Chapter Thirty-Seven: Aryan
Richard was relatively quiet during the entire of lunch the following day. I had heard about his prison experience, and may have laughed quiet hard when Alex told me. I asked Grace if she had any following detail, but all she could give me was that he had been asked a question by Amy, but then quickly and accidentally mentioned something "private" and that Amy had a one-on-one with him.
I sat with him at lunch, but he didn't say anything, and would only talk if I asked him a question, and even then would give quick and short answers.
The rest of the day, I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned about Rich. He has been pretty private since beginning at the school, which wasn't unusual. He was a little more open a few weeks later, and witching another week, he had gone all quiet again. Today was the strangest.
When I got home, I heard my Dad making dinner, which again wasn't weird, he's recently gotten into making dinner from scratch, but I heard some familiar voices from the kitchen with him.
Opening the door, Toby jumped straight up at me, placing his muddy footprints against my trousers. "Toby, down!" Dad instructed, pulling a stern face at him. Toby made a sad face before placing all four paws on the ground and sulking over to his bed.
"Hi, Aryan," The voice said with a huge smile. "Woah… look how much you've grown since I last saw you." She sounded surprised.
"Yeah, Dad says I'm doing that." I laughed a little. It was true, according to Dad, I'd been growing taller every passing day, apparently.
I was surprised to see my aunt Priya, as I hadn't seen her since before my Mom and Dad's divorce. We'd video chat every few weeks to catch-up, but I hadn't seen her in person for years. She really only ever comes to California if she's on a business trip.
Charvi, my older cousin and Priya's oldest daughter, walked through the kitchen before smiling at me and almost choked me to death with her tight hugging. "Hey, Aryan, its great to see you!" She almost shouted, in a over extreme cheerful way.
"Please… let… me…go.." I pleaded, having to catch my breath after every word.
She unwrapped her arms and apologized, laughing a little. In my opinion, this was not a laughing matter!
I stood there, with my arms against my chest, catching my breath. "It's fine." I whispered, as that was all I could really do.
"So, Aryan, how was school today?" Dad questioned, making me turn around to face him.
"It was good… although Rich was really quiet.. and he didn't speak much." I answered.
"Yeah, I heard about his situation yesterday from Sheldon at work today. He's still a little shaken up, the poor thing." Dad said with a smile.
I was surprised Sheldon isn't a little shaken up too, he was put in that holding cell as well. "Yeah… he didn't seem that happy." I sighed, leaning up against the kitchen counter.
We continued talking about Richard and Sheldon, and the whole being arrested thing, for another few minutes. After, the conversation switched to school and how that was going, and I had a lot of stories to tell. Halfway through one, Dad told me to take my bag upstairs and do any homework if I had any. Obviously, as I was in the middle, I said I didn't have any. But as I was instructed, I took my school bag up anyway. By the time I got back down, I had completely forgotten that I was halfway through a story, and I went into the living room instead.
That's when my eyes met something awful and my heart sank. My younger cousin Devi.
As we sat at the table for dinner, Devi's eyes never left mine, but yet she never said anything. Even though Charvi and Devi are sisters, they are one-hundred percent two different people. Charvi is a kind and lovable person, who is unable to contain her own strength, which can sometimes come in handy. Devi is completely the opposite, she is manipulative and cruel, and no matter what happens, she never gets into trouble because she's the "angel" when her parents are around. I noticed three-years ago that if you add a L to the end of her name, it becomes Devil… its very fitting, as well as being probably the smartest thing I've done in my life.
The entire of dinner, we caught up with the family, and Devi acted all sweet, answering my Dad's questions with a giant devious smile, which they appeared to fall over, but I saw right through it. It was no surprise they fell for her "angelic" ways.
After dinner, Dad and Priya went into the kitchen to clear up, leaving me surrounded by girls, my nightmare. Luckily they are all family, right?
Charvi tried to suffocate me twice in a enveloping hug, Neysa was extremely quiet and just sat on the couch, Kiara played with Toby, and Devi stared at me. Just staring right over at me.
"So… how did everyone like dinner?" I tried to break the ice.
"Nobody asked you to ask a question, Aryan." Devi snarled. Yep, I knew that question would be a mistake. I should've learned a long time ago that you can't break a iceberg with a spoon. "You can't always ask all the questions, you have to let over people have a chance."
"Oh, dear lord, here we go again," I heard Neysa sigh under her breath.
"I didn't exactly ask you for just your opinion. I was asking a polite and genuine question for everybody to answer." I replied, swallowing the large lump that had appeared in my throat.
My heart must have sped up a thousand beats as Devi got to her feet and glared down at me. I swallowed hard again as she took a step closer. The kitchen door opened and Devi jumped straight back on the couch, acting all innocent.
"Is everything alright in here?" Dad asked.
Devi gave everyone a glare before they could answer. We all lied and said it was fine and Dad disappeared back into the kitchen. I knew nobody could win against her, and that nobody would believe me if I had told the truth, 'cause they think she's so innocent. This will be a fun two weeks…
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