Loving You

Chapter 17

Bejee! My head screamed.

"What happened?" Sahil asked a lot more calmer than I was feeling.

"Roma Bhabhi," Sweety panted still, holding her stomach.

Sahil nodded. He sprung off the rock and walked towards her, "Lets go." 

"What?" I looked between the two of them.

"She has gone into labor," Sahil explained looking back at me with his head tilted to the side. 

How could I have known that? Bejee and the weird thoughts that struck me in the afternoon  were still buzzing in my head.

Sweety looked at me as she straightened, "Di, you are coming right?"

"Umm...yeah."

I followed them with a last glance at where we just sat. 

A small part of me felt sad. 

Sahil never got around to saying my name. Was this a signal from the universe? It's way of letting me know that I would never hear it again. That this was the end of our road together?

***

I looked around at the waiting room in the hospital. It was bursting with Sethis. Every single person who had come to attend the wedding was here. Even my all my maasis' and their families.

Nothing had changed. I remembered waiting in such rooms when we were kids. Waiting for our cousins to be born.

The only difference was that there were too many of us in here now. 

It felt the room closing in on me. The oxygen depleting quickly. 

Why the hell did doctors allow all of us in here? Shouldn't there be a rule about the number of visitors allowed? Isn't there one? How was no one complaining?

May be I should?

I kept a hand on my stomach to stop it from churning more. I took a deep breath. No. Don't. Its only carbon dioxide!

"Ruhi!" someone called. I could hear them through the haze in my head, then they went physical and shook me. 

I looked and found Preeti di scrutinising me, "Are you okay? You looked zoned out there."

I shook my head to clear it, "No. It is just ...well...aren't we too many here?"

She chuckled, "It is just family, Ruhi. When did they become too many?"

I tried to reply back to her. Tell her we were too many. We were circus. Even in numbers. 

"Come on," she pulled my hand and walked me towards one end of the room. I could see Tia sitting there. 

She glared at me.

Great! Still at it then! I shook me head.

"There is no space here," I muttered to Preeti Di. 

I did not want to sit next to Tia.

"There is always space for family," she said pushing me next to Tia and sitting besides me. 

She was right. She did manage to make space. Somehow. 

"We missed you," Preeti di said.

"I missed you all too."

"Liar," she said banging her shoulder against mine smiling, "You didn't bother calling me once."

"I meant to," I said softly. I did. Things just got in the way. For ten years.