Warrior

51

The gala was being hosted at the city, so about forty five minutes later, we arrived to the function. Aptly, the function was being hosted at a museum, and given what I had seen in the brochure, there's loads of paintings and statues being auctioned off. As soon as we stepped out of the cars, the paparazzi went completely nuts, their camera flashes going off one after the other, ready to blind us!

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Now, look, I'm not a person who gets chased down by paparazzi whatsoever - I'm not! The only time they've ever bothered me was just during that time when the news of my engagement with Arnav Singh Raizada was announced. Therefore, a lot of this is very foreign to me. Sure, in the past I've been on a few gossip columns, getting comments for my looks at events that I had attended, but I never cared for that shit, nor did I ever really care to look at them.

Now, however, there was no way of avoiding it.

I spot my mother in-law and father in-law together, standing together for the paps to click some pictures of them. Even my aunt in-laws and uncle in-laws do the same. Akash and NK only stand around for a bit, letting the paps get a few pictures before heading off, but as for Arnav and I?

Oh...

My...

Fuck!!!

"Mr. and Mrs. Raizada, over here!"

"Mr. and Mrs. Raizada, a picture over here please!"

"Mr. and Mrs. Raizada, pose this way!"

I mean seriously, these people were going bananas! At first I was too stunned to move, but I very quickly overcame it and followed after Arnav. We both stood together, the paps going insane and clicking photo after photo of us. Several of them cried out for us to get closer, which obviously wasn't missed by either of us. I noticed Arnav glancing down at me and knowing how these paps could be such vultures, I placed my hand around Arnav's arm and moved closer to him. The paparazzi went even crazier, flash after flash going off, once again trying to blind me. I think Arnav also figured that I was going blind, so he quickly lead us inside, which was much calmer.

"You okay," Arnav asked me.

"I think my vision is starting to come back. What the fuck is wrong with them?"

Arnav shrugged in return. "Uh... you know you didn't have to do that."

I looked at him in confusion.

"You didn't have to hold my arm like that," he said softly.

I stopped myself from letting my eyes widen. "Yes I did; they only would've hounded us even more."

"Khushi-"

"It's fine Arnav, really."

Arnav let out a small sigh. "You sure you're okay?"

For a moment I looked at him, the events of what had just happened in our room moments ago replaying in my mind. "I'll be fine," and I walked away.

I'll be fine... I. Will. Be. Fine!

*~*

The main event is being hosted in this huge hall full of many paintings, and there's people around everywhere, a majority of them holding champagne flutes. While some mingled, others walked around and observed the paintings. In my youth, I had been to this museum for many school trips, so some of it is very familiar. Of course some things have changed over time, but overall, it's pretty much the same.