Arranged or love?

Chapter 7: A wedding and a whole lot of drama

I looked at myself in the mirror, I looked stunning in my traditional get- up, if I may say so myself, but inside I felt hollow. I was petrified and my hands shook as I put on my earrings. I smoothed a hand over my dress, an anarkali dress, it was fancy, the top third was red velvet with embroidery and the bottom was green with tear shaped pattern across the bottom. I picked up my gold, jewelled high heeled sandals and put them on, my hair was volumised with large curls, my ears adorned with gold earrings, and on my arms I had on bangles.

Usually getting dressed up for weddings was the most exciting thing on my calender, I loved dressing up, I loved the glitz, the jewels and the heavy, oily food at weddings. I caught up with my extended family on such occasions and although I hated a few of them, I had a good understanding with most. Especially my cousin Husna, she also knew about what happened to me the day I got my scar, although I didn't go into details, she hadn't needed them because she had understood my emotions without me saying anything. I sighed as I looked at myself in the mirror one last time, Lyba had picked up the dress last week, just after my panic attack and even though I had refused her large puppy eyes had made me change my decisions. God, she was so manipulative, it was scary.

I breathed deeply, it felt as if I had a heavy weight on my chest, and I couldn't get rid of it, he was going to be there, I would bet on it, and if our family was invited so was my dad. The door opened, and my family, plus Adam and Ruksana trooped in. My large room felt very small, with of all of them inside. Adnan whistled, winking at me and Rahim gave me a thumbs up. "Wow Zubaida, you look stunning!" gushed Lyba, I rolled my eyes at her as she clapped and bounced on her feet, Ruksana nodded and gave me a small, reassuring smile. I looked at Adam, he was looking at me strangely,his eyes were hooded, he looked at me from head to toe, and then smirked, nodding his head as if he approved. I gave him a dirty look. Like hell I needed his approval.

He laughed quietly, shaking his head. He was wearing a dark blue sherwani (traditional South Asian, wedding attire) and I had to admit, grudgingly, he looked hot!  I breathed deeply, looking at Adnan, "are you ready, let's go" said Adnan, he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of taking me to the wedding, he had clicked on that our dad was going to be there. He was tense and worried and although he smiled at me reassuringly, his smile didn't reach his eyes. There was going to be a lot of drama tonight and he knew it would all be because of me. He grabbed my hands, and I let him take me downstairs and into the car, the drive to the wedding venue was quiet. The closer we got, the tenser the atmosphere was, and it got so bad you could actually cut it with a knife. Ruksana, Lyba and me were sat in the car with Adnan while Rahim was with Adam. I breathed deeply, closing my eyes, Ruksana placed her small hand on top of mine, rubbing gently to reassure me. He parked his car and Adam parked his next to Adnan's and together we made our way to the hotel where the Nikkah (marriage ceremony) was going to take place.

Entering the hall, the ladies' perfumes and the smell of delicious food hit me 1st, then the loud ambience hit me, the noise was deafening.