A reason to live.

Chapter 32

The next few days passed off like a breeze, Jun had a lot of work to be completed as he would be leaving, soon days passed and we were packing all the things to bring back home and before we knew it we had reached Chennai, India on 29th march. It was Good Friday. We reached early in the morning, we usually had the practice of visiting 9 churches on Good Friday,(it is the day when Jesus was crucified),we went to the churches one by one, most of my cousins, Jun and me kept a fast, that is we didn’t eat anything till noon, we came home, all tired and sweaty, we all showered and had our lunch at about 3pm, we were 6 cousins, after lunch we gossiped for a while and then retired to rest a while before the evening mass.

I went to our room; my aunt and uncle were lying on the bed, and on a mat on the floor Jason and Erik (Rohan’s cousin, a sweet guy, a year younger to me, black curly hair and dark brown eyes, which looked very innocent), two others could also sleep here, as I was thinking what should be done I felt arms snake around my waist, I jumped a little and relaxed once I knew it was Jun, his body emitted a warmth which was so relaxing and I leaned my head onto his shoulders with my back still facing him, I turned my face so that my mouth was near his ear “I’m so tired, where shall I sleep?” I asked and took a moment to inhale his perfume, he caught me sniffing him and chuckled and moved me, so that his face was on my shoulder, his breathe felt ticklish and I had goose bumps.

“sleep here, I’m also going to sleep” he said and gestured to empty space.

Soon we woke up, as soon as my brain started to function, I noticed that Jun was cuddling me and his head was over my head, I released myself, woke him up, and went down to prepare tea, when I went down Lily athai had already kept the tea to boil, I stayed there helping her clear the kitchen and make some things ready for dinner, I cut the onions, while athai made the batter for idli, “Edison and Margret told that they would be here before we left, that they are coming with us for the mass” athai told 

“oh…really, thank you athai” I said and gave a hug “I love you” I told her, soon we all drank our tea, and started to get ready, since it was a solemn day, mostly people prefer wearing black, white or any dark shade. I wore a simple black and white churidhar while Jun wore a white full sleeve shirt and a jean.

 As I was getting ready, Zeeta called out to me “akka (elder sister) your parents have come” I put on a bindi, my sindoor and went down and greeted my parents, it felt like a long time since I’ve seen them.

Soon we went for mass and came back and slept, we slept the same way as in the afternoon, as the girls took one room and athai, mama another, I was woken by some giggling sounds, before I could open my eyes, I felt Jun leave me in a sudden movement, I fluttered my eyes open and saw, Jason, Erik, Zeeta and Vrithi smirk “good morning” they all cooed.

“good morning” I told them with a confused expression, I looked around and saw Jun sitting on the bed his face fully red!!, I narrowed my eyebrows and looked at him questioningly, Jason came forward and showed me a picture of us sleeping, Jun’s hand was around me while my face was near his chest and his face on my hair, as I processed the picture in my mind, a blush crept on my cheeks, and I looked towards Jun for help 

“yeah, it's okay right.I mean, we are married!” Jun said and we all burst out laughing at the way he was trying to defend us, I got up and wrapped up the bedding got ready and went down, slowly each one got ready, by the time all got ready, it was time for breakfast, we ate pongal, it’s made of rice and is south Indian delicacy, it’s much easier to prepare it when there is a crowd.

Jun and I hadn’t yet bought out Easter clothes, so after breakfast we went to kumaran silks, and bought a sunset orange chiffon sari which had a gold border, we then bought a blue and red finely checked full sleeve shirt and black pant for Jun and went off to the tailor, we gave the blouse for stitching, and decided to meet up with Krys and Nik at express avenue mall, we sat in the food court and chatted, I with Krys and Jun with Nik, it was lunch time and we ordered for ourselves, Krys and I ate pasta, Jun and Nik had a subway.    

Soon we left, collected our clothes from the tailor and went home, all were taking rest as we had night mass, we went in and put on the TV and ‘panchatanthiram’ a comedy murder mystery Tamil film was aired, we both liked this movie so decided to watch it, we sat on the sofa, as I watched my head drifted to sleep, soon there was movement in the rooms, we had to prepare for the night’s feast, we all got into working, cutting and cleaning chicken, mutton, the onions, tomatoes, etc, after about two hours the ingredients were ready, we all drank tea and sat around to talk, as a few of our relatives dropped in.

I greeted them “is there any good news?” they asked with a teasing smirk, 

“uh… no” I said and blushed.

The evening went quick, and we had prepared the dinner and the after mass feast, we all had dinner and went to the rooms to get ready, after about one hour and half, all came out, it was 10: 30 pm we went to church and the mass went on as usual, at about 2:00 am we returned, everyone quickly changed into their casual clothes and came down, we had chicken gravy and pepper mutton with bread, all ate well, after all after forty days of lent and not having non-veg, it was but natural that they eat a little extra, soon we called it a night and lay down.

Before I could sleep, I somehow got the thought of Jun’s birthday, oh yeah!! It is on 14th April, in another two weeks.