Attending At Twenty-Four

XXIII. Diwali II

"I don't wanna get on your badside." Ruth chuckled from the bed.

"Clean your room on Diwali then." I smile as I sit on my desk chair.

"I'm so excited for tonight. I've researched about Diwali and looks like so much fun." Ruth grins.

"It is." I tell her.

"This formal for an engaged couple." Phoebe raised a brow as she stood at my door.

"I knew you'd walk in on us. You have a habit of not knocking." I tell her.

"Okay." she shrugged, "My friends are here. They wanna see you."

"Why?"

"Because you're cool."

"I'm not getting up." I tell her, "Actually, I will get up. To get into bed with Ruth."

Ruth scoots back on the bed and into a sitting position and I sit between her legs. I lean back into her and she puts her arms around me. I kiss her jaw, she kisses my forehead.

"Yeah, okay. I'll bring them up here then." Phoebe scoffed. It made me chuckle. As far as I'm aware, Phoebe has brought her best friends, Jane and Octavia. She brings them to Diwali every year and I'm almost certain that Octavia is gay and has the fattest crush on Phoebe.

"I don't wanna see people." I groan.

"You can do this." Ruth encourages me, giving me a gentle squeeze.

"Hi, Tammy!" a shrill voice shrieks. I'm not too fond of Jane. She's always asking me about med school and about becoming a doctor. "How've you been? How's work?"

"It's good. It's good." I nod.

"How's the internship treating you?" Jane asks as she takes a seat on my desk chair and Phoebe brings Octavia to sit on the end of the bed with her.

"She's not an intern." Ruth answered.

"What? She started just a few months ago."

"She'll be an Attending by February." Ruth said. I will? I look up at her with a questioning look and she nods her head.

"That went fast." Jane giggled.

"Tammy's just really clever." Ruth said, and I could her the smile in her voice. She kissed my head and I closed my eyes to enjoy the feeling. I just like having contact with Ruth. It feels great.

"Who are you?" Jane asks, giving Ruth a bit of a dirty look. I pick up on this and I answer with a bit of attitude myself.

"This is Ruth. She's my fiancé."

"And your boss." Ruth whispered in my ear, causing me to look away from Phoebe's friend. She kissed my neck while I looked back at Jane. She looked sort of... Jealous.

"Why don't you go to my room, Jane. Take Tave with you. I need to speak to Tammy." Phoebe spoke.

"Okay." Jane nodded, walking out of my room with Octavia by her side. Phoebe closed the door matter them.

"She likes you."

"No kidding." I scoff.

"Yeah, it's bit weird. And I've told her to move on. Because you and her, it's not going to happen. Obviously." she chuckled.

"I won't let it." Ruth whispered in my ear again. It sent a shiver down my spine.

"She just needs to back off in general." I tell my sister.

"Yeah, I know."

"What's going on with Octavia?" Ruth asked.

"What do you mean?" Phoebe's face softened. Oh my God. Phoebe likes Octavia.

"She looks like she's got an inner battle going on." Ruth mentioned, motioning to her head.

"Not that I know of." Phoebe frowned.

"Phoebs. What Ruth is trying to say is that Octavia is figuring out that she's gay."

"You think?" she sits on my chair.

"Yeah. And she totally likes you. I think you like her back." I say. Then Phoebe cried.

"I just don't want it to seem like I'm copying you." she sobbed.

"You're gay?"

"Bisexual." she sniffed.

"Phoebs. This how you feel. Okay, we're similar in that aspect, but you're not copying."

"You really think so?"

"I know so. Live your truth." I say.

"And you think Tave likes me back?"

"She was staring at you like you were the only person in the room." Ruth laughed.

"Okay." she nodded, "Thanks, guys." she wiped her eyes and left the room.

"I love Phoebe. She's so sweet."

"I love her, too. Even though she can be annoying sometimes."

"She's your sister. That the whole point."

"I know. You're gonna be a great sister-in-law to her."

"Thanks." Ruth smiles softly, kissing my cheek.

My phone buzzed and I saw that it was Mom:

Come here. We need to do the rangoli.

"You wanna help us with the Rangoli?" I ask Ruth.

"Yes." she smiled.

I take Ruth by the hand and we go downstairs. Mom is waiting by the front door with all of the supplies and Ruth takes a few from her to give her a hand. Phoebe, her friends and Isaac come down the stairs too while Ruth and Mom take the materials out. I could tell Ruth was excited, she grinning like a kid on Christmas. She's so cute. But I could feel Jane's eyes on me. Gross.

Mom let me teach Ruth how to make the patters by our front door. Dad was going around the house, opening all of the windows and turning on the lights.

Mom gave us the batches of coloured rice to make our Rangoli, I look to Ruth while she kneeled next to me, "What pattern are we thinking?" I ask.

"Um, how about a bumblebee on a flower?" she suggested.

"That's cute. Let's do it."

I've gotten quite good at making perfect circles with rice, so I make an outline with purple rice. Ruth gets to work on her bumblebee and I make the little flower between it's front legs. Once both pictures are finished, we make the background with a light blue.

"This looks good." Ruth nodded. And I agree, it does look pretty good.

"You did so awesome with the shapes." I tell my fiancé.

"I'm so proud of us." she grinned.

"Me too."

"I also liked doing this because we got to spend time together and developing communication between us." Ruth said.

"You're so cute."

"Mhm, you're cuter." I watch Ruth's gaze settles behind me and I look around to see what she was looking it. I caught Jane's gaze and she looked jealous again. Why does she think she has a chance with me? She's fifteen and my sister's best friend. She's almost like family.

Mom hugging Phoebe and kissing her head catches my attention. I watch her mouth the words, "I'm proud of you and I love you no matter what." exactly what she said when I came out.