Contract Wedding

three

Neelam laid in bed, wide awake. The clock on her bedside table read 5:15 in the morning. Her breathing had slowed down after she had abruptly woken up from another nightmare. The memories of her last marriage were vivid in her nightmare, reminding her constantly of what she had gone through.

Knowing there was probably no way she could fall back asleep now, she got out of bed and took a warm bath. She let the low hum of the music playing from her speakers relax her as she played with the bubbles. Eventually, she got out of the bathtub and began to make herself a cup of coffee. The sun was slowly starting to rise, illuminating the sky with orange and yellow hues by the time she was done making her coffee She moved towards the balcony with her cup of coffee and some biscuits in hand, sitting down on one of the two chairs she kept outside, her feet tucked underneath her.

The sound of the birds chirping and the soft blow of the wind was comforting yet she felt conflicted. Now that Shania was married, her father will either continue to ignore her or try to send her off to the next person. He wanted her gone. He had never cared for her the way a father should. He may have financially supported her but there was no emotional connection between the two. Neelam even had an inkling that Samuel preferred Shania over herself.

Neelam had wanted to further her education like most girls once she graduated college, however, her father had other plans for her. She had to resort to taking online classes without her father's knowledge with the help of her mother. A few months later, her father introduced her to Marcus. Her dreams of continuing her education were quickly diminished as she had to ensure the role of a "proper wife." Once the annulment went through, Neelam went back to school the following semester and began to study for her Bachelor's in Psychology.

Neelam changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a random white blouse before slipping on her Toms, her hair tied up in a tight ponytail, her face void of any makeup. Slipping her bag on her shoulder, she headed downstairs towards her car.

The drive towards campus wasn't too bad, it normally only took about twenty minutes, thirty with traffic. Neelam normally left an hour early to get parking and spent the remainder of her time before class reading or working on her assignments. She situated herself in the Starbucks diner and opened up her laptop. She opened up her document folder and searched for the story she had been writing for the past few months.

Unbeknown to many people, except for Shania and the people closest to Neelam, she had published her first book shortly after graduating high school and had made a large sum of money which currently funded her education. The Little Brown Diary had bene more of an autobiography than a book, except for the fact that it took place in India and the characters were slightly different compared to her family. She had sent the novel to a publishing company as a drunken mistake but when she checked her email a few days later, she had been shocked that they decided to pick up her story and release it to the public under an alias like Neelam wanted.

Her publisher had been pushing her towards a second book but she declined at the time. Her motivation had ran out and it was something she had done on a whim, completing around four hundred pages within eight months. Writing had kept her busy and distracted after the annulment went through and she was able to express everything she couldn't voice out loud in her book.

She stared at the blinking cursor for what seemed like hours when it was only a few minutes. With a disgruntled groan, she shut her laptop, deciding to head to her class. She entered the classroom, noting that only a few of her classmates were there. Her professor was probably running late, as usual. She found her designated spot in the back center by the outlet, plugging in her laptop as she opened up her notes, glancing at her phone.

Noah: There's this new Indian place that I've been wanting to try out. Are you interested in coming with me tonight?

Neelam was surprised by the sudden text yet she wanted to say no. She wasn't interested in dating, especially when she's in school. She'd rather focus solely on her education than a man that could leave her in a matter of seconds.