The Night Before My Wedding

The Night Before My Wedding - 2

I walked over to Dev’s room, and turned the doorknob slowly. It turned quietly, and I pushed the door open slightly to peek in.

He was sitting on the floor with his back turned to me, his back hunched. He was looking at something, I guess, but I was surprised when I heard a few sniffs.

Dev was crying?

And without thinking, I opened the door fully and stepped inside, closing the door behind me. I’m sure he heard the click of the door when it closed, because his back straightened. He wiped his tears and getting up, he turned and saw me.

“Hey,” he said, smiling wide. “It’s three in the morning; you really should be sleeping now.”

I frowned and walked closer to him, looking into his eyes. They were rimmed red and swollen a bit. And the tear-streaks were quite visible.
This was unsettling. Dev never cried.

“Were you crying?” I asked. His eyes widened a bit, before he regained that normal ‘cool-and-composed’ demeanor.

“What?! No, of course not!” he exclaimed. “My eyes are just red because I couldn’t sleep.”

“You can never lie to me, you know that, right? I’ve known you for almost twenty years now,” I said, crossing my arms. “Now why were you crying?”

He looked into my eyes for a few moments, trying to stare me down, before his shoulders finally sagged. “Okay, okay. I was crying. But it was because of some personal reason, I can’t tell you.”

His right hand shifted behind his back a little, and I realized he was trying to hide something from me. My eyes narrowed, and I reached over to snatch that thing from his hand, but he moved backwards. “I said it is personal, Alia.”

“But I wanna know,” I said, and reached over again. He just kept shifting it from hand to hand, until he finally raised it over his head so that I wouldn’t be able to reach it. I frowned at him, and then elbowed him in the gut. He groaned and leaned over, and I snatched the thing from his hands.
I looked at it; it was a photograph of me and Dev, on my 18th birthday. I had cake on my face which he’d smeared, and I’d thrown my arms around his shoulders, grinning goofily at the camera, while he smiled too, his cheek against mine, never minding the fact that he was getting cake on his cheek as well.

I looked up at him. He sighed and shrugged. “Yes, fine, I cried because I’m gonna miss you. Happy?”

My face fell. “Is that the truth? Or is there something else too?”

“Something else?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowed. “Like what?”

“Like the fact…” I took a deep breath, and continued. “Like the fact that you’re in love with me?”

His eyes widened. “Wh-what?”

“I know you love me. But I don’t know for how long you have.”

“I am not in love with…” he started, but then trailed off when he saw the ‘you-can-fool-the-world-but-not-me’ expression I was giving him. He cringed. “Is it really that obvious?”

“No, you did a pretty good job of hiding it, but it came out eventually.”

His shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”

“Like this?!” I asked incredulously. “You weren’t even going to tell me!”

He nodded. “True that.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me, Dev?! How long have you even –”

“Eleven years.”

I stopped, and gaped at him. “Wha…?”