Caught In The Cyclone Of Love (COMPLETED)

Chapter - 18

It has been three days, since we landed in Bangalore and everything is good till now. These three days had been filled with early wedding rituals and we had no time to talk to the bride or the groom as they were always surrounded by guests or family members. The place looks like it has been sprinkled with different colors and highlighted with extreme happiness. Everywhere I looked, I found people happily smiling and dancing, that brought a smile to my face too.

When we were travelling to the hotel, three days ago, I got to see the place, which I had grown to dislike in the past years. Looking back at me with its majestic infrastructure, as if mocking me for running away, The city looked pretty same, with tall buildings and skyscrapers to add elegance to it. Almost six years ago, I came to this city, with no one to be called as mine. I gained a lot of love and support in the form of my friends and him, yet I did not know, all of that will only be short lived, for all happiness is temporary. If there is something that is permanent in this world for me, that is loneliness.

I saw Adi bro's company on our way to the hotel and I could not stop the single tear that rolled out of my eye and wiped it before I attracted unwanted attention. Raksha, who was sitting next to me patted my hand and gave me an encouraging smile. I smiled back at her and turned to the other side and watched the sunset with my hopeless eyes.

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I was brought back to reality when Shreya waved her hands in front of my face and I blinked looking at her amused face. She gave me a teasing smile and gestured for me to look at my surroundings. Only then did I notice that, all the aunts who were sitting with us were looking at me while Leela aunty shook her head and came and sat next to me. She must have asked something, but I did not notice her as I was busy in my own wonderland.

After five minutes of awkward staring, they got back to their work, which you might have guessed by now, YES, gossiping. I looked at Leela aunty with a flushed face, but she caressed my head and smiled at me. "You called me, aunty?", I asked her and got a nice hit from Shreya in return. "Called you? Idiot she called your name for four times, but you did not pay any heed to it. Where were you lost? In Ranbir Kapoor fantasy?", she taunted me. Geez this girl and her Bollywood obsession.

"I am sorry Aunty. Why did you call me?", I apologized to her. "Nothing beta, I did not see you going out of the hotel in these three days. So, I thought I would ask you to accompany Honey to the spa, tonight", she said in her ever-sweet voice and I almost nodded my head, (get the hint) almost. I suddenly remembered Ani asking me to join her in her bachelorette party which is going to be held tonight. I turned to aunty to ask her about the party, when a voice beat me to it and said, "Definitely mom, she is coming with me tonight", Anika spoke and I could sense a clear lie in her voice.

She glared at me and gave me the 'shut up bitch' look and looked lovingly at her mother. So, no elder in the family knows about the so-called party, I see. She dragged me with her to a secluded corner and looked at me like she would eat me alive. "Why are you looking at me like that?", I asked her just to trigger her anger. "You could have spoiled our perfect plan, if I were not fast enough to stop you from blabbering", she scolded me and I just gave her a sheepish smile and turned to walk away.

"Where do you think you are going?", she half-shouted at me. "I am going back to my room.", I stated, but she grabbed my elbow and hissed at me, "Don't even think about ditching the party, you are coming and there is no change in that", she told me and walked away even before I could form a witty reply. Guess, I will have to convince Raksha to help me in not attending the party.

The reason that I have not gone out of the hotel is that, I am afraid to go out and face the familiar city, that helped me create tons of memories in the three years I stayed here. I did not even go out, when my friends went out for sight seeing and shopping. I had done all my shopping with the help of Sid in Delhi itself, to avoid this kind of circumstances. So, I excused myself and stayed in the hotel and helped Leela aunty in all the wedding preparations.

My main motive is to attend my friends' wedding without any problem and get back to London without any more heart break. So far, I have succeeded in living up to my motive, but today my friends are hellbent on dragging me out of my safe nest and they are so adamant about this. On top of that, they have not informed the elders about the party, saying that they will not allow us to go if they came to know about it. I have to find a place to hide myself from all my friends.

I aimlessly walked around the garden, thinking about an escape route, when I bumped into someone. I mumbled a quick sorry and I was about to turn when that someone grabbed my hand and stopped me. That someone is none other than the groom himself, accompanied by Varun. "Where are you lost, beautiful?", he asked me in his deep voice. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from spilling out my secret plan to escape from the party. "Nothing", I mumbled and took a step to walk ahead when Varun's next words stopped me. "Don't tell me you don't want to go to the party and you are planning on how to escape from it", he asked me in an amused yet irritated voice.

Oh my god, how come he knows about it. I opened my mouth to refuse, but that idiot Rob beat me to it, "Don't even think about lying. Your face itself says that is the exact thing going on in your mind", he scolded me and dragged me towards the elevator. "What are you saying and where are you taking me?", I asked him in my most innocent voice, hoping that he would buy my lie and let me go, but I was wrong.

"Anika has already told me, you did not want to go to the party. The look you had on your face when Varun asked you about it, just confirmed it. So, keep quiet and follow me", he said in an authoritative voice, which I found funny, and entered into the elevator and pressed my floor number. Oh god, I do not want to go to my room, because all the girls are getting ready for the party and if I go there, they will definitely drag me with them to that awful party.

"It is not like that. I was...", I started to say, but Varun's single glare made me shut my mouth. "I know what you are trying to say, and it won't work. Now, shh...", he whispered loudly and kept a finger to his mouth. I mimicked his action and bent my head down. Muruga, this guy can be very scary when he wants to be and I don't want to be the object of his wrath now. The whole ride to my room was spent in silence. There is no use in arguing with them. It is better if I agree to it or they will drag me there without my will.

When we reached my room, Rob held my shoulders and made me face him. "I understand what is going on in your mind beautiful. But you cannot live in the past, you have to come out of it. For that you have to face the world first, come out of your brain and look at the world. You will definitely find the positive energy", he said and gave me a side hug. Varun followed his suit and hugged me and patted my head, to which I scowled at him. Thy both laughed at me and left me to make up my mind.

He is right, I have to come out of my imaginary aloof world, and start facing the reality. I have spent so much time in living in my past, now it is time to come out of it. What is funny is that I find myself needing a trigger, that pushes me to do the right thing, without doing it on my own. With my new-found confidence, I got inside my room to get ready for the party.

Getting ready for the party seemed even more tougher than it sounded. I had a hard time convincing my friends to change my outfit for the day. They chose a red off shoulder knee length dress, which was not at all my taste and threatened me to wear it. But I stood my ground and chose a black maxi dress, adorned with simple glitters with three fourth sleeve, which according to them was 'too plain' and got ready with less make up, much to their dismay. I let my hair down and curled the ends to give it a natural look and applied eyeliner and nude lipstick, and tada, I was ready to go.

The venue is a night club near the hotel and all of the girls from the family were ready to go by 7:00 in the evening. How all these girls convinced/lied to their mothers is beyond me. Excitement and naughtiness hung around us like an orchid full of roses everyone was in their element. Seeing the happy faces brought a broad smile to my face too. "I told you, you would be happy", Ani smirked at me from the adjacent seat and I nodded my head at her. Soon, we were travelling towards our destination.

TO BE CONTINUED...............