Seventeen

Chapter 6

(Adithi's)

29th November – our 17th birthday. It was a Sunday, and I woke up to the smell of chocolate. I ran to the kitchen...

Suhana was cooking.

"Good morning..." She hummed in a happy voice.

"Wooow..." I said jumping on top of the chair to look into the bowl she was holding. "Chocolate cake?? What the?? What happened to you?"

"Just... I was in the mood to make it."She said.

Cool! I love chocolate.

I dipped my finger to the batter and put it into my mouth.

"How is it?" Suhana asked curiously.

"Yummy," I said.

She smiled....

"But what's up with you... making cake and all." I said.

"Just..." She said. "Because of the birthday...and... I wanted to tell sorry to you as well."

"To me? Why?" I asked confused.

She stopped mixing the batter and turned to me with a serious face, "Hm... when we went to the Chinese Restaurant... sorry for only ordering prawns." She said, hesitating.

"Hey..." I said, "That was totally okay. Why are you bringing you digging up something from the past? Don't tell me you felt guilty all this time? I forgot it that day itself." I said. Honestly. I was not the type who will keep things in mind. I forgot it that day itself. But I guess Suhana kept bothering about it. Seriously this girl... She sometimes apologizes for something she did after a year or so... She does that sometimes. Only that time I realize that what I had forgotten that time itself, she had been bothering over it for over a year...

"Okay," Suhana turned back to the cake batter...

"Anyway, Happy Birthday," I told her.

"Happy birthday to you too." She smiled.

Our parents birthday gift to us was clothes. A pair of jeans and two t-shirts for me and a salwar kameez for Adithi. There was supposed to be a tiny cake cutting party at night... Just our family and the boys.

"Why are you wearing jeans even at your birthday party?" Jiggy teased me. "Look at Suhana..."

"Yeah, I know...She looks fab," I said. She was literally sparkling, in her new salwar kameez. And yet again I know it was a day when the boys will pay more attention to her than me.

I was not going to feel sad or left out today... But Jiggy's comment did make me feel a bit... I mean, he did not really have to say that.

I walked to my room and looked at myself in the mirror.

Jeans, and yellowish-orange short sleeve, shirt. And since I cut my hair recently, it was quite short.

Is it because I was growing up...? When I was a kid, I did not really care what I looked like. But recently I do... Today was my seventeenth birthday. Is that why... I am kinda bothered about how I look and tend to compare myself with Suhana.

"What are you doing in here?" Mom came in and asked. "They are asking for you..."

"Mamma, do you think I look bad?" I asked.

Mom's expression got softer...

"Why?" Mom asked. "Why do you feel so?"

"No... Just... Coz... I don't look any close to how Suhana looks."