I MEERA I

If there is one thing you should know about my  sister, it's that she is the bossiest person I've ever met in my whole life and that has to say something considering the fact that my mother is very much Indian.

So when I say I dreaded the day my sister decided to get married, I mean it. Because she has been planning her wedding since I can remember and according to her plans, her wedding is supposed to be an epic adventure with everything, from the wedding destination to every single design on her jewellery, planned to the point. It sounds exhausting and trust me, it absolutely is.

But even though we're not as close as I'd like us to be, my sister being older and serious all the time being the main reason as to why we're not close, I love her to bits. So, even though I hate weddings, especially when it's the wedding of someone close to me and my family, I was also excited and a little sad that my sister was getting married. Though we haven't lived under the same roof in years, I felt a little heartbroken that she will now have a family of her own, that doesn't involve me and our parents.

It's really hard when you realise your sister is not just a side character in your story, but she has a story where she is the main character.

Since it's the first wedding in our family in a long time, our parents wanted everything to be grand. Among us 'kids', Shraddha is the first one that's about to get married. Her wedding was something the whole family was excited for as she is the oldest. So every single relative, even ones I've never seen before in my life, were invited.

But the excitement quickly gave way to terror as my sister started ordering everyone around. Gossiping aunties learned to shut their mouths around her real fast, after she chewed them out for calling her a much vulgar Malayalam version  of 'shameless girl', after finding out her marriage with Karthik wasn't arranged and that she has been living with him for the past few years in Bangalore.

How they found out about her living together with Karthik, I don't know. The gossip mill is undefeated.

It was funny watching Shraddha year into them, because one of those ladies, just the previous day, gave me hell for wearing short shorts, in my family home, around my own parents. The audacity of some people!

Shraddha is usually respectful towards elders even if they are disrespectful. But she and Karthik, that's my future brother-in-law, in case you didn't realise it, were planning the whole wedding by themselves. It must be taking a toll on her, because no one does things the way she wants and she has to do it herself. I couldn't get home earlier to help her because I couldn't skip any more classes, I've already maxed out my leaves, especially with the wedding. And it's not like she'll let me help.

It's only been three weeks since her engagement and she's already turned into a bridezilla and not in a cute way they show in movies but a scary don't-get-in-my-way-or-I'll-kill-you way.  I'm sorry, maybe I'm exaggerating because she cussed me out for messing with the playlist she prepared for her wedding reception. But in my defence, I think "Another one bites the dust" by Queen must be included in the playlist, for obvious reasons.

Since the playlist incident, I was demoted and my roles were reduced to running errands and welcoming the guests, the worst duties ever. But she did buy me a pair of chunky gold earrings, so it's all fair and lovely. It's not. But I'll act like it is, because I don't want to seem ungrateful.

But now I'm standing at the bottom of the stairs, eavesdropping on my sister telling off our cousin Avinash, or Vinash as we love to call him, for not getting here two days earlier. Its not like I have to sharpen my ears to her what she is saying, since she's yelling right now. Karthik took her to the beach to cool them both down from all the pressure of the wedding plans. My sister ended up clogging her ears after swimming in the salty sea water for a long time and now she thinks she's speaking normally, when she's, in fact, shouting.

It's funny when you're not at the receiving end of the yelling. But since it's Vinash that's taking the brute of it, it's even more hilarious, especially when I peep around the hallway into the living room and see his bewildered face. Even more so, because she's currently telling him to take his luggage to his room and get settled, but since she's yelling, he thinks she's berating him for something he did.

The house was pretty much empty, save for the three of us, since almost everyone in our family was at the other house. Most of guests would arrive the next day and those that were here, went out to see the town and beach, since it's their first time being here.

Vinash, who has at least one brain cell left, just nodded his head a little confusedly at Shraddha's behaviour and muttered a low "nice to see you too, cuz", under his breath that I'm sure Shraddha wouldn't hear. But I did and his expression almost made me laugh out loud. He slings the bags over his shoulders before rushing to where I was standing in the hall way, hiding from Shraddha's view.

He throws his arms around my shoulder like he knew I was hiding here this whole time, maybe he did, and heaves a sigh as he whispers, "I swear, that woman scares the shit outta me sometimes."

I suppress a giggle.

"But this is the first time she started yelling at me as soon as she saw me. Is she alright? I thought I missed her wedding or something with the way she told me to go to my room", he exaggerates, making me laugh, "it almost reminded me of my mom telling me to go take a bath after school when I was ten".

"She was swimming in the sea all afternoon with Karthik and her ears got clogged. That's why she was yelling", I tell him in between giggles.

