Prabhas
"Who is it," I groan, my eyes barely opening up as I turn my body around to face the other side of the bed. Instead of being met with another sleeping body, I see the body sitting up and leaning towards the nightstand on that side of the bed.
"They meant to call another person but accidentally called me," She replies, a little slowly with a more scratchy, raspy voice as she slowly slides her body back onto the bed and puts the phone back down on the nightstand. Her hair is in a braid so it's mostly away from her face and her pajama shirt is one of the ones she loves to wear, with some kind of graphic on it and a cheesy line about hating to wake up early. I move closer to her, using my left hand to pull the blanket up higher so it's covering up to our chests now. She gives me a slight smile, her eyes still holding the tiredness of her work week, so the fact that it's a Saturday morning makes me happy that she can get some rest.
"I think I'll just get up now," She mumbles as she moves closer towards me. I put my arm over her body and frown as I move my head from my pillow to hers, "Why, it's still early." I let her hair tickle my face as my nose takes in the divine smell of her shampoo.
"I know but we have a busy day today," She says to me, frowning as she lifts her head up so that we are looking straight at each other's eyes.
"What busy day. It's Saturday that means stay home and be lazy," I reply to her, leaning out to kiss her cheek softly before placing my head back down in close proximity to hers.
"Prabhas, you know we have a lot to do today," She mutters to me as she squints her eyes a little as she moves to put her arms under her chin. I don't say anything for a few seconds as I just look at her, my eyes half open as I feel myself being taken back into the portal of sleep.
"Don't tell me you forgot we talked about it all yesterday," She blurts out with annoyance, referring to the plan we made together last night while eating dinner about the weekend ahead and what all we had going on.
"We need to get up and work out. Then let's come back and eat first then shower and get ready to go to Lasya's baby shower with your parents and probably go to their house for a while and come back in time to go to the engagement party for Abhi and Samaira." She lets out a small breath after she recites everything to me, as if she has it all memorized and practiced it a thousand times. It sounds so terrible of me when I say this, but I did already remember what we had planned for today, well for the most part, but I just wanted to hear her say everything. I wanted to hear all the little details she added in between every big event, making sure she didn't leave everything out. I like to see the drama she adds with her hand movements and the changing expressions on her face.
"It's ok nothing will happen if we sleep for a few more minutes," I say to her, pushing her messy hair back behind her ear as she frowns at me. A sigh leaves her lips as she turns around so her back is facing me and her body is buried under the blanket.
"Ok," She mumbles as she leans back against me and I move to put my arm over her waist and nuzzle my face into her shoulders. I move my arm so it is resting on her waist under her shirt and slowly rub on her skin that feels both warm and cloud-like under my fingers. I leave my lips pressed against the base of her neck as she scoots back on the bed even more so her body is more tightly pressed against mine.
"Cheera esukovala engagement party ki," She asks me, tilting her head up slightly so her nose grazes my chin and scratches against my scruff [Translation of "Cheera esukovala engagement party ki": Should I wear a sari to the engagement party].
"Yes please. I love when you wear saris," I say to her, placing a kiss on the top of her head and rubbing her fingers that are wrapped in my hand.
"I know you do, but they take a little longer," She pouts, her head pushing deeper into the pillow as she uncrosses her legs underneath the blanket.
"Na kosam antha kuda cheyava?" I loosen my hold on her as I dramatically lift my head off of hers and flick it backwards. [Translation of "Na kosam antha kuda cheyava": Will you not even do that much for me.]
"If you think your stupid dramatics will persuade me then you're wrong."
I let go of her body after she says that, hoping that maybe the loss of touch will change her attitude. I hope it does soon though because my arms already miss having her body in them. I stay quiet for a few more seconds, and the silence is torture for the both of us. For her, she is waiting for me to say something else, some other line or comment to convince her to wear a sari whereas I am waiting for her to agree to wear a sari.
"Would you rather me wear a sari or would you rather us match," She asks me,blinking her eyes at me as she waits for an answer from me.
"Ni ishtam," I shrug looking between her eyes and her lips as she rolls her eyes up and then down, telling me that she's thinking about which of those two options she likes better [Translation of Ni ishtam: Your choice or Whichever you like].
"Prabhas," She pouts, her bottom lip making an appearance as she looks at me with annoyance.
