Halfway Between Red And Magenta

Chapter Three (Daya) - Part 1

A/N: Meet our next protagonist, Daya! <3 

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The week-long wedding is finally coming to a close.

I sigh, running a hand through my long, dark hair. The tendrils of black blend with the dark whorls of henna painted along my fingers and hands, snaking along to my wrists and arms. My anarkali suit is making me sweat, and my eyelids flicker in tiredness.

Celebrations are always plentiful in my culture. Indian weddings have so many traditions— the meeting of the families, the sagai ceremony, the sangeet...and as part of the bride's family, I have been paraded everywhere.

I don't mind. Not really. Weddings are fun: the gifts, the dresses, the music. I can't complain when, next to eating, bhangra is my favourite thing. I can dance all night, even better than in My Fair Lady.

But I do mind the incessant, nosy, inconsiderate questions.

Now that my eldest sisters are all married, all the attention is on me, the youngest. I was too young when Lakshmi, the eldest Sawari daughter and my always-perfect sister, married. Back then, I was only fourteen, and the only thing I was questioned about was what mischief I was trying to get into.

And around two years after Lakshmi, Maryam, the second eldest, married. At sixteen, and preparing for exams and university, I was left alone. Anika, two years my senior, had taken the probing questions and snapped that she never wanted to marry, or have babies. I'd honoured her, I'd worshipped her, and most of all, I saw in her what I hoped for myself.

No complications. No husband.

Now Anika is newlywed, and my hope for the future seems to wither before my eyes.

Only Maryam's marriage has been arranged: she requested it from our father. Ever practical and obedient, Maryam hadn't wanted to talk to boys until there came a use for them. So, she had met and married within a few months, and now had two children.

Lakshmi had been the romantic: she'd confessed to falling in love at nineteen and dating a boy in secret for a year. When they told their parents, they were engaged and married quickly after. Regardless, Lakshmi and her husband remained my idea of heterosexual love and cuteness...until Anika.

Anika, the headstrong third daughter of the Sawari family, ran headfirst into her future husband— literally.

She was late for a job interview and was sprinting down the road in the pouring rain, her umbrella hiding her vision, until she smacked hard into someone coming out of a door to the building she was aiming for. He'd been so apologetic, even when it had been her fault, and bought her a coffee to warm her up— she was soaked from falling into a puddle— and by the end of it, had asked her on a date.

Anika, snarling that she'd missed her job interview, rejected him.

Then he offered her the job, revealing that she'd been dashing to meet him when they'd run into each other.

Anika took the job. The man worked for a prestigious law firm hiring graduates, and Anika's luck meant she'd ran into her interviewer, and he'd fallen in love at first sight. She continued to work there for a year, until she finally agreed to date the man who had pursued her so earnestly.

They were engaged within a few months. Anika's sudden romance caused everybody shock, but our parents were delighted. Out of all the daughters, Anika was the hardest to control, always wilful, doing as she pleased. Now Anika spoke of family and marriage and children.