Untouchable Lovers

1. Gauri.

During the early hours of the morning, as moonlight filtered through her bedroom window, Gauri slept in her lovely comfortable bed. She was exhausted after working a shift at her part-time job.

In the middle of a regular dream she began to feel nervous as her old dream consumed her peaceful sleep. She tried to move her arms and legs, but it seemed as if they were paralyzed. She was sweating and breathing hard, slipping further into a panic attack. She kept trying to wake herself up from her recurring nightmare, but she could never manage to do it. The longer the dream went on the scared she became.

Suddenly, she sat up in bed with a jolt, waking from her nightmare hyperventilating due to the fear racing through her veins. She wiped the sweat from her forehead as she looked around her room. It was empty, there was no one else there. She was all alone in this studio apartment, just like an orphan. She had no one who could wake her from her nightmares or tell her that everything was okay. She drew her knees up to her chest then wrapped her arms tightly around them. She sat in her empty apartment like that for a while. It was becoming a daily occurrence, the nightmares, which was why tears did not fall from her eyes.

It was 4am. She knew she would not be able to get back to sleep after her nightmare, so she got up and went over to her desk. She opened her notebook and textbooks so that she could work on her studies. She was trying hard to focus on her coursework so that she could forget her nightmares, but it kept replaying over and over again in her mind. She got up from her chair and went to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror while brushing her teeth and washing her face.

She finally felt a bit more refreshed and went to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee, then back to her studies again. She was fully focused on her studies now, trying to understand debits and credits.

She glanced over at the clock and realized it was 6am. So she closed her books and notebook then stepped out onto her balcony. She yawned as she took in the sun shining through the clouds in a beautiful way, it would be a good day. She smiled, everything felt too good to be true.

A cool breeze brushed against her face and blew her hair around, the sound of the birds chirping echoed in her ears, livening up the morning. She closed her eyes as she felt the wind. The cool morning air was always invigorating.

She took a deep breath, filling her lunges with the cold air before returning inside after enjoying the beautiful view. She figured that she should take a bath first, then she would make herself some breakfast. She took a shower then came out of the bathroom wearing a towel.

She was alone in the apartment, so no one was going to just walk in. So she did not care whether she was dressed or not. She went to the kitchen to begin making breakfast for herself.

She made poha, which she made most of the time for breakfast, because it did not take much time to cook and she did not make much money. That made it the easiest and best option for her. She finished her breakfast quickly then got dressed in a pair of jeans and a top.

It was 6:40 am,-she was ready to go to her part-time job. She grabbed her bag and walked out of the apartment, locking the door behind her. She took her phone out of her pocket, put her earphones on and started listening to music. A romantic song was playing and she hummed along to it, enjoying herself.

She loved to listen to slow romantic music. The song that she was listening to was one by Arijit Singh. There were hardly any teenagers who did not like Arijit Singh’s romantic songs. She was smiling as she listened to it.

She was almost to the restaurant that she worked in. It was a large restaurant that only wealthy people frequented. Here, a single meal would equal a month’s salary for the average person, that was the main reason that Gauri chose to work there.

They scheduled her to work too much, but the money she made was more than worth it. She had to work late at night after school to earn money, but she was not working the night shift at the moment as it was summer vacation. The rest of the students had gone back to school two days ago, but she had not because she was a scholarship student and she could not go to school until her scholarship form was accepted.

The school she had been studying at refused to give her a scholarship and told her that they would not be able to afford her scholarship anymore, but Gauri was not willing to accept defeat. She tried a new school, but that school was full of wealthy students. Only wealthy people's children attended that school, but there were five scholarship seats vacant. So she tried to get a scholarship there but she still had yet to receive a reply. She checked her mailbox every day expecting their reply, but at the end of the day, she only grew sadder.

Some days she could not help but think that she might not be able to pursue her studies, but there was always the hope that they would mail or call the next day. She was thinking so much about it that she did not notice the bike barreling towards her until it was about to hit her. As the bike came closer to her she shrieked in panic, her heart beat fast out of fear as she placed her hand over her heart, not believing that she was about to die.

She was about to apologize when she realized that she was walking on the right side of the road and he was driving on the wrong side. He was driving his bike so fast that it looked like he was trying to kill himself. He was wearing a helmet, so she could not tell whether he was even looking at her or not. It seemed that he was, but if he had been looking at her then why hadn’t he said something, Gauri thought.

It had already been a minute and Gauri was still waiting for him to speak, yet he had not said a word. That was why Gauri grew nervous because it seemed like he was looking at her, but she did not pay attention to him and just continued on her way.

She didn't even look back at him, she just went straight to work. She did not want to argue with him about the fact that he was driving on the wrong side of the road or that she had not looked at his face. His bike looked f*****g expensive. If there was even a single scratch on that bike, he might demand that she pay to fix it.

