Foresight

Chapter XIV

"Well its 10.30 now, quite late. You still want to search for your lodge?" asks Tarun with a puzzled look in his face, wiping away little bit of sweat from his forehead. "I guess I will spend the night in your lodge itself" replies Jenny, "in the spare room" she adds. "Don't worry, we will call up your friends in the morning and meet up with them." Tarun assures her as they enter their lodge.

The boy, who was mopping up today morning gives them a puzzled look, though this is not an unusual sight for him. He gives Tarun a sly smile as they pass him. Tarun doesn't concentrate on him, for he has to take the spare room key from his baggage and all his prayers go towards in keeping his two friends from the joints. As he knocks on the door, Jenny gives the lodge a concerned look, it being far from the plush hotel she and her friends had booked, where she would have been had she remembered where it was. 'Boys do take some dingy rooms' she thinks to herself as she glances towards Tarun, who is frantically trying to dial up his friends for the key. Just then the door opens up and a stoned Neeraj is standing without a shirt, and his pants straining to be at the waist. The sight is enough for Jenny to turn around in little bit of disgust.

"What do you want now?" Neeraj manages to pose out the question, while holding his pants with his free hand.

"I need the spare room key" Tarun explains him, while trying to make his way into the room, pushing the half open door.

"Wait up a*****e, let me get it" Neeraj answers somewhat clearly, even in his stoned state and disappears behind while closing the door. Tarun is surprised as to why Neeraj closed the door and how he is not passed out from the joints. From the joints, he remembers that he should be a nice host and turns towards Jenny and asks whether she wants a joint or smokes. Jenny having smoked cigarettes once or twice with her friends is perplexed by his question. She doesn't want Tarun to judge her as the wild party girl with no control by accepting the offer right away, nor does she wants to seem bored. Looking at her confused face, Tarun asks whether she has ever done weed until now. Jenny decides better to confess and tells that she has never done, but part of her plan for this trip was to try new things.

"Well in that case I will ask for one joint and we can share it. Sounds ok?" Tarun puts down his suggestion.

'Wow jenny, drugs with a stranger in his room far away from home. Quite the risk you are taking' buzzes through her as she accepts the offer. The door opens up again, Neeraj holds out the key, this time having liberated himself from the confines of his shorts and standing just in his underwear. Tarun grabs the key from Neeraj's hands and asks if any joints are remaining. Neeraj just shakes his head in denial and tells that Rajesh smoked four and passed out. Tarun makes his way into the room, pushing the door in the process and shoving down Neeraj to the floor. Tarun goes fishing in his baggage and takes out a small pouch and small pack of what looks like gum and gets out of the room and closes the door behind him.

Holding up the contents of his hand he suggests "they have finished what I brought, but we still have some stuff to make our own" and marches towards the diagonally opposite room and wrestles in opening the door, while balancing the contents in hands.

"Here let me hold them while you open the door" Jenny offers while extending her hands. Tarun gives her a smile and hands her the stuff and continues his tussle in opening the door. After good five minutes he finds himself unsuccessful and looks towards Jenny with sweat running down his forehead.

"Let me try" and Jenny hands the stuff to Tarun and grabs the key from him, proceeding towards the door for her own tussle. Looking at her lending a hand to a task which people think is man's job, Tarun is amazed by her initiative and problem solving skills. 'Wow she will make an excellent homemaker' flashes through his mind just she opens the door with a small jolt. Turning towards Tarun she flashes an 'I accomplished what you couldn't look, while spinning the key in her finger.

"Well you did it" Tarun congratulates her to which Jenny flashes a big smile. As they make way into the room, she finds this room little better than the one she saw previous, with its inhabitants having no awareness of their attire and presentation towards a person of the opposite gender.

"I will just be back in a jiffy" Tarun voices out as he makes his way to the washroom. Jenny turn around and gives him a nod with a smile, trying to hide her uncomfortableness. Tarun see's through her and assures her that everything will be fine and she just needs to relax.

"I think your pouch will be of some help in that" Jenny replies, trying to lighten the mood.

Tarun gives out a small laugh and heads into the washroom, throwing his mobile on the bed on the way. Curiosity is a deadly thing they say, as Jenny finds herself uncontrollably reaching for his phone. To her luck, it is unlocked and she finds staring at the attractive girl on the wallpaper with Tarun. 'She is seems prettier than me' goes through her mind as she suddenly finds herself little jealous for no reason. She finds herself going for the gallery and finds more pictures of Tarun with the same wallpaper girl. As she swipes through picture to picture, she can't help but feel little let down, for once she found herself attracted to a guy, and as it turns out to be he has a much prettier option than her. She doesn't let that though linger in her mind and she races for text messages and finds first name to be that of a girl. Though not wanting to open the message thread, she reluctantly finds herself opening and going through his conversations. She finds the messages to be little bit flirty in between and return back to normal.

In between her investigation, she doesn't notice Tarun had been standing in the corner and looking at her with a smile in his face. Just as Tarun steps into the room, Jenny notices some movement from the corner of her eye and turns around. To her horror, she finds Tarun actually looking at her, with his phone in her hands. Judging there is no retreat from this, she makes her puppy dog face and extends her hand to him, handing over his phone

"Don't worry, I am not offended in any way." Tarun assues her in a soothing tone.

"Sorry couldn't help"

"Its ok"

"By the way the girl in the wallpaper is pretty. Ex?"

"She is my cousin. She elder to me by a year. Since age gap is less, we tend to be more connected and sometimes act like a couple."

Jenny heaves a sigh of relief. Now she still has some chance with him. "We do some fun flirting in between us sometimes when we are a little bored" Tarun opens up as he sits down next to her. "That explains the messages" Jenny points out, realizing at the moment that she just fell into her own trap and the smile from her face disappears. Seeing this, Tarun breaks into a reassuring laughter and confirms with her.

"Don't worry, I am still not offended in anyway. Actually, I find it cute, that you are interested in me"

Jenny's smile returns back and her insecurity for the night diminishes a little bit. They then proceed to make some small talk about their like and its justification, if the other finds them a little stupid as Tarun concentrates in making the joint. He lights it and takes deep drag, holding it in for what seems like a lifetime to Jenny, before blowing an even conical streak. Handing her the joint, he explains that it is not that different from a cigarette, just little bit different in taste. Jenny takes the joint and proceed to take a drag. Surprisingly it come natural to her and she finds herself not repulsed by the taste difference. She proceeds to imitate tarun in blowing out the same way, but doesn't work out much. With her 'aww' face she hands the joint to Tarun and and he nudges her to take one more drag. She obeys him and proceeds to take another drag and passing down the joint. As Tarun takes the joint, Jenny slides back on the bed and reclines herself on the headboard with a pillow to support. Tarun follows suit and and they come face to face, him appreciating her cuteness and she appreciating his rugged but boyish looks. They smoke away the joint in absolute silence and look towards each other and find themselves very close to each other and the distance, excruciating. Unable to control himself anymore, Tarun leans and plants a peck in Jenny's cheek.

"I couldnt control myself. You have the softest cheeks in the world" Tarun expalins.

"Well in my culture, we give back the same thing which we receive", and Jenny plants a kiss back, on Tarun's cheeks.

"In that case, I should give you a more intense one" and saying these, Tarun leans over and kisses her soft, pink, rosy lips. Jenny, though a little taken back, returns the kiss back with the same enthusiasm. Tarun suddenly finds Jenny's tongue trying to make its way into his mouth. Excited, he opens up and takes up her taste. Their tongues wrestle together, running their hands through each other's luscious locks of hair. They break for air and find the distance, excruciating and again plunge into each other's mouth and... in each other's embrace.