Due to Be Married || Shivika AU SS

four

Annika groaned loudly. "Mallika, just wait. I'm going to get you," she shouted. A half-alive Mallika stumbled into her best friend's room, hand holding her head. "Please shut up, Annie! My head is hurting so bad," she complained.

Mallika couldn't say much after that, as Annika threw a pillow at her head. "Unbelievable. You guys got me drunk!" Annika accused.

"We didn't get you drunk! We just gave you a dose of fruit punch and set you loose. Ab humme kya pata tha ke tu control hi chod degi. Tu seedha bar mein ghusi aur shot after shot after shot mangte gayi. What were we to do?" Mallika defended her and her girl gang poorly as Annika tossed a deadly glare.

"Annie, can you get me a hangover drink?" Mallika asked when she saw Annika preparing to leave the room. "No. You took advantage of my naïveté, now suffer," Annika stated as she left the room. Mallika's jaw dropped. "Outrageous! This is how you treat your best friend who shared all her Goldfish in pre-school?" Mallika said from the bedroom.

"No," Annika yelled back. "This is how I treat my idiot best friend who forcibly got me drunk last night."

Mallika pouted as she followed Annika into the kitchen. "See, Ambika Aunty! Your daughter's reign of cruelty!" Mallika said over-dramatically to a portrait of Annika's mother, Ambika Harsh Vardhan Trivedi. "Ey, shut up," Annika snapped as she quickly whipped up two glasses of lemonade for herself and Mallika.

"Drink this, you witch, and don't you dare do something like this again," Annika warned as she handed a glass to her best friend. Mallika grinned cheekily. "You taught her well, Ambika Aunty. Good to see she hasn't forgotten her sanskar."

Mallika and Annika quickly downed the sour drink and slammed it on the counter. "By the way, where are Ri and Bhavs?"  Mallika asked.

Annika rolled her eyes. "How much did you drink, Mal? Omkara and Rudra picked them up and took them home last night, after the party."

"Mitali was always the weird chick in college, I never liked her, but damn, that girl throws the best parties!" Mallika exclaimed as she fished out her phone from Annika's purse (she never carried one as they were far too girly) and opened Instagram.

Annika, who'd just finished washing the two glasses, quickly wiped her hands and snatched away Mallika's phone. "No, no, no Ms. Choudary. This is staying with Maa today," Annika said as she placed the phone on the sill beneath the picture frame. Mallika frowned. "Okay, what about yours, you cheater?" Mallika said with a deep frown. Annika smirked and poked her thumb at the sill, where her beloved iPhone XR sat beside Mallika's.

"Ugh, why'd I have to go become best friends with a goody-two shoes," Mallika frowned. "Oh, you love me," Annika teased playfully.

"Yeah, I guess I do," Mallika said quietly as she glanced over her best friend. She really did love Annika with all her heart, and it was with the same passion that she hated Shivaay Singh Oberoi. That man was never going to get close to her best friend ever again, and that was Mallika's secret promise to Annika.

"Ugh," Gauri whined. Omkara Agarwal quickly sat upright beside her bed. "Gauri, you good?" he asked his fiancée, concern lacing his tone. "Uff, I'm fine. Just a bit of a headache. It'll be gone by noon."

Om sighed in relief. "Who told you to drink? You know you have a low tolerance, but you and Bhavya just chugged drink after drink—"

Gauri stood up from her bed, slightly dizzy. "Bhavya! Haye Shankarji, Maa is going to murder me when she finds out that Bhavya and I got drunk!"

"Really? But isn't Lakshmi Maa in Tirupati with your Naniji?" Om asked. Gauri looked at the love of her life as though he were stupid. "She's our mother, Omkara. She can be in Antarctica, but she'll still know what we're up to. It's like she has a sixth mom sense," Gauri shuddered.

"Now, before Maa calls Bhavya, I've got to go wake her up. I'm out!" Gauri shouted and ran out of the room, leaving Om slightly confused.

As Gauri raced down the hall, she heard an awfully familiar voice coming from Jhanvi Agarwal's room. "I just don't knows what to do, Jhanvi! It's likes I has losts my own sons!" someone cried out. "It's okay, Pinky. Calm down."

"How can I calm down, Jhanvi? My son, my heera beta is drifting away from me and I can't even do anything. I feel so useless. Annika knows, Annika knows I did nothing wrong. I just wanted the best for my son. But how could the best be so wrong? How did we come so far apart, Jhanvi? How?"

Gauri's heart stung as she realized the woman talking to her soon-to-be mother-in-law was none other than Pinky Singh Oberoi. The mother of the man who broke her best friend's heart.

"Pinky, crying won't solve anything. I know Shivaay. He'll come around, don't worry," came the soothing voice of Jhanvi Agarwal, who knew just how to calm someone down. However, she was not dealing with someone. She was dealing with a mother with a delicate heart and an even more delicate soul, tortured at the idea of her son drifting away from her.

"Pinky Aunty?" Gauri asked. The two women looked to the entrance to find the young girl shyly peeping in. "I couldn't help but overhear—"

"Come in," Pinky said sweetly. Gauri obliged and sat between the two women. Pinky took her hands into her own and smiled at her through tired eyes. "You've certainly landed yourself a beautiful bahu, Jhanvi," Pinky praised, though somewhere Gauri swore she heard a tinge of pain.

"You always say that, Pinky, and I always reply that I must've done a very good deed in order for an angel like Gauri to enter my life as my son's wife."

"And I must have done something truly terrible that I was snatched of a golden daughter moments before I had her," Pinky said sadly.

Jhanvi and Pinky exchanged forlorn looks. Gauri tightened her grip on Pinky's hands. "Pinky Aunty, if we could tell Annika Di, I'm sure she'd forgive you. You'd have your daughter back—"

"I'm afraid it isn't that easy, Gauri. If I can't live with the hate of my Shivaay, I doubt that I can live with the hate of his Annika."

"Di would never hate you!"

"Oh, but she would. I'm the only one responsible for snatching their happiness. I could've stood up for her, and instead, I...I stood by," Pinky shook her head as tears rolled down her cheeks. "My Shivaay and Annika are far apart from each other, when they belonged together. If that's not my doing, then whose can it be?" Pinky said.

"We must be strong for our children, Pinky," Jhanvi said as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. Pinky nodded, wiping her tears.

"Enough of this, hating on innocent people for mistakes that weren't theirs to begin with. Mallika Di and Shivaay Jiju, Shivaay Jiju and Pinky Aunty, what's the point of keeping a swear that just hurts everyone even more?" Gauri shouted, standing up. Pinky's eyes widened, and she rose quickly, grabbing Gauri's shoulders.

"No, Gauri. Promise me, Gauri. You will keep whatever happened a year ago a secret. Promise me, Gauri!" Pinky said frenetically. Gauri sighed, helping Pinky to sit. "I...I promise, Pinky Aunty."