Craving Shanaya (Ongoing)

S I X

Payal Kapoor gazed at the heavily embroidered saree wrapped around her petite body, in the mirror. The diamond necklace sparkled under her vanity lights, it's subtle weight resting like a burden on her chest. She felt suffocated. Her heart thudded against her chest. She put her delicate palm on her chest and tried to calm it's rapid beating.

She was afraid.

She was doing it for her father, she reminded herself, for the man who had given her a cosy life, a happy life. It was all for him.

It was her mehndi function (Henna function)

She was going to be married in 5 days.

She, however, didn't know even a single thing about her in-laws, her new family and her fiance, Rishabh Singh. They had never even met.

Fiance

Rishabh Singh.

Since the time when she had entered her innocent adolescent years, she had never thought about any other man except him. For the last 10 years she had been in love with him. Never had she thought of the word 'fiance' or 'husband' and not pictured him. It was always he who made her feel mushy inside, who filled her heart with warmth.

But now, she was going to become someone else's. She will be leaving her dreams and desires for her father and marry a man whom she didn't even know. A man who isn't him.

A man who isn't Kartik Singhania.

***************

"How do I look?" Abhinav asked his best friend for the tenth time.

"Like a rotten potato dipped in fungi infected sewer," Kartik Singhania told him, blowing out a puff from his cigarette.

Abhinav gaped at him.

He thought that he looked good in the light brown sherwani that showed his well maintained hard body.

He turned from side to side, inspecting himself in the mirror.

He looked good, man!

"Hey you shithead, I don't look like a rotten potato, I look like a f**king chocolate!" He said smiling smugly, "she will go hungry by just glancing at me."

"Yeah right, she will go hungry by looking at you and run to bite your shitty head off."

He looked at Kartik raising his eyebrows, who had an equally bored expression on his face and then both friends burst out laughing.

"You are right, buddy," he said between laughs, "she will probably bite my head off if I try to flirt with her one more time."

"Will that stop you?" Kartik asked, chuckling.

"No way!" He said, grinning widely.

"God save you, Butthead."

Abhinav winked at his friend and left the room.

Swimming through the sea of giggling and chatting girls, he reached his sister's room.

She was by her vanity table, putting on diamond bangles on her tiny wrists. He closed the door behind him, locking it. The sound bought his sister's attention towards him. He saw her eyes shining with unshed tears.

His own throat tightened with emotion. Seeing tears in his baby sister's eyes were the most hurtful thing for him, he couldn't bear it.

"Payal.." he started, his voice thick.

That was enough for Payal to lose her control and shed tears of helplessness. She ran to her big brother, seeking refuge in the safety of his arms.

Abhinav tightened his arms around his sister, knowing that this marriage wasn't with her consent. She was doing it for their father.