Night of 25TH

CHAP 14: Swimming in Troubled Waters

Past:

Shubman

The hours slipped away as I sat on the balcony, lost in Ishan's endless parade of clothing. Shirt after shirt, the vibrant colours and patterns blurred together in my tired eyes. Finally, the fashion show came to a close, and I managed to settle on a single dress for Ishan to wear.

But my triumph was short-lived when he promptly returned with his accessories, adding another layer of complexity to the ordeal. I realized that I was dealing with quite the drama queen as I groaned in frustration.

Despite my overwhelming fatigue, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was time to leave. Hastily rummaging through my luggage, I bemoaned the task of selecting Ishan's shirts that had eaten away my time.

However, I couldn't ignore the fact that his collection was one-of-a-kind. With resignation, I resolved to lend one of Ishan's shirts again as I had nothing special to wear for the evening.

With a sheepish grin, I turned towards him and called out to him with affection and admiration.

"Ishannnn," I called to him affectionately.

"What do you want?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in the mirror as he styled his hair.

"I was wondering if I could wear this shirt tonight, as I don't have anything special to wear," I said, picking up a shirt from his suitcase that was strewn all over the room.

"Shubmannn, you always want my shirts," Ishan said, exasperated and flaring his nose.

"Come on, man. I've seen all your fashion shows, and yet I can't even borrow a shirt from you?" I said, pretending to be sad.

"Stop the drama and get dressed. We're running late," he quipped with narrowed eyes and a smile on his face.

"Despite causing me delay by parading his entire fashion collection, he has the audacity to ask me to get ready earlier," I murmured under my breath with an undertone of frustration.

"Did you say something?" he asked with a challenge in his voice.

"Nothing, thanks," I said sarcastically, picking up the clothes to get ready

Ishan and I got ready in the blink of an eye, but then we spent the next ten minutes playfully goading each other as to whose fault it was that we might be late. Of course, he couldn't resist pointing out that he was the one always lending me shirts so I should be grateful and should not blame him for anything.

By 8 p.m., we had made it to the reception area and saw the team, along with their families, dressed impeccably and chatting away excitedly about the evening's festivities. As we approached Navdeep, we noticed him examining something intently on Siraj's phone.

"Hey, what's going on?" I asked as I settled in next to them.

Siraj, in his typical Hyderabadi accent, responded, "Dude, we found the perfect spot for tonight! This is where we need to be."

With a hint of scepticism in my voice, I asked, "How do we know it's really that great? Pictures can be deceiving, and how do we even know where we're going?"

Confused, Siraj shot back, "What do you mean? It was in the group chat, and we all approved it. Didn't you see it?"

Realizing that I had missed several messages while Ishan had been busy distracting me with his fashion parade, I checked my phone and replied with a hint of annoyance, "No, I hadn't seen it. This lunatic took two hours to decide what to wear and made us late."

I jokingly hit Ishan, who had been grinning impishly the whole time. Siraj and Navdeep couldn't stop laughing at our banter.

"Don't forget that I let you borrow clothes again today," Ishan teased causing everyone to laugh, I playfully narrowed my eyes at him and replied, "Yaad dilane ki zaroorat nahi hai."