"Happy Married Life, Shivya Pathak" I weakly smiled seeing my condition, mangalsutra dangling in my neck, vermilion in hair and both hands filled with gold bangles.
"Come out quickly or do you want me to break the gate," my husband knocked again...
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"Where is Aakshi?" I asked, eyeing Ruh, who was rummaging through a cabinet with the intensity of a detective searching for a lost case file. She barely looked at me. "So rahi thi. Abhi utha ke aaye hain hum."
(She was sleeping, I just came after waking her up)
I turned back to the stove, lowering the flame to prevent the tea from boiling over. The rhythmic bubbling of the liquid filled the silence, but my thoughts were louder.
Aakshi's life seemed...easy. Not that I was jealous-okay, maybe a little-but she had freedom. Choices. And yet, she was still here. Staying behind when she could have left.
"Ruh, can I ask you something?" I hesitated, even though I already knew the answer.
She stopped mid-movement, her hand hovering near the shelf, then turned to look at me. "You don't have to hesitate "
I smirked. "I like the formality sometimes."
She rolled her eyes, amused.
"Aakshi has her own home, right? Then why does she live here?"
Ruh let out a long, theatrical sigh, stepping closer and leaning against the counter like she was about to drop some classified information.
"She's not the type of person you can leave alone."
I raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"
Ruh folded her arms. "She's been expelled from fourteen schools."
My grip on the spoon faltered. "Fourteen?"
"Yes. And she's burnt her brother's cars five times. Once, she set her entire house on fire."
I blinked. "What?"
Ruh nodded, as if we were discussing the weather. "She's... unpredictable. Her brother is busy, so she's better off here, under Bhaiya's watch."
I struggled to process the information. I had known Aakshi for a while, but not like this. Sure, she was impulsive. She talked about marriage at least ten times a day-mostly to avoid studying. But arson? Expulsions?
The tea hissed as a drop spilled onto the burner. I quickly turned off the gas.
"You mean... she set fire to her own house?" I asked, lowering my voice like we were in a crime thriller.
Ruh nodded. "Yes, but no one knew about it except me and Bhaiya . She says I'm her best friend, so I need to know every single detail of her life."
A strange chill ran through me.
"She's lost," I muttered before I could stop myself.
Ruh looked at me, waiting.
"I don't know exactly. But I think she's... restless. Always looking for something, something she never finds. Maybe that's why she's obsessed with marriage-because she thinks it'll fix whatever's missing in her life."
