Summer Girl-Part II

[Yep. The second part of the Summer Girl series is here! :) ]

Paridhi lied down on the bed in the right-corner room of the twin cottages her parents had rented for the vacation-one cottage for her family and one for Kabir's. It was well past midnight but her thoughts wouldn't quiten down enough to let her sleep. The woodwork in the room creaked as the sea raged outside. But, other than the sound of the wood settling and that of the waves crashing against the shore, it was achingly quiet. More so, because Paridhi could hear every movement from the adjacent room in the neighbouring cottage, Kabir's room. He hadn't wanted the room initially. No. He had wanted the room in the opposite end of the cottage, a room now occupied by his younger sister, secured after a well-timed tantrum she had been witness to after dinner. 

Dinner had been a raucous affair as it always was when they dined with Kabir's family. Their siblings had become inseparable since both of them had joined the same school. Their parents had known each other since college. And thus it usually happened that the only two silent people in the room since Anushka left had always been Kabir and Paridhi. Yes, in spite of knowing each other all their lives and despite having been ostensibly friends for most of it, Kabir and Paridhi did not talk. Oh, they spoke for sure. But they never talked. The gap in their 'friendship' had always existed, but Anushka's sudden exit from their lives had exacerbated it. Before Anushka left, there had been times when that gap had been breached, instances when she had been startled with the realisation that she and Kabir had managed to have a meaningful conversation. But they had always been brief snatches away from the whirlwind that was Anushka. If Anushka was a whirlwind, what was she, Paridhi? Restive? Not at all. The whirlwind had always been in her mind. And what about Kabir? With a start, she realised that she had know idea. She did not know him at all. But back to the tantrum. It had happened after dinner when everyone had settled down with cups of coffee. Kabir had announced that he was too tired to sit any longer and wanted to shift his stuff to the room of his choice. And Rita, his sister, had announced adamantly that she wanted that room too. A round of tears later, alarmed at the direction in which the stalemate was going, Kabir agreed to take the room adjacent to mine. And then inexplicably, he had stared at me, frustration rolling off him in waves. His eyes had been piercing. Unfathomable. Caught off guard, I had turned to look behind me to ascertain what he was looking at. But there was nothing behind me to look at, unless he had somehow acquired a passionate interest in the wall. Yep. He was looking at me with his inscrutable brown eyes and a frown set around his mouth. It had almost looked like he was angry with me. I had not known why and I was all too aware of it as I heard him move about in his room.