Amidst The Wedding Chaos

Three

"I'm so mad at you." I stared blankly at Kanwal. She was mad at me? Oh, boy, I was a burning volcano of rage ready to erupt then.

"Do tell me why." I replied sarcastically as I dabbed the blush over my face. The two of us were finally getting ready for the dholki after helping Maimoona Appi with her look.

"How could you not tell me that your cousin is so hot?"

I turned my steaming glare at her. "Because he isn't hot. At all."

"You're blind if you think he isn't hot, babe. 'Cause that man, holy smokin', he is hot!"

"Shut. Up. He's that Aayan."

And immediately, her smile dropped as the realization hit her. It made my sag in relief, knowing that there was still my best friend left in her. "That Aayan? As in the Aayan you had a massive crush on when you were fifteen?" She almost shouted.

I quickly clamped my hand over her mouth. The worst thing that could happen was that Aayan would magically appear and tease me about it forever. "Can you stop announcing it to the whole damn world, Kanwal?" Paranoid, my eyes flicked to the doorway, ensuring somebody or the devil's spawn didn't show up.

She wretched my hand away from her mouth and smirked. "So that's why you've been in a bad mood since I've come? You've got nothing to worry about, mein nahi leti tumhara shohar tumse."

*"...I won't take your husband away from you."

Why was I friends with her?

In my defense, I'd been fifteen, and I'd been naïve enough to think that Aayan was good looking. The heartbreak after that was my prize for liking him.

Never again.

"Konsa shohar?"

*"What husband?"

I jumped back with a hand to my heart and stared wide-eyed at my sister who'd come back in the room for some reason. "A-Appi! What are you doing here?"

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at me then Kanwal who was nonchalantly humming now as she wore her golden earrings, matching with her orange kalidaar— a different version of my pink one. "I wanted to get a few more pins. The dupatta keeps slipping." I stepped aside quickly and let her take the pins. To calm my racing heart, I ran out of the room, only to narrowly miss slipping on the floor.

"AH!"

"Tumhe jab bhi dekho tum cheekh kyun rahi hoti ho?" Aayan appeared magically again, running his hands through his hair to fix them, wearing a grey kurta with matching trousers.

*"Why are you screaming whenever I see you?"

What was wrong with my heart for thinking that he looked sort of good for even a millisecond?

"To na dekha karo, problem solved."

*"Then don't see me, problem solved."

His lip quirked up from one corner as he leaned down, eyes sparkling. My eyes rounded in horror because what the hell was he doing?! "Ho hi nahi sakta ke mein tumhe na dekhun."

*"It's not possible for me to not see you."

I hated, absolutely hated, how I could feel my face warming up. "S-Stop with your nonsense!" I said and rushed past him, hearing him laugh behind me.