Chapter 10

          I was thinking it would be two hours of just sitting there watching her get pampered, but as it turned out- she wanted me to do all the same things as her. By default, since the salon had an opening, I got a pedicure and manicure too (the facial was just wayyy out of my budget.)

          The place was called Salon Tres Beauty. Basically it was just a bunch of room lined up next to, or near each other. Alliyah had to go in mostly all the rooms for all her appointments.

          After the facial was done, she went into another room and I followed as well (what else could I do?). She sat down in the chair and the lady waxed her eyebrows. After she was done, she leaned towards me.

          "You don't have to get, like, eyebrow waxing, but it couldn't hurt. Just a lil more shaping than now."

          Hmm. Well, I was always using tweezers, and she was right…my eyebrows didn't have much shape-I guess because I never paid much attention to all these girly things. But hey, it wouldn't kill me to try. And it looked relatively painless after watching Alliyah.

          "Sure." I replied.

          "Oh yay!" Alliyah clapped her hands together.

          So I sat down and waited. The lady got the strip and stuck it on. So far so good. Then she reached over and yanked it out.

          "Ow!!!!" I yelped. Boy, was that an understatement. It hurt! I looked in the mirror and apparently, half of my eyebrows were gone.

          "Wow Kripa! Now your eyes really stand out." Alliyah exclaimed.

          The lady also smiled. "Dee men will bee dazzled" she said in a French accent.

          "I don't need to dazzle men. I have a boyfriend." I grumbled, still in pain.

          "Den he will bee charmed." She replied.

          I ignored her. "My eyebrows are tingling."

          "Oh don't worry about. It'll stop in a bit. If it doesn't, put some ice on it. Don't worry, next week you won't, like, feel a thing." Alliyah said.

          "Next week?" I asked puzzled.

          "Ya! I, like, do this every Monday. I called it Monday Maintenance!"

          Wow.

          "Sorry Alliyah, but I can't afford all this every week."

          She looked sad for a second and brightened. "I can use my credit card Daddy gave me."

          WTF?!

          "Sorry Alliyah, but I can't make you spend your father's money." I replied.

          "Ok" she said sadly.

*****

          Twenty minutes later, we were finally in our room. Before I could even drop my bags on my bed, Alliyah told me to get ready.

          "How about we both take showers, and then, like, we can get dressed and go to Angad's and Cole's place to cook dinner."

          Oh Joy...

          Before I could protest, she was already in the bathroom taking a shower. She got out ten minutes later and I took a quick shower. After getting out, I put on some light makeup and looked at myself. Did the eyebrow waxing really make a difference?

          I looked, gosh, I don't know…prettier?

          I decided to leave my hair loose, in natural waves, distracting attention to my face.

*****

          After we got ready, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some stuff. Alliyah seemed to know everything about Angad. He only ate kernel corn, not sweetened corn. He liked unsweetened tree, not sweetened tea. He like plain brownies, with no nuts- just like me.

          "If weren't for his love of roller coasters, Angad would be totally dull!" Alliyah said.

          I almost said that he wasn't dull from any aspect, but kept quiet.

****

          The house was quite cozy, set across the lake. It had its own private beach, and the view was breathtaking. The front porch had a couple rockers and the lighting was very welcoming and peaceful. No wonder Alliyah spent so much time here- it was far away from all the screaming kids and the loud rides.

          "Wow" I breathed in at the sight. "It's beautiful."

          "Yup!" Alliyah said. She got out of the car. "C'mon!" she said to me.

          "But what about the groceries?"

          "The boys will get them." She said. I nodded and hopped out. I heard the gentle waves lapping against the shore and felt the light breeze refresh me. The fresh, salty air was a big contrast to the smell of greasy hot dogs and sweet cotton candy.

          I followed Alliyah. A tall, blonde guy in a black shirt stepped out into the porch. Alliyah hopped on the porch and hugged him.

          "This is Cole." She announced happily.

          And we were back to guy number one.

          "You must be the roommate?" Cole asked.

          Before I could reply, Alliyah stepped in. "Oh sorry I forgot to say that. Yes, this is Kripa, my roommate. Don't you, like, just lovveee what she's done with herself today?"

          "And what exactly is that?" asked a deep voice.

          I turned toward Angad. He had come up the side of the porch. He had on a pair of dark, muddy jeans a black shirt which was greasy. How could anyone that greasy look so sexy?!

          "If you can't tell, then im not gonna tell you. Did you get my car fixed?" she asked, her arms crossed.

          "Ya I did. But geez Alliyah, you gotta take care of it. The batteries have to be checked all the time."

          "Whatev. I have you to fix it anyways. Can you guys get the groceries please? K, thanx." Just like that, she grabbed my arm and pulled me into the house.

          The house was furnished very cozily and large windows were everywhere, providing wonderful views of the lake. By the time Alliyah had given me a tour of the house, and finally had taken me to the kitchen, the groceries were delivered. The kitchen was an open cheery room that made you almost want to cook.

          "Let's get cracking!" she said. We both got hard at work…it was a pretty easy recipe and we were done with the casserole in a few minutes. Alliyah worked on the brownie mix, while I tossed the salad with the dressing. I was done within seconds and took a chance to admire the view from the window at the kitchen sink.

