Sunday Morning [Arvind's POV]

The Sunday morning sun was already beating down hard by the time I stepped out of my house, the heat radiating off the asphalt in shimmering waves. I adjusted my grip on the phone, pressing it closer to my ear as I walked toward Mira Aunty’s house.

"Hello? Shreya? You still there?" I asked, kicking a stray pebble across the pavement.

"Yeah," her voice crackled over the line. "I'm here. Sorry."

"You barely heard a word I said, did you?" I laughed, though a frown creased my forehead. " I said I managed to score the tickets. Two of them. Arijit Singh's, next Saturday. And not the cheap seats in the back, actual decent ones near the stage."

I waited for the squeal, or at least an excited gasp. Shreya had been talking about this concert for months.

"Oh," she said. Just a flat, singular syllable. "That’s... that’s cool, Arvind."

I stopped walking, switching the phone to my other ear. "That's it? Just 'that's cool'? I thought you'd be jumping up and down."

"Yeah. No, it's great," she said, but her voice cracked slightly. "I'm just... sorry, I'm just really out of it today."

I resumed walking, slower this time. "You sound terrible, babe. What’s going on? You sick?"

"No I'm fine," she said quickly. Too quickly. "Just... stuff at home. My parents were being... themselves last night."

I winced sympathetically. I knew she and her parents had a strained relationship. Shreya never talked about why, but it had to be something complicated from the way she became withdrawn whenever they came up.

"Did they fight again?" I asked gently.

"Something like that," she muttered. "I just... I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"You don't have to," I said. I looked up and saw Mira Aunty’s gate just a few meters away. "Look, I can come over later? Maybe sneak in? We can just hang out. Watch a movie. I can bring some snacks. Get your mind off things."

"No," she said quickly. Too quickly. "No, Arvind. Don't come over. I just... I don't want to see anyone right now. I look like a zombie anyway."

"I don't care how you look," I said. "I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine," she insisted, her voice firming up a little, putting up that wall she always did when things got too real at home. "Really. I just need to sleep for like, ten hours. Go do whatever you were doing. We can talk about the concert later."

I sighed, kicking a loose stone on the road. "Alright. But call me if it gets worse, okay? I mean it."

"I will. Thanks, Arvind. Bye."

The line went dead before I could say anything else. I stared at the screen for a second and sighed. She had been so wild, so happy yesterday evening after we had sex . Now she was again down due to her parents.

I pocketed the phone, pushing the worry aside for now. I looked up. I was standing right in front of Mira Aunty's gate.

Her house looked quiet, the curtains drawn on the ground floor. A sleek sedan was missing from the driveway.Sunil Uncle must have already left for his trip.

I took a deep breath, smoothing down my hair. My heart started to hammer a completely different rhythm now. Shreya's family drama faded into the background as the image of Mira Aunty in her tight workout gear flooded my mind.

I pushed open the gate and walked up the driveway to ring the bell