.

"I'm gonna need to see the ID too," said the man grabbing the money. I was a bit surprised but after a moment of thought, I handed him my ID card. He looked at the card carefully and looked back at me. "And madam's ID too."

This was going to be a problem because I didn't want Neha's name anywhere on the records. It could be traced later. Also, my name could be associated with her, that could cause some serious problems. "I'm sorry, she doesn't have any ID on her right now," I replied politely but confidently.

"I'm sorry sir but we can't allow a couple to stay without seeing the ID, unless they are married which you clearly aren't. It's against our policy.'' There was a cheeky smile on his face.

'How stupid! I should have started with a single bed,' I thought. Neha looked a little worried. I gave her a subtle nod to let her know, 'I've got it.' I looked around and ever so subtly I slipped another five hundred bucks on the desk with my fingers covering the notes. The man behind the desk looked at the money and then at my face. I was holding a smile on my face but to be honest, my heart was racing with nervousness.

"Sir, it seems like you had a long journey; you and your companion look pretty tired already. Maybe you are not thinking straight." Then he paused. My nervousness got bigger and bigger, and my heart raced even faster. I started to pull my hand back with the money and then he swiftly placed his palm on my hand covering the money, "so maybe we can make an exception for you," said the man returning my ID card. I noticed that he forgot to note down my name on the register or perhaps he didn't bother to. Even better for me. "You should go freshen up. The dinner will be served in an hour."

"The dinner?" I asked in confusion. I didn't mention any dinner to him although we were starving.

"Yes, it's included in the room charge." The man smiled politely showing his yellow teeth.

We were taken to our room 203 by a young boy who couldn't be more than fourteen. We threw our luggage on the bed and looked around. I noticed the boy was still standing at the door. I looked at him curiously as he kept smiling. I got the message rather quickly, so I walked up to him and slipped him a fifty rupee note. "Can you bring our dinner here in the room?" I asked.

"No sir, you will have to come down." He left.

After an hour and half Neha and I came down to the ground floor restaurant. Our exhaustion was abated by the long and warm shower we had, one by one of course. I was wearing a t-shirt and a track pant and Neha was in her Deshi light blue salwar kurta. It was the least glamorous dress she had but that wasn't going to help us avoid catching people's attention. Her milky white face was perfectly complemented by the pinkish glow of her cheeks and her wholesome lips. Since it was hard for me to take my eyes off her, how were we gonna avoid people's attention. Her long, straight hair, which was still moist from the bath, was hanging open around her shoulders.

Fortunately, the restaurant was not as crowded as I thought it would be. As we sat on the table, the same boy who took us to our room came running at us and stopped at our table. He gave me a smile and looked at Neha and looked back at me. I had a pretty good idea about what was going on in his mind. I lifted my eyebrows in a gesture to ask, 'What's up?' The boy smiled again and said, "Your order, Sir?"

Neha began to notice what was going on. She looked at the boy who kept staring back at her face. Neha looked at me smiling. She seemed amused by the attention she got from a teenager. I didn't like it. "It will take us some time," I said in the hope that he would leave Neha alone but....

"Very well sir, take your time," replied the boy while staring at Neha continuously. I was beginning to get a little annoyed and Neha noticed it too. Neha looked at him once more; he kept smiling.

"Why don't you bring some soup for us while we decide what to eat," Neha said in a sweet voice.

"Sure Ma'am, What kind of soup?"

"What kind do you have?" said Neha, tilting her head as she smiled back at him.

"It's on the menu, ma'am." The smile on the boy's face began to fade.

Neha pointed at a couple of soups which he noted down in his notebook and went back in the kitchen. As the boy left, we both burst into laughter. "You seemed to enjoy the attention," I teased Neha.

"Ohh, he is just an innocent teenager," she replied.

"Clearly, you have no idea about teenage boys."

"Why? Were you also like this in your teens?"

"Like what?"

"You know, like the boy."

"You mean staring at hot girls, hell no. I was never that confident."

"You were staring at me quite confidently from your balcony that day."

"Was I? I thought you didn't notice."

"Well, take a note. Girls always notice."

"Note taken." I smiled. She smiled back. I looked into her glowing eyes. After a moment she blushed and looked down at the menu. There was a pause. I was searching for words.

"This is nice, isn't it?"

"What is?" she looked back at me.

"You know, us having dinner in a restaurant," I said looking into her gorgeous eyes. She looked at me with a blank expression. "I mean, if the circumstances were different, it would be like a date."

Her blank expression changed into a deep smile, "Yeah, it is nice." She kept looking at me. After a pause she said, "You know, if it was a date it would be my first."

"Mine too. I never dated anyone in my college. I wish I had the confidence like that waiter boy when I was in college." We both burst into laughter again.

"Hell, with the circumstances, let's make it a date," she said after a pause.

I liked her enthusiasm. "Okay."

"What do people do on dates?" asked Neha, lifting her right eyebrow.

"I don't know, eat food and talk," I replied.

"That's good because I'm starving."

"Me too."

After awhile, the boy came with two bowls of soup. We ordered a heavy meal, probably more than we could finish, but it was free, so we didn't think much about it.

"I thought you didn't eat eggs."