When she reached the restaurant, she stood outside carefully watching the building. It had been a full six months that she had been working there. She took a deep breath before entering the restaurant, but as soon as she walked in the door she noticed that the whole room was full of people who had full and part-time jobs there, like Gauri.

‘How did all of them get here so early today?' Gauri wondered. Gauri usually came in early, but today everyone else had beaten her to it and were standing in a line. She looked around and saw the manager standing in front of them.

“Oh my God!!”

‘Oh God, did he call us all in early and I don’t remember?’ Gauri thought to herself. Gauri’s eyes were on her friend Isha, who was standing in line with the others. She called her over to the line in a hurry. While Gauri made her way over, the manager noticed Gauri.

“Gauri!!” The manager called her name. As soon as she heard the manager’s voice she became a little nervous as she shared a glance with Isha. She had not realized that the manager had seen her. He called her over with a curl of his index finger and Gauri smiled up at him.

Gauri walked towards him even though she had no idea what he was thinking. She was worried that he was going to fire her from her job. She kept coming back to that thought. She was scared but did not show her fear. She knew that if she was fired that she would have a hard time finding another job. This also meant that it was likely if she got a new job she would not be making good money there.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to fire you from your job, nor am I going to scold you. I did try to call you a number of times, but your phone was not in the service area, so you didn't know that you had to come in early today. Now go and get in line,” the manager explained.

As soon as the Manager finished speaking, Gauri gave him a big smile and a hug, which he returned. The Manager was a 50-year-old man who never rebuked anyone, nor did he try to bully any of his workers. He was a very good person.

“Okay, okay, now go and get in line,” the Manager prompted Gauri, who shook her head and went to stand near her friend.

“All of you’ve been called in early today because we've got some important guests coming in. For these guests, we’ve prepared a special menu and are offering a special service. In other words, everyone is going to take excellent care of them,” the manager said as he made eye contact with every employee in line. Everyone said yes in unison, but the manager’s attention was on Gauri.

“You, Kid!” The Manager pointed at Gauri, so she looked up at him.

“You can't be messy today, remember that!” The manager warned. Gauri was the youngest of all the people working there. The Manager had noticed that she was a very sincere girl that was fully dedicated to her work which was why he liked her. Gauri smiled and nodded. The manager smiled at her, and they all went back to work.

Gauri changed her clothes, donning her uniform. In this fancy restaurant, they gave her a frock type dress to wear that reached to right above their knees. It used to make her uncomfortable, but now she had grown used to wearing the dress.

Gauri was cutting vegetables in the kitchen. She was used to working in a restaurant. This one in particular was part of an upscale hotel. Many people came to stay at the hotel. They would then come down to the restaurant when they wanted to eat something or they would ask for their food to be delivered to their room, seeing the restaurant was connected. Gauri was cutting up vegetables, but she could not help thinking about her scholarship form. She still had not received anything in the mail. Her old school had been open for a few days. At that moment, her friend Isha came up behind her.

“Hey, Gauri. Where have you gone off to? What are you thinking about?” Isha asked her, Gauri just smiled at her and returned to cutting the vegetables. Even though her smile was sad, she forced herself to do it, Isha knew that.

“Forgive me Gauri. I shouldn’t have asked. I know you’re still worried about your scholarship. I’m sure you’ll get it and you’ll definitely be coming to my school,” Isha assured her with a smile.

“Isha, you’re in your first year at this school too. What’s that school like? Tell me everything,” Gauri pleaded with Isha. Isha and Gauri had been friends since they were children, they had always gone to the same school together. But this year Isha’s parents decided that they would send her to a big school. They had taken out an education loan so she was attending the school that Gauri was looking at for a scholarship, which made them feel happy and sad at the same time.

Isha had both her mom and dad, they were not rich but they admitted her to that big school and she was very happy. Gauri was happy that Isha liked her new school. Gauri’s situation was different from Isha’s. She didn’t even know if she would be able to attend school or not. This was the reason why she wanted to learn about that school, so that she could satisfy her curiosity.

“You know that school is very big, they’re all rich kids. There are many handsome boys. If you saw how handsome they’re you would go crazy,” Isha eagerly told Gauri, who was listening carefully. She was happy to hear that her friend liked her new school. She asked Isha about the curriculum and how they taught the students. After listening to her questions, Isha narrowed her eyes at Guari. Isha was telling her about the hot boys and she wanted to know about the curriculum and teachers.

“Gauri, I’m telling you about the rich and handsome boys, yet you are focused on academics. At least pay attention to boys too. What is the use of your beauty then?” Isha asked her.

“My life’s truth is different, Isha. These rich people with their handsome faces mean nothing to me. They’re only scary. When you learn that, then you’ll understand why I’m like this. Why do I hate them. I loathe those boys and their money,” Gauri insisted as she walked away. Isha looked at Gauri. She knew and had gone through many things in her life that would qualify as difficult at the age of 17. At her age, Guari should not have the burdens of an adult, yet she still managed to smile.