A generous hall was present therewith only 15 -16 people, relatives of Annu's only close cousin - Reshmi, and Reshmi's newlywed husband.
Suddenly, Annu's eyes were covered with a cloth, and a bold yet furious voice rang into her ears.
"Happy Birthday baby girl!"
"Ummm Who is this? What's happening!!??!!" Annu shouted with a brave heart.
"Awww babe you don't recognize me?? You will soon..."
Just as, he removed the cloth from her eyes and the view that met Annu's eyes was horrifying.
All the people in her sight were held by their arms tied with steel handcuffs. A guard was standing at every family checkpoint with a gun in hand.
"See the mandap over there? It's your Birthday gift... We will marry there!" The cold and furious voice spoke again. Annu wasn't in the condition to view it. She was busy viewing the mandap with horror.
The mandap in which her cousin Reshmi was newlywed was ready yet again. As if it presumed another marriage... perhaps this one would be a Blackmailed one...
*flashback*
"Hmmm... So... you guys wanna have Kulfi? I am craving it a lot! Come on!"
"Well, I am ready! But will Mr. Hygienic arms here come with us?" Nirmal said.
From whom a reply was strongly expected, Arjun just nodded as he was dimmed by dark Dementors whom he encountered just a few days ago. The Dementor who sucked all of his happiness with one declaration...
Both Annu and Nirmal were perplexed by his fishy behavior. Arjun always had a clear head but now his clear head is contaminated to do the unthinkable.
"Sorry, bro... I was just joking..." Nirmal said.
Silence and sketchiness took over now, and none of them knew what to say or do.
"So... OK then let's go for some ice cream!" Annu broke the silence with fake enthusiasm.
"Sure!" Nirmal replied.
Both of them looked at Arjun in a split second like kids, as if looking towards their mom for permission.
He nodded and smiled a little.
Ananya and Nirmal stood up with their swelling chest and held their head high filled with the newly found satisfaction of making their buddy smile.
Soon they reached the ice cream parlor.
The trio ordered an Ice cream sundae, even though it was a Tuesday.
"They shouldn't call it a Sundae! it should be a Saturday! Sunday feels bittersweet, as the Monday blues are close by but Saturday is filled with the feeling of ease, that Sleepy Sunday is arriving!" Said Nirmal at this thought, dreamily recalling the fond Saturdays when he used to party. Unlike now... Nowadays Saturdays were filled with grey work consisting of taking clothes from the Laundry, buying the ration for his house, and his office workload.
As they were walking by the street, there was a health center measuring, the weight and height of people just like it happened during school time.
"Ughhh! Why do they have to measure people's weight in front of everyone? In school even! They used to do this in front of the whole class! And then the class would laugh at me!" Nirmal whined seeing the center.
"Come on! Let's get out of here! I don't wanna stay!" Nirmal whined like a teenager and then set off to other shops. But his steps halted just as he heard a beautiful female voice coming towards him.
"Hello sir, Sorry for eavesdropping, but there is nothing to be ashamed of about your weight! It is actually good if you are healthy! Most of the teenagers that we attend nowadays are underweight and don't have enough protein and energy levels. " A pretty 20- year old girl said with the most charming smile she could muster.
This definitely had an effect on Nirmal. He stopped and flipped in a split second. His face displayed a nice Margaret shade glowing and looking more scarlet under the red afternoon sun.
"Well, if you insist ...." Nirmal said while shrugging and trying to be nonchalant.
"Men will be Men." Another female coworker, with a big afro-like brown hair, working in the same center muttered under her breath.
Nirmal's nostrils surely inflated but then contracted when the beautiful attendant said "Please come, sir."
"We are doing a survey project for research purposes. So it will be great if you all gave your measurements." She said while smiling and giving justice to her already charming face.
Nirmal followed her like a stray puppy.
Meanwhile, Arjun and Ananya were following the former two.
"I know where she's headed," Ananya said while smiling.
"Where?" Arjun asked.
