Imperfectly Perfect

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Back when Adya was 15 years old

"Are you coming with me or not?" I asked him, clearly dejected that he shuts himself all the time and doesn't take time to bond with me.

"Can we go tomorrow, please? I have a test tomorrow" my brother replies. Yeah, I know that he's preparing for his medical entrance exam, but can't he just spare some time to spend with his baby sister?

Now, according to me, boys fall into 2 categories – the ones who don't give a shit about their grades, who make up about 99 per cent, and the ones who toil night and day to get good grades, and they make up the remaining 1 per cent. And, unfortunately for me, my brother Rohit falls in that 1 percent.

Ever since I can remember, he's always wanted to become a doctor. And as his exams were almost only a year away (as my brother puts it), he refuses to even see the sunlight, even though this is the vacation.

Debating on whether to throw a tantrum or to be the understanding sister, I finally give up and choose the latter. I go by his side and give him a hug and say, "It's okay. Prepare well. But just take some time off to relax yourself too, okay?"

"Sure thing!", he pats my back. And then I leave my brother's room, silently closing it on the way before calling my best friends to join me for a movie.

Unlike my brother who is stuck up with his exams, my friends and I are completely jobless for the time-being, it being the summer vacation. So, the plan's on, and I'm going to watch a movie – tsk, tsk, let me correct it, swoon for my favorite actor.

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"Jeet, please can you buy some popcorn while we take some photos?" Abhi pleads while Jeet is just tapping away on his phone. Realising she is getting the 'avoid-her' treatment, she smirks for a second, and then stomps her foot on his.

"Abhijeet, will you buy some cheese popcorn for us?" she asks again with an innocent face.

He lets out a yelp, "Ok fine, I'll go!"

Adi, Abhi and I have a chuckle, and I fist pump her to tell her she's done a good job.

My friends and I are now at the movie theatre, and the movie's about to start in 15 minutes. And we are stood at the entrance, where there is the movie poster. Now, don't get me wrong, but we really like to brag about our hangouts. What? We are just 15 and the other kids of our class aren't even allowed to go anywhere without adult supervision!

We, meaning Abhi and I, start clicking pictures with the human sized banner of the hero. After clicking almost 28749 pictures with the Greek God-like hero, Jeet finally shows up with 4 large buckets of cheese popcorn.

And then we march towards the movie hall, and the movie begins.

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"Eww! What do you even see in that guy?", Aditya nudges me and it takes a few seconds to tear my eyes off the screen to look at that stupid boy who is clearly interrupting the dreams I was having with the hero. You could see me wiping back the drool (literally) before I retort back to Adi.

He is clearly bored and is just talking to annoy me. "Well, you knew it was his movie. If you despise him this much, then why did you even come?"

"Well, I considered that anything would be better than the boring soap operas that are on TV at this time!" he says and shrugs his shoulders. I let out a chuckle and give a nod that says, 'true that bro!'

So, I decide to give him company, and start talking random shit with him till the end of the movie. I honestly didn't care about the Greek god hero on the screen in front of me who is now thinking about ways to impress the actress.

I just came out to have a good time, and if my friend here is bored, then nothing else matters.

As we go out to buy more popcorn during the interval, I ask Adi, "So, anything new?", and he stiffens at my question. Ladies and gentlemen, here starts the Adi-Adya War of Words.

"Nothing much, just the usual." He shrugs it off, but me being the inquisitive best friend that I am, I can see right through his act of nonchalance.

"What exactly are you hiding from me, Aditya Prasad?" I begin to lose my cool. He better air it all out right now or he better call an undertaker to proceed with the preparations of his coffin.

"Look, it's nothing that worthy of sharing it with you, okay? You know I won't purposely hide anything from you, munchkin" he says as we are standing in the queue for the freaking popcorn.

Let me clear it out for you guys. First, Aditya freaking Prasad uses the 'munchkin' word on me only when he is on the receiving end of my wrath.

Second, I lost count of how many times he has used that sentence to me. He might have told it to me about fifty times in last week alone.

"Look, I told you when I got my first kiss in my dreams! In my dreams, Adi! I don't know why you felt it a waste of time to open up to me!"

Oh, it all happens in a loop.

I didn't realize I raised my voice until the man (I think I should call him uncle) behind us in the queue shot death glares in my direction, because he was on the phone. Quickly muttering an apology, I stepped out of the queue, and let him stand there alone. "I can't stand here with you without wanting to cut your throat." I tell him with anger lacing my voice.

After buying the popcorn, he came beside me and after taking a deep breath, he says, "Okay, I was just going to join in Hindi classes, because a girl I met the other day in an ice cream parlour asked me to. Plus, I've always wanted to learn a language and you know that."

Okay, now that he's told me, I feel like I've over-reacted. But it's always like this between us. We are quite the fighting cocks of the group. We fight almost ten times a week, and patch up almost instantly, and the reason for us fighting would be very silly that Jeet and Abhi stopped giving a flying fuck when we fight.

The longest duration of us not talking after a fight was 7 hours. And believe me, the 7 hellish hours of my life. He was my favorite, and even though we were quite like the Tom and Jerry, I couldn't love him more. He is my best friend, the first of all, so I deserve some rights when it comes to him.

"Okay, I'm sorry. But seriously, Hindi classes? For a girl?" I almost let out a chuckle. Ladies and gentlemen, here I present Aditya Prasad. He ogles at every girl he comes across, but has never manned up to tell any that he likes her.

"Yep. And the classes are 2 streets away, so I thought why not?" He grins at me.

And then I know how to perfectly ruin it for him. "Okay then, text me the details, I'll join you too. Let me see if that girl is a looker." I gave him a smug smirk and he very well knew that what I said didn't need his permission.

He sighed with defeat at my authoritative statement, "Fine! Let's head back?"

"Sure, munchkin" I stress on the last word with a sense of humor.

"But wait a minute, you're mother tongue is Hindi, so why the hell do you want to come anyway?"he asks, maybe with the expectation that I'll back down. Well, two can play the game.

"Anything for the best friend's romance" I reply with a smirk, and he slaps me on the shoulder.

I never imagined that this was going to be the start of my romance, after all. Well, fate really loves me, what can I say?