Oblivious Hearts: Chapter 4

                                                                   CHAPTER 4

“Grandma really needs to fix her wardrobe.” Tiya says, disgusted by what she saw.

 

“We’re here to study and live our life here, not put grandma back into working order. She’s old now and, I don’t think she has the energy to fix her wardrobe like us, Tee.”I say, correcting her. “Also, why are you checking her wardrobe?”

 

 “I was bored. She has designer clothes which are cool, but… Anyway, I saw something downstairs.” Tiya replies.

 

“What did you see?” I ask, curiously. I open the drawer and rest my orderly folded clothes, inside.

 

“Well, it was actually weird. She was gambling some sort of mystical words, like she was in some other world.”

 

“Words? You must be imagining, Tee. When did you go downstairs, anyway?”

 

“When you went to take a shower. I came out like the wind, and I could smell grandma’s cookies from downstairs. So, I went down to taste them as she has changed the recipe to her chocolate chip cookies, you know. But when I reached the stairs, I heard her saying all those kind of words. I thought we both could go together. Ask her what she was up to that time.” Tiya says, shrugging.

 

I roll my eyes at her. Tiya is a sister who can be really stupid and who’s not brave enough to even own up to our grandmother. Putting my accessories on the second drawer and closing it, I switch off the radio. It was sure was a good day to relax but we still had some work to do. We were given assignments already and that was a bummer. I guess, the evening and the coming few days will be booked. For now, I have to follow to Tiya’s craziness.

 

“So, you’re saying we should go check up on grandma?” I raise the question.

 

“Like-yeah! There must be something wrong with her.” She responds.

 

I get out of the room, and Tiya quietly follows me behind saying things which I am not bothered about listening too. I’m just shocked that Tyler is our neighbour! It’s too much to believe. Grandma never speaks about him ever on the phone. I realise I was zoomed out for a moment, and Tiya is staring at me, horrified. I raise my eyebrows and look over to grandma.

 

“Tasting time!” I say, jumping on to one of the seats of the dinner table.

 

“Didn’t you hear me, young lady?” grandma asks, rather growly and strict. Her voice seems to be raging.

 

“Hear what?” I ask, acquiring a cookie from the plate and taking a cookie-bite. My eyes widen, and shake my head, joyfully. “These are fabulous! Wow, mama. They’re so good.”

 

Munching on to more of them, Tiya looks at me, unsatisfied by my action done. She was not expecting me to eat them. I just look at her and munch. Grandma looks like a monster but just with the hair neatly combed and she’s wearing a really cool dress. I just couldn’t get it. Why were they so angry? It’s a day to enjoy and slow down. Plus, I’m not in for arguing. It’s Friday for god sake!

 

“Flo, aren’t you going to say something?” Tiya says, extremely disturbed by something grandma said which I wasn’t listening to. Oops.

 

I stop munching and look at her. “Uh…”

 

“Oh, thank you very much! I never thought I had a better sister!” Tiya stormed out of the hall, and grandma looking at me. She was waiting for me to leave the hall too.

 

“What?”

 

“You’re sister needs to learn manners.” Grandma says, and ends up it with that.

 

“We have enough manners, mama. I think it’s just about something you said.  You know she gets easily offended.” I spoke.

 

“She sneaked up behind my back! I cannot accept that! You are not to do such things to elders. They must be in such deep thoughts or conversation! Tell Tee, not to do that ever again. “

 

“Gosh, mama. Like you never did that when you were our age.”

 

“I have learned from my mistakes, and it is better for you to do so too. Do you hear me?” Grandma says, snatching the plate of cookies from me.

 

“Hey!” I cry, stretching my hands out for them. “Empty stomach here!”

 

“See what I mean? When someone else does something wrong, you feel annoyed.”

 

“What did she even do? Sneak up behind you? Mama! You do that to us too! Quit being so negative!” I declare, and walk out from her sight, running up my room.

