"Figures that that piece of rag would be your favorite shirt!"
"Aw, if you like it that much you can keep it darling. I mean who wouldn't want to have a reminder of me in their room!"
A pair of pants and a shirt land a few feet away from Adi as a frustrated Maithili glares through her window. Adi comes forward and grabs his clothes off the ground.
"Smells just like you honey," he takes a sniff of the shirt, "sweat and mud and oh, what's that."
He takes another whiff, "oh right, and garbage."
Just then, various items fall all around Adi: couple of books, CDs, pencils, pens, and a lamp. One of the books hits his left foot, a half a dozen of the CDs crash against his arms, few of the pencils and pens crash against his back, and the lamp just barely misses his head. Grabbing his injured body parts, a mad Adi looks up to see a satisfied Maithili who had shoved almost all of the items that had been laying on her table on the poor fellow.
"I smell like garbage huh! Bet you won't even dare to say anything like that ever again!" she shouts as Adi's nostrils begin to flare.
"Oh, you crazy woman! Aggar kuch hota mujhe na, you would be crying your pretty little eyes out!"
"Please, don't think you have that much importance in my life. You are worth less than a useless servant, no less than a rupee!"
Adi picks random things off the ground and starts throwing them upward at Maithili: twigs that land in her hair, stones that make cracks in her window, and handfuls of dry dirt that make a mess of her clothes.
"You insufferable…! Tanu! Tanu!" Maithili walks to her closet and lets her younger sister out from being a hostage.
At the same time, Sharvan pulls up on the curb next to Maithili's house with his headlight-less car.
"Adi! You owe me new headlights man," he walks up to Adi.
"Now Tanu!" yells out an eager Maithili.
A stream of water appears out of the window and lands directly on the spot that Sharvan is standing on. Tanu puts the bucket that she had just filled with water down and sees a wet Sharvan. Maithili follows her gaze and sees a laughing Adi.
Adi continues to laugh, "Nice aim saali-ji."
"What did you just call her?"
"Exactly what she is going to be very soon darling," he smirks back at her.
He then walks over to a shivering Sharvan and tries to control his laughter.
"You ok bro," he puts his hand on Sharvan's shoulder.
"I'm so sorry dude!" a guilty Tanu states firmly.
Sharvan's eyes slowly move upwards and meet Tanu's for the first time.
"Sorry?! Oh, if you're sorry then it's ok huh stupid!"
"You don't have the right to call her stupid!" says a defensive Maithili.
"Yeah, how dare you say that to me, you jerk!" Tanu's guilt melts away as she faces Sharvan's impoliteness.
"Don't call him a jerk!" reacts a defensive Adi.
"Hey, you stop yelling at my sister!"
"You stop yelling at my brother!"
"If you really care about your brother, take him out of here before I teach him a lesson he'll never forget."
"Yeah right. This from a girl who can't even finish sentences," Adi fold his arms.
"What are you talking about?" Maithili frowns at him.
" 'and then confuse me when you come near me,' " Adi imitates Maithili's voice.
"It was a slip of tongue that's all. I meant to say anger me when you come near me," Maithili quickly retorts back.
"Right it was such a slip of tongue that you couldn't even correct yourself afterwards huh."
"Why do you care anyway? Shouldn't you be off chasing the newest girl in your social circle or something?"
"Oh yeah. I have to get back to Ria. Wow, now she is a real woman."
"What is that suppose to mean?" Maithili snatches a book off her table and holds it in a threatening manner.
"Come on bhai. Lets leave the two monsters and go before we get anymore bruised," Sharvan says as Adi stares at Maithili.
"Di, close the window. Those two duffers can not worth getting our selves irritated," Tanu says as Maithili looks at Adi.
"You're right," both Adi and Maithili say.
Maithili closes her window and Adi turns around to return to his car.
This night was the first night when both Adi and Maihili felt like they had been fighting over something that wasn't superficial. They both were fighting over their emerging feelings. One who doesn't like to admit anything and the other who likes to suppress everything.
13