I MEERA I

I swear I'll kill this guy before this wedding gets over. He just can't leave me alone, can he?

You don't want him to leave you alone!

My inner voice tells me and I shut that bitch up before she can spew anymore bullshit.

He's such a jerk.

So what if he looks handsome in his simple yellow kurta? Everyone looks great in kurta.

Is that why you didn't notice anyone else ?

Whatever.

I can hear him walking leisurely behind me. I resist the urge to  walk faster towards the cabin. Remya didn't even slow down as she dragged Vinash away with her. I know what she's doing. She thinks it's funny how I punched Vikram and now she wants me to have his babies. Her words, not mine.

Just as we almost reach the cabin, I feel Vikram walk closer to me, which makes me nervous for some silly reason. And when he puts his hand on my hip, I freeze. His hand touches my bare waist and gently strokes it once with his fingers, making me clench my fist. I don't dare move a muscle .

He brings his lips close to my ear before whispering, "You look absolutely gorgeous. That's my problem."

His voice sends alight shiver down my spine. He slightly clenches his hand on my waist and walks away without a backward glance. I stand there shocked for a few seconds and realise I'm blushing. God! I slap my cheeks to calm down.

I will my legs to move and slowly walk towards Remya, in a daze. Just as I reach her, she turns to me with a knowing smile. I ignore her. "Where is Vinash?", I ask her, he's nowhere to be seen.

"He went inside to call Vimala aunty and Raj. Apparently, they are fighting about something", she says, throwing a subtle look at Pooja, who stands a few feet away from us in a yellow kurti, biting her nails. She lookes worried. Uh oh.

"And why are we standing here?", I ask Remya who smiles at me before saying, "I was waiting for you."

I smile back and we take our snooping asses inside. We hear voices coming from upstairs and climb the stairs without making any noise. Just as we reach the landing, we see Vinash hiding behind the wall eavesdropping on his mom and brother.

We tap him on the shoulder and he whirls around looking panicked, before realising it's just us. He sighs and puts his finger to his mouth telling us to keep quiet. We nod and listen to the conversation.

"Mom, I just can't leave Pooja alone. She doesn't know anyone here", we hear Raj say.

"I'm not asking you to leave her alone all the time. I'm just saying that you should spend some time with your cousins too. Or did you forget why you're here. It's Shraddha's wedding and I heard you didn't even talk to her after greeting her the day you arrived. Did you greet the groom? No. You spend all your time with Pooja. I told you to introduce her to your cousins but before they could get to know each other , you dragged her away", Vimala aunty says, taking a deep breath.

"How do you think she feels, that you won't introduce her to your family properly. She's a good girl, Raj. Respectful, well mannered and kind. But she's also a little shy, I can tell. So if you don't introduce her to anyone, I don't think she'll do it herself. We should make her feel welcome. Think from her side for a minute", she says.

I hear Raj murmur something. It's like he knows we're eavesdropping. We can't make sense of his muttering this far away.

"I don't know why you stopped talking to your brother and cousins and started isolating yourself. I tried asking a thousand times, but you never gave me an answer but it is getting a little too much. You know you can talk to me or your father anytime about anything. But I can't continue making excuses for you, Raj. You don't even talk to your twin brother. Do you know how much he's hurting because you refuse to even say a word to him. The two of you were so close, so what happened Raj?", Vimala aunty asks.

She sounds like she's on the verge of crying. I look at Vinash and he has tears in his eyes. Remya and I hold his hands and he squeezes back.

I don't know what happened with Raj but he is starting to hurt everyone around him. And it's been going on long enough.

Raj doesn't say anything.

Vinash pulls back and I know he's going to interrupt them before Vimala aunty cries, without making it seem like he eavesdropped. He can't handle seeing women cry. He panics a little everytime Remya and I cry when we get our periods or watch emotional movies and shows. He moves a few steps back and we pat his back before going downstairs.

"Mom? Where are you? Everyone's looking for you downstairs", we hear him say as he acts oblivious and walks back towards them. We don't wait to hear the rest, we know they'll come down in a few minute.

"We have to do something about Raj", Remya says, reading my mind.

"Yeah, it's getting worse. Maybe we could ask Pooja for help?", I ask getting a sudden idea.

"Ooh! I love that look. You're cooking up something", she says smiling wickedly and I look at her with a smile. "We should talk to Pooja, make her spend time with us. That'll leave Raj no choice but to stay with us", I tell her. She nods, smiling wickedly.

We walk towards Pooja who is standing alone near the front door. "Hey Pooja!", We say at the same time trying to contain our smile of mirth.

"Hey, Meera and Remya, right?", She asks rather shyly.

"So you didn't forget out our names", I tease her, "I didn't think we would see you again seeing as Raj was keeping you all to himself since you both got here."

