The Man Who Lived Upstairs

1

"Riya, clean the mess and leave"

I groaned.

Umma had always her cleanliness taunting me, starting from the morning, to-be-washed and clean clothes separately, toothbrush in its place, no bedsheet tampering, silent prayers to the never ending saga of having family dinners post cleaning the entire house with soap.

I didn't care if she said the same things to Jeff, the lazy donkey who would lie on the couch, demanding this and that.

"Jeff, get out. I need to sweep here"

"No"

He was in a Tee that I had bought for him last day, and had the dare to act indifferent.

"f**k you"

"UMMA!"

God no.

I ran away to the next bedroom and began to mop, when dad exited from the bathroom in fresh clothes.

He was the type to bath twice a day, just because he visited the supermarket in the morning or an uncle's funeral in the evening, and it made perfect sense they were the perfect couple since he complained about the water bill and mom kept pointing out he had nothing to do with it.

Jeff had transferred his loser buttocks to the study hall, when I reached there.

Totally frustrated, I grabbed my phone before he ran his eyes over it.

It buzzed with a notification right then.

"Rosaaaaaaaaaa!"

Jeff screamed into my ear from the back. I felt his eyes zero on my phone.

How did the fucker crawl to my back in like three minutes?

Did he shadow walk or something?

This is why you should be the eldest in the family.

They get away with everything except life expectations.

I'm glad he exists since dad ain't jumping to me about how to get a job at the age of nineteen.

Jeff always had an eye on my toddler friend, Rosa who worked as a pre-med student in one of her campus booths. Consistently in a call for appreciation, she told me the stress was immense and that no matter what I shouldn't accompany her, there.

I made extra promises to cheer her on, and never reach out unless and until its absolutely necessery.

Mostly it was her having a panic attack alright.

Rosa: RIYA, THE PROFESSOR YELLED AT ME FOR NOT SELECTING THE ORBICULARIS ORIS!"

I stared at the last two words and sighed.

"Is she like this usually?", I kicked Jeff who was poking his head in and travelled upstairs in the speed of lightining.

Reaching the library, I plopped onto the sofa and sighed.

"Rosa, understanding anything you said, its fine. Your only starting to learn how the human body works. Give yourself some time and rest. And tell your professor, to try touch his chest with his tongue"

The ting for the confirmation of the voice recording came through and I adjusted myself off the slimy couch.

It was too dusty, this place.

Three rooms untouched.

One was large as a bathroom downstairs, and had a huge almirah of books, a decent wooden table and a punching bag. The wifi connections and other plugs lay strangling each other on the table.

Exiting the room, you can turn left or right to see bedrooms of equal size. One has a TV in it, which is basically junk, but the nostalgia of keeping it with my playstation and joysticks and CD's were happiness to me and Jeff. If there was one thing as siblings we connected on, this is it.

The bedroom to the right was desolate with a bedroom and an empty almirah. It had an attached washroom and another separate, that led straight to the terrace. Water cans, paint boxes and brushes were scattered across the terrace, and I remember going there as a middle schooler, to see it getting white washed.

The only place I would visit once in a while was the library.

It had all my sweethearts or fiction babies.

Psychopath, romcoms, enemies-to-lovers genre and suspense thrillers, arranged author wise and beautywise.

If Umma told me to keep upstairs clean, I would clean my books and finish.

Rosa's notifications pulled me out of the bizzare hole of confusion, when Jeff reached to the top.

"What's wrong with Rosa?"

"Nothing. Why do you care?"

"I don't care"

"I know", I rang for Albert but he wasn't picking up the phone.

"Is that Albert?"

I glared at Jeff, "Can you stop stalking me and my phone, Mr Brother?"

He shrugged, "Your passcode sucks"

These men.

As if theirs don't.

Jeff had a girlfriend at at the age of ten, that would always come home. He would only tell it to me that it was his girlfriend. Our parents thought they were playmates, if such a thing did exist. Dad would acknowledge her often visits since she was an only child. She looked like the chocolate her name was: Toffee.

Toffee and Jeff separated nine months after school ended.

Since then, his password was toffeeiloveyoustill.

And the next year it became, jessicayourthebest.

It continued for a while until I lost interest in the women he dated.

I knew he had an eye on Rosa, and not at any cost would I lend her to this playboy.

Mom's piercing voice interrupted our conversation.

"RIYA, WE HAVE GUESTS! COME DOWN BOTH OF YOU NOW!"

Who was it now?

I rushed downstairs, giving Jeff a forehead flick. His lazy buttocks detached from the sofa and reached for me, but I ran. An inch escape of his longish nails that could scrape my back, bleed in another wound as we both tumbled straight for Hamid uncle and Isa.

He was dressed in his khakhi, an admiring feature about a thirty two year old, divorced yet hardworking and determined. Isa, his five year old's eyes lit up, meeting the golden shade of her frock. She ran towards me as I picked her up.

"Isa~"

"Riyaaa~", she wouldn't cry at all in my arms. Whenever she kept bawling her eyes out, Hamid uncle brought her here. One look at me and things would change.

Dad sat next to him, having mere conversation.

Hamid uncle acknowledged my presence with a little grin. "How are you, Riya?"

I blushed hard, "Fine", and ran inside with Isa.

"Christ help us", Jeff went 'ew', before he went to get some drinks for them.

I wanted to but Isa kept me easy.

My often way of playing with her was going upstairs and feeding her books.

Isa, loved to make words and jumble them around.

We sat down on the library floor and kept talking for a long while.

Until she started to go through the books as usual.

I watched in close distance, keeping an eye for Jeff who had the habit of eavesdropping.

"Stupid boy made the decision to go for the trip~", Isa's eyes lit up and she laughed.

Seeing her happy was my forte ofcourse.

It was a split second.

I swear.

And I could have felt it simply.

The curtains, yellow blinds that pulled the windows closed fluttered a bit.

Since I came here minutes before, I was so sure.....so sure, that I had taken the initiative.

I looked at Isa who was still immersed in her books.

My throat bobbed.

The windows fluttered again.

Damn.

And the windows that were locked couldn't do that.