"She gave a stink eye to Nirmal when we were talking about the center. But then she changed her expression in a split second when she realized I was looking at her. She is just using her charm to get participants. But don't tell any of this to Nirmal. OK?"
"Ohhh" Arjun nodded, "yea I will not tell him. Look how flustered he gets when she looks him in the eye, he is such a cutie pie," Arjun said while laughing.
Ananya noticed that he was laughing after such a long time. She kept looking at him.
"Why are looking at me like that!" Arjun asked.
"Nothing. Just admiring the treasure I have received. Happy Friendship Day." She said while smiling.
Arjun nearly blushed at this statement but he had mastered the technique of masking his emotions so he just smiled.
"Happy Friendship day Annu." He replied.
Well, Ananya didn't know how to mask her emotions, and a pink volcano again erupted in her cheeks.
"Anyways, there is something about friendship day that I remember to date," Ananya said while changing the topic.
"What?" Arjun asked.
"Well, you see, in my school, friendship bands weren't allowed. So we used to sneak them to school and used to give them to our friends when we departed from school. But then, these "very sincere" prefects started to check our bags from then onwards. And then u know what we did?"
Arjun's curiosity was piqued."What?"
"We used to bring them in the morning and used to go to the washroom the first thing in the morning and then sneak into the same stall of the washroom, and then used to exchange our friendship bands. I had the best bud with whom I used to do this." Ananya said while smiling.
"Who was the lucky person?" Arjun asked.
"Come on! Don't flatter me!"
"Hey! I am saying the truth!"
"Fine! The lucky person was Saumya."
"Saumya? Your best friend? ! What a climax! from best friend to beast friend" Arjun said while scrunching his nose.
"Well, she used to be a great gal back then. She was so sweet, kind, and such a cutie. We used to spend the whole time together! But then something happened and then she became a real bitch." She said with a lump in her throat.
Splitting with a boyfriend/girlfriend leads to a breakup but splitting with friends leads to a complete breakdown. Thus parting from our friends sucks more than heartbreak!
Arjun was just going to pacify her, but a yell broke their moment.
"Heyy!! Idiots!!! Look where you both are going! The weight measuring machine is here!" Nirmal yelled from the other side.
Arjun just sighed angrily and muttered some colorful words under his breath.
Ananya couldn't stop her laughter and laughed continuously till they reached the center.
Soon their turn came and they had to measure their weight and height.
Nirmal went first and then frowned at the result.
Note: Nirmal wasn't very rude, but he could be cranky as hell when the situation demanded. He switched from sweet DUmbo to Cruella in a split second. Ananya knew this very well.
She was aware that he didn't want his weight to come this much high in front of the charming chick whose honeyed voice had enchanted him.
Anu quickly turned towards Nirmal to persuade him.
"Dumbo! See you are wearing very heavy socks. Moreover, your clothes are heavy as well! And your hair! They are so voluminous! So I think your weight is lower than this! Right? Right, Arjun?" Ananya said while signaling Arjun to play along.
But our haughty Arjun was back, and he said,
"Anu if you say why not measure weight naked and bald so that no weight of hair and clothes is added."
∴ Accurate weight= weight of the body-(weight of hair and clothes)
{conditions applied- no clothes and no hair}
Every woman in the cabin gasped at him. He simply shrugged.
"Men will be men" The same woman with the brown afro-like curls came with a trolley and said under her breath.
"Eww, Arjun! I expected better from you!" Ananya said with a scrunched face.
"Very well said, bro! I agree!" Nirmal said while coming towards Arjun and giving him a high five.
"Yaar, Arjun said the truth of life! The same scenario occurs when our salary comes! Cut the GST, Tax, and then the remaining money would go to the saving account! Similarly, this weighing machine should also cut the weight of our jewelry, clothes, shoes, etc.!
Poor kids like me will due to these growing numbers on the weighing scale. Oh god! if this continues I will soon develop a phobia of numbers! Whenever I will see numbers, my growing weight will cross my mind." Nirmal scowled at his own musings.
"You both are beyond me. I surrender." Ananya said.
