LA RUMBA POOL PARTY

Chapter 7. A Cycle ride

December 15

Morning 6 AM

Osmania Campus EFLU

Vishal, with his thin hair slicked back with some gel, horned with his bike in front of the small gate of EFLU. Evy emerged from the gate, walking past a small temple and eventually joined him at the junction near EFLU. It was early in the morning with darkness still prominent. Evy exchanged greeting and sat on his intruder bike. “Where are we going now?" She asked him with excitement lingering her eyes. "Surprise" Vishal turned his head, wearing a helmet, kick started his bike.

In a few minutes they reached a deserted road and the time ticked around 6 am. Slowly, the dawn was rising with the chirping sounds of the birds wandering around the lush green park heralded by strongly built trees beside a lake with cool breeze touching their bare skin making it a delightful sight.

Vishal pulled over the bike. Evy landed her foot over the park and rubbed her hands. She was wearing a full sleeved black sweater with fingers covered by gloves, elastic thin jeans and Adidas running shoe.

"Let's take the cycles" Vishal headed to a cycle stand with full of cycles. He gave his ID and deposit of 200 Rs along with his bike keys and took two cycles.

A few minutes later they were cycling in the early morning necklace road jovially with full of excitement. Vishal intentionally slowed to look her slim physique while cycling. "Come on Vishal! Can't you beat me?" She teased him. "Sometimes losing seems more fun" flirted with a smile on his face. "Naughty"

There they stopped by a Dog Park where different breeds of dogs were brought by their owners "See, that's Siberian husky. My friend does have one" Vishal told about his past few days experience in a pet show how he interacted with different dog species and owners.

"My uncle was a military soldier" Evy added "In the last days of his life his dog was a good company. Unfortunately, it got shot by an enemy who attacked on his house covertly. He shot his enemy at the moment and turned towards the dog and cried hard. Since then he never regrets to kill a person but he couldn't see an animal die. He even became a vegan" She told with empathy. "Seriously!"

They began pedalling and continued cycling.

Vishal wanted to impress her with his newly learnt skill of riding a bicycle with hands free. So, he passed past her with newly sprouted energy pedalling the cycle hard half seated. Evy wondered what all of sudden happened to him. Instantly he left his hands free and shouted aloud to seek her attention and turned back to see her expression. Her expressions turned from surprise to shock and shouted aloud “Look ahead” before he hit an old man who was jogging on the road in the same direction. He immediately fell beside along him. The old man with saggy eyes, wrinkled and swarthy complexion looked devilish especially when he shouted curse words. Evy soon stopped by his side, apologised the old man and rode their way.

"You need to be careful" suggested Evy. “Don’t exhibit your skills too much." she chuckled imagining the way he dashed the old Man.

"As long you are there to save me, I have no worries." winked with a cunning smile. They were riding parallel until the end of the road. "Where next?" Evy asked standing with one leg on pedal and the other on ground.

"Take left to cycle round the tank bund or U-turn to return the way"

"Let's make the difficult. You know. Brave people take difficult ways" Evy told exuberantly and took left..

"You will change your opinion" Vishal smirked.

After a few minutes they reached a heavy traffic.

"OMG! I am frightened" "See. You scared" Later both of them stick onto the left side of the road near foot path.

"In Costa Rica, riding in public places is banned"

"Those people must see Hyderabad" he told whimsically. "We choose the difficult ways which you ban. Who is brave?"

After a while she removed her sweat shirt exposing her inner sleeveless black t-shirt with vividly seen milky white bare shoulders and gently tied the sweat shirt to her waist. Vishal was stunned by her physique and kept following her analysing her shape of her torso and her rear being prominent with tight jeans. Fellow cyclists passing her gave awkward looks over her which embarrassed her a little bit and slowed down to wait for Vishal and told "I never see any girl exposing shoulders in the country" Vishal answered gently "Well they do, not here but sometimes in pubs"

“See how those guys give such bad looks?"

"You are beautiful so they couldn’t take away their eyes from you" Vishal shrugged. She blushed and stepped down from the cycle parking it randomly near to a pole beside a closed shop supplying some dairy products and tread delicately upon the beautifully spread tiny grass over the grounds with her eyes full of appraisal of a structure that stood over a raised platform before her with bright colours emblazoned over the structure. “I LUV HYD" with U replaced by symbolic heart shape of "love"

"Amazing! Why don't we wait for a moment here and take some pics?" Vishal predicted he had to be a photographer when he came out with a beautiful girl. Most of them are photo maniacs, selfie maniacs.

He adjusted her phone to get a clear image while she was adjusting her pose on the side of the massive structure with her one hand on waist and another hand posed with varying signs while making a pout intermittently. And later she returned the favour by taking his dull mundane expressionless pics. "Let's take a selfie" proposed Vishal, mostly to grapple her slender waist as a pretext to pose for a pic. She adjusted her pony tail and wide rimmed glasses and gave an elegant smile perfectly appropriate to the pic while he managed with an artificial smile showing his teeth and fingers moulded to shape 'V-Victory'

Later they rode their cycles to the cycle stand.

"In our country our bikes don't have stands. We just keep in some equipment" Vishal took a minute to realise she was mentioning cycles as bikes.

"I know. I watched in some series of Netflix, even my bike didn't have 'stand'. Of course, it got broken after I purchased” Vishal laughed aloud for his own joke. She too laughed merely to encourage him.

"Do you ride gear bikes?"

"No, I don't I am frightened. My brother had a gear bike which is so huge. I always feared riding with him"

They went inside the Cycle shed, gave back their bicycles, took back his bike keys and reached EFLU after a while. She hugged him and showed her cheek. He kissed her cheek passionately and slowly released her when he had his hand on breast while she fixed her eyes on the Watchman who was giving those bad looks. She crossed the road and entered her college while Vishal stayed for a moment in trance like state appreciating the time spent with her and recalling again and again with passion and fantasy like a buffalo chewing its regurgitated food in its rest time. Later, all on the way he felt so excited about the morning with a newly raised exuberance. He never understood the dangers lurked behind those feelings. It was mesmerising enough to forget the entire world.

On the other side while Evy was striding ahead past the guards, her phone beeped which she instantly took it and answered "Yes sir Everything's under control"

She soon entered her room alongside of dusty corridors in 3rd floor of the well esteemed EFLU campus. She was no more alone in the corridor as it was occupied by several students from all sects and regions, countries and continents, Negros and Caucasians. The clattering sound along the empty corridor frightened her so that she instantly unlatched the door of her room and entered inside the small shabby room with an untidy double bed full of unwashed clothes. She silently entered into a washroom and wore off her sweat shirt revealing her black sleeveless shirt. Unzipped her pants to reveal her panties. Slowly removed her sleeveless t shirt reluctantly facing the mirror expecting the horror she was about to see. Her well stuffed breast dangled to the force of her removal of t shirt and she slowly placed her hands on her n*****s. Her body was an entire mess with slightly dark skin and prominent scars from her bosom to the waist both front and back as continents drifted on the earth.

She sat on her underwear over the toilet seat with her hands over her face and reclined over the plastic water container with her head facing up and the hand fell down weakly as if all the energy dissipated from her body leaving her into a life less empty shell with her thoughts of her pasts, the cries of the victims, the people she lost, the dead bodies, threw her into insanity and she shuddered by the blackness, rage and suffocating guilt.

I have to stop him anyway