Oftentimes, Aiden feels his life is just for show. A celebrity with rumours surrounding each step he takes.
As the other side of the same coin, Aru's fame takes her places she'd rather not go, including a place where she's the monster in her own st...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
A I D E N
He should've known it was a mistake to have eye contact with another celebrity, especially when it was a proposal and there was paparazzi all around.
Why? Because, the very next day, that second of brief eye contact led to rumours and Tiktok and Instagram edits.
Bert got his five seconds of fame as the rejected, and for the next two days, Aiden's and Arundhati's life was swarming with edits of them and paparazzi.
When his chronically-online cousin had shown him an edit, Aiden had a brain lag. Five in the morning, the lights were off, and he was squinting at the phone his cousin was holding out with a barely stifled laugh.
An edit of him and Arundhati, with Taylor Swift's "Lover" in the background.
Two hours later, he found that the media managed to twist his look of curiosity into a look of jealousy.
His father threw the newspaper on his face as soon as he entered the dining hall.
"Read that." He snapped.
"That's a nice way to say good morning." Aiden said, picking up the newspaper and taking a long look at it.
His cousin was giggling at his phone, a piece of bread in his mouth.
"I'm dating Arundhati Shah?" Aiden questioned after looking at the article. Honestly, the news was useless.
"Apparently." His mom whispered from the head of the table.
"I'm not."
"We know. It's not like you ever could date someone. They'll just run away looking at you, the ever perfect 'Mr. Commitment.'" His father said.
"You should try commitment sometime, you know."
"Shut up."
"No thanks. Anyway, you should know this news is false–"
"You might just have dealt the final blow.
Stop. You're losing me.
Stop. You're losing me.
Stop. You're losing me."
Rudy turned down the volume on his phone. "Whoops. Did not realise it was that loud."
The tense mood was broken.
"Aiden, just a small little question." Rudy called after him just as Aiden had turned on his heels to walk out.
"Yeah?"
He kept walking, and felt Rudy come into step with him. "Do you want to meet my girlfriend?"
"Seriously?" Aiden stopped in his tracks.
Rudy never wanted anyone to meet his girlfriend.
"Yup. I trust you to not tell anyone who she is."
Trust was something Aiden never got and something he craved.
Obviously, he agreed to meet with Rudy's girlfriend.
Even with a hood on his head and less extravagant clothes, people still seemed to recognise him.
"Forgot to mention." Rudy whispered outside the cafe. "She brought a friend along to meet me too."
"And who's this friend?"
"...I actually don't know."
"How can you not know?" Aiden hissed at him.
"I spend all my time simping after her, and simping after her while scrolling through social media on my phone." Rudy said.
"You need a better life."
His cousin rolled his eyes. "My life's the best."
The cafe was packed. It always was.
He waved to his other cousin, who was always taking orders at the front.
Hira waved back.
"That's my girlfriend." Rudy said, an extremely sappy smile on his face.
The girl he was pointing to was sitting alone on her side of the four seater, and her friend was sitting opposite to her, with her back to Aiden and Rudy.
They seemed to be having a heated discussion about something.
"You did the right thing. Now shut up."
"I can't. I feel so guilty, like, I could've rejected him in a less crowded place, but I rejected him straight up in public? In the middle of the park?"
"It's his fault for proposing publicly even if you've been rejecting him for the past year."
The events in the conversation felt extremely familiar.
The girlfriend looked up. "Hi!"
"Your boyfriend's here?"
The girl looked up, and Aiden knew why the conversation was familiar.
The girl was Arundhati Shah, and the only empty space on the table was beside her, and there was paparazzi just left of the cafe, all equalling to one equation.
He was screwed.
"If it isn't the very cause of my sudden internet fame." She said, looking at him dryly.
"But you have been famous for a long time." Aiden blurted out.
"Your friend's Arundhati Shah?" Rudy asked his girlfriend, and laughter was written on each inch of his face.
"I didn't know about the edits and news until I came here." His girlfriend replied. She seemed to be holding in a laugh, but barely.
Arundhati slid to the side of the seat, near the windows. "Don't just stand there." She said, "Take a seat."
"Aiden, this is Mini." Rudy beamed. "My girlfriend."
Mini smiled.
"Nice to meet you." Aiden's voice cracked.
Arundhati seemed to be stifling a laugh.
They talked for a while, and Aiden found out that Mini was a toxicologist, and quite famous in her line of work.
Then, Rudy and Mini began to talk to each other, seemingly forgetting the rest of the party.
Arundhati looked at him again. She tapped her fingers on the table.
The awkwardness reached a peak. Aiden didn't know what to say to break the silence.
She pursed her lips.
Opened them.
"I know where you live." She blurted out, immediately clapping her hands over her mouth.
Aiden was about to say something extremely embarrassing.
"So do I."
He was definitely screwed.
˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥
obviously, my dad wasn't famous, and neither was my mom. but what they were was famous in their respective colonies. my mom was an extreme extrovert, and my dad was not.
but the funny thing was, when my mom first snuck out to meet him, and it was all awkward and stuff, the first thing my dad said to my mom was "it's a thursday."
...yeah he wasn't smooth. but my mom burst into lyrics after that. a telugu song that goes "guruvaram march okati, sayintram five-forty."* then, as they tell me, the tension broke and my mom introduced my dad to pizza.
*translation-march first, thursday, five-forty in the evening.
