Anushka
"Bye everyone," I shout back as I step out of the front door and slowly close it behind me. I am going to my parents house to eat dinner and Samantha is as well, whereas both Nitya and Genelia's parents are coming straight to our apartment. All our parents are all close friends and usually they all meet up together at one house, but this time Samantha's extended family is visiting so she is going there and my parents said they have a few business partners over for dinner as well. I set my bag down on the passenger seat beside me and put my dupatta on the seat as well, knowing I'll be more comfortable with my seat belt on without it.
The short drive to my parents goes by before I can even listen to more than a few songs from my playlist, so I turn everything off in my car and step out of it. I see that there are already three other cars here so I am forced to park a little further down from my parents house because they took the closer spots.
I walk towards the front door and ring the bell, after the door fails to open because it's locked.
"Sweety nuvva? Enduku late ayindi," Amma says, pulling me inside frantically [Translation of Sweety nuvva: Oh it's you Sweety; Translation of Enduku late ayindi: Why did you get late]. I take my sandals off and set my bag down in Nanna's office room before following behind Amma as I listen to her rambling.
"Sorry I got home after work late," I explain before I immediately put a smile on my face as I greet the older adults in front of me.
Anushka's Outfit:
"You look very pretty Anushka, I'm glad you're doing well," Samaira Aunty says as she pulls me into an extra long hug which strangles me a little not just because of her tight hold but also because of the smell of alcohol she is carrying with her. Along with the smell of cigarettes, it's the smell I hate the most in the world and I've thrown up so many times when that smell becomes too much for me.
"Thank you Aunty, you are always looking so beautiful," I reply back to her, pointing at the heavy green necklace on her neck. She just fans her necks lightly as she acts flustered before taking my arm towards the drink table where two other aunties are standing with Amma talking to them. I look to the side and see Nanna along with three other men, the husbands of the aunties, sitting on the couch as they fall into easy conversation with drinks in their hands. I'm honestly kind of glad none of the couples brought their kids because even though they are friends and business companions of my parents, their children are unbearable.
"Is Rana not coming," Sanjana Aunty asks, looking between me and Amma as she sips on her drink while sitting down at the dining table chair.
"No, he's traveling for work," I tell her, glancing at Amma who is smiling as she leans on the kitchen island, occasionally glancing at the maids bustling around the kitchen to prepare for dinner. I just pour myself a glass of water trying to ignore the pleas of the aunties for me to drink even though I've told them so many times that I don't.
After a long amount of small talk, a plate full of appetizers, and lots of glasses of water, we all finally sit down for dinner, with me unfortunately at the head of the table because apparently I am the "blossoming youth" and I should be the head of the conversation. As much as I can talk and make conversation with people, it's really hard with these kinds of people despite having practice for my whole life. I knew I had to come because Amma asked, but I wish I came just a little later because even a few hours seems like a few years.
"Anushka, did you get that salwar from Seema," Sanjana Aunty asks, referring to the tailor we usually go to. I shake my head and tell her that I bought it a few months ago at a ready-made store that is at the market a few minutes from my apartment. I see her make eye contact with Amma who just shakes her head before looking back down at her food.
I smile and nod as my attention gets turned to all the uncles who are now grilling me with questions about my life, as if they haven't known me for most of my life.
"Oh and my son, you remember Shankar right," Parthav Uncle asks and I nod, sipping my water as I maintain eye contact with him.
"Yeah he's shifted back to Hyderabad now that his studies in Delhi are over," He tells me and I just raise my eyebrows acting shocked as I smile telling him how great it must be that his son is living close to him.
"Actually Anushka, I think his place is close to yours," Sanjana Aunty says, Parthav Uncle's wife.
"Oh, um, I didn't know that," I say to him politely, gulping down a little bit of water as I keep my eye contact with him.
"You should meet up sometime. Maybe for dinner after work or over the weekend."
"Yeah, he can have another familiar face around here."
"You both are the same age too, maybe we are creating a relationship here."
And the adults go on for a little longer, bickering, and scheming about me and my future "relationship" and then moving to their children and then finally ending up at a future vacation they have in the planning.
By this time, it's not long before everyone leaves after saying lots of goodbyes and promising to meet again at an upcoming party in a few weeks.
"Amma really, did you guys have to talk about me meeting that guy for so long," I exclaim out as I sit down on the couch after Nanna does. Amma sits down by me as she sighs and opens her phone up on her lap.
"Anushka, it's just to get to know him. We aren't forcing you. Anyways, we would rather you be around someone like him and maybe have a relationship with someone like him than any other person we don't know," Amma replies to me, reaching out to feel the fabric of the dupatta that is resting on my lap.
