Party And Prejudice

19. Letting Go

When we came back, Zoya seemed to be in a better mood than she was in the morning. The aerobics was over for good and now everyone was busy with weaving something which looked like garlands. Zoya was sitting in the middle of a group of kids, all yelling for her attention at the same time.

Riya however looked at my tired face with some asperity and asked me if I was coming down with something.

"I knew walking all the way to that market place would be too much for you. But no! Always you have to do the extraordinary, achieve the impossible or some nonsense like that."

And Riya, of all the people was saying this! I just shrugged as Reyansh and I went to sit on the two empty seats on either side of her.

"What is all this?", I asked in an effort to change the topic.

Riya pursed her lips and, "This is a marigold Mishti. That is another marigold. And this is your boyfriend", she said gesturing at Reyansh.

"What's with the garlands?", I asked Reyansh.

"They said it's for..er..Varsha Porapu", Reyansh replied.

"Who is that Varsha now? I thought Sulochana was trouble enough".

"Not Varsha, it's Varsha Porapu", Riya yelled, "That's what they call Tamil new year. Will you stand there in attention for the rest of the afternoon or will you come and show me all the things you guys bought?"

Considering this as a good topic, I brought out the shopping bags to display everything to Riya.

•••

"I don't know what stupidity Sanam is planning but she shouldn't say it failed because of us", Riya said. Sanam and Ameesha had suggested that all of us could go down to the next concert of the Enchanted Stone which took place that night.

I was not at all keen especially with the Josh-Zoya-Rahul drama going on. Also, I remembered all the chaos the last time, we went together to see a movie. But Riya didn't want to say 'no' to those two and we ended up agreeing. Laksh was still caught up with his mother's birthday celebration and couldn't come.

I didn't know why Riya was so keen to be in the good books of two girls whose faces we would never see after this trip. But then, opinions always mattered a lot to Riya.

•••

I flung the eyeliner pencil down, in frustration. It fell on the dressing table and then rolled down onto the floor and landed with a plop. I think it committed suicide.

Today was one of the bad wing days where I knew it just wouldn't happen. Not by my hands at least. I glanced at the sloppy black mess on my left eyelid. I grabbed a tissue from the stand and started wiping it off.

The door opened behind me, "Hey Mishti". It was Ameesha.

"Hey", I said hastily chucking the tissue out of sight, "Are you looking for Riya?"

"No I just came from Riya's room", Ameesha said "I asked Riya and Zoya if they would like to do a makeover with us but they declined. Just thought I would ask you too".

I had no reason to say no. Besides I was a little bored of getting ready with my best friends. Riya, Zoya and I dressed up together a hundred times every year which involved each of our birthdays, Diwali, Navratri, Eid, New Year and a dozen other occasions. Besides, my eyeliner was being a bitch today.

My loyalty switched as I got up and followed Ameesha out.

•••

Having been around Riya for so many years, I was not new to makeovers but this was something else.