Feeling The Greys (revised version)

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟎𝟓. 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐒

𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐢

"Is there something special today?"

"Huh?" I paused, hearing the voice coming from the doorstep. Turning around, I saw bhabhi entering inside my room, a pile of my clothes folded in her arms. "Tch, bhabhi, you didn't have to do this. I would've done them later." I put the lipstick inside the drawer and walked towards her, taking the clothes from her.

"It's okay, I'll put them inside." She opened the cupboard and neatly kept the clothes inside.

"Thank you." I smiled and moved to the nightstand, picking up the books and shoving them inside my bag. "What's for today's breakfast?" I asked.

"Maa insisted on making parathas. Said, 'you kids don't have a drop of ghee in yourself'." She chuckled, shaking her head.

I laughed, "So parathas it is."

"With extra ghee, yes." She shut the cupboard door and leaned her back against it, staring at me.

"What?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"What was your question?"

"Is there something special today?" She repeated.

"Oh, nothing. Why'd you ask?"

"You're making efforts today. What's the special occasion?"

"Bhabhi, what's with the keywords today?" I questioned.

She straightened and came to me. Standing in front of me, she wiggled her brows, smiling. "You ditched your lip gloss with lipstick, your daily college wear is not this, your hair looks perfect today and wait-" She leaned closed, pretending to sniff my face, "-there's makeup on your face. Where are you going?"

There's nothing special today. A normal study session with Alya, Nakul and.... Shrey isn't special. I looked myself in the mirror. Well, nothing unusual.

Okay, I may have pulled up my new jeans, the one I recently bought and for the top, it's a silk. I saw it online and loved it so much, I didn't even bother to check the fabric. It's been months since I bought it and never tried it. After some research, I found the fabric is very delicate and can get damaged due to heat or exposure to sunlight. But I had to wear it someday, right? Can't keep it hanging in my cupboard forever, so why not today. My hair is left loose, there's only a slight touch of makeup.

What special effort is bhabhi talking about? "I'm going to college. And what if I applied makeup today?" I avoided looking into her eyes, zipping my bag, and slinging it on my shoulder.

"All I am saying is, you're looking very pretty today." She laughed.

"Alya is going to teach this subject to two of our classmates." I sighed. No point in hiding this from her. "She asked me to join and help her." Bhabhi's lips formed an 'O' as she nodded her head and I could see those wheels turning in her head.

"So, this classmates of yours, are they boys?" She moved to the nightstand and looked inside the drawers, searching for something.

Its not unusual for us to talk about boys. I've known about her and bhai's relationship way before they got married; even before bhai introduced her to mumma. Ever since the day he took me to that small park near our apartment to meet his girlfriend-now wife-I've been very close to her. She was the first person I ran to and told about my first proposal that I got in ninth grade. She laughed about it, teased me, and advised me not to indulge myself in this stuff at that early age.