"Fine, pick one," I say to her, lifting my hand up and pointing two of my fingers at her so she can pick one. She picks my pointer finger after thinking about it for a sec and then looks up at me to tell me what she picked.
I give her a small smile, "You wear a sari AND we match." I let out a laugh as she glares up at me and slaps my fingers away.
"You're not funny," She complains, shaking her head at my answer.
"Whatever I'll figure it out since you can't do anything," She declares, turning around again so her back is to me as her body curls up under the blanket. I smile, shaking my head at her quick anger and the smile slowly turns into a smirk as I know exactly what to do to make her anger melt away. I slowly move my hands towards her stomach which is covered by her shirt and then a blanket. My fingers start on the sides of her waist and I start to tickle her. I roll her around so she's on her back and I have a better reach so I can press my fingers against her, making sure to hit every single sensitive spot of her.
"Stop it! Stop Prabhas," She screams as she rolls around, barely able to speak through her loud laughter. Her laughter drowns the room and my ears get filled with that heavenly sound, the one that I wait to hear each day, the sound I would do anything to hear. When she laughs, all the worry and stress on her face disappears and gets replaced with pure joy and glow; it's the face I fell in love with for the first time and will continue to fall in love with everytime I see it.
"What the," I groan as I stretch my arms across my bed and flip my body over so I am facing the nightstand that I put my phone on. I can very specifically remember what happened and I can even retell the events exactly as they just played out in my head. The one thing that is throwing me off is the fact that I don't remember what the women in the dream looked like. I know how stupid I probably sound but it's weird because it's like I know she was there. I can kind of describe her but I don't have a face in my head that matches the woman in the dream. I've never had a dream like that before and I'm confused as to why I am having one now. I probably sound so sappy thinking this, but it was a nice dream. It was a dream that I hope will be a part of my reality in the future.
Anushka
"Yeah I know that's the only appetizer that's good," I whisper to Chandu and Kalyan, my two cousins, as they take a seat beside me with their plates full of food. It's Friday night and I am at a party with my family of four along with my cousin's family consisting of my aunt, uncle, Kalyan, and Chandu. My aunt is my mom's younger sister and our families are extremely close as we've grown up doing everything together. The three of us are sitting at a table and eating, along with a few other people our age, while we wait for Anna to come and join us.
"Here you want," Chandu pushes the side of his plate with the fried snacks he doesn't want.
"No I have enough," I frown, glaring at him before telling to stop pushing the food to the corner otherwise it'll fall off of his plate.
"Where's Anna I need to show this to him," Kalyan lifts up his phone with a video running on it. The three of us look up and start to look around the big party hall for Anna.
"He probably stepped outside for a sec," Chandu says to Kalyan and I and we nod in agreement with him. I put my elbows onto the table and turn towards the two of them and listen to what they are telling me and get swept up into the conversation we are having.
"There's a bunch of tables out back did you guys see," Anna says to the three of us, as she plops down onto a seat next to me after disappearing for almost twenty minutes.
"Is that where you were," I ask him, turning towards him as I bring the water bottle up to my lips.
He nods and starts to tell us where it is and I listen, kind of gazing around at the other people at the party and noting in my head who I recognize. I take out my phone from the small purse in my hands and put it in front of my face. I turn on the camera and look at it, making sure I don't have any crumbs on my mouth and luckily I'm safe. I bring my fingers up to my nose and just move my gold nose ring ever so lightly to the left when I notice it looks a little bit off center before putting my phone back in my purse.
"Anushka," I turn my head over my left shoulder when I feel a light pat on my back and get up when I see that it is Amma and Pinni.
"Endi?"
"Come here and meet a few people," Amma nods her head a little bit behind her and I get up following back as I turn to the three boys still sitting down making a frown as they laugh at me being forced to socialize.
After walking for a few seconds behind the two of them we stop in front of two aunties and in between them there are two guys and a girl. The girl has on a deep purple lehenga with silver jewelry consisting of a large necklace and long earrings. She has short hair that is chopped just below her chin and a nose ring as well that is silver, matching the rest of her jewelry. The guys she is standing in between are both wearing green sherwanis but one has a darker green on and the other has a more sea green on.
"Hi I'm Anushka," I introduce myself to them with a smile and one of the guys introduces all of them to me before we awkwardly stand for a few seconds. Our mom's encourage us to talk to each other as we are about the same age and would probably get along so we force polite smiles on our faces and go towards the outside tables.
