11: Say You Like Me

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

Hey you guys! Sorry for the late update! I had a string of exams to write (Still do actually)! I have one last exam and after that, I'll update as frequently as I can! Wish me luck x

This Chapter is dedicated to my  sister Amrita, who typed the entire thing and also gave me lots of ideas. Thanks Ammi!

ENJOY!

CHAPTER 11: Say You Like Me

If what I am feeling at this very moment isn't happiness, then I guess I don't know what happiness means.

Standing in front of me is the girl of my dreams, looking at me just like I hoped she would.

"You have no idea how happy you make me feel, Avni." My voice was barely a whisper.

"Actually I do. You make me even happier." She said.

"Impossible." I replied and pulled her closer. I looked into those big brown eyes of hers which refused to leave my thoughts ever since that brunch. I felt like the luckiest man alive.

I could feel her grasp tightening behind my head.

"Don't let me go, Vihaan."

"Never," I said and kissed her soundly on the lips.

If this was Bollywood movie, there would have been a display of fireworks all around us (and not to forget, we would have broken into a song) because that is how the kiss felt.

I held her closer to me and kissed her forehead.

"Never," I repeated.

"I think we should go downstairs," She said. With that, we walked back to her family room hand-in-hand.

"Vihaan, why don't you be with Dev for a while? I need to meet some of my cousins." Avni said once we joined the party.

"Uh... sure, but Dev is heavily chatting with some of your cousins." I said looking at Dev who was very engrossed in a conversation with Amrita and 6 other people his age.

"Why don't you come with me then? I'll introduce you to my family!" Her eyes lit up.

"You go ahead and I'll join you," I said and walked towards my parents.

"Enjoying yourself are you Vihaan?" Dad had a playful grin on his face.

"Yeah," I grinned back at him.  "And you'll?"

"Anand's family is so beautiful! We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves." Mum clapped her hands together.

My parents were happily stuffing their faces with some delicious food which comprised of all of Ajji's favourites, Avni had told me. I was so surprised by the fact that an 85 year old could eat Gobi Manchurian like there's no tomorrow! As I turned to join Avni, I heard my mum calling me.

"Where are you off too? Come and eat paneer with us na?"

"No Ma. Avni wanted to introduce me to her cousins. I'll eat later, okay?"

"Oh, going with Avni, is it? I see..." Mum nodded slowly. I could already see that she was calculating something in her head.

"Actually, I need to talk to the both of you. It's very important but later okay? Avni is waiting," I ran towards her.

******

"Nice choice yaar Avnu!" My cousin Sahana said.

"Where did you find him?" Her sister Siri nudged me.

"Amma and Appa found him actually. He's Sid's friend," I explained.

"Sid has some hot friends man!" Siri exclaimed. I couldn't agree more.

"Very serious, huh?" Sahana asked.

"I'll get back to you on that," I giggled.

"Eh shut up, here he comes!" Siri rasped.

"Guys this is Vihaan," I gestured towards him. "And Vihaan these are two of my favourite cousins, Sahana and Siri!" I clapped my hands.

"Ahh, saaku saaku! Over aiytu." Sahana shook her head as we all laughed. "Vihaan, how do you put up with her? She's the number one drama queen of our family."

"Trust me, I ask myself that question every day,"

"Eh muchchu! You also don't join them. They bully me enough already." I sniffed and swatted his arm. "Come let me introduce to the rest of the pack." I got up taking his hand.

"I'll take a test later, to see if you can remember everyone," Siri warned. "Good luck!"

I could hear Vihaan whimper.

*********

Avni yanked me across the room to Amrita and Amay's gang.

"This gang is full of weirdoes just like Amrita and Amay, who think they are a bunch of thugs, okay?" It felt like she was briefing me about a group of mafias. "They are always up to something! You know at Bhavna and Adi's wedding, we had given them the task of stealing Adi's shoes. You know what they did?!" She was speaking so fast but at the same time with so much intensity, "They made the entire process into some top secret mission like in those stupid video games all these boys play. I was happily watching from the top floor when these idiots were hiding behind pillars screaming 'ALERT ALERT!' 'TARGET ACQUIRED. I NEED BACKUP, ABORT!'" She said her eyes wide.

Imagining this, I laughed out loud but stopped when I realised the whole group was eyeing me suspiciously as we got closer. They all suddenly put their heads together and whispered something to each other. When Avni and I got to them, they shut up and continued giving me death glares.

"Hi guys! This is Vihaan." Avni said grinning at me as I waved at them. "Vihaan these are some of my cousins: Riya, Pranay, Prabhav, Sankalp, Ananya, Divya and of course you know Amrita and Amay." She pointed to each one of them.

None of them waved back but instead one of the boys whispered to another and both of them smirked. The second boy then said, "I'll give you 500 bucks if you can repeat all of our names, Vihaan." He emphasized on my name. Everyone snickered and Avni glared at him.

"Amay and Amrita," I said lifting my collar. Avni giggled and even I did, but I stopped when I noticed completely uninterested expressions on their faces that actually freaked me out.

"Uh... Let's go." Avni said tugging on my elbow.

"I have a feeling we're going to meet again, Vihaan." The girl who I think was Riya said nodding suspiciously.

Yeah like that's going to happen! 

Avni pulled me to the dance floor where a group of people were dancing like crazy around Ajji who herself was putting a few steps to Tune Mari Entriyaan.

"Vihaaaaaaaan! Come dance with me!" Ajji said shaking her hips.

"Uh, no thanks Ajji! I just came to meet all of Avni's cousins." I said stepping away from her slowly.

