Once Upon A Hullabaloo!

CHAPTER 14

"This is so wrong, Miral." I whispered as we tip-toed down the flight of wooden stairs.

"Come on, it's not like I am doing something absolutely awful. He is going to be my husband in two days." Miral whispered back.

"Exactly, it isn't that big a wait. You can hump each other all through your honeymoon!" I gave her a stern look.

We hurried to the drawing room and I grabbed the keys lying on the side table near the main door. I struggled with the heavy metal lock dangling at the stopper, trying to unlock it with the key and let that man in.

"Get your mind out of the dirt. I'm not sneaking him in to get laid." Miral explained, "We will be husband and wife in less than forty-eight hours and everything will change. This was probably the last time we get to fool around in secret, like lovestruck teenagers. You know the thrill, don't you? The thrill of two young hearts being in love." She sighed.

Damn me if I had understood the experience she was talking about but I felt less reluctant to open the door and let Mohit in. Miral had been pleading me to help her with this since the Mehendi ceremony had ended in the evening. With fresh henna designs on her hands and legs, she was completely dependant on me to pull off the stunt at night.

It had been two-thirty in the night when Miral's phone had rang to notify us of Mohit's arrival. The woman had practically dragged me out of the room against my wish to help her unlock the door.

I pulled the stopper and opened the door. Mohit's face lightened up with a smile as Miral rushed past me, into his arms.

"Omi, thank you." Miral turned to me and smiled.

I smiled back as the couple sneaked their way in the house and up to Miral's room.

I was left to roam around in the dead silence of the night all by myself. The chill winds of the courtyard didn't stop me from lying on the cot and looking at the starry sky. The unusual calmness in an other wise bustling wedding house gave me some time to introspect about my day.

I had carefully avoided Kshitij throughout the Mehendi ceremony. They said that there's always a certain whiff of romance in the air during a wedding and I believed I had caught some of it. All through the evening my story-spinning mind had come up with scenarios as to what could have happened if Kshitij hadn't pushed me away in the right time.

It was still difficult for me to admit to myself that his gesture of rejection had left a sting in my heart. That brought me to the second dilemma- Had I really wanted him to not stop? Maybe I didn't know the answer to it or worse, I didn't have the guts to let that tiny voice of response inside surface up.

Acceptance is an art. Self-acceptance is mastering that art to the optimum.

I shivered as another gush of cold wind brushed past me. I decided to not have pneumonia as the cause of my death and went upstairs. I was taking very careful steps in the dark corridor when I heard some movement .

"Omanah?" The whisper followed a flash of light coming from the other end.

"Kshitij, you should turn off that light before I go completely blind." I blocked my eyes.

"What are you doing roaming around in the corridor in the middle of the night?" The source of light was coming near and I could see his familiar sharp features.

"Mohit is here. I'll go back to the room as soon as he leaves."

"It is very chilly out here. You better come inside." The source of light started drifting away and towards Kshitij's room.

I stood there contemplating his offer but another shiver that ran down my body because of the cold wind didn't leave me a choice. With my every resistant step came back each moment I had spent with him in that room in the afternoon. Just the memory set my heart racing and I could feel my body heating up.