Rab Rakha

Chapter 1

"I still cannot believe this." Sheena whispered, as she ran fingers over her engagement ring. She caressed it with utmost care.

"Badi pyari hai." Shehnaaz smiled, admiring the ring as well while she and her best friend were comfortably snuggled up in their bed. The two used to stay at Sheena's place in Rohini Nagar, Delhi.

"Haina? 4 saal Shehnaaz, soch 4 saal ke baad finally ye ring hai mere pass." Sheena said.

"4 saal of non stop chaos! Kaise jhela maine tum dono ko itne saal!" Shehnaaz sighed dramatically.

"Chal bhag! Kutti! Tune kya jhela?" Sheena frowned.

"Shehnaaz, dekh na Guru baat nahi kar raha hai yaar mujhse! Dekhna, mere mana karne ke baad bhi uss Aditi ki bacchi ko Hi bola usne! Yaar, Guru ne aj sirf good morning bola, na babe na pookie na heart emojis? Naraz kyu hai ye mere se?!" Shehnaaz mimicked her friend's patent dialogues that she had been listening to for the past 4 years. But nevertheless she was so happy for her friend and her fiance, both were her closest people since college. She had always rooted for the two of them.

"Chup kar." Sheena's cheeks turned pink in embarrassment. Indeed spending 4 years in aa relationship was a long time and it wasn't easy at all, she and her fiance were completely different people who liked each other. They had to tune, adjust and go through a lot of arguments to make it worth marriage.

Shehnaaz laughed, hugging her friend and kissing her cheek loudly as the two continued to talk about the initial days of Sheena's relationship with Gurjot, her former fiance. The trio were in the college together where Sheena and Shehnaaz were classmates but Gurjot was their senior and all of them were a part of a cultural club in their college.

Like every relationship, Gurjot and Sheena began to hangout more often in their college canteen, sports ground and library and similarly like every best friend Shehnaaz was the third wheel in most of their dates. She used to gate keep her friend's relationship, cover for Sheena every time she went out with Gurjot and used to help them resolve their fights as well.

As of now, the two besties were enjoying their weekend at their home. They made themselves comfortable in bed, under the quilt along with their laptop with Netflix on screen, watching 'Thank you for coming'.

"Mickey! Sana! Khana khane ke time ho gaya! Chalo aao!" Anju, Sheena's mother, called them down.

"Aai Ma!" Sheena replied and the girls unwillingly climbed out of the bed. It was pretty cold in Delhi in the month of December, the temperature had actually dropped down to 3-4°c during the nights. All of them wore layers of thermal wear to bear with this winter.

"Aaj Montu ka birthday hai, wish kiya tune?" Anju asked.

"Text kiya tha subha, mote ka reply 4 ghante baad aaya." Sheena muttered, taking her seat at the end of the table.

"Beta, kyuki wo kaam pe jata hai. Busy raha hoga. Abhi call karte hai usey, wish karenge." Her father, Rajiv, replied.

"Usne toh mere birthday pe call nahi kiya tha." Sheena stated, eyeing her father.

"Montu kaam se bahar gaya tha, teri Rita aunty ne toh kiya tha na! Aise nahi karte beta, call laga." Anju replied, insisting that they should make the call.

"Namaste uncle." The guy they had been talking about, picked up the call.

"Namaste bete, happy birthday!" Rajiv wished him.

"Happy Birthday Montu, kaise ho beta?" Anju was quick to follow.

"Thank you so much. Mai badhiya hu. Abhi mom se baat ki, aap logo ko yaad kar rahe the hum." Montu replied, he sounded happy.