"Oh, so that's what that was about. I knew something was off. Out of all of us, she likes me the most", he says in a high and mighty attitude, making me roll my eyes.

"Where's my brother-in-law? I haven't seen him since the engagement", he says before dropping his hand from my shoulder and hauling the bag higher up his shoulders in an exaggerated manner. But I pretend not to notice and he glares at me when I start checking my nails as he tries to balance all the bags on his shoulders.

"He's out with his cousins, giving them a tour of the town", I say, "And his name is Karthik, not brother-in-law. Why do you keep calling him that?" But he ignores me as he shuffle the bags in his arms for no other reason than for me to help him.

Finally taking pity on him, I grab the smallest bag I can find, which happens to be the one further up his shoulder, so I end up knocking all the other bags down when I take it off his shoulder.

"Jesus christ, it's better if you don't help", he says as he collects his bags again, glaring at me the whole time.

"Why do you have so many bags, anyway? You usually shove every single thing you own into one tiny bag", I say as we walk along the hallway to the stairs.

"Mom gave her and dad's bags to me and told me to take it to their room. You know how she is, she packed her whole wardrobe into these bags. God forbid, a saree that she's not even planning to wear gets left behind", he says throwing his arm out.

"I had to walk here all the way from the cabin with these bags. Do you know how ridiculous I looked? Then when I finally took a moment to rest in the living room, Shraddha came, yelling at me to take the bags to my room", he says as we start climbing the stairs.

"Stop whining, your voice is annoying when you're whining. It was cute when we were little. Now it's just annoying", I tell him.

"Shut up. My mom still thinks it's cute", he says, smiling cheekily at me.

"And you're still a mama's boy", I taunt and he scowls but he doesn't object, because he knows it's true.

"You look tired. Don't worry, Shraddha will put you to work as soon as you're settled", I tell him gleefully just as we reach the first floor and we turn around the hallway to his room.

"Ugh! Why couldn't she just hire people like everyone else does?", he asks as we stop in front of his room.

He pushes open the door and walks in, making sure his bags doesn't get stuck in the doorway.

"You should ask her yourself ", I say as I drop the bag on the floor. He throws his bags on the bed on the left side of the room before turning to face me, "no thanks".

"Didn't she give you any work?", he asks me.

"I'm in charge of welcoming the guests", I say.

"Ah, good luck", he says, knowing how much I hate it.

He looks out the window opposite the bed that overlooks the back garden. I already opened every single window in the house, so even without the air conditioning turned on, the room is pretty cool. Not that we need A/C in this time of the month. The pale white curtains are drawn back, flooding the room with the orange-red hues of the setting sun in the horizon, where the sky meets the sea.

There is a huge in-built wardrobe at the corner and a wooden table with two chairs next to it. The grey walls were covered in childlike drawings, hand paintings and other scribbled nonsense and I hear him sigh as he gazes at them.

This was their room, his' and Raj's.

Raj and Vinash are twins. Though you would never believe it if you saw them. Raj was the exact copy of their father with his dark brown eyes, jet black hair and dusky skin, while Vinash takes after his mother. He had lighter eyes, was fairer and even his hair had a light brown tint to it in summer. Where Raj was short and fit, Vinash was tall and lanky.

They used to be very close when they were kids. But as they grew up, they grew apart. They didn't hate each other or anything. They're just two different people with vastly different personalities. It was little things that kept them apart.

Raj was silent and soft-spoken. A man of few words. Even as a child, he preferred to play board games in the beach when the rest of us were raising hell. He didn't talk much but he did join us in our games sometimes, usually when Vinash dragged him with us. Vinash was the polar opposite, the chipper , everyone's favourite golden boy. And you couldn't shut him up when he was on a roll, which was most often. As they grew older, their differences just stood out more and the distance between them grew. They just didn't have many mutual interests.

Vinash tried pulling him closer, always made sure he was included in all of the games, always asked for his opinions, he was sweet. But Raj didn't want to be included. I think he was more exhausted being around us than anything and I can't blame him. We were exhausting, sometimes we exhausted ourself. And when a person does not want to be with you, it doesn't matter how much you try to be with them, it's all in vain.

And as they grew apart , Vinash spent more time with me and Remya, our cousin. We became partners in crime. (Not that there was much mischief to plan since pranks were not very welcomed in our house. But if anyone managed to get away with it, it was the three of us.)

This was their assigned room when they were here at the summer house for vacation since childhood. I remember nights when Remya and I would sneak into their room at night after our parents went to sleep and we'd steal snacks from the kitchen and make up ghost stories that ends up scaring the hell out of all of us, while Raj would either sleep or read in a corner of the room, ignoring us.

