Let's Blame Kismet

Chapter 2 (Her POV)

" You have got to take a stand for yourself" Jasmine, my friend poured herself another serving of the cheap alcohol that we were now getting used to.

I nodded my head hopelessly in a negative --"they won't let me out"

"You are NOT going to have sex" Jas attracted all the attention from the crowd of another local restaurant we were at. "Nobody's gonna kidnap you either. You are 24 for goodness sake and you still need permission to hang out with your friends?" My NRI best friend couldn't comprehend herself around the fact that I was still a baby to my parents.

Honestly the way we turned out to be best friends was still a mystery to me. I had secretly created an Instagram account when I was 18 as a birthday present to myself despite my parents being strictly against it. They didn't want me to 'get spoiled' and clearly creating a social media account and posting pictures wasn't something a good girl should do. So I created this account under a fake name, even worse, under a different gender.

I posted myself as Rudra, an 18 year old boy and basically just scrolled memes and videos for fun.

Jasmine was one of mine, aka Rudra's, first followers and she was everything that I wasn't.

Free, carefree, and not with a strict Indian family. I was guilty and therefore had come out clean to Jasmine when we started talking and almost expected my followers to drop down from 4 to 3.

But Jasmine somehow stuck with me and meeting me was one of the primary reasons Jasmine arranged to come to India to meet her parents after 5 long years.

Jasmine, who is 29 by the way, was not surprised that her parents were still on the same page- to go out and meet potential grooms.

Blind dates and arranged marriages were exactly what Jas hated.

"You are going out to meet your potential future husband... there's no point in tagging me along" I insisted. "Also I barely get to step out of my house. If it weren't for my aunt and working with her in her boutique, my parents would have never let me work in my life. They already think I am losing time and the minute I turn 25, I'll lose all good men and will have to 'settle for less' " I was having a hard time venting out. "And on top of that if I go out to them and say that I am hanging around with a friend I met online and accompanying her to see her potential groom, where do you think I'll land up?"

Jasmine understood, she always did. But she also couldn't care less about it. At the end of the day we both knew that I am the Leonard to her Sheldon; she will always have her way.

"It's just dinner Ruth. I am not asking for you to sit in my place in the marriage ceremony. Besides.. What if I get bored at the dinner table?"

"Marriage conversations are meant to be awkward and boring. What do you want to do? Meet him at a club? Dance, drink and make out?" I was being sarcastic and I thought I did a pretty good job at it. But for some reason Jas did not or could not decipher.

Something shone in her eyes. Something that I knew I should dread.

"That's an amazing idea Ruth. You can come along too and not be seen and if I don't like him, I'll just get lost in the crowd. And anyway getting you drunk in a bar is one of the priorities on my bucket list"

Jasmine's words were beyond comprehensive. I was trying hard to look for sarcasm, joke, something that could say that Jas wasn't being serious..but all I could find was excitement and hope and that evil grin that Jas plastered on her face.

Going to a club would be a task for me.. But I was no longer 18 and I had learned how to fabricate lies for my uselessly strict parents. It was some work but I knew it wasn't impossible.

But I wasn't interested in tagging along. 

What if the two of them vibed and matched with one another and wanted to go back home and chew each other raw. I did not want to come in between Jasmine and whoever was it that she was going to meet.

"Listen-"I tried

"I'll be leaving soon anyway" Jas was going to be here for another 3 months but she knew this tactic had been working for the last couple of weeks.

She was initially going to be here for 6 months but given her parents' recent advances towards her marriage prospects, she cut herself a trip to India for only 4 months. 

She didn't want any major decision to be timed by the departure dates of her flight and therefore she wasn't interested in the whole 'woo a man and be his bride strategies'. 

If anything, she was afraid, afraid of getting attached to anyone here. It was already tough to live without a family back in the US and on top of it if she finds someone she goes head over heels in love with, it's going to be a heck of another challenge. 

It will either lead to a long time long distance or staying back in India and she wasn't prepared for either of it. She wanted to save herself off of all this mess. Especially after she knew how quick she can be to fall for someone.

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How's your bestfriend when he or she is in love? 

That's all for this chapter folks.

Thank you for being here. I love you guys. ❤️❤️