Love So Far

Dosti (Friendship)

"Family manta hai na tu mujhe?" I suddenly asked.

*"You consider me family, right?" 

"Of course, bro." 

"Dua aur Mahnoon ke mehendi ke joday meri aur Zo ki taraf se." I said. "Meri choti behanon jaisi hain Dua aur Mahnoor. Jaisa main Jazzy ko treat karoon ga, waise unhain."

*"Dua and Mahnoor's outfit for Dua's mehendi are from me and Zo."
"They are like my little sisters, Dua and Mahnoor. The way I treat Jazzy, I'll treat them."

"Ignoring all my mistakes, of course." I added. "So call Fariha Bhabi now. They're all out shopping as well. Tell her to get the twins whatever they want for the mehendi, from their Ahad Bhai." 

"Ahad..."

"Shut up." I told him. "Just do as I say, warna dosti khatam."

*"...or our friendship is over."

"What are we, seven?" He chuckled.

"I'm no kidding. You don't want Ahad Sheikh as your enemy." 

"What are you now, a mafia boss?" He laughed harder.

I couldn't help smiling. "Okay, I'll be a donkey. This is the best one I've found and I'm tired now. Let's go, Shrek." 

"Did you just call me an ogre? My sherwani isn't even green!" Zafar came out, holding his options of sherwani in his arms, dressed in his regular outfit. 

"But we're best friends aren't we. Donkey and Shrek?" 

"You've been spending way too much time with Ismael." He smiled. "Let's go, idiot." 

"You spend your days singing the SpongeBob Squarepants theme song. You are no one to judge me!" I laughed.

"Dude, don't even get me started." He sighed. "That song makes me want to shoot myself in the foot, but it's always stuck in my head."

I found that highly amusing and I couldn't stop laughing. 

"You really are an a**. aren't you?" Zafar muttered.

****

Fariha

"Oh, I'm in love." Zoya looked at a lehenga, dreamily. Using an emoji, I would describe her expression as 'heart eyes' 😍.

"Get it then." I urged her as I helped Mahnoor select a mehendi outfit. 

Zafar had just messaged me that the twins' outfits for the mehendi were from Ahad and Zoya. The twins already liked Zoya for being such an inspirational role model, but this sweet act by her and her husband had made my Nands complete fangirls of her. 

"Fari Bhabi, I don't know about this." Mahnoor pouted. "I wanted something original. I'm the bride's twin, after all. I need to look special as well. I don't want to upstage Dua, but I should have some importance too." 

"What do you have in mind?" I asked her.

"I don't know. I'm confused." Mahnoor stepped out into the corridor of the bazaar, and went across to the other shop.  The rest of us followed her. 

And so it continued. The search for the ideal dress seemed to be like a search for the ideal spouse. And this was just the mehendi outfit. The baraat outfits were already selected, fortunately, when we had went shopping with Ammi Jaan, and on the same day we'd bought the Valima outfits. Dua's Valima dress was going to be given by Kasim's family.