"Annu! Ajju! I wish there was a black hole in my stomach, so all food just vanishes in my tummy and I wouldn't grow chubby. Look if my orbit of stomach keeps on increasing then there will be no satellites aka girls revolving around me!"
Annu and Arjun shook their heads, the former for his childish antics and the latter for his oh-so-lovely nickname Ajju.
Now Annu's turn came and she went to measure her weight which was perfectly healthy(Although this much weight comes under the category of 'underweight' if we ask her Mother, Khushboo Seksariya. Mothers will be mothers)
But when her height was being measured, she frowned because she knew her tiny wobbly legs would give her an undesired outcome.
"Why do they measure the height till shoulders? It makes me look dwarfy!" Annaya whined.
"Yea! And this is our Annu, whose neck is like a swan's." Nirmal agreed.
"Exactly! They should measure it till my head! And anyways what if I am not that tall? We are going to wear shoes to all places right? They should measure the height along with the shoes!" Ananya whined.
"Oh ho! Ananya you should measure the height with big heels!" Arjun added.
"hahahahahah! Keep your sarcasm to yourself!" Ananya said sarcastically.
~Meanwhile Arjun thought:
Anyway, when I will hug you, you will reach my shoulders. You could directly listen to my accelerated heartbeats and I could caress ur soft hair....... :(
Long-legged girls look hot but your long gorgeous neck compensates for ur short clumsy legs.~
"Who can stand on this super cute measuring machine? It is meant to be hugged not to be trampled!" Arjun said while reluctantly getting on the machine.
The machine~
Soon the trio got out of the Center and started strolling on the streets again.
*time skip*
"Heyy! There is an opening of a café called "Dew Drops" on the 25th! There is a party for it! Seems cool! Come on! Let's come here this Saturday! We will have so much fun!! Whatcha say??" Nirmal announced.
"Wowwww! Such a cool plan! I would love to come!!!!!... But my cousin's wedding is there on that day! I can't celebrate my own birthday yaar! And I will be the quarter of a century!!!." Annu bleated.
"hmm.." Arjun meekly replied, still rummaging through his own mind to find something.
And whenever he glanced at Ananya, he became sadder. More furiously guilty. His tumultuous behavior surely set alarm bells ringing in Ananya's mind, For she was a psychologist... But she had also learned to respect boundaries...
Suddenly an idea popped up in Nirmal's mind.
"hey! Why don't we come to your cousin's wedding? We three will have so much fun!!!:" Nirmal squealed like a doggo.
"Oh yeah! Yess!! And we can eat delicious food! And play games! And dance! Ahhh!! So much fun! That would be the second-best birthday for me!!!! yayyyy!" Ananya clapped her hands in glee.
"what was the first best one?" Nirmal asked.
'When I met you Dumbo' thought Ananya.
"Of course the one when I was born! Duh!" She falsely answered.
"So... You both will come? Pukka?" Ananya asked.
"YESS! Pukka vada! (rough translation - True promise)" Said, Nirmal.
"Hmm, nice plan," Arjun said while smiling a little.
"I will ask my dad to invite you both! Oh my gosh! I am so excited!!" She squealed again.
"Here is your ice cream ma'am." A shop worker came and delivered the sundaes which the duo enjoyed together assuming that the third one was too...
Little did they know... The thoughts in Arjun's mind were going to bring a storm into their peaceful lives.
*Soon the day of celebration came... Annu kept waiting for them both to turn up, but one who promised her to come did not come and the other one has some different plans. The guests went away too. All the games also ended. Now presumably there were only 15-16 people left in the hall. Suddenly, Annu's face was bound with a handkerchief.*
*present time*
Soon, Annu turned to see who the mysterious person was...
"ARJUN!!???!!!!"
yes, Arjun...
Arjun simply smirked at his soon-to-be Bride...
HAHAAAHAAAA!!*EVIL LAUGH*
How's the twist eh?
Get ready for some braveness, some manipulation, some forced actions, some unexpected behaviors, and some very bad blackmail marriage...