Crushed and Created- Tangled series (Overprotective famous brothers)

Another start

“Why are you so quite?” I asked Salman who was sulking in a corner and reading a book while drinking from a can of coke. He looked at me, shook his head twice and went back to what he was doing. Assuming he was having a massive hangover from yesterday I let it go and focused more on talking with the people who actually were. Sohail and Sam were down in the pool, having some ‘private time’. Not that I was gonna step into the pool again till they cleaned the water or just changed it.

“Alright, everyone packed?” Sean asked and I nodded with the others. It was time we left again for home, back to reality.

“Where is Arhaan?” Malaika asked and we looked around to find him with Adrian, beside the pool talking about how he wished to swim like Adrian one day.

“Go to mommy, she’s waiting for you.” I tapped him on the shoulder and he got up, running towards the house.

“I’ll miss you.” I came into Adrian, hugging him for one last time.

“It’s not goodbye.” He kissed me and we stayed looked at each other for a while. Him being here for Christmas was everything I could wish for, but then I hated to let him go back to LA. I wish he could just be with me every day, but I also knew it wasn’t possible.

He ran his hand through my hair and cupped my face. His green eyes shined in the dusk lighting, and I was close to tears now.

“Promise you’ll never leave me.” I stuttered at last, taking his hand into mine. He was perfect, too good for me. He could just leave me whenever he wanted to.

“Hey, hey, I would never do that.” He squeezed my hand and looked at me with sudden concern, “You know I wouldn’t.”

I nodded at him, blinking to hold the tears back. Ever since I knew my dad left my mom, I had grown paranoid about relationships. My trust levels weren’t high from the very start, and that particular revelation didn’t really help boost it up either. But it wasn’t fair for me to start judging him now.

“Guys, Liz will miss her flight if we don’t leave!” Tyson came to us and I stepped back. Adrian and his family were going to leave in another two hours, because they were supposed to go straight back to LA.

“Take care, my super girl.” He winked and me and I popped my tongue at him. Waving him bye, I got into the SUV and left for the airport.

“Isn’t that us?” I pointed at the newspaper in the backseat and Arbaaz took it in his hands. It was us, from yesterday. And for some reason it was on the first page, which was not good news.

“Oh come on.” He scanned through the article. I took it from him and went through it too. Now it made perfect sense. The reason why so many cameras flashed when I hugged Aryan and his family goodbye was that it was apparently unethical to show a public display of affection in the Middle East. Same applied to Malaika hugging in public, we both wearing short dresses, and Sohail being visibly drunk after the party.

“I hope they aren’t way too offended.” I sighed and Arbaaz saw the paparazzi standing outside our terminal.

“It’ll get sorted out.” He got down and the paparazzi rushed towards him,

“People,” he opened the newspaper, “I just saw this, or you would have received an apology earlier. We didn’t mean to show disrespect towards any culture or offend anyone. It was a clash of value systems, and we are truly sorry if we have offended your sentiments. It was never our intention.” He clarified with such impact that everyone had to forgive us. He meant every word of his little extempore, and it was visible.

“Arbaaz?” someone asked as he waited for me to get our luggage out and come to him. “Why don’t your wife and you sister wear a burqa?”

A burqa was a black robe that Muslim women wore to cover themselves up. Many women nowadays didn’t necessarily follow that custom, but for some it was still a vital part of lifestyle. Me and Malaika on the other hand had never even touched a burqa in our lives. Personally, I was strictly against it but I didn’t mind people who wanted to wear it. It was their wish, but mine was to stay away from it.

“Again to all respect to all religions, it is their choice and cannot be forced upon them.” He was a little worried now. Topics like these were easy to create a controversy on. One wrong sentence structuring and we’d be termed as racists. I shot a smile for the paparazzi and went inside without a word, ignoring all the questions being shot at me. Arbaaz answered a few more questions before coming inside himself too.

“Would you like me to wear a burqa?” I asked out of curiosity as we got into the plane.

“Honestly, as much as it would help to keep the boys’ attention away from your body, no. It’s just like…like trapping a bird in the cage.”

I nodded once and looked out. It was true, wearing something to keep people away from you was wrong. Why were the women forced to wear robes and cover up to keep the men away? Weren’t we equipped enough to teach the men to not look at women as only objects of desire? Why were the women being punished, in the name of keeping them safe?

I shook my head. It wasn’t the time to think about such negative things. I had strong views about burqa, but right now wasn’t the time to think about it. I looked out as we took off into the night, I looked out as we left the city where the East met the West.

“Oh My God it’s really him!” A squeal woke me up. Malaika was on Arbaaz’s other side, who also jerked up and looked around. The lights were shut throughout the first class and I had no idea where the squeal had come from.

“Yes honey, it is me.” I heard Salman’s voice. I had to suppress a giggle from escaping my lips. He had to deep asleep when a girl must have discovered who was sleeping behind her seat. Take it from me, he hated being woken up but at the same time he would never yell at a fan.

“Can I please get a picture? Oh my…is your entire family here?” I heard footsteps walk down and I covered myself with the blanket, groaning internally.

“Everyone’s here!” she let out a high pitched scream again with another girl this time. People had started to shuffle now, and an airhostess came up to them and requested them to keep silent.

“Please, only one picture? Please?” they both pleaded, and everyone had to oblige. Malaika was about to get up when she bit her lip,

“Uh, only the guys?” the other girl asked and Malaika shrugged, sitting back down. I didn’t even care she didn’t want a picture with us, saved us the hassle to get up, pose and then settle back down.

“You know, they aren’t as bad as you think.” Sohail joked about us two and she snorted,

“Even worse in real life.” I gave that girl a poker face and went back to sleep. Her words hardly mattered in front of my sleep. But I was almost sure Malaika wouldn’t be able to sleep the entire time. Poor her. 

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C-O-M-M-E-N-T  PEOPLE!