AADHYA

"PIZZAAA!" I laugh as my friends yell at the camera as they hug me. We pose for a bunch of photos before my cousins join me to take pictures.

The sun is very bright and so are the smiles on everyone's faces. The yellow decorations, dresses, flowers, and everything is beautiful. I look around as I'm made to sit on the chair. I smile at Di as she comes giggling.

"Jhanvi Sharma," I warn her but she takes a load of yellow turmeric and pastes it on my face. I hug her and press her cheek against mine.

"Never change. Be happy always." She tells me pressing a kiss on my hair.

Jiju follows her but he is kind enough to put a little on my forehead and hug me. I see Dad and he kneels and takes the paste and put it on his hands before pasting it on my cheek. He kisses my forehead and gives me a tight hug.

"You are my everything Diya." He whispers and I close my eyes and hug him back tightly. I cry onto his shoulders and he pats my back as he kisses my hair. He pulls apart and turns around without looking at me.

I don't understand his love but all I can promise to myself is that his type of love ends here. I will never entertain his type of love or the teachings he learnt to my children if I have any.

"DiDi!" Sam screams as she runs to me. I smile as I see her dip her hands full in the turmeric and Bhai lifts her so that she can reach me. I lean in and I laugh as I feel her spread the haldi all over my face.

"Please stop," I tell her and I can hear her laugh.

"No!" She yells and I open my eyes to see Bhai pull her back. I'm going to miss her so much that I can feel the tears beginning to make an entrance

.

"Sammy!" I call her opening my arms and she jumps out of his arms. I cry as I hug her. "I will miss you."

"Don't get married." She tells me and everyone chuckles at her response. I'm sure the videographer got that too.

The rest of the family comes one by one and they all decorate my face, arms and feet however they want. I enjoyed the function wholeheartedly. Hey, I'm getting married only once.

I smile at myself in the mirror as I look at my beautiful yellow lehenga. Even though there are more than hundreds of photos of me in this dress, I take a couple of selfies and mirror selfies and I can feel the heat of my body as I send them to Rehan. My phone buzzes within a minute and it's his reply.

"One lakh seventy-two thousand and eight hundred seconds more!"

I smile as I text him back, "to call you mine?"

The butterflies and all the goosebumps are running up and down my body reading his reply.

"Baby, I'm already yours. Always and forever."

REHAN

I feel the bed move. I clutch the pillow closer and bury my face in it.

I feel like I'm on air.

I'm flying.

I am flying!

I am flying!

I cannot catch my breath and my eyes open involuntarily and I swim my way up and look around. I'm in the fucking pool. I see my friends standing around the pool and laughing as they all look at me.

"You fuckers!" I say hitting the water. "Stop recording!" I tell Kiaan, Sanjay's videographer.

"Is the water cold?" Farhan, my friend asks me.

"Why don't you come and check?" I swim near them and they laugh as they walk backwards.

"Yeah, why don't you go check?" Sanjay tells Farhan before pushing him into the pool. I laugh as I wrap my arm around Farhan's neck and push him underwater.

"It was Dev's idea!" Farhan tells me as he gasps for air.

"Yeah go Dev!" Sanjay yells as he pushes him too.

"Throw that son of a bitch!" Dev yells and my other friends throw Sanjay before jumping into the pool themselves.

"At least give me a shirt," I tell Kiaan. He is also a good family friend and is one of the first employees Sanjay hired when he began his wedding business.

"Let Aadhya see our boy's abs. Focus! Zoom!" Farhan says rubbing my stomach. I chuckle as I try to push him off me when Sanjay joins him.

"112! Fire underwater!" Sanjay says clicking my six-pack and keeping his hand against his ear making a call.

I try to hold my laugh but I couldn't, seeing all of their antics. We stay in the pool for some time before Mom shouts. I walk from Sanjay's house to mine with water dripping all the way and I get inside the shower. But once the water starts running I realized I shouldn't have because I'm going to have Haldi spread on my body and my family don't give any concession, especially to me.

I walk out of my bathroom and I stop when I see Liya and Ved. They are smiling at me, which is way weird.

"You both are ready," I say as I move to my closet. I close the door and put on my pants and yellow kurta. I walk out of the closet after closing the door and they are still there smiling.

"Guys, what do you want?"

"A hug," Liya says running to me and I hug her back as she wraps her arms around my waist.

"She gave me a speech and made me..." Ved stops and he shakes his head as he wraps an arm around my shoulder. "...care."

I smile as I hug them back. Rhea is more like my kid but these two are more like my target for bullying, my pranking victims, my old and new clothes owners and my best friends. "I didn't know my lab rats loved me," I tease pushing them to their limit.

"Okay. Hug over!" Ved says pulling back.