She starts blushing at that, her eyes darting to the floor with a shy smile. "He's just worried about me. I told him that I'll be okay with being by myself for a few hours. But he wouldn't listen."

"Oh we know! Raj is quite smitten. He looks ready to tear any guys' head, who looks at you for a second long", Remya says making her blush again.

"You look beautiful", I tell her. She really does. She looked beautiful in that saree yesterday. But I can tell yellow is her colour, because she looks prettier.

"Oh thanks. You guys look stunning. And I was not trying to be rude or anything by not talking to you. I just didn't want to bother you and Raj doesn't talk to anyone, so..", she rambles looking a little nervous.

"Oh it's alright! We know how Raj is. And you are not bothering us, so don't hesitate to talk to us or ask for anything. Come on, you're coming with us. We should start before Raj comes to kidnap you and this way he can't ignore all of us", Remya says and I take her hand in mine. Remya takes her other hand as we lead her to where everyone is waiting.

"Has he always been distant with everyone?", Pooja asks as we walk hand in hand.

"When we were kids, Raj and Vinash used to be very close. You should see their room, it's full of their drawings and paintings from when they were kids. They've shared the same room since childhood. We were not as close with Raj, but we used to play games together and make sandcastles in the beach and he used to talk to us though with a few words. He was always shy. But something changed when he started eighth grade. He stopped playing games with us and talking to us altogether. He even stopped talking to Vinash", I tell her, remembering the simpler times.

"Vinash was sad for a long time, he still is. But we became close when he stopped spending time with his brother. Raj even stopped coming to the summer house", I tell her, a little sad as I think about all those times we played as kids, now we don't even look at each other. We don't even know Raj, he has become a stranger.

Pooja looks sad. I wonder if Raj told her about what happened that made him distance himself from everyone that loves him.

"Do you know what happened? Did Raj ever tell you?", Remya asks, looking at me for a split second.

Pooja furrows her brows, looking hesitant, "He mentioned something but I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. I'm sorry, I can't tell you. It took him so long to open up to me. I practically had to wrestle the answers out of him", she says giving us an apologetic smile.

"It's okay! We don't want you to feel uncomfortable or break his trust", Remya assures her.

We talk about lighter topics like her family, studies and about her relationship with Raj. We know we are snooping our noses into their business, but we can't help it, Raj would never tell us anything.

So she tells us the story about how they met. They met in their college library. They were in the same classes and have seen each other a few times but didn't know the other's name. They used to sit across each other in the library for almost a month, stealing glances. (This part pooja said with burning cheeks.) One day, pooja was in a hurry to get to her classes and ran into Raj who was entering the library. He was angry and snapped at her. She was sad and embarassed and quickly ran out of the room.

Raj felt bad and later that day, he approached her to apologise. And she said he looked cute while apologizing but I can't imagine Raj being cute so.. Anyways, they started smiling at each other and gradually started talking and became friends. Then a few months later, Raj asked her to be his girlfriend looking all nervous and cute. Her words, not mine. And she said yes. That's how they got together. We were shocked to hear that they were dating for two years now. Raj is such a sneaky little shit. And to think that he was the one who asked her out, it's surprising.

I felt someone's stare as we were talking to Pooja and looked around to see Vikram smiling at me from where he was standing beside Karthik, talking to him. He kept staring at me as he talked to Karthik. I quickly looked away, remembering his words earlier.

I tried not to think about what happened. I prayed my cheeks weren't as red as I knew they were. I looked back at him to see his smile widen and I know my cheek is blazing red like a tomato. I turn away, I don't want to give him more ammunition. He's already too arrogant for his own good.

We see Vinash and Vimala aunty followed by a sulking Raj come towards us. When Raj looks around for Pooja and sees that she's with us, he glares at Remya and me with an accusing look. And we're shocked about his behaviour. Vinash shakes his head when he sees us, he knows we have something planned. "I hope you guys know what you're doing", he says smiling at us. Pooja looks confused while we just smile at him.

As we get into the car, an SUV, Vinash takes the passenger seat while I take the window seat, pulling pooja and Remya in with me. Raj hesitates for a second, staring at us before getting in after Remya. He sits plastered to the door as if we'd attack him any moment. We ignore him and start talking with Pooja, interrogating her in between. She looks at Raj in between and when she looks back at us, she smiles, finally understanding what we were doing and starts talking more freely.

She even tries to include Raj in the conversation, but he just grunts or nods, without really paying any attention. Although the ride is slightly awkward, we made some kind of progress, I guess. Seeing as Pooja is more comfortable with us, Raj doesn't try to pull her away as soon as we're at the auditorium. He walks with us, but he doesn't talk. There's still time for that, I guess. Baby steps. But we only have a few days before everyone goes back to their lives, after the wedding.