"Yeah Anushka, he is someone we know so it's a good way to make a connection," Nanna adds as he rocks in his chair looking at me. I let out a sigh, my eyes resting on the high ceiling above me as I lean my head back on the couch.
"I really don't need to be set up with anyone," I tell them, shaking my head as I run my hands through the ends of my hair.
"Anushka, don't be arrogant. We don't need you ending up with the wrong crowds like Rana has. At least one child can end up right," Nanna explains to me, his tone firm as he and Amma share a glance with each other.
"Don't bring Anna into this please," I say, putting my hand in the air as I frown, not wanting to get into this with them right now.
"It's getting late, I should go back now," I say, as I abruptly get up before giving them a chance to continue to argue with me.
"Anushka don't just leave. We are not done talking," Nanna calls out, and I see him get us as I start to walk out of the living room.
"Nanna, there's no point in talking about this right now. I'll see you guys later," I reply to him, stopping to lean on the wall for a second before I turn back around to get my bag.
"Anushka, I'll text you and Rana to come for dinner when he comes back from his trip. Convince him to come please," Amma puts her arm on my shoulder as she talks to me and I nod, agreeing to do the same thing I always do.
"Bye," I wave to the two of them before I walk down the steps and toward the left to get into my car and drive back to my apartment.
When I stop at a red light I glance at my phone when it dings and see a few Instagram notifications and a new email notification that just came in which I'll have to check later. I smile as I see that the current wallpaper picture displayed is one of Samantha, Nitya, Genelia, and I at the beach from a few years ago. We had gone on a vacation with all four of our families and it was such a memorable time. In the picture, I am on the extreme left with Samantha next to me, Nitya next to her, and then Genelia on the extreme right beside Nitya. We all have long flowy dresses on and our hair down as we have our arms around each other with the biggest smiles on our faces.
I glance away from my phone just in time to see the light turn green and I move my foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal and take the left to continue on the path back to my apartments.
"Hey stranger," I turn around when I hear a voice behind me and open my mouth in shock when I see Nitya walking towards me.
"I didn't know you went out," I say to her as I look at the long white skirt she is wearing with a printed red kurta.
Nitya's Outfit:
"Yeah it was last minute. My parents were going with Maha's parents to a dinner party so they told us two to come as well," She explains, talking about one of her close family friends who we have met many times over the years as well.
"How was it," I ask her as we walk up the steps to the building and towards the elevator.
I listen as she tells me about her night on our short elevator ride and until we reach the door of our apartment and use our keys to unlock it.
"Was it just Maha and you or anyone else you knew?" She tells me that she knew a few others and they all sat at the same table as they ate and then until they left they held general conversations. I take my shoes off and put them on my rack before walking down the short hallway and into the area between the living room and the kitchen and seeing both Samantha and Genelia sitting on the couch.
"You two look cozy," I say aloud, making both their heads look back at us before they tilt their blanket covered bodies slightly to look at us.
"We are and we don't intend to change that for a while," Samantha says to me before looking at Nitya who walks in behind me.
"I brought back jalebis for you all," Nitya opens the box and holds it out to me but I shake my head so she hands it to Genelia who takes it.
"You two get changed and tell us about your dinners," Genelia says before turning back around towards the muted tv with the box of jalebis in her hands.
"Did you take my striped scrunchie Samantha," I ask her as I step out of my room, now in my pajamas as I pull all of my hair over my right shoulder.
She looks at me and shakes her head, leaning back onto the couch so I can no longer see her hair. I narrow my eyes at her as she blinks her eyes innocently and puts her hands up to pronounce her innocence.
"Give it back I like that one," I say, holding my hand out to her as I glance between her face and her hair. She holds both her empty hands out and I take that chance to lean back and pull the hair tie out of her hair and put it on my wrist.
"Gottcha!" I quickly move away from her as Genelia high fives me before I sit down on the divan and use the scrunchie on my wrist to put my hair into a loose ponytail.
"I hate you," Samantha pouts as she throws a small pillow at me and slightly hits Genelia's shoulder with her hand. They are both sitting on the sofa in front of the tv and I am to the left of them on the divan, leaving Nitya to sit either in between the two of them or on one of the recliner sofas.
I blow a kiss at Samantha before bursting into laughter again just as Nitya sits down on the recliner with her legs under body and her phone on her lap.
"How are they," She asks Genelia and Samantha, pointing her finger at the jalebis in their laps.
"Bane unayi," Genelia says as she shrugs and hands the box to Nitya. [Translation of Bane unayi: They are fine/good.] I lean back on the couch with my legs stretched out in front of me as I listen to the conversation between the three of them as Nitya repeats to them what she told me about her night.