"We're gonna step out for a bit," One of the guys says to me and the other two with him nod so I just walk away from them, knowing they probably don't want to be at this party and would rather hangout alone so I just leave them be. '
I walk a few feet before tapping on Anna's shoulder making him turn around so he's facing me and not the trees that are surrounding the building.
"Why are you out here again?" He lifts up his phone and looks at me before looking down at the screen again, "I had a call for work."
"All good," I ask with a slight frown, putting my hand lightly on his shoulder.
"Yeah yeah, just a quick call to discuss a meeting from last week," He explains to me and I nod before standing closer to the table and leaning my forearms onto it after I put my purse down.
"When are you traveling next," I ask him, referring to the pretty frequent trips he takes to attend meetings and conventions for his work.
"Next month, on the 14th I believe," He replies to me, hesitating on the date as if he's not completely sure.
"Is it Chennai again?" He nods at my question and tells me the names of a few colleagues that are coming with him. After the topic of his work dies out and briefly touches mine before I tell him about a restaurant the girls and I tried a few days ago and loved, his face becomes a bit more stiff before he talks to me.
"Nanna called me pretty late last night," He starts off before he brings up the glass with a reddish-brown liquid in it. I scrunch up my nose as he chugs down whatever is left in the glass before setting it down and continuing.
"It was about a few matches they are looking at for me." I sigh when he says that, looking at hsi dull face as he runs his fingers through his hair aggressively.
"You said no obviously," I assume, looking at him for an answer as I fidget with my fingers. I can't say it outloud, not to myself or to anyone because it's just too hard to actually hear the state of my family right now.
Even though my parents have been very one-tracked and raised in a certain way, they gave us love and opportunities. So many vacations, reunions with family, sports days, movies, literally everything used to be so fun. It never felt like we had as much money as we did because we stayed grounded and were close without letting money get between us.
I always thought my family was different in that we have genuine family values and love and affection. And not just for the public like others, not the fake, show off kind, but the real, raw kind. We did though, for a long long time and even though there are hard spots and rough patches, every family has that, every relationship between people has it because everyone is different. But, I don't know if it was Anna and I changing, maybe we grew up and that caused a rift or maybe our parents changed or didn't allow us to grow up into who we were, not who they wanted us to be.
There's no point in pointing fingers now, all that's left is to just live the memories we've already made. My family is better than so many others, I can't complain.
But instead of just being able to be happy with them, I have to play mediator between my parents and Anna because of so many reasons I can't even count.
They don't like his habits of partying and drinking and smoking and all the other nonsense he does. They don't like how he goes around with girls and doesn't listen to their advice about the girls they find for him to marry. They don't like how he always sides with me in the few situations that a divide happens; instead of being their perfect son he's just a broken one.
And by no means am I blaming him because I get that he has reasons with his main one being Kajal's death and him losing his hope in love, but it can't justify everything. It's so hard to get calls from hospitals or his friends that he blacked out or had too much of some drug. I hate it because I have to see him in pain and be the sister who is firm and tells him, begs him, to stop what he's doing and just turn his life around.
At the same time, if not me who else. I'm glad he has so many friends and they would all take a bullet for each other, but it's different when I'm his sister; he's my own blood. I have so much guilt lying to our parents about how he is and why he isn't coming to meet them as often. But despite all this, honestly I think the only reason he is hanging on by a thread is his career. He puts so much time into work and is passionate about the business he works for and all he does. It's honestly his saving grace and maybe our parent's only reason they only blow up at him once a month instead of everyday.
And with me and my parents, it's not nearly so bad I guess I mean they've allowed me to do so much more than a lot of parents, especially Indian parents, do for their daughters. I'm so so grateful, I really am and for a lot of the issues we have, I can't blame them because it's their upbringing and beliefs and everyone is different.
I know they both want only the best for us, especially me but I think I just take it too harshly sometimes. The problem is, a lot of the good intentions they have come out in the wrong way and end up leaving me with little voices in my head I am going to have forever.
I know Amma and Nanna want me to marry a guy of their choosing so I'll be stable and secure and things will align perfectly, at least on paper. Amma has always made sure I've watched my eating a little and worked out a little more just so I wouldn't put on the weight that so easily gets attached to me.
