“... I’m just trying to come to terms with the fact that you guys have baking supplies available right on demand even though we’re in the middle of absolute nowhere.”

Sakshi’s voice sounds genuinely baffled as Amoli makes her way down the stairs, stifling a yawn with her arms stretched above her head.

It had already been late when her and Naina had finally left the terrace, and while Naina seemed to retire to bed immediately, Amoli had ended up in her own room only to blankly stare at her ceiling for hours after that.

Courtesy of sleeping at five in the morning solely because she had been too lost trying to sort through her jumbled thoughts, she now feels like she needs another day to stay in and catch up on some sleep.

Akash breathes out a laugh. “Maya just stocks up really, really well before we visit.”

Eyes still half-closed, Amoli takes a seat beside Naina just as Arnav adds, “Maya… is something else. Last time we visited, I jokingly said I craved chocolate and she just whipped out a box of Ferrero Rochers and handed it to me.” Akash covers his face and cackles at the memory. Arnav widens his eyes and throws his hands in the air to accentuate his point. “We’re literally in the middle of nowhere! How does one even— never mind. She knows us too well. Or she isn’t human and just keeps materializing stuff out of thin air when we aren’t looking. Either of the two.”

Naina reaches out to rub her back when Amoli rests her head on the table, tilting her chin up and down to ask her if she’s okay when their eyes meet.

“Headache,” Amoli mumbles, closing her eyes just as the voices around her into nonsensical blabbers. Naina sympathetically pats her back.

“Sak?” Naina calls in the direction of the kitchen, and Amoli opens her eyes just in time to see the said girl pop her head out of the kitchen with a question on her face. “Could you get some of that pineapple juice Maya saved for Amoli?”

“Oh, she’s awake? Are you feeling okay, Amo?” she asks, probably because Amoli had complained about a headache in the morning when Sakshi had tried to shake her awake. “Do you need an Advil?”

“Just the juice, please. Thanks.”

Sakshi blinks at her, then looks at Naina. “What did she say?”

“Just juice.” Then she turns to Amoli, brushing air away from her forehead before putting the back of her hand against it and hums. “You don’t have a fever. Couldn’t sleep?”

“Weren’t you two up late?” Akash asks, voice playful. “I’m seeing a pattern here, Naina. Are you trying to make everyone sick so we don’t have to leave?”

“Oh, no, how did you figure it out?” Naina says with no emotion whatsoever, looking at her nails for added effect. 

A hand appears in Amoli’s sight, and then there’s the low thud of a glass being placed against the table. She looks up and sees Mahika’s eyes shining with concern, so without thinking much, she blinks slowly and shakes her head in a gesture to assure her that she’s fine, and Mahika lingers for a few seconds longer before sighing and walking back inside the kitchen. Amoli’s eyes follow her until she disappears from sight.

They haven’t talked properly since they were in the car the other day, and although Mahika isn’t ignoring Amoli, there’s a cliff between them that neither of them are brave enough to cross yet.

“What are you always talking about that late at night? And I think you keep forgetting that there’s a perfectly warm space inside the cottage,” Akash grumbles, gesturing around him with an open palm.

Amoli stiffens when Naina replies with an all-too-familiar ‘girl talk’ and leaves it at that, and sure enough, Mahika steps back until she’s standing at the door of the kitchen, eyebrows raised at Naina, too.

“I… have a feeling that’s some sort of code between them,” Samay comments.

Amoli relaxes.

Naina just shrugs in response. She’s lucky Keerti steps out of her room right then and catches everyone’s attention.

“I hate being an adult,” she whines, walking over to the couch instead of sitting with everyone at the table, throwing herself into it face first and just… staying there.

“Unprompted conference last night with her boss,” Mahika explains from the kitchen when Keerti doesn’t seem like she’s going to do it. “Apparently, he’s a ‘giant ball of garbage’ that’s currently out of the country and doesn’t care about timezones.”

“Okay, first of all, I called him a ‘fat pile of shit’ and not… the filtered version that you just used,” Keerti says from the couch without raising her face, her voice muffled. Amoli feels an amused smile tug at her lips at the words. “And second, I hope he doesn’t come back.”

“Wouldn’t that mean he’ll just continue holding meetings at hours that aren’t convenient for you?” Samay asks, and Keerti takes a long pause before muttering a soft, ‘fuck, you’re right’.

“How very eloquent,” Mahika comments.

“I’m a literature major, bitch.”

Amoli straightens up in her chair and leans back for a moment with her eyes squeezed shut, already expecting the burn from lack of sleep to make her tear up. She blinks the water away when she opens her eyes and reaches for the glass of juice.

“Wait, why the hell are you guys baking at, like, eight in the m—wait, is it eight?” Then without waiting for anyone to correct her, she adds, “Whatever, it feels like eight.”

“It’s half past eleven.”

“Shut up, Naina. Your clock’s broken.”

Naina is saying something about throwing all of Keerti’s coffee away when Amoli takes the first sip from her glass, instantly feeling the sweet flavor, paired with the tender texture of the liquid soothe the ache in her head. She knows it won’t stay long, the pain, but she feels annoyed anyway. Being a student meant she often stayed up late, but she has never been able to get used to it.

“We didn’t have any plans today so we decided to bake Naina a goodbye cake,” Mahika jokes, earning a dark look from her best friend.

“That’s not funny.”

“Oh, Naina, I think it’s a little funny.”

Akash scoffs. “You’re lucky you’re getting a cake. These two right here?” He points at his siblings, “They said they were going to have a party. And when I was all, ‘Hey, a goodbye party for me, that’s so nice’, Arnav just goes, ‘Bhai, we’re throwing it after you’re gone’.”

Amoli chuckles at the memory as well as the way Akash imitates Arnav with an exaggerated voice, while the latter says, “Be grateful we didn’t go ahead with the, ‘let’s just toss his stuff into a taxi and bid him goodbye through the window’ plan.”

Akash shoves his shoulder hard enough to almost push him off his chair, then thrusts his index finger in his siblings’ directions. “You were both adopted.”

Amoli gives Akash a cheeky look. “Sounds like you just weren’t good enough for our parents.”

Akash looks at his wife with a ‘are you seeing this shit’ look while Arnav guffaws and holds his palm up to his sister for a high-five. Naina leans over and gives Akash’s shoulder a single pat, before sitting back down and saying:

“I think I’ll take the cake.”