"Any idea on what the boys are up to tonight," Samantha asks Genelia, who looks away from Nitya after Nitya finishes her story and Genelia nods.
"They are out celebrating a friend's birthday," She tells us, repeating to us a little bit of what Ram told her.
"It feels good to finally have friends like that you know," I say, starting off, making the three of them turn to look up. I sit up a little more straight before I continue, "I mean we have a few guys as close friends. I mean I know we just met them and they are more than friends for you, Genelia and Nitya, but we never had that growing up. So many friends and classmates around us had friends who were guys and they all were close but for some reason, we never got that because things didn't click, the guys had wrong intentions, or rumors scared them away. So it just feels good to kind of feel like we are living our high school and college dreams again to have a few guy friends who we are starting to get close with." I finish off my little spiel with a smile on my face and identical smiles on the faces of Samantha, Nitya, and Genelia.
"I know I totally agree. I mean it's not like we are all so old to say that college was a long time ago, we are only 23 so it was just a few years ago," Nitya adds, making all of us look at her as she holds her face in her hands and grins.
"And I have a good feeling about the four of them, like they are going to stick around for a while," Samantha says, holding her crossed hands up as she tucks her hair back and looks at us happily.
"The best part is that there are four of us, four of them, and they are around the same age. On top of that, we have a chance of not only being best friends but being 4 couples as well," Genelia explains, putting her arms on her head as she gasps as if she has caught onto something.
"Me and Ram are together, Nitya and Nithin are together and that leaves Samantha, Anushka, Mahesh and Prabhas," Genelia continues on as she sees our nods, telling her we are catching on.
"And I may not be a love expert like Anushka," Genelia teases, making me throw the pillow back at her face as she gives me a wink, "But I can tell when something is up."
"Samantha girl come on, don't tell me you and Mahesh don't hold eye contact for longer than necessary. And you have to admit, all his teasing about how short you are is something you secretly love huh," Genelia comments, reaching out to tickle Samantha's arm as she covers half her face with a large fuzzy pink blanket.
"I don't know what you mean! I hate when he does that. Him and his stupid stares," She mumbles, her cheeks now a little bit pink as she looks down at her hands, not wanting to make eye contact with us.
"Yeah Mahesh hi," Nitya announces, suddenly putting her phone up to her ear with a small smile. This makes Samantha's head shoot up as she looks at Nitya who drops the phone onto her lap and points at Samantha with a smile on her face, "You fell for it." Samantha just gasps and glares at Nitya as she looks between the three of our teasing faces.
"Oh no Anushka, don't think you can get away. You and Prabhas are just so cute together. You both are the perfect heights and are like kinda the same person but also kinda very different. And I notice the little things like how he looks at you and how to try to talk to him a little extra," Nitya looks at me as she speaks, now narrowing her eyes accusingly at me. I lean back on the sofa, trying to keep a straight face as I deny everything they say.
"Look, I'm just friends with Prabhas like I am with Nithin, Mahesh, and Ram," I exclaim out, crossing my arms over my chest as I kept a serious face.
"At least one of the two of you have admitted it," Nitya says, rolling her eyes at my stubborn nature which I refuse to give up.
"Nitya, I haven't admitted anything ok. It's ok if there are only two couples and four other "just" friends," Samantha retorts back, using finger quotes around the word "just" to emphasize her point.
"Whatever, you guys will see that we are right, but what's important is that our little dreams are true and we can hopefully now say we have a solid group of best friends huh," Genelia says to the three of us, smiling as she opens her arms. We all jump out of her seats and topple onto her in a big hug. We end up on the floor, our arms messily thrown around each other as we laugh and then scream because we all accidently end up stepping on each other's hair.
"Anushka, you never told us how your dinner was," Samantha says to me, lifting her head up as Nitya and Genelia do the same.
"Oh my gosh," I start, putting my hands on the side of my head as I look down with a frown.
I tell them everything that happened and how it started off ok, but the topic of making me meet a friend's son and setting me up with him ruined the night.
"Not that I have any problem meeting him. I've met him before. It's just you know, I just didn't like how it was so forced on me. How much my parents were saying how if I find someone, it should be someone they approve just because he comes from a family we know and because he's rich and studied business and all that," I explain, hugging my arms around my knees as I sigh, holding back tears.
"It kind of scares me that we are in that stage of our lives. Where our parents are going to be setting us up and where the talk of looking for a life partner is going to come up," I say to the three of them, my voice a little shaky as my thoughts of the uncertain future cloud my head.
