It wasn't that Abhijeet minded watching movies with Tarika. Far from it was usually a very pleasant experience. But every once in a while, she would get it into her head to pick some lovey-dovey fluffy romantic…thing, and he would spend the entire night calculating exactly how much she owed him for sitting through this mind-numbing experience.
Not that he ever actually voiced how much he felt was due him.
That could get him killed.
Tonight's scene was no different. But Tarika seemed completely spellbound by the trite love story and wooden acting, leaving Abhijeet to ponder his options.
On the screen, the dashing hero (who seemed to have all the acting ability of a stone) was perched in a tree below the heroine's balcony. Said heroine was leaning down to call to him, proving beyond a doubt that as long as she was wearing that particular dress, the hero called back to her with some cheesy line before picking up his guitar. And he started to play and sing to his lady-love, who sighed dreamily and over-dramatically.
In short, Abhijeet was ready to scream and pull out his hair ; on the other hand, Tarika was like,
"So romantic!" Tarika sighed.
"Singing her from beneath her balcony…that's such a sweet thing for a guy to do!" She paused and glanced at him, knowing truly well about Abhijeet's singing abilities, she gave a nod as she sighed "Never Mind!" before turning back to the movie.
Abhijeet raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
-o-
Humming to herself, Tarika paced around her room, brushing her hair one last time before bed. It had been such a good day, but she was tired and ready to sleep.
But as she sat down on the edge of her bed with every intention of skipping off to Dream Land, she heard something outside her window. At first it was so quiet that she thought she'd imagined it. But it grew louder until it was completely audible: music.
Very pretty music.
It actually sounded like a love song…
What in the world? Tarika stood up and moved to the window. She opened it and looked down to find the source of the noise—sure enough, he was standing on the sidewalk. "Abhijeet?" she called, startled. "kya kar rahe ho tum?"
"actually, thodi der pehle tumne kaha tha na ki "Singing her from beneath her balcony…that's such a sweet thing for a guy to do!",
"yeah"
"toh maine socha that mujhe bhi try karna chahiye.." he called back. Tarika's face lighten up as he said it.
"aur kyunki main, itna..acha singer nhi huin toh usskeliye maine yeh intejam kiya hain, " He held the speaker up a little higher to emphasize his point. The music sang out from it. There was a pause before he added,
"yahi bhetar rahega tumahre liye aur tumhare neighbors keliye, warna agar maine gana chlau kar diya toh..you knw the consequences rite? (he smiled sheepishly as he watched Tarika nodding her head) ahm..main sirf lip- sing karunga.."
"Abhijeet gana lip-sing akrne keliye tumhe ek bhi gaan yaad hain.."
"Don't worry, uska bhi intejam kiya hain maine, yeh, (He waved a paper at her with his other hand.) isspar kuch naye gane ke lyrics likhe hain toh main padhke tumhe bolunga.."
It was too much—Tarika started to laugh.
Abhijeet waited patiently for her to stop giggling, one eyebrow quirked.
When she did stop, she brushed away tears of laughter and sat down by the window, putting one elbow on the window-sill and resting her chin in her hand.
"Do you take requests?"
"…ahm (Abhijeet scratched his head at the back in nervousness before answering her) so long as they're on this CD."
"How romantic."
"I'm trying Tarika." he pouted
Tarika sighed happily. "I can't believe you did this for me. Thanks" she smiled genuinely which made him blush, as he responded to her ," you are welcome"
