She read that frustration on him and reached out to grab his collar.

“Whaaa…” he couldn’t complete as she tugged him close and gave him a kiss.

“Didn’t make my mood better,” Samarth grumbled.

“Then this might,” she pulled him to her side, on her pile of princess pillows set on the headrest. Samarth stretched out, staring at her ceiling. She pulled open his arm and laid her head on his shoulder.

“Ok,” she said. “Let’s make this a little fun.”

“Forget it, I’ll go to Ms. Shanaya tomorrow and ask for extra classes…”

“Wait, wait, let’s try this first.”

Her hand came up with one of their textbooks and she held it in front of their faces. “Where were we?”

“Contour lines.”

“Yes, contour lines — see these three tiny bumps in a row?” She pointed. “They are… Cherry’s footprints in the mud. And where does Cherry love to ride?”

“In the hills.”

“And look at it! These three bumps represent a hill!”

“So, Hill = Cherry’s footprints in the mud,” Samarth felt his mind suddenly open up. “Ok, yes, that makes sense. Next?” He turned and tightened his arm around her, pulling her and the textbook closer.

“Now,” she pointed to the next symbol — a wavy blue line. “This is a river. So… imagine it’s the track your horses make into the field when they gallop, all fluid and winding.”

“Ok, got it. And this?”

Ava leaned closer, pressing a finger to a cluster of tiny triangles. “Mountains. But for you, think of them as the ear tips of your horses standing in a row, watching you mess up a penalty shot.”

Samarth groaned. One penalty shot. He had missed one penalty shot in front of her and she wouldn’t shut up! Ava giggled, nudging his chin with her nose.

“You’re never letting that go, are you?”

“Never,” she said, grinning. “Now, one more. Forests. This one’s easy.” She pointed to a patch of clustered dots. “Think of them as a field full of horses’ tails swishing together in the wind. The place where all your horses can run wild, get to eat all the good stuff they want, and en joy!”

He stared at the page, then at her, shocked. “You’re actually good at this.”

“I know.” She nudged his arm. “Now you won’t fail your Geography, and I won’t have to suffer through you sulking about it.”

He rolled onto his side, propping his head up on his hand, his mind already settled after he had understood those messed up symbols perfectly. “Maybe I just like an excuse to have you teach me things.”

Ava arched a brow. “Samarth Singh Solanki, are you flirting with me over topo maps?”

He smiled, pushing his hand through the hair stuck to her cheek. Samarth tucked it behind her ear and cupped her cheek — ‘What would I do without you?”

“Flunk Geography.”

“No, I didn’t mean this,” he caressed her cheek. Her pimples were beginning to settle after the new creams her mother had sent over. He carefully ghosted over the ones that were bursting and causing her pain.

“What did you mean then?” Her big brown eyes cleared of all mocking.

“I meant in my life. It’s stupid to talk about it like that when we are so young… but…” his eyebrow rocked up.

“When has that ever stopped you?”

“I know, right?” He aped her, eyes wide. Her lips widened with those rare dimples popping in the corners.

“When I left Nawanagar to come here, I cried a lot in the plane’s bathroom.

Papa didn’t want to send me but he and I both knew this was necessary.

I understood as Kunwar of Nawanagar, but I also hated being alone here, on my own, away from Papa and Dada Sarkar.

Then after a while, I didn’t mind being alone.

Never really even thought about it. I had friends…

but none of them were really friends. If you hadn’t been sent by Ms. Veda to usurp my window seat, I don’t think I would have been like this. ”

“Like what?”

“So happy. I thought I was happy. Now, this, with you is really happy. I come to you with my problems, I tell you of my victories, my game plans, my worries. I have you cheering me on my game days and then not shut up about my missed penalty shots. I get to share my Krishna songs with you, tell you stories of Nawanagar and Dada Sarkar and Papa. You listen to them like they are the best things in the world. I have you teach me things I don’t know.

I get to kiss you, lie beside you. Ava, you don’t know how scared I am sometimes thinking what I will do when we go back to our kingdoms after 10th.

Even this two-month winter break coming up seems impossible to do without you… ”

“Hey,” she grabbed his wrist and squeezed. “We are not breaking up or anything.’

“Never!” He reiterated. “But staying away is going to be difficult. Being alone again…” he thought about his father then.

How had he managed to live alone? After experiencing this with Ava, he couldn’t think of not having her close to talk to.

How had his father lived all these years without talking to somebody like this?

