Best Friends and Cousins? (An Indian Love Story)

Chapter 4

It is around 4.00 in the evening, when I come out of the room, fully dressed. Me and Anya are dressed in similar outfits, the difference being that I am wearing shades of blue, while she is wearing hues of pink. Nikhil has nothing but a dhoti around his waist, giving me a full view of his abs. No! You can't do this! You are supposed to be angry at him! Stop staring! But I just couldn't take my eyes off him.

"Like what you see?" Nikhil smirks at me.

"Ye...No. Shut up. Move your ass. Apparently, we have some very important roles to play in the ceremonies." I retort.

Anya just stares at us, shaking her head. "When are you two going to talk to each other without cussing or talking dirty?"

"Never." We reply together in a 'duh' tone and play glare at each other.

"I'm sorry, I should have tried to understand why you were doing that before shouting at you." Nikhil whispers as we walk down the hallway, Anya a few feet ahead of us, probably texting Swapnil.

"It's okay. I'm sorry too y'know? For hiding stuff. I know we made a pact to never hide anything from each other, but these become very sensitive topics, especially after four years of neglect and self-doubt." I stop and lean back against the wall, looking at him.

He steps forward and puts his arm around my shoulders. I set mine on his waist. "Never doubt yourself again. You are such a strong person I don't even know why you would ever doubt yourself." He tucks my head under his chin.

He starts humming a tune I can't really make out. This situation often happened, so I didn't feel awkward, but he never sang something I don't know. Then it hits me. He was humming the song I was obsessed with ten years ago. 'History' by 1D!

"You still remember?"

"Course I do! I'm not so dumb as to not notice what my best friend likes."

"Liked." I correct him. "I mean, I still like it, but I haven't listened to it in like four years now."

"You wanna listen to it?" He pulls me closer.

"Not now. We need to get to the ceremonies. Maybe in the night, after Anya is asleep. You know how much she hates 1D." I tilt my head down, not so discreetly looking at his abs, running my hands along them.

"Sure. Now let's go before Anya is back to eat our brains." He kisses my forehead. Something he never did before. A smile creeps across my face.

.........time...skip.........

The evening was exhausting. Though we did practically nothing except run around and tend to the guests visiting, which honestly wasn't much, we were exhausted. Important role in the ceremonies, my ass. It was the heat of the day drained all the energy from us. By the time the guests cleared out, we were ready to pass out, only staying up for the sake of the baby, who was scared out of his mind.

Me and Nikhil had gone to pick him up before the actual ceremonies began, so we had bonded well. He was a frail, beautiful baby, with soft brown eyes. He was barely a month old. According to the records, his single mother had passed away a few hours after he was born, leaving him in their care. The father never turned up, and the mother never mentioned him. Anya wanted to get her 'beauty nap' and wanted to get start getting ready early because she wanted to look beautiful. She is the most beautiful person in the world. I just don't understand why she wants to spoil her face with all those chemicals.

Anya managed to go up first once again, locking us out, for half an hour, may I add, until she changed. We pass the time on our phones and I get a message from Nikhil.