"I know anybody else would think we are crazy to be talking about marriage and all this when we are 23, but it is what it is and we just have to be prepared for what's to come," Samantha says, adding to my words as she rubs my arm as a sign of comfort, reminding me that we are all here for each other.
We stay sitting on the carpet covered floor as our backs lean up on the sofa and our legs are covered by the pillow and blankets previously on the couch. Our conversation has lightened up now, with our more serious and saddening topics fading out as we close those off to continue another day. Nitya is scrolling on the tv with Samantha watching the tv as she does and Genelia and I are on our phones.
I smile as I go through the stories that Nithin, Prabhas, Mahesh, and Ram posted a while ago on Instagram which are all very similar pictures from their friends birthday. I glance at them for just a few seconds but my curiosity gets the best of me and I click on Prabhas' profile picture to go to the main page of his account. I have glanced at his account before, but I forced myself not to "stalk" him or go through his pictures and his tagged pictures.
The most recent picture he has is one of the four of them with their arms around each other as they stand at the top of what looks like the top of a mountain or hill. My guess is that they went on a hike or something because they all have workout shorts on, no shirts, and tennis shoes. I zoom in on the picture a little, my eyes widening as I look at their very nicely shaped chests and toned shoulders. My eyes especially linger on Prabhas who very clearly has nice broad shoulders and I can trace the muscles out on his body even through the screen and I have to stop my finger from doing so.
"Stop it!" I shake my head whispering harshly to myself as I look up at the screen for a second before looking back at my phone.
"Hmm, what's wrong," Samantha asks, nudging my shoulders as she glances slyly at my phone before pinching my arm softly.
"Pichi," I push her arm back and rest my phone screen on my stomach for a second until she shakes her head and looks away and I go back to looking at my phone.
I scroll down to the next picture and stop as it's a solo picture of him posing for the camera.
A small chuckle leaves my mouth at his sunglasses and his edgy outfit with the cargo jeans and the long oversized shirt he's wearing. My only complaint would be that he has such a serious expression on his face instead of a smile, making me think that maybe this picture is a candid one.
I move past this picture and smile at the one that he has with him and Ram both with big smiles and drinks in their hands. The picture has a dark background with just a light shone on them, so I'm guessing they took this at some night party.
I keep going down and continue to look at his pictures which are mostly of him and his friends and I see the picture quality and the picture filters change as I go down more, indicating the past years of his life. As much as I want to go all the way down and see the pictures from his college and high school years, I just exit out of his account and sigh before setting my phone in my lap and looking at the tv. I'm just messing with my mind too much and I know that I will regret going down this path and I want to stop myself while I can.
"Someone was busy," Nitya comments, nodding her head towards my phone as she looks up from hers.
"You know just some light browsing," I reply to her, smirking as I twirl my hair around my finger and maintain playful eye contact with her.
"Should we watch this," Genelia asks, pointing her remote at the movie she stopped over on the screen and we all mumble words of agreement.
I get up first, and then Samantha follows Genelia and Nitya after her as we all get up and settle back on the couches. This time, we are sitting on one couch, on the biggest one directly in front of the tv. We all bundle ourselves under the blankets with our feet up on the leg rest as we cuddle in together, holding each other in the safety of our arms. I've always been so happy to have an older brother, and I still wouldn't trade it for the world, but I'm so happy that through the very long years of school we went through, one good thing has one out of it. I've found three very special, and very crazy, girls who always have my back and are always there as my strongest pillars of support no matter what. When people ask, instead of just saying I have one older brother, I can honestly say that I have three sisters as well, three sisters who are my 3 best friends.
Prabhas
"Seriously, how many times will you look at her pictures," I ask Nithin, throwing the remote at him which he catches.
"You and Mahesh just don't get it," He replies to me, looking at the two of us before looking to Ram for support.
"Yeah, you don't get it," Ram adds in agreement to Nithin as he plops down on the sofa with a glass of water in his hands.
"What don't we get huh? That you two are whipped and obsessed with your girlfriends," Mahesh retorts, leaning back on the sofa with his laptop on his lap.
"And if we are? It's not a bad thing to be in love you know," Ram says, his voice a tone that we are just now starting to hear more often now that Genelia is around.
"Yeah and you guys will understand soon enough, especially because there are two candidates ready for the two of you," Nithin teases us, raising his eyebrows up and down multiple times as he laughs.
"Did you arrange us our pelli choopulu without asking or something," I ask him with a confused tone as I raise my hands up with a shrug, making him narrow his eyes at me [Pelli Choopulu is when the potential bride and groom meet with their families for the first time to consider a wedding alliance with each other.]
"Haha, very funny. You know what we mean. Samantha and Anushka, ring a bell?" Mahesh and I share a confused look, with squished eyebrows and frowns as we turn back towards Nithin.