Liya looks up at me with her arms still wrapped around my waist. "Thank you for bringing a girl and increasing the girl's ratio. I wish you would give me a niece so much faster than Ved's facial hair growth."

"Okay. Hug time over." I say pulling myself from her.

"HEY!" Ved protests. "I don't mind it. I don't like the beard. Why do you care?" He asks hitting her arm.

I shake my head as I walk to the mirror and grab a comb to brush my hair. I can see them and hear them fight and on this good day, I have to shout at them, as usual, to get them to stop fighting and out of my room.

I walk downstairs once I'm sure that I do look. I had a haircut yesterday and my stubble beard looks good too. I wish I could see Aadhya and she could see me in my dress. I only dress up for her and I can feel myself getting impatient for the days to be over. I hear Mom shouting for me from downstairs when I'm about to FaceTime Aadhya but I stop when I think, she might be also busy and if she does take my call there will be people surrounding her. We don't need that.

I put my phone in my pocket and runs downstairs. I'm in the middle of the stairs when I see every member of my family spread out in the living room. My father's family, my mother's family, family friends and my friends.

"Rehan baby is a big boy!" Sanjay yells. "Give it up for him!" He claps and urges everyone to do the same. I can feel the redness on my face as I chuckle and slowly run down the rest of the steps.

I'm engulfed in lots and lots of hugs but Mom is the only one who presses a kiss on my cheek. For a moment I think she is happier than me and I realize it is possible.

The lawn is covered and adorned with yellow decorations. I wear my sunglass but CC 'Chote Chacha', my father's youngest brother who came from Canada a week ago, throw my sunglass away and puts a pouch in my hands. I open the pouch in confusion and I have the biggest smile on my face when I pull out the Ray-Ban sunglasses. I put it on before I hug him.

"I may get married next year," Sanjay reminds CC who promises him one too.

Music begins to play and I'm pulled into the centre. Normally I don't like dancing in front of people but these people are all close to me and I couldn't help when I see my father dance with my mother. They are happy. Truly.

I sit down on the couch and everyone begins putting Haldi over me. I smile and laugh with them as they pull jokes on me. I'm still laughing at some stupidity Rahul said when I see Kavya walking towards me.

She takes some haldi and spreads it on my cheek. I can feel the coldness of her hand because she has taken only a little bit of it. Her gaze seems to hold me for a second and she smiles at me. There is a glint of a tear in her eyes and I can see that the hurt she has on her face is not fake.

I don't feel bad for her. We are not entitled to anybody from our birth. Whatever she was told, she should have seen the correct side and realized she and I can never be anything. We are family and that is that. She shouldn't feel pain over my marriage to anyone. I have never promised her anything or have never taken advantage of her or pretended to be interested in her. It's all in her head and she should see that. She should see the truth.

I'm suddenly taken aback when I see Sanjay turning on the hose. I shake my head and try to get up but Farhan and Dev hold me and made me sit on the couch while Sanjay turns the hose in my direction.

After pouring water over me, tearing my kurta, putting haldi all over my face, arms, neck, chest and hands and also some more dancing later and after a day well spent, I reach my room.

I take a good shower and jump on my bed wearing a neat pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I see my phone buzzing with notifications and I open it to see Aadhya in her haldi dress. She is so beautiful it makes my heart warm.

I love her and I think it's making others feel that I'm that stupid with all my emotions. Nah, I don't care. She is so worth it. I love her. It's the first time I have loved a person who can understand and be much more than everything to me. I don't love her for her beauty, of course, she is the most beautiful girl I have ever laid my eyes upon but she is also smart and intelligent. She cares. She loves. She is considerate.

A smile is playing on my lips as I text her. We are texting for half an hour when she tells me she has to go and change. She promises to FaceTime when she comes back and I keep my phone aside with that promise.

I hear children running around in the hallway and I run to my door and close it before they get inside my room. Those little creatures mess up my room which Ved cleaned for me after I paid him good money. I'm walking to the bed when I see the closet door half open.

I didn't open the door after I went down for the function. My shorts and t-shirt were on the couch because it's fresh after laundry and was laid there for me to fold and keep in my closet but I'm too lazy to do it so it stays there until I use them.

I open the closet and walk towards the safe. It is a simple box-type safe with a key and I store the key inside my nightstand shelf. The safe is locked so I open the shelf in my nightstand and take my key. The safe doesn't have anything except Aadhya's wedding chain and my engagement ring. I'm not a fan of rings and I remind myself again that I have to tell about this to Aadhya soon before she finds out her fiancé doesn't wear his ring.

I see the ring on the shelf along with the chain's box. I'm about to close the shelf but I stop and open the box.

I feel panic and terror rushing down my veins as I hold the empty box.