I sat outside the party hall on the steps with my knees tucked under my chin. The breeze just blew my hair in different directions but I didn't even care. It was simpler outside, the moon and stars, their prettiness, though simplistic was majestic in my head. I was feeling really hot, so I sat outside to cool off. Suddenly, I felt a hand press lightly agains the small of my back.
'Hey,' he whispered ever so softly in my ear, 'you look pretty,'
His voice has enough to set me feeling like cage of butterflies had erupted in my stomach, but what he did next, almost killed me. He brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear and leaned in...
THREE HOURS EARLIER
I walked with Alia to a bathroom inside the party hall. We got there an hour before the party started and I arrived in jeans, a sleeveless black top, flats and a white jacket and Alia arrived in black jeans (that were too baggy for her) and a long top, (her parents decided that a flowery long sleeved kurta top would do the trick). We quickly hurried into the bathrooms, where Alia changed out of her baggy jeans into a neon yellow pleated skirt, traded her top for a black lace top and changed out of her flats into small wedges. She took her hair out of the rat's nest ponytail that it was in and fluffed it up and down really quickly. She flipped her hair and was ready to go.
'What the heck Alia,' I asked her, I would never defy my parents like she just did.
'What? My clothes were ugly and that kind of look doesn't swing around here girl,' she said looking seriously at me then cracking up. I could understand her weird ways, so I just shook my head and walked out of the bathroom with her. Although, she was being a little childish, I did have to say that she looked stunning. We walked into the halls slowly and sat in the seats. Someone sat next to me. It was Siddharth.
'Hey Sidd,' I said quietly.
'Hey.' He said whispering and smiling. 'I'm kind of excited, can't believe my cousin in twenty one,' he said chucking!
'Well, you will be sixteen soon,' I smirked and he punched me lightly on the arm.
After sitting though a whole heap of speeches, we all turned to mingling. I saw kids I had never seen before and met heaps of people. It was so fun. I had lost Alia halfway through the evening, but I just stayed with Sidd. We walked around the party hall a couple of times. While we were walking, the song manma emotion jaage came on and I started jumping excitedly. I dragged Sidd onto the dance floor and jumped up and down. Sidd was an amazing dancer. We both did a choreographed dance during the chorus and doubled up laughing. Finally, the song finished and another new song came on, but this one I didn't know.
'Wow, I didn't know that you liked new songs too, thought that you were only into old songs.' Sidd said
'Yeah, but I'm a dancer, so I like all songs I guess,' I laughed.
But then, we were both thirsty, so we went to grab a drink, but the bottles of water at the front of the little kitchen are had run out, so we had to walk behind to the back where the storage was. The party music slowly faded out as we walked out and soon all we could hear was the gentle breeze blowing. Sidd loosened his tie and flapped his button up shirt back and forth as best as he could.
'I'm feeling so hot...' He said fanning himself with his free hand while picking up a water bottle.
'That's because up you are,' I said regretting it as soon as the words slipped out of my mouth. Sidd didn't say anything, instead, he just leaned over until my nose was touching his and suddenly pulled a face causing a double chin. We both doubled over laughing until Sidd suddenly put a finger over my lips and pulled me behind the door. We could hear some voices. They were getting louder and louder and Sidd and I just crouched further and further behind the door when suddenly, the voices were in the room.
'Are you kidding me, tonight, I want to be with everyone,'
'No, okay, you have to pay attention to me. I thought that being here tonight with you would be nice,'
'I'm not saying that we can't be together, I'm just saying, everyone is here for me tonight and I want to be with everyone.'
'Yeah, well I though you loved me... Guess not, I'm going to turn around and walk out the door, then count to five. If you don't come out, we're over,'
'Fine...be that way.'
'1...' I clutched my stomach. The yelling didn't sit too well with me
'2...' The girl's voice rose and my stomach's bile did too
'3...' My face paled and I went light headed
'4...' The boy began to take a few steps towards the door and I began to feel relived when suddenly
'5...' My stomach let loose and I turned to the side and dry heaved. I passed out on the floor, regaining consciousness ten seconds after, my head spinning violently. Sidd lunged over me and the boy turned around to come and help. Sidd and Karan's brother were sitting over me.
'Sorry about the argument with your girlfriend anna (older brother in Tamil),' I said before closing my eyes again.
'Wow Raghu, guess you really don't care about me,' His girlfriend said before walking out. I told Raghu anna to leave and I just took sips of water with Sidd slowly easing the drops into my mouth. I slowly got up and decided that we should join the party before everyone realised we were missing, so I slowly hobbled back to the party, with Sidd holding my waist. I leaned into his side and hid my face, it was far too embarrassing to be seen like that. When we finally walked through the halls, everyone was standing against the side, the many groups of kids turned to the middle, all the aunties with their hands on their mouths, all the uncles standing shell shocked. Raghu and his girlfriend were in the middle of the circle and she was screaming at him. Right as I walked in with Sidd, she pointed a long manicured finger at me and screamed 'YOU...' she lunged at me. Sidd stood in front of me and calmly said.
'Look didi, she and I were in the storage room getting water when she passed out. Raghu Bhai helping her was out of his own good nature, if you are not into that, then you don't deserve him.'
She gave Sidd and ugly glare and turned back to me and said, 'before you turned up, we had no problems, you ugly devil,'
I was so upset and tears started forming at my eyes, that I ran out.
Present time
I sat outside the party hall on the steps with my knees tucked under my chin. The breeze just blew my hair in different directions but I didn't even care. It was simpler outside, the moon and stars, their prettiness, though simplistic was majestic in my head. I was feeling really hot, so I sat outside to cool off. Suddenly, I felt a hand press lightly agains the small of my back.
'Hey,' he whispered ever so softly in my ear, 'you look pretty,'
His voice has enough to set me feeling like cage of butterflies had erupted in my stomach, but what he did next, almost killed me. He brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear and leaned in... I turned my head around though to avoid it, because i didn't deserve Sidd's affections. He just brushed my hair again, revealing the locket he had pressed into my palm yesterday. I looked into his eyes and he looked right back into mine, even though I wasn't looking up anymore, I could see the stars and moon in his eyes. He leaned in and kissed my cheek, softly brushing his lips over my skin. I leaned over once he pulled away, but he pulled away again. 'You're gonna have to work much harder if you want more,' he said doing his cheeky little smile before brushing away my tears with his fingers.
Luckily, just then, Alia came outside and broke the moment. She told me that it was time to leave before grabbing my hand and marching through the hall, giving Karan an awkward goodbye hug and nodding to Raghu. When I got into the car, I noticed one of my flats was missing, I must have dropped it when Alia grabbed me. I turned out of the car to see Sidd holding my shoe in his hand and before I could wave goodbye, my car sped off. I looked at the time in the car, the only place which flashed before my eyes, before I nodded off, the time read 12am.