          "Kripa, can you just grab the casserole from the oven?" Alliyah asked.

          "Sure" I replied and put on the oven mitts. I set the bowl aside, opened the oven door and –

          "Something smells good" Angad suddenly said, coming out of nowhere.

          I jerked up, caught my arm right above where the mitt ended and-

          "Ouch!"

          I jumped back. Strong, muscular arms were suddenly around me, hauling me to the sink. I could smell sweat, oil and grease…and yet he still smelled good.

          Angad turned on the sink water and ran my arm under it.

          "I am so sorry," he said, "Alliyah, get some ice."

          "It's not that bad." I replied, "Just stings."

          "Still," he insisted, "shouldn't have happened." He was looking at me with those honey eyes, so apologetic, so concerned. Had anyone ever looked at me like that?

          I was sure Prithvi would have if I would have burned myself. But since Id never hurt myself in front of him, Id never had him look as though he'd take the pain on himself- which was exactly what Angad looked like.

          "Angad, you probably shouldn't be touching her. You're filthy." Alliyah said.

          He stepped back, but I could tell he did so reluctantly. Alliyah stepped into his spot and put ice on my hand. She looked at the burn, examining it.

          "Its not so bad." She said to me. Then she spun around and looked at Angad. "The way you were acting, I thought we were gonna have to like, take her, to like, the ER or something."

          "I felt responsible." He replied.

          "You usually don't overreact."

          "Guilt, ok? Let it go."

          "Sheesh…someone's snappish."

          "I spent my day off working on your freaking car and you haven't thanked me once."

          "You stink. Go take a shower."

          "No, I want a hug." Angad said.

          Alliyah started moving around the island table. "No wayyy. You're all like sweaty and dirty."

          Grinning broadly, he pulled off his shirt. He was trim and fit. Wow.

          Alliyah ran into the hallway and he did too. I walked slowly and watched them. He tackled her into a bear hug. She broke away after a second.

          "Go take a shower. Everything's almost ready." She said and walked into the kitchen, rolling her eyes when she passed me. Angad was heading into his room, when he turned and saw me standing there.

          "Want a hug?" he asked. I shook my head no and walked away.

          No way in hell was I gonna admit that yeah….I did want that hug.

*****

          "So we serve it buffet style- everyone comes and get their own food." Alliyah explained.

          "Hey." We both turned to look at the person behind us. A tall girl stood there, almost as tall as me, with her red hair pulled back into a ponytail.

          "Hey Rhonda. Rhonda this is my roomie Kripa, and Kripa this is Rhonda, Cole's girlfriend from like, middle school."

          "Hey Kripa. Nice to meet you." Rhonda said smiling at me.

          I smiled back. She seemed pretty nice.

          "K so Rhonda, grab Cole and then, like, help yourselves k?" Alliyah said. Rhonda nodded and walked away, apparently looking for Cole.

*****

          Ten minutes later, Cole, Rhonda, Alliyah and I were seated, eating the food. Angad came into the room, his hair still wet from his shower. He got his food and pulled a chair between me and Alliyah.

          "How's your arm?" he asked me.

          "Fine" I wasn't certain I could say that about my appetite now that he was sitting next to me. I could see a couple droplets of water on his eyelashes.

          Why are you looking so close? I chastised myself.       

          Just then Alliyah jumped up and ran across the room. "Hey babe!!" she flung her arm around a guy- Josh. Guy number three now?

          They kissed and I looked at Angad to see his reaction. He just kept on eating, not looking bothered at all.

          "So, Jordon's car had problems?" Josh asked.

          "Yup. I can't believe I spent my day off working on it." Angad said.

          Alliyah leaned towards him. "That's what brothers are for."

          "He's your brother?!" I blurted out.

          Everyone looked at me like I had just asked the stupidest question in the world.

          "Yeah. What did you think he was?" Alliyah asked.

          "Well I didn't know his last name, and you always talked about him, and you were over here a lot…."

          "Omigod. You thought….ewww! Josh is my boyfriend…truly and fully. What did you think he was?"

          I felt so stupid and I mumbled my answer. "I thought you had two boyfriends?"

          "So what, you thought I was, like, some kinda slut?" She laughed. "Omigod, this is too much.

          Angad didn't say anything at all; he just studied me, like he was slowly figuring something out. Then, as though he figured it out, he turned towards Alliyah.

          "Common misconception. We don't look alike."

          "Thank god. But this is soo, like, funny!" she said.

Happy Turkey Day everyone! Hope you all have a great time. Consider this a treat- for Turkey Day, for all the wonderful comments, and for being awesome readers! This part was pretty long for my usual updates and well many of you were correct- Angad and Alliyah were indeed siblings. Good job Khunsha- she guessed it first! I hope now you can tell a bit about Alliyah's personality as she is a key character in this ff. At the rate I am updating, and what all im writing in each update, this ff might not be as long as I planned. Comments! Please. I told you all in the last update that I would update by Thursday if I got comments…and I did. So if you want me to update more often, please comment. And to tell you the truth, reading all the wonderful comments makes me want to sit down, neglect my HW (which isn't always a good thing!) and type a part. Writing is a passion for me, and I have noticed that I write better when people tell me to, and critique me. Ok I wont bore you all anymore; happy turkey day once again!

x3 Prakriti