"Eh, baaro! I'll only introduce you." She said pulling me to the dance floor. I pulled Avni along with me and I slowly started awkwardly bobbing to the music with her.

"You know Rutu and Naina no?" She looked at me. I nodded and waved at the twins who were happily dancing holding each other's hands. "This is Vedant. He thinks he is some hero!"

"No don't listen to her." He winked and continued dancing.

"This is Anjali, Anusha, Neeti and my bangaara Mihir! He's the youngest of the family," She clapped her hands together.

I nodded uncomfortably at them as my brain hadn't registered a single name.

I noticed Rutu, Naina and a few others were staring at me with their mouth wide open.

"Let's go! I have so many other cousins you have to meet!" Avni said and pulled me along with her.

She took me to her balcony where more than ten people had congregated, and were chattering and laughing merrily under the moonlight. They all looked my age, so that was a good thing.

"Oho! Vihaan is here guys!" Shruthi said smiling widely at me.

"Guys," Avni said to her loud cousins, "GUYS!" she shouted and everybody fell silent, "This is Vihaan!"

"Hi Vihaan!" Everybody said in this weird sing-song tone.

"Vihaan, this is Yamini, Sahana, and their husbands Tanmay and Ankush, Siri, Surya, you know Shruthi, Dhyaan, Bhavna and Adi, and obviously there's Sid and Maya, Adithi, Akshay, Mayank, Tarun and Sanjana!"

Again, zero names were registered.

"Uh Avni, can you please tell us why you are specifically introducing our family to Vihaan?" Yamini asked playfully.

Oh I knew where this was going.

"Yeah Avni tell us why," Siri said faking interest.

I could hear Avni fumble around for words.

"Avni is my girlfriend you guys," I said without thinking.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!" Everybody hooted in unison.  

"When did this happen?"

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"When are you getting married?"

Questions were being fired at us from all directions without a break. I didn't even know who was asking what.

"I am?" Avni whispered to me.

"Of course, do you want to be?" I smiled.

"Yes!" She grinned at me widely. I would have hugged her or kissed her right there, but I decided against having a whole army charge at me. I could feel her hand on mine, and I gripped it tightly as I smiled at all her cousins.

I checked the time on my watch and noticed it was already 11:30. It was time for my family and me to get back home.

"Avni it's time to go..." I said.

"Okay okay. Don't go without saying bye to everyone!"

"I wouldn't dare." I said raising my arms.

"Okay bye guys! I'll see you soon." I smiled at her cousins.

"Yes yes, Vihaan we'll see you soon," Her cousin Mayank (I think) winked at me.

I turned around searching for Dev, so I could tell him that we were leaving, but unfortunately he was sitting with the mafia, chatting away with Amrita. How the hell does he do it?!

"Dev it's time to leave." I called out to him. Immediately, I could feel eight pairs of eyes giving me death glares. When Dev greeted them and walked over to me, I noticed Amrita and Amay signalling the rest of the mafia behind Dev.

Ma and Pa were already standing at the door and talking to Ajji, Anand uncle and Asha Aunty.

"We had a wonderful time Anand! Such a nice family you have. We'll meet soon!" Dad shook his hand.

"Of course, Naveen. You're always welcome," Anand uncle said warmly. "Vihaan, Dev so glad you could make it. Good night." He shook each of our hands.

"Amma, Appa come let's go to the car. Let Vihaan say bye to Avni!" He winked at me and pulled them out the door.

"Vihaan chinna, thank you so much for coming! You made my birthday even more special," Ajji said bouncing up and down.

"Happy Birthday again Ajji. I'll see you soon!"

"You got to stop doing that to her, she'll pass out!" Avni said as we walked out of the door and into the garden.

"Thanks for inviting me Avni. I had a great time, for obvious reasons." I said and she smiled at me like an idiot.

"Better call me okay?"

"Every minute if you want me to."

"THREE- TWO-" I looked up to see the- "ONE- FIREEE!"

Hundreds of balloons flew at us and pelted us from all directions. Within seconds, Avni and I were completely drenched. We looked around and saw that the whole family had come out to see what all the commotion was about. Avni and I looked up to see who did this, even though I knew.

"NOW!!!!!" Amay's voice came from the terrace. Before I realised what was going on, the mafia tipped several buckets of water on us.

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS GOING ON?!!??!?" Asha aunty said as she stormed into the garden. Me and Avni on the other hand were laughing our heads off along with the rest of the family.

"Amma, you asked us to water the plants no?" Amrita asked as the mafia were uncontrollably laughing.

"IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL WATERING PLANTS?!?!?! I ASKED YOU TO DO IT IN THE MORNING!!!!!" She screamed and then resorted to shouting in Kannada.

"Amma, it's okay!" Avni said in between her hysterical laughter.

"WHAT IT'S OKAY?! HE'S OUR GUEST! HE'LL NEVER COME HOME AGAIN IF THIS IS HOW WE SEND HIM OFF!

"I don't think this will stop him Amma!" Amrita said grinning.

"YOU COME DOWNSTAIRS!" Asha aunty said trying to control her own laughter.

God this family is crazy! 

Author's Note:

I wanted this chapter to be a little light, so here it is! How did you'll like it? :) This gives you guys a little insight on how an Indian family is (atleast mine!).

Let me know what you guys think!

TRANSLATIONS:

~"Saaku saaku, over aiytu" is "Enough , enough, that's too much"

~ "Muchchu" is "shut up"

~ "Bangaara" is "precious"

Guys, please go listen to Tune maari entriyaan (which is a popular Bollywood song) if you haven't!

Love you guys so much!!

Until next time, A. :D

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net