MANGO MILKSHAKE

Chapter 8

"Ayat apa! Ayat apa! wake up." A vague impatient voice whispered in my ear while I was lost in my dream, chasing butterflies. The butterflies were slowly turning into a monster.The calm dream suddenly turned into a nightmare. I was about to get caught by the monsters but Jiya's voice shook me all over making me wide awake.

"What is it Jiya? look at the clock! it's only 6 AM." I rubbed my eyes until a hazy red layer appeared on it.

"You're getting engaged today, don't you have a little bit of awareness left?" Jiya exclaimed trying to knock some sense into me.

"Yeah today...my engagement? what's the date again?" I let out a big yawn as I scratched my head leisurely.

"November 17"

"so it's today indeed. what am I supposed to do ?" My eyes stared at the wall ignoring the judging gaze from Jiya.

"Get ready before the guests arrive. For starters you can brush your teeth. Your breath stinks." Jiya playfully teased.

"You have brushed teeth yet you smell three times worse than me." I retorted.

"Ayat apa! Stop saying such things." Jiya whined a little as she left the room dramatically.

Maybe I should freshen up. Everything is happening so slowly yet abruptly that I can't even process if it's real or I'm just in a mental hospital imagining things. It has taken me a lot of mental effort and manipulation tricks to reduce the guest list. Around a hundred people are invited now. Our closest relatives including aunts, uncle and cousins will be present in the hall along with some elderly people and close business allies. As for my side, I've been too embarrassed to even invite a single friend of mine. Only Raya and her family are coming. I'm the first ever cousin to get married which has caused a great disruption in our cousin community. All my cousins including Jiya, her brother Junaid, my first uncle's son Shafi and daughter Sadia. my second uncle's two sons Izaz and Aziz are staying at our place for the past two days to organise everything. Even though they are doing everything including decoration and other things still the whole situation feels like a fever dream to me. Until yesterday I wasn't feeling anything. I was watching them running here and there to change the curtains, mop the floor, help my mother, remove dust and it reminded me how I have lived the same phase while their parents were getting married. After tidying my room I went downstairs to join everyone for tea. No matter how hard life gets, morning tea can't be compromised.

"So many odd things are happening in this house." Izaz spoke while shoving a biscuit in his mouth.

"How so?" Shafi raised an eyebrow.

"It's barely seven in the morning yet Ayat is not sleeping like a drugged cat." Izaz pointed out.

Everyone else started laughing. The hall room is now full of brats who are sitting in a circle, sipping tea and having fun. Except for Azad, all of them are younger than me. Izaz and Shafi turned twenty this year. Azad has a great influence on them and I certainly don't like it for some obvious reasons. I pretended not to hear the conversation as I walked towards them and sat beside Sadia.

"Pass me the flask, Jun." I asked the youngest person present in the room. Though Junaid is almost fourteen but his innocent face makes him look even younger.

"Yes, apa." He politely handed me the flask and a cup to pour tea.

"Thanks." I looked around to see the changes in the room. The furniture has been moved to corners. Each photo frame, wall decoration and even the walls look cleaner than before. Curtains have been changed and different kinds of plastic flowers have been used to beautify the room.

"You guys have put in a lot of effort, everything looks perfect. How did you manage all of these in such a short time?" I asked eagerly.

"Didn't sleep at all. We worked the entire night, simple." Shafi hummed nonchalantly.