"Is that why you made the egg toast, you wanted me to starve?"

"Nooo..., no," I said laughing. "I guess it was in my dream. I heard you say that you don't eat eggs." I realised I had thrown myself into a trap.

"You dreamed about me! Was it any good?"

I couldn't respond but smile at my stupidity.

"C'mon! You can tell me if you had a hot dream about me," said Neha, teasing me and flattering herself at the same time.

"More like a nightmare."

"What! Was I the ghost?" She sounded excited about the idea of her being a ghost. I couldn't tell her I was the ghost in that dream.

"Okay," I paused for a moment to straighten my thoughts. "So, it happened right after the bathroom incident,"

"Ohh," Neha interrupted. "I'm so sorry for that."

"Stop it, you have apologized for like the tenth time." She nodded. "So, anyway. You had yelled at me, so I guess I was thinking about that when I fell asleep." Neha grabbed my left hand in an apologetic gesture but didn't speak anything. "So, what I remember from the dream is that you came out and didn't like the toast because it had egg in it. Apparently, you hate eggs in my dream world."

"Noooo! I love eggs," Neha interrupted.

"Shut up! It's my dream," I added a smile as I said that.

She responded with a cute smile of her own. "So, what happened next?"

"Nothing. You threw the plates down and then you turned into a huge monster and ate me instead."

Neha burst into laughter, a loud one. People turned to look at us and she suddenly composed herself. "Is that why you have been so afraid to come near me?" she whispered, being extra cautious this time.

"Yeah, I guess. Subconsciously I think you will turn into a monster and eat me," I said jokingly.

Neha laughed again but it wasn't that loud. "That can't be true. Tell me you are making it all up."

"I am not." I lied. I couldn't gather the courage to tell her the truth, not in a million years.

"You are so cute. I would never eat you, I promise." She smiled, while rubbing my hand to assure me.

"I guess, I should thank you for sparing my life, you big ugly monster." She laughed again. I was relieved to have not made it worse.

We talked and laughed through the whole meal. The boy did a good job serving us although It seemed like he was only serving Neha. When we were finished, Neha gestured to the boy to come closer. When he did, she gave him a hundred rupee note. The boy hesitated, "Ma'am, I'm not supposed to take money from you, the dinner was free." Neha handed him the note and said, "It's for you. You did a good job for us."

We had eaten a lot and were hardly able to walk up the stairs. We reached at the front of the door with number 203 on it. I looked at Neha, "I guess, this is the end of our date."

"Would you like to come inside for a coffee?" She smiled mischievously.

"I would love some coffee, thank you." I played along. She twisted the doorknob and we were inside. Neha closed the door behind, leaned back on the door and leaned her head back. When I turned around to look, I was totally mesmerized by the beauty that was standing in front of me. Her long neck wide open, inviting me to kiss all over it, her beautiful jaw pointing up with her juicy pink lips moving ever so slightly. Her eyes were closed. I kept looking at her, frozen where I stood. I wanted to kiss her lips, her neck, her whole body, and those were not the only thoughts going through my head. I hadn't forgotten the nightmare I had completely. I don't think I will ever forget that. So, I stood there with my ambivalent thoughts.

"It's been a long, long time since I had laughed so much," said Neha in a smooth whisper, then she opened her eyes and looked at me. Her eyes were irresistibly seductive. The expression on her face was quite clear, but I just couldn't bring myself to move closer to her. Eventually I did. I walked slowly towards her. We got closer, our faces were a few inches apart, our breaths colliding, our heart beating faster. I was still conflicted from inside. I wanted to kiss her so bad, but at the same time I didn't.

"Don't worry, I won't turn into a monster this time," Neha whispered with a gentle smile. I couldn't tell her that I was the monster in that dream.

"I know," I smiled back. Her little joke did help my convoluted mind.

Our lips were about to meet when there was a knock on the door which startled us both. I suddenly took a step back. Neha looked at me with a face that clearly said, "Who could this be?"

Neha stepped aside as I opened the door. It was the same boy who was serving us dinner. I cleared my throat and spoke, "What is it?" I was a bit annoyed by him to begin with, but a bit relieved too for getting me out of the situation I was in.

"Since you gave me a generous tip, I have a tip for you too." said the boy. He was smiling but his words were serious as a grave.

Neha pulled the door wide open as she recognised the voice. "What tip?" she asked before I could say something.

The boy handed her a napkin and said, "Use the window." Then he ran away. Neha looked puzzled, the same as I was. She flipped the napkin and her face turned red, her hands fell on her side, lifeless. She walked up to the bed and sat on the edge.

"What is it?" I asked, wondering about the note on the napkin. She didn't respond. I walked up to her and pulled the napkin from between her fingers. There was a childish writing on the napkin with a blue pen. "Leave the lodge before twelve," the note said. "Use the window," the phrase began to make sense. I looked at Neha, her eyes were watered up. I looked at my watch and it was already eleven o'clock. Neha was not looking good and we had no time to work on it. I sat on my knee in front of her

"Neha, we have enough time. We can get out of here," I said to her, but there was no response. "Neha, we can make it. I promise you, you will be safe, but I need you with me right now. You cannot go blank on me, not this time. Are you listening to me? Neha?"