Treacherous Souls

XVIII. "Stop meddling in my life, Manasvi

Third Person

Lunch was a harmonious event, and everyone seemed to pretend not to like the dad jokes Akhilesh was presenting to reduce the apparent tension in the air.

"Hey, do you know, singing in the shower is fun, until you get soap in your mouth. Then, it's called a soap opera." There it was— another groan worthy joke, but the people there weren't complaining, for it took their minds off their troubles for a bit.

"So lame!" Vishakha commented, earning a playful glare from Akhilesh in return.

"Then you try cracking some jokes, and I will judge how funny they are." He remarked sarcastically.

Vishal chuckled, knowing well enough that his sister excelled in everything, except cracking jokes. She was as bad in that as he had been in science.

"Vishakha, you call Aayansh for dinner tomorrow. We will see how much of a good man he is." Dhruv requested, but judging from his body posture, she knew it was more of an order than request.

"He is busy." She tried saving her sweet to-be husband, but to no avail.

"Busy enough to meet his to-be wife's family?" Manav smirked.

"Aastha bhabhi, do you have a brother?" Vishakha's sudden question threw everyone off guard, especially Aastha.

Her miserable mood turned even more melancholic, and since this was a pretty sensitive topic for her, Manav steered the topic elsewhere,"Are you inviting him for dinner tomorrow or should I take the reins in my hand?"

"Okay, fine. I will call him later. Now, shut up and eat." She snapped, and focussed on her food for the rest of the time, opting to ignore her infuriatingly over-protective brothers.

"Let her be, you folks." Rashmika supported her husband's niece, while Aastha, Mishka and Aashika chose to be silent spectators.

"No! It's important to meet that boy my sister is marrying, so that he remembers to keep her happy forever." Mishka almost scoffed at her husband's words, but controlled herself when she realised that she wasn't alone.

This so-called gentleman's words irritated her to no extent. Men protected the women of their family, but harassed the women of another family. Wasn't it so unfair? Just because Mishka was not related to Dhruv by blood, didn't mean he had the right to treat her the way he did all those years.

This just made her even more determined to leave her good-for-nothing husband.

"When are you joining your school, Aastha?" Rashmika asked, when her sons' had finally stopped discussing about Aayansh and his family. Even though they claimed to hate each other, they also loved their sister to the moon and back and that united them for a momentary period of time.

Rashmika was content seeing her sons conversing with each other like normal siblings, but she knew it was a mirage that was soon going to break, so she tried not to develop any sort of hope.

"Tomorrow!" Aastha muttered, stuffing her mouth with the boiled potatoes to avoid answering any questions, for she was not in the mood to do anything.

"Are you fine? You look like you cried a lot." Mishka whispered, after she was sure nobody would be eavesdropping on their conversation.

"I am fine." Mishka was suspicious at her curt reply, but didn't voice out her opinion and instead chose to finish her lunch as soon as possible.

***

"Don't trouble me, Arjun. Go away!" Aashika muttered, trying to avoid the impending argument about whose profession was better.

"No, you first admit that my work is more important than yours." Recently, Arjun had been on a mission to annoy his wife by arguing with her about almost everything.