Free Thirst by Ilia Bera

it?” he asked.
     
    “What?”
     
    “The hotel—in India.”
     
    “The last I heard, they were doing some updates,” Andrew said.
     
    “Updates?” Tarun asked.
     
    “Renovating. I didn’t ask them about it—but they wanted to open it up to more sunlight. At least that’s what my mom said.”
     
    “Open it up?”
     
    “Like, open-concept. Make all of the rooms into one big room. It’s what people like these days.”
     
    “Maybe here, but not in India, they don’t.”
     
    “Well—They’re from here, and not from India, unfortunately.”
     
    Tarun wanted to cry. Both his childhood home and his ancestral history were being crushed and demolished, and he could not do anything about it.
     
    “No Indian will want to stay in some ‘open-concept’ hotel,” Tarun said.
     
    “I’ll be sure to let them know,” Andrew said, turning around to leave.
     
    Tarun grabbed Andrew by the arm to stop him from leaving. Andrew pushed away the arm.
     
    “Don’t touch me!” Andrew said swiftly, shoving Tarun back with a sudden shove to the chest.
     
    Tarun grabbed onto Andrew’s collar and pulled him in close. “You say that you can’t do anything about it, but you can. You just don’t want to be bothered. You’re walking around like a blind giant—totally unaware of the lives you’re trampling beneath your feet,” Tarun said passionately.
     
    “Let go of me,” Andrew demanded, his hand curling into a fist.
     
    “For someone who’s been to India, and seen the way people live—how can you be so unsympathetic?”
     
    “I’m not unsympathetic. There’s just nothing I can do.”
     
    “Then you’re just an ignorant waste of life,” Tarun said, dropping Andrew down.
     
    Angry, Andrew swung at Tarun’s side with his fist—making hard contact with his rib. The handsome Indian boy winced in pain for a moment.
     
    “I’m ignorant?” Andrew shouted. “I was on your side! I told my dad not to sell you a place in Snowbrooke. I told him he was being a villain! He didn’t care. You think that I just let him take advantage of you?
     
    “We got in a fight. I told him everything that you wish you could tell him—That he was nothing but a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of his own ignorant self-importance. Do you know what he did? He told me to get out of his face, and to never talk to him again. I have to talk to my mother in secret, or the fat bastard will beat her half to death.” Andrew turned around and started to walk away.
     
    “She’s got a boyfriend, so don’t bother,” Tarun said.
     
    “Don’t bother? Don’t bother with what?”
     
    “You were clearly hitting on her.” Tarun laughed, still hunched over in pain.
     
    “Hitting on who?”
     
    “That little black girl in your class.”
     
    “No, I wasn’t. We’re just friends.”
     
    “You’re drop-dead gorgeous and I’m not going to argue it anymore,” Tarun said, impersonating Andrew’s speech from before.
     
    “What—Were you eavesdropping on us? Is that why you’re here?”
     
    “Never mind,” Tarun said.
     
    “No—Not never mind . What are you actually doing here, and how do you know she has a boyfriend—how do you even know who she is?”
     
    “Forgive me for trying to be nice,” Tarun said.
     
    “Are you stalking her?”
     
    “No—Of course not.”
     
    “Of course not? You just happen to be eavesdropping on her conversations in the middle of the night, across town from your house? And apparently you know everything about her personal life?”
     
    Tarun shook his head, cold and tired of arguing. “Enjoy sleeping in your king sized bed, while you watch your big screen TV,” Tarun said as he began to walk away.
     
    “If you lay a finger on her, I’ll have you and your father thrown out of the country.”
     
    Tarun made no reply as he walked away.
     

 
    CHAPTER SIXTY
    THE FENNER FAMILY
     
    Wade found himself sitting in his car outside of his house, staring out into oblivion