“What happened?” Her palm came to his cheek.

“Huh?” He startled.

“What happened? You were talking and suddenly went silent.”

Samarth shrugged — “I was just thinking…”

“About what?”

“You know how I can talk to you about anything, right?”

“Hmm…”

“Who did my Papa have to talk to all his life? My mother left us when I was four. And from what I hear, they did not have the best marriage before that either. Papa never says it to me, but it’s an open secret.

If what we have wasn’t there for him back then, and it is not there for him now…

isn’t my Papa living a lonely, sad life? ”

Ava turned and almost climbed over his body, her eyes softened again into that expression. The Samarth Expression, as he had termed it.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It takes some different kind of bravery to think about your father like that.”

“I don’t mean like that , Ava, please…”

“Neither do I. I mean, to think about your father as a man and not a father. My Naniji always does this, you know… when we got to Khargone for summer vacations, us and Mummy, and then Papa comes for a weekend, she sends them off to either a day-long trip or out to dinners — alone. Even when we were kids she did that. And if we cried and pushed to go, she would tell us that that was not Mummy-Papa time, that was Vishwa-Ajay time. They have to be friends and play too, like we play with our friends. Kresha and I grew up seeing them as our parents, but we also knew that they had a life beyond us.”

Ava patted his cheek.

“Most people our age don’t understand that about their parents. That they existed before you were born. They lived, had a life, did things. I am so proud of you right now for thinking this for your father after all that you have gone through.”

“You made me realise this, Ava.”

She frowned.

“Even the thought of being without talking to you is scary. I can’t imagine living a life like that. Without talking to somebody about the secrets, the stupid things, the fun things, the scary things. The happy things.”

“Then ask your father.”

“What? That did he talk to my mother about all this? No way!”

“No!” Ava laughed. “Ask him if he has somebody in his life like that.”

“Are you crazy? That’s… it’s so… interfering and nosy.”

“As if you haven’t done enough interfering in trying to send his acceptance letter for that Antarctica trip.”

“That’s different and this is different!”

“How is it different?”

“It is uncomfortable. What will I ask him? Papa, I talk to Ava about everything in my life. Who do you talk to?”

“Exactly! There you go, my friend.”

“I am not your friend.”

“You’re right, you are my bae!” She kissed his lips, her hair springing on his face. Samarth caught her and pushed his tongue into her mouth, kissing her deep and extra, building up her debt for tomorrow. As she moved over him, he couldn’t push the thought of her suggestion aside.

————————————————————

Samarth spent days debating Ava’s suggestion.

During practises, during exams, sitting with his friends, even studying.

Every night as his mobile rang with his Papa’s call, he would brace himself to say those words.

Or any words resembling them. Ask it. On one particular night he had bolstered himself and even opened his mouth when his Papa had begun to talk about the Drake Passage that his ship would be crossing.

And Samarth had swallowed his words down.

He rushed up his dorm stairs looking at his watch.

Papa would be calling him any time now. He had gotten late after hanging out with Ava, Kresha and Gopi.

To celebrate his attempting all topography questions in today’s Geography paper, the girls had made them dance to some mad Instagram trend, some Punjabi folk song.

They had also recorded it. If he hadn’t been in a hurry to reach his mobile phone charging in his room, he would have caught hold of Ava and made her delete it.

“Hey, Harsh, I’m home!” He pushed the door open, only to find it empty. Samarth frowned. Where was his friend and bodyguard so late at night? Wait… even Kirti didi had been AWOL today.

His eyebrows shot up. Good going, Harsh…

Samarth went to check on his phone charging beside his bed and discovered it was already buzzing with a silent call from Papa. When had he turned his phone on silent?

He quickly swiped it right, pulling off his beanie — “Hello?”

“Thank god you picked up,” Papa’s voice crackled. “I paid a small fortune for this call.”

Samarth chuckled, tugging off his jacket and collapsing on his bed — “How are you, Papa? Are you already at Port Lockroy?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

“Your ship has free WiFi.”

Papa chuckled.

“I am the parent, not you.”

“Wasting precious money,” Samarth repeated that dialogue that his father threw at him innumerable times in jest.

“You are talking too quick too much, Kunwar.”

“Kshama, Rawal,” Samarth laughed.

“How are you? How was your Geography paper? We couldn’t talk last night. The WiFi has become very patchy.”

“I am good, Papa. Geography went ok. I’m not very good at it.”