They look out for me, they do, for the both of us and that's all can ask for, but everything else, all the broken glasses pieces, ripped newspaper shreds, they'll all just have to be ignored or covered with whatever togetherness we have left.
"Chandu and Kalyan both warned me over the phone a few days ago saying he heard Amma talking to Pinni about it. How they want to convince me to attend a meeting with a girl, so I figured it was coming." Just as he mentions the two of them, they come towards us and set down two plates of food.
"Why did you bring more appetizers, did they not serve the food yet," I ask them, frowning at the full plates.
"No Akka, the food isn't opening for a while. I heard some uncles talking," Kalyan tells me as he stuffs a piece of chicken 65 into his mouth.
"So we might as well eat this," Chandu agrees, and Anna nods with the two of them and takes a piece of chicken.
"Ok ok, keep telling me what happened," I say to Anna, nudging his arm. Anna quickly just tells Kalyan and Chandu the little bit he already told me and then moves on now that they are here too.
"I am so so tired," I exclaim, as I lightly fall onto the sofa beside Samantha who looks up from her phone at me. I am finally back from the party and it's a little bit past 11 which I know isn't so late, but for someone who got up at 5 and had work all day then had a party, it is a long day.
"How can someone be so tired but look so beautiful," She says to me with a big smile, squeezing my cheek lightly making me pout as I push her hand away.
"Is everyone else asleep," I ask her, wondering why she is sitting in front of the tv alone.
"Nitya had her cousin's birthday and Genelia wasn't feeling great so she went to bed early." I frown when I hear that Genelia isn't feeling well, so I ask Samantha a few more questions about her and she responds calmly, telling me that it's probably just a little bug she caught and we both just agree to keep an extra eye on her.
"Lemme go change, then I'll sit with you for a bit," I mumble to Samantha as I lift myself up off the couch reluctantly with my chunni in my hands.
It takes me a few minutes to take off my jewelry and my dress and wipe my makeup off my face which feels so good after having it on for so long. I put my hair into a loose ponytail and put on a long nightie with sleeves halfway between my shoulders and my elbows.
Anna used to always make fun of me for wearing these nighties since I was a kid, and even though they are considered "Auntie nighties", they are so comfortable to wear. I don't wear them every night, sometimes just the right pair of joggers and a shirt is all I need, but the days I wear nighties, it's just so comforting. I go to the kitchen and chug a glass of cold water before holding my phone in my hand and sitting back down by Samantha.
She leaves the movie running but decreases the volume a bit and throws the blanket towards me so I can cover my legs with it. The two of us move closer to each other so we are sitting right beside each other. Samantha puts her head lightly on my arm and smiles. I sink down a little deeper in the sofa just so our bodies are a little more even and I'm not too high above her because of our height difference.
"Do we have anything planned tomorrow," I ask her, reaching for my phone that's right beside me and opening it up.
"Don't think so," She says to me, also looking at her phone in front of her as she brings the blanket higher up on her body.
"Good. We all can hang out here together," I say to her and she nods in agreement, telling me how it'll be like college how we always spent time together in our dorms. It's weird that college seems like a lifetime ago when really it was only about a year ago.
"How are your brothers doing, I feel like you haven't talked much about them." She looks up from her phone and lifts her head up so she can face me. Samantha has two older brother's who are twins and are 2 years older than she is.
"Yeah all good. They're both still in London doing their MBA," She tells me and I nod, listening to her as she follows up by telling me what all they've been telling her over phone calls.
"I think my parents are going in a month to see them. Just a quick trip but I couldn't go because that's when I'm going to Delhi for my work convention."
"Right, right you told us about that," I say to her calmly, nodding my head as I look at the blanket covering my legs.
Our conversation goes on for a while, the both of us going back and forth, going from topic to topic. I love that even though the four of us are best friends and do everything as a group, we are equally close with each person and do spend one-on-one time. Because the stronger the smaller bonds, the individual bonds are, the stronger we are as a group and the more our friendship will help us as we get through life together.
Eventually, when it's late enough that our eyes are closing, our heads drooping, and our words are barely coming out, we call it a night. We quickly fold the blanket, shut off the tv and wish each other good before going into our respective bedrooms and welcoming the comfort of our beds.
So so so sorry about the long wait for this chapter. The past few months were unexpectedly busy so it took a long time to write this out. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I am hoping to get the next one up as quickly as possible.
-Ag :)