 

Closing the door with a thud, I turn to Tiya. I look her with my squinted eyes and shake my head. She is looking at me, angrily. Could this get any better? I take a chair and stare at the ground, admiring my toes and nails. I just got a pedicure and manicure. It’s been long since I did that. Last time I did was when I was 15, maybe? Oh well. They look wonderful, like real French stylist. An interruption laid down my thoughts, unexpectedly.

 

“Flo, why are you day-dreaming every time? It’s hard to keep up with life when you’re like this!” Tiya shuts the silence, as she spoke.

 

“I backed you up back there. Just because grandma hated you sneaking behind her… I know it’s pretty stupid, but she’s old, okay? I know they’re hard to cope with but we have to face it, Tee. It’s better--“ I utter but  Tiya broke of what I was about to say.

 

“Hold it, sis. I know what you’re going to say so just, shush! Better off to listen to what she says? Well, I’m not living in a world to live up to other people’s expectations. We have been ill-treated enough thanks to Lillian freak. I do not want another.” Tiya lies down on her bed, and turns her back towards me, swishing the blanket over her, and comforting herself with her small pillow.

 

“I’m sorry, Tee. I was just shocked by what happened. You know, Tyler being our neighbour and all.” I say.

 

“Oh, like really? Flo, he’s your ex-boyfriend which means you’re long over with. You got to understand that! Sure, that’s a little freaky but I got over it!” Tiya turned over, frowning.

 

“That’s because you never experienced having your ex-boyfriend as our neighbour!” I shoot back.

 

“Really? Well, if I imagine being at your place, I still wouldn’t freak out!”

 

“I’m not freaking out!”

 

Tiya throws her pillow at me, and I couldn’t get myself into pace to dodge. It comes straight to my face, making me tremble over the chair. I give her a stare that can scare her, but it didn’t work this time. She’s in her worst of worst moods, at the moment and I don’t think it was a good idea to mess with her right now. Getting up, I get my laptop and place it on my desk. Getting my files out and a few papers, I grab a pen from my pouch and scribble down, “Fashion Studies – Assignment”.  I’ll write down what I’m supposed to do as rough for now, so I can start working on it soon. That would pass the time, hopefully. Reading through the information, I strike through the keys making a creative and inspiring article for my assignment. I bet I could ace this one out because this seems to be the perfect thing and the best I’ve written yet. Thank god for laptops.

 

“Flo, can I ask you a question?” Tiya asks me as I’m doing two things at a time – writing and typing.

 

“Mhm…” I nod, my mouth holding the pencil for a moment.

 

“Well… I just wanted to ask that, do you still have that attraction towards Tyler?”

 

I frown, and roll my chair towards her, putting the pencil down. I look at her, as thoughts are sprinting through my mind. It was indeed a tough question to answer back, and I considered about it for a minute but I just couldn’t get everything to place. Tiya glanced at me, a little concerned about what I was about to say.

 

Okay, let’s get this right. 9^th grade ex-boyfriend. Dated him for a dare. Broke up after 1 year. Told him the truth. I was forgiven after 4 years. He’s my neighbour. I get a small energy inside my body when I’m around him. He will never trust me again. This is extremely the hardest puzzle I’ve tried to do. It was almost like Sudoku.

 

“Well?” Tiya asks.

 

I shrug and turn to my laptop. I’m not so sure of myself. Maybe, a little time with Tyler would do. Or maybe not, that would make me fascinate him and I promised myself I wouldn’t fall into stupid stuff. Those things are way like teenage love which doesn’t go on forever so, I might as well forget about it. I scanned over the screen to get myself right, but from the corner of my eye I could see Tiya grin. Somewhat, that did not give me a good sign. I turned to her.

 

“What’re you thinking off?” I ask.

 

“Oh, nothing!” Tiya replies, putting herself back to bed, smiling. She gets a book and starts reading and I, decided to ignore her after that.