Best Friends and Cousins? (An Indian Love Story)

Chapter 5

CLICK

"Shit. I should've put it on silent." I hear Anya curse.

I hear Nikhil groan sleepily from behind me as I pull myself away from him. "What were you doing?"

"I...er...well, we all have been waiting for you and Nikhil to get together for almost ten years now, and you look so cute together. I just couldn't resist." She smirks.

"What do you mean by 'we all'?" Nikhil asks sleepily. Gods, that voice! I could listen to him talking sleepily all day.

"Well, you know, our friends from school, Niha shippers, the lot. You guys literally have a fan page to yourselves on Insta, managed mostly by me, Eishana, Yameera, Abhi and Rohan, seeing that we have most of your photos."

"People ship us? We're not even together." Nikhil asks, his face contorted with annoyance and incredulousness.

"Yeah! Well, I mean, your chemistry is so amazing people who see you two walking together would think you're together. A lot of teens who came yesterday were checking you guys out, but then decided you were out of their limits when they saw you both together. FYI, two people don't have to be together to be shipped with each other. Just like you two." She rants. I zoned out when she said we had amazing chemistry.

"How come we don't know about this shipping business if it has been going on for the past ten years?" Nikhil asks again, bringing me back to earth.

"Well, uh, Krish has been crying for the past hour. Maybe you guys should go try and calm him down. He hasn't been responding to any of our tries." She hastily changes the subject.

"Uh-oh, why did you take pictures of us instead of waking us up?" I run out of the room, actually hearing a baby's cries. Anya runs behind me, while Nikhil gets ready. I almost fall down the flight of stairs in my hurry to get that beautiful baby boy to stop crying, but his smile when he saw me was worth it.

He stops crying almost immediately and reaches out his hands for me. I gently pick him up and lay his head on my shoulder, hushing him and bouncing him in my arms. He snuggles his head into my neck and starts giggling. Once Nikhil comes down, I gently place a calm and happy Krish into his crib and go to freshen up.

By the time I am done showering and getting ready, which literally just took me twenty minutes, Nikhil, Anya and Krish have come up, Krish in Nikhil's arms. I sit down on the bed, beside Anya, as Nikhil tries to put a hyperactive Krish to sleep. I hold back a laugh as he frantically tries to stop Krish from grabbing his beautiful hair. He just seems so much at rest, unlike in his usual bad-boy demeanour. He looks so go- shut up. Anya receives a call from her team and goes back to the outhouse.

"Don't just sit there! Do something! I haven't helped raise a child! I'm a younger sibling myself. Please help!" He half shouts, trying not to scare Krish. I hold back a laugh and shake my head.

"Dude, you wanna get married but you don't know how to handle kids? How will you manage?" I tease him, trying to keep an innocent face.

"There is a concept in society called 'helping others'. It does not mean you do the other person's work. You help them do their work. You show them the first time and then guide the next time! OW!" He cries, as Krish's palm strikes his cheek. He looks at me, glaring and pleading at the same time. He strides across the room and looks me in the eye. Suddenly, he widens his eyes a bit and juts his lower lip out just a bit. His gorgeously stupid kicked-puppy act!

"Okay, okay, I'll help. Here, let me hold him." I take Krish from Nikhil's arms and understand why he was so cranky.

"Ew! Can't you even feel the diaper ? Oh my gods! How can you be so dense all the time?" I place him on the towel on the bed and order Nikhil in front of him.