It's been three years since our whole family came down here to the summer house for vacation. Most of us were busy preparing for board exams or had special classes and the others didn't bother coming without us. So, Shraddha's wedding was a long awaited vacation when everyone comes back to the summer house.

"Did you talk to Raj? I heard he's coming tomorrow", I asked Vinash as I laid on his bed with my feet touching the floor, looking up at the ceiling.

"I heard mom talking to him yesterday. Apparently, he is bringing someone with him", he says as he squishes between me and the bags on the bed.

"Someone, as in a friend? Is it his dorm-mate ? What was his name, Raghav? Rahul?", I asked making space for him or he'll squish me like a lemon.

"It's Rohit. And no , someone, as in someone special. He's bringing his girlfriend", he says nonchalantly, as if he didn't just drop the biggest bomb of information in the history of all information.

I shoot up to a sitting position, "His what!!?? Girlfriend!? Are we talking about the same Raj here??? Mr. I'm-too-shy-I-can't-talk-to-girls-without-blushing-fifty-shades-of-red? He can't even look me in the eye properly when he is talking to me and I'm his cousin sister!", I tell him.

"God woman! Calm down. And yes I'm talking about the same Raj and he's not shy , he's just introverted-"

"That's the same thing", I say .

"-And the reason he wasn't looking at you when you were talking was because you were talking about period cramps most of the time to embarass him", he continues as if I didn't say anything.

"Yeah right! As if he'd talk to me if it was something else. Seriously, I don't think he even remembers my name", I say lying back down.

"Oh please! Enough with the dramatics. I'm starving", he says, quickly changing the subject.

"Let's go eat something. On second thought, I don't think it's safe since I can hear Shraddha howling from up here. Wait a min, where's the mini fridge?", He asks looking around the room.

"Well, what's her name?", I ask trying to change the subject.

"I don't know. I Just heard him say someone special and I didn't bother to ask mom and don't try to change the subject , where's the mini fridge?"he asks.

Uh oh

"Um... I think dad took it down to the cabin, I don't know ", I said.

"Jai uncle wouldn't... You bitch!! You took it to your room didn't you?", He asks whipping his head towards me.

Yeah, no point lying now. He knows me too well.

"Yeah well you get to keep it all the time so I thought it was time for a change", I say grinning cheekily at him.

"But it's my mini fridge", he says whining like a two-year old. "I bought it with my own money".

"Your parents' money", I correct.

"That I earned by running errands and helping Dad and Jai uncle in the garden for two whole summers", he retorts back but I refuse to acknowledge it.

"Let's go to your room then, I'm starving. We'll talk about this later", he says as he drags me out of the room to the hallway and walks towards my room at the other end.

"There's nothing in the mini fridge, I ate everything. I was hungry. Mom made upma for breakfast and you know I hate upma with every fibre in my body. So I ate all the snacks from the mini fridge. But there's some water left, I think", I say tapping my chin, pretending to think as I hold in my smirk.

He groans.

"You're such a little ...", He trails off shaking his head  "You could've left me some", he says pouting. Not cute.

"Right, as if you ever leave me anything to eat. You wouldn't even leave the bottle of water, you would drink that just to spite me", I roll my eyes.

"I hate it when you're right.",he says sighing
Just as we reached my room his stomach growled, loudly. "God! You sound like some deranged animal", I wrinkle my nose.

"Shut up", he mumbles as he opens the bottle of water and  chugs it , finishing it within a few seconds.

"I'm still starving", he exclaims patting his stomach.

"Me too. I was coming down to get lunch when you dragged me with you. Mom said there's food in the kitchen. And I went grocery shopping with dad today, so we got a lot of snacks ", I say excitedly.

"Then what the hell are we waiting for ? Let's feed my little monster. Come on ",he says and I don't know who he's talking about, me or his stomach. He tugs my hand again dragging me with him, again.

We climb down the stairs and when we're sure the coast is clear, we move to the hallway that leads to the kitchen. Just as we reach the kitchen we hear loud voices from the living-room, announcing the arrival of  our cousin Remya, the third idiot in our gang and her parents- Tej uncle and Ambika aunty.

Next to me , Vinash groans, "I'm gonna starve to death".

"Come on princess, lets go see Remya. We haven't seen her in ages", I tell him pushing him from behind as he pretends to be a statue.

"I saw her two days ago when I was in chennai with my friends", he rolls his eyes at me.

"Well, I haven't seen her in months", I say.

"Lucky you", he deadpans and I laugh as I push him towards the living room.

I missed them so much.