Fun! Fun? I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If this had happened ten years ago, I would have been happy to have a sibling. Of course, I would have eventually realized what attention-grabbing monsters babies are. My classmate Anisha had a baby sister when she was in Class IX and even though she pretended to be thrilled about it, I knew she was not only embarrassed, she was also horrified because her parents had transferred all their attention to the little snit. Her mother had even missed her Class X graduation ceremony because her sister had a fever.

‘Can we leave?’ I asked them.

Ma and Papa looked at each other and Papa gestured for the bill.

Later that night, when I was almost asleep, a sudden thought woke me up.

How would I tell Nisha and Anirudh about this? What would they think? Would they laugh at me?

And the worst realization—the one that I’d been trying to avoid—hit me then.

My parents still had sex. Yikes.

2

I was at Nisha’s door the following morning, waiting for her to open it, when my phone rang.

‘Ma, I’m fine. Just spending the day at Nisha’s,’ I told her as soon as I answered the phone.

‘But . . .’ she sounded doubtful.

I exhaled loudly. ‘It’s a bit too much for me to take right away, okay? I’ll be back home this evening.’

‘Okay,’ she said and ended the call.

I looked at my phone for a few seconds and shook my head just as Nisha opened the door. She looked surprised to see me.

‘What’s up?’ she asked as she let me in. I waved to her mother who was reading something.

I liked Nisha’s room. It was simple, uncluttered and one could just sit down and talk. Both of us sat on the bed. I realized Nisha was being awkward.

‘Listen, about yesterday,’ she started, looking nervous.

‘I’m waiting.’ I wanted to hear her story before telling her about my sad life.

‘Yeah, so . . . the thing is . . .’ she looked away.

‘Yes?’ I prodded her.

‘I’ve never thought of him that way. I mean, okay, maybe once or twice, when other girls would comment about how cute he looked with his geeky glasses, it would surprise me. And then I’d look at him and actually see what they saw and I’d feel awful for thinking of him like that,’ she said in a rush.

‘Then, the day before yesterday, he asked to meet me for coffee. I thought you would also be joining us.’ She looked down.

Wow, this was getting into yuck territory but I kept nodding encouragingly.

‘So I was surprised when you weren’t there. He didn’t say anything even after we ordered our coffee. He was just looking at me and I was beginning to feel weird. Then, he held my hand and told me that he really likes me.’