From Vows to Forever

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟖: 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤

"Your touch ignites a fire,
Your voice soothes my soul's desire,
In your arms, I find my peace,
With you, my love, all worries cease."

My mehendi is almost dark black, I have never had this dark of a mehendi, even as a kid. It's probably because I slept with it yesterday night. My sisters keep crowding me telling me that husband will forever love me, because they believe is the superstition 'The darker the mehendi, deeper the love'.

There will be no falling in love because as much as I love the concept of falling in love, I can't what if he leaves me, what if he breaks my heart, I can't take on another heartbreak. I still am happy because I finally get to leave my house and get to do whatever I want to.

Today is the sangeet night, the setup is absolutely perfect, beautiful and every other thing you can think of, it's in an open area with beautiful lavenders hanging off the roof and facing the beach. But after the breakfast which I eat in my room, since I don't have makeup on and my dad told me to not leave my room without any makeup.

I wanted to see Ayaan and talk to him, but I controlled myself. Yesterday I was so happy to see him, to sit next to him, and to talk to him. He is beautiful, and if he were in my school or college, he would totally be the guy I would think was totally out of my league. He is funny and loves babies; that's what his cousin brothers told me. He is the perfect guy, and no girl would say no to him.

Thinking about how handsome, sweet, and funny he is, I and my sisters finish our breakfasts. I am sharing a room with all my cousin sisters, while all my cousin brothers share the room next to me. We get to have fun game nights. I love all my sisters and brothers to death. I have a total of 7 cousin sisters, out of which 2 are like 13 years old and are usually with their moms, and the other 5 are closer to my age. And a total of 4 brothers, out of which 1 of them came from New York for my wedding.

Nostalgia hits hard when I get to play our good old days games, like non-vegetarian truth and dare, never have ever, and other games. They never get old. And as I got to know from my sisters, who were getting chased by Ayaan's brothers, he has no real brother but has five cousin brothers and no sister on his side. His brothers are pretty smart and funny; I talked to them more than I did with Ayaan.

All my cousins and I are going to the bride's side of the hotel, which has the rooms to practise the dance, the makeup artist, and the family of the bride. We settle into the huge open room, where the dance teacher awaits us. I learned my dance first. I hate dancing, but my dad didn't give me an option. I have one dance with Ayaan as well, and I have to go to their dance room once I'm done with my solo and the dances with my cousin sisters. I have three dances in total.

The practises started just one week after the date was finalised, but our couple dance was done separately. But all the other dances were practised together. Everyone in my family is going to be dancing. I like dancing, but when it's just me and there is no one to judge me.

We just finished with my dances; now I'm going to go while all my other cousins practise. I walk towards the groom's side of the hotel,looking here and there, and suddenly I feel so tired. I look up at the sky; it's scorching hot. Suddenly, I feel like I'm going to faint. I keep my palm on my chest, and I start to feel like I am going to vomit.

It usually happens when I stress too much and have so much anxiety that I almost faint. It can also happen because I haven't drank water since morning. I have this really bad habit of not drinking water, due to which I get really bad acne. But since yesterday, this marriage has been one step closer to my hell or my freedom. And I don't know if I want to risk it again.

I try to find a bench; thank God I am not wearing traditional clothing and am just wearing a top and sweatpants. There is no bench I can see, and I don't want to see one on the grass. I lose my balance, and everything turns black, but someone catches me, and just like that, I faint. And all I can think is that my dad shouldn't know I fainted, or he will find reasons to ruin my day by shouting at me.

I feel that I am lying on something. I slowly open my eyes and again come face-to-face with Ayaan. He looks at me with concern. While Sweety stands next to him with a glass of water. She helped me drink some water. "Nene, I told you to drink enough water; you would have gotten seriously hurt if Ayaan wasn't there." I smile and thank him. He smiles back but still has concern on his face. "Are you ok? Did you hurt yourself?" He asks, and that's when I notice I am on his lap.

I give my hand to Sweety, and she helps me up. "I'm ok, thank you!" I just got lost trying to find where your guys' dance room was. " I'm giving him a fake smile. "Oh ok!" He says it, but he doesn't look convinced. But he stands on the couch, and that's when I can see our actual height difference.

He also notices, and his eyes soften. "You're so cute," he says, pulling my cheeks, and I blush. I take Sweety's hand and drag her outside, not wanting to talk about it. He follows behind us, far away, so as not to listen to what we're talking about. "Dad doesn't know, right?" I look at her worriedly. She smiles and says, "No, he called me directly, telling me to meet him and to come as fast as I could. No one except me knows." She wipes the tear from my cheek. Usually I don't cry in public, but it's been such an overwhelming day, and the day hasn't even ended yet.