Stay With Me

10.

When they finally reached the palace, it was already 5 o'clock, everybody was probably in their rooms, resting and the truck too had reached before them and unloaded the stuff back to the room.
Everything was back to normal.
For now, atleast.

But she felt a little dejected, she wasn't able to be there with her bestfriend.
How had they imagined to get their hands filled with different designs of heena till their elbows and then sit for hours for them to get dry while they watched some movie and laughed their heart out.
Nothing sort of that happened.

Keeping aside upset thoughts, she reached the garden where the mehendi ceremony was conducted to check it they had taken down the decor and started with the sangeet decoration for tomorrow.
What she didn't expect was everybody to be there, at this hour. She expected them all to be resting in their rooms, ladies with their hands filled with heena and gents playing card or chit chatting.
"Tujhe kya laga, mein apni bestfriend ke beena hi mehendi lagwa lungi? Phir mujhe princess treatment kon deta??", she heard her bestfriend say while she was engulfed in a bear hug, so tight she had to tap on her shoulder to let her go, she would definitely die one day due of lack of oxygen because of her.

"C'mon now, change into something nice, humein photos bhi kheechni haina...", now that's what best friends are. Doing everything together, being there for each other at every step, every phase of life. And she was proud to have such a bestfriend in her life.

(Boyfriends and girlfriends are gonna come and go, but this, this is for life...)

And they did.
They did get their hands filled with heena till elbows with a variety of designs and patterns, while Arushi had asked the heena artist to hide Aditya's name somewhere which will be very difficult to find.
All the ladies sat infront of air coolers drying their heena, their respective husbands getting them juice and snacks to munch on, while the single ones had their brothers for this work.

Nurvi's father was also busy making her mother flustered by making her eat fruits he had himself cut, infront of all the people, making her smile but blush.

Her parents were her inspiration of true love, despite being in a arrange marriage they loved each other to no end and the main thing was respect. They respected their decisions and supported them, she never once saw them getting jealous of each other's success or let any third person create misunderstanding between them. They were not insecure of anyone ruining their relationship because they trusted each other.

Getting up from her seat towards the table with fruits, snacks, juice and water was placed, when she felt her throat drying up. But to let luck, her heena still hadn't dried up and she couldn't even locate Yug anywhere in the backyard, 'He must be with Arushi's younger cousins...', she thought.

They had kept straws there, on their request, for their convience.
Bending a little to reach to the opening of the straw in the glass, she tried to drink the water but failed.
After trying for sometime, she thought to give up after failing miserably again and again, 'I'll just drink when this dries up', she heaved a deep breath and as she backed, she saw a vein-y hand appear from the side, the same hand which had seen not-so-long ago.
He took the glass and adjusted the straw and took it near her lips, urging her to open up and she did, lowering her eyes to the glass, not being able to look up at him.

Having satisfied amount of water, she asked him to stop and he kept the glass back to the table while his thumb came in contact with the upper side of her lips and it was in the moment she had to force herself to breath, because he lungs had already given up. Wiping off the access water which had formed a moustache over her upper lip, he bent towards her, too close for her poor heart.
Her knees were going to give up if he kept coming close, but he didn't seem to be fazed by their closeness as he bent until their faces were an inch far. If any one of them moved, their lips might as well touch, they'll kiss.

But then she heard a clipping sound and that's when he moved back, after clipping her front hairs back with a hair clip,"Ask me if you need any help."

✿⁠

Hey guys 👋🏻
Here's the 10th part of "Stay With Me".
It's a really small chapter because I didn't want to continue with mehendi ceremony anymore than I already did in 3 chapters and I'm kinda out of ideas right now for upcoming rituals...
I'll take some time and think and then write, because it's useless to write if it's not up to the point...
Bear with this right now and I promise to give a nice lengthy chapter next time...
Enjoy reading!
Bye 👋🏻