TRUE LOVE (PART 2)

part 4

“She hopes not,”disha said, eyeing pankaj.
“Never,”Avikaa said confidently.

pankaj raised one hand up in surrender.
“Just asking, no need to throw me hate,”he said, smiling and teasing me.

“I don’t know if I will ever stop that, I don’t think about it when I do that, I just enjoy smiling and sometimes I don’t need a reason to smile, I just look at the person and smile.”I smiled wide as I said, that.

“I know, I love your smile,”pankaj said, admiring me.
“Yes, we all do,”disha said, teasing him.

I looked down blushing and then I looked at Aly and found him staring at me with a smug look on one’s face.

I stopped smiling and turned towards dishaa.
“So, what’s the answer?”harsh asked playfully.
“Answer for what?”I asked, confused. “For your wedding?”he said, reminding us about the earlier question.

“You are not going to let it go, are you?”I confirmed embarrassed.

“Not until you answer it honestly,”nidhi said, grinning.
“Not you too!”I complain looking at her.

She looked at me sheepishly. I looked at Aly and he was awake now and was looking at me, waiting for an answer too.
“To be honest, I have only decided that I want to do it by next year, but with whom I have not decided. You’ll are not the only ones who keep forcing for an answer to this question. My family members harass me every chance they get.”I answered shaking my head in irritation, remembering every time my family asked me.

“So, you will do arrange a marriage?”pankaj asked, in a high pitch clearly excited by the news.

“Oh, I wanted to do love marriage, but you bailed on me,”I said, in a soft, soothing voice.

“What?”pankaj almost choked on his word. And I started laughing loudly.

“What an idiotic question was that? Have you ever seen jasmin loving anyone whom she can marry?”avika asked, clearly pissed at pankaj.

At that moment, sudden pain of emotion washed over me. I instantly was sad thinking about what she just said, no I have never loved anyone, anyone but Aly.
And I can be with him, but I chose not to. I felt like crying my eyes were burning and it was a tad wet too, but I tried very hard not to cry. No one knew about my feelings for Aly;

They only knew that we were best friends, and I was mad at him because he never said goodbye.

Aviika, bhartii & nidhi knew, but they only knew the tip of the iceberg. I felt heartbroken, but I controlled my face and shook my head.

“Are we done?”I asked, politely smirking.

“Yes, for now,”Oankaj said, winking at me and I had to giggle.

“By the way, everyone was talking about your performance, rahul said, smiling.
Everyone started agreeing and talking at the same time.

“Was it any good?”I asked, nervously. “Are you seriously asking that?”rahul asked, shocked. I pouted.

“People went crazy listening to your song. All my friends asked me who you are, and some asked, me your number too.”He smiled widely.

“Also, if today at the reception, don’t mind me if I introduce you to some of my friends.”He said, sheepishly.

I bust laughing out loud. “Are you serious?”I asked, to reconfirm.

“Oh yes,”he said, nodding.

“It was lovely.”disha agreed.
“I was scared.”Harsh suddenly. “Why?”we all asked, at once which made him smile.

“As you started singing, I was enjoying it. It was a lovely song, and you looked beautiful as you sang, then suddenly bharti grabs my hand and pulled to the stage and say ‘just follow me and don’t let me fall’and I was like, do I even have a choice?
And she started moving.”He said, still in horror remembering.

bharti started giggling, and we all laughed.

“I already knew about it,”pankaj said, with a straight face.

“Really! Who told you? And why didn’t you inform me?”harsh asked. “Obviously, Jasmin told me, and I forgot to inform you,”pankaj said, giving him a tight smile.

He looked at me and I looked at him with one raised an eyebrow. It was a lie, as I only said, that to bharti and avika , which apparently, they didn’t share with them.

The next hour passed quickly, everyone continued talking in groups again;

I was having a conversation with pankaj regarding the upcoming new movies and the TV Series we both watched and followed.

And Aly had gone back to sleeping or pretending I don’t know. Later we ordered room service, some tea, and snacks and after that, people starting departing to their respective rooms, as they needed to get ready, as the Reception starts at 8: 00 p.m. and now it was almost 6: 00 p.m.

Everyone had gone to their rooms, only avika, bharti, me and Aly who was still sleeping; were in the room still sitting and talking.

“It’s time to wake him up,”avika said to me softly.
“Are you sure? Let him sleep.”I asked, whispering.
“What if he gets up in the middle of us changing? Imagine what a horror scene it would be.”avika said, with a wide eye, and I clucked imagining.

“Good point. I will wake him”I said, looking at Aly.

“Sure, I’m going at nidhu’s getting my jewelry pouch”she informed me and started walking towards the door.

Bharti was in the washroom getting fresh.

I quickly took a deep breath and walked towards him.