“Hi,”I said, as I entered.
“Hie.”Everyone said, at once,
I paused and saw everyone was gathered together and sitting in a circle.
There was nidhi, bharti, Avikaa, disha, rahul, Aly, harsh, puneet nd pankaj.
I looked at everyone and smiled, my eyes tightened when I looked at Aly and nod once.
“What are we doing here guys?”I asked, as I sat down carefully on my knees.
I was still wearing a saree, All the girls had changed into comfy clothes and boys had removed their coats and vests and I saw Aly shirt’s first 3 buttons were opened,
Oh, boy! I quickly turned my face.
I didn’t want to get caught looking at his chest as we were not alone.
“Just talking randomly,”Pankaj said, and he smirked. I smiled widely and raised my eyebrow and he smiled widely too.
“So, in that case, you all continue I will join you in a minute,”I said, and got up.
“Do you have the room key?”I asked, Aly.
“Yes, in my coat,”he answers politely. “Here.”I handed him his coat, and he gave me the key.
Everyone started talking again and Aly looked at me as I collected my morning clothes and headed towards our room.
Once I was done changing and done with the repacking, I headed back to avika’s room. The door was already opened as I left it open. I stepped in the room and saw everyone had made groups and were talking slowly;
Aly was sleeping on the sofa. I sat down and looked at Aly and asked, Bharti for some water.
As I said, the words Aly opened his eyes, he didn’t turn to look at me, he just looked up at the ceiling for a few seconds and then again closed his eyes, so I knew he was not asleep, he was just laying down.
I felt bad for ignoring him and on top of that, it was hard for me too because I had never done this in my whole life.
.
Though he was not here for nine years and I had made peace with it because there was no other choice, I had nothing to contact him, but now here we were together and now I have a choice to talk to him or not, and the decision was easy to take that as obvious no but hard to stick to it.
“So, what are we discussing?”I asked, softly. Everyone’s head turned at my direction at once.
“About your wedding, next.”disha said, smiling. Everyone started murmuring and smiling.
“Oh please, this topic again?”I said, rolling my eyes.
“Who else asked, you?”bharti asked enthusiastically.
“Shh.”I pointed at Aly sleeping.
I know he was not, but in case he was, then I didn’t want to wake him up. We looked at Aly; his face was turned the other way.
“Answer to your question is You, Avikaa, disha’s Mother, my mother, Sir, disha, two more aunties.”I counted them on my fingers as I mentioned each one of them.
“Oops! I forgot even I asked, you,”bharti said, whispering, and everyone started laughing softly. “Two aunties? I didn’t know you knew someone apart from us and my family.”disha asked, surprised.
“No actually, I don’t, I was standing near the food counter with my mother and these two aunties were standing next to us and when they looked at me I smiled as usual and they were taken back by my smile and they started talking to me, asking me 20-20 questions what I did, studies or job, was I working or no, where did I work, what was my cast and etc. And as you know my mother, she loves to talk about me, so she started talking to them.
I don’t even know if those aunties were from your side of the family or rahul.”I said, shocked just like disha.
“Do you think you will ever stop smiling at rando people?”pankaj asked, smirking.
“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.