"What?"
"No point in trying to tell them Nithin. If there is something there, it will happen on its own," Ram tells Nithin, tapping on his shoulder as he looks at us through the side of his eye, trying not to smile. I just shrug and I look back at my laptop, only glancing up for a second when I hear the sound of the tv turn on.
"You guys are talking too seriously for people who should be hungover," I say to both Nithin and Ram as I maintain eye contact with them. Last night, the four of us went out to celebrate the birthday of one of our close friends who we have known since college as he lived in the room beside ours. Mahesh was the only one who didn't drink because he was the designated driver, but the other three of us did drink a little for sure but it honestly was just a few drinks so nothing to cause a hangover.
"That was nothing Prabhas," Nithin replies, laughing as Mahesh starts to narrate some story from a few years back from our college years of how what we thought was "nothing" ended up being a lot for Ram back then.
"That was a long time ago idiot and I've built up my tolerance now so shut up," Ram mumbles with annoyance engaged in his voice before he comes and drops a bit of water on Mahesh's hair to which Mahesh replies by chasing him into the kitchen.
I join in with Nithin's laughter who is just videoing their childish antics of threatening each other while standing on opposite sides of the kitchen island.
I turn my head away from them when I hear my phone buzz in my pocket, prompting me to take it out and open it up. I see a message from Anushka in the group chat and open it up to see a meme with a scene from a Telugu movie used in another context. I reply with a few laughing face emojis as a smile blossoms onto my face. Her humor is actually really similar to mine and just the few times she has forwarded memes onto our group, I have found them to be the funniest things I've seen in my life. While the topic of her is on my mind, I click on the Instagram app and go straight to the search bar to enter her name. Just as I start to enter her name, the option to click on her user name pops up so I click on it and I am taken to her account. Above her username "anushkashetty" there is a profile picture of her and I click on it and the new feature of Instagram enlarges the picture for me so I can see it clearly.
It's as if my phone is a magnet for my eyes because all of a sudden I can't tear my eyes off of her. I've never liked a smile so much, never thought that it was so beautiful and glowing that it could light up the world of darkness.
I feel so weird and sappy because the words are just flooding into my brain and I could even write a poem just about this picture.
I mean her hair looks so soft and it's so long and beautiful, I'm sure she could feature in a shampoo commercial if she wanted to.
What's wrong with me, why do I feel as though I could talk about her forever. I slap my head lightly with my hand and tap on the screen to make this picture small again and click out of the app before I look at all of her posts.
"I think I left my laptop charger at Genelia's place. Can I use someone's," Ram groans out loud as he slaps his head lightly. Mahesh nods and gets up to get his and both Nithin and I laugh at Ram's annoyance over such a small thing.
"You could go get it and use it as an excuse to see her you know," I tell Ram, tapping the side of my head lightly to indicate to him to use his brain as I am.
"I'll go later," He replies back to me, shaking his head as he takes the charger from Mahesh and plugs it into his computer.
"I've been looking at flights and the prices aren't bad right now. We should plan a trip, it's been a while," Mahesh says to the three of us, looking up from his computer for a second.
We all nod in agreement and start to brainstorm ideas on where to go.
"Do you think we could convince Anushka, Nitya, Genelia, and Samantha to come with us," Mahesh asks us, looking at Nithin and Ram first as they would know the answers of their girlfriends more than likely.
"We can ask. They are adults too, so it's up to them not really their parents right," Nithin replies, shrugging as his phone lights up from the screen of his phone.
"Yeah but you know how their parents are," Ram explains, and I look up towards Ram, a little more intrigued when he says that. We have become close enough friends that they have told us about their life and parents but not in that much detail for me to conclude that their family has such a negative impact on their life, or at least that's how I'm understanding.
"Let's talk with them then we can start planning, sound good?" We all nod at Mahesh who closes his laptop and gets up off the couch and walks in the direction of the kitchen.
"You know what we should do today? Mini golfing. Let's call Shekhar, Seenu, Ravi and all of the gang and let's go," Nithin says, suddenly having an outburst of thoughts as he happily looks around at us. A smile immediately beams onto my face as I sit up straighter and Mahesh runs back towards us at the thought of us meeting up with our college gang again.
"I'm calling them right now," I grab my phone as I laugh a little, already feeling my phone vibrating from the messages Ram is sending to them in our group. We start to bustle around a little as our previously chill day is now going to be filled with lots to do, but lots of fun and this is one of the few things that will make me not be lazy.
So sorry that it took a while to get this chapter finished, but I just got a little busy!! Hope everyone enjoyed :)
-Ag