Chapter 2. A Brush

Published on 08.04.2022

| AUTHOR'S POV |

2 years later.

Inaaya was greeted with the sound of claps when she entered the auditorium. She scanned the hall to look for her two friends who said they'd kept a seat for her and were waiting for her. It didn't take her much time or effort to spot them at the rightmost corner in one of the middle rows. Quietly so as not to disturb anyone she walked through the side and reached them. She took her seat and let her herself breathe properly after running errands for the past hour.

"You just missed it. Him specifically." Alisha, the one who was sitting beside her spoke.

Inaaya huffed dejectedly.

"I really tried to get done with everything as soon as possible so I didn't miss on his speech, atleast not the entire speech but.... ," she left the rest of the words hanging and her shoulders drooped.

"We knew you wanted to hear him." Nikita who was sitting to the left of Alisha added sympathetically.

"Shhh." A teacher who'd noticed the three of them chatting glared at them. Inaaya mumbled 'sorry ma'am' and all three looked at the teacher apologetically and averted their attention back to the seminar that was going on.

The seminar went on for another half an hour. Inaaya excused herself when the Principal was thanking the special people who were invited for conducting the seminar and was winding it up as she had to talk to Miss Sandra who was in the backstage.

As she was walking to Miss Sandra from the corner of the first row, a pair of eyes unknown to her fell on her. Unaware of the gaze that were fixed on her for a fleeting moment till she disappeared in the backstage, she went on to talk and inform Miss Sandra about the preparations.

~

Inaaya, Alisha and Nikita were sitting in the cafeteria eating sandwiches.

"He did his MBA in Cambridge, from the same university you want to enroll in." Alisha stated.

"I guess I know that and that's why I was so eager to listen to him." Inaaya said as a matter of fact.

Alisha rolled her eyes at that. "And we know that you know. What I don't get is how are you so chilled about missing it when you couldn't stop raving about how excited you were to listen to the speaker the moment you came to know that it was someone from the Cambridge University."

"You're exaggerating." Inaaya shook her head in dismissal. "And anyways I'm not going to sulk over something as trivial as this."

"It wasn't trivial," Alisha spoke up immediately in defense. "He actually said some really good motivating stuffs."

Inaaya chuckled. "It's all the same at the end of the day come-on." She tilted her head to a side and looked at Alisha amusingly. "He must have spoken up about how he worked hard, shared some impactful incidents from his life, told how important self-belief, confidence and other traits are, how we must never give up on our dreams or something. We find it inspiring for sometime or at the most few days and then we're back to square one. You don't get motivated until you're yourself motivated and that kind of feeling comes from within; when you decide to be stubborn and firm, when you know that you not only want something but also need it and I'm pretty sure I've that drive."

"You're pretty smug." Alisha playfully accused to which Inaaya simply grinned.

"He was quite handsome though." Nikita who had been silently eating her sandwich said.

Both the girls averted their gazes towards her. Alisha snorted while Inaaya continued to look with squinted eyes.

"I was just wondering why haven't you said something about it till now and there you go!" Alisha flashed an evil grin.

"He was but!" Nikita asserted. "And by the way," she turned her attention towards Inaaya, "his name was Rahul Mehra. Just took over his father's CEO position at Risvan Group few months back. Quite chivalrous and well spoken he was. If you weren't interested to listen to him, you could've simply stared at his face like a creep." She sighed dreamily. Inaaya continued to look at Nikita with the same assessing expression. "What?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Forget about him and tell me about your soon to be husband."

"Inaaya!" Alisha gasped.

"Two days back the family came right!?" It wasn't a question but more like a poke. Nikita clenched her jaw. "What happened? You're yet to tell us everything. And I'm almost sure you wouldn't have said anything to them or your parents but out of courtesy let me ask if you even remotely did?"

"You're being too rude." Alisha gritted.

"And I don't care about it!" Inaaya snapped and brought her attention back to Nikita. "So?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing great." Nikita chewed on her bottom lip trying to contain her emotions. "And it isn't a big deal. I'll complete my graduation and then I'll get married. It- "

"You mean your parents will get you married?" Inaaya corrected.

"Gosh! Inu stop. We don't have to talk about all this now. You don't have to remind Niki about it everytime we meet. Be a little sensitive, will you?" Alisha desperately pleaded.

"If I'm being insensitive then so be it. I'm not saying this for myself but for her. Niki, you don't want to get married and in an orthodox family which won't allow you to study further and most importantly work is a complete no. You don't wanna do this," she stated determinedly, "please don't do. Speak up, protest, try to make your parents understand. I'm sure they will." Inaaya requested.

"They won't." Nikita replied in a small voice, her gaze fixed on the empty glass as her index finger idly circled the rim. "And I can't disappoint them. I'd tried convincing them once and it's fine if they feel this is the correct decision. They're atleast allowing me to complete my graduation. I should be grateful. And then it's not like girls don't get married early and I don't want to upset my parents just like how they don't want to upset their elders."

"Stop speaking like ITV female leads." Inaaya scoffed. "Marrying early is okay. Not wanting to study further is fine. It's all good if you truly want it but that's not the case here. You want to study further, work on your start-up idea and obviously don't want to marry in a household where your identity gets restricted to someone's wife and daughter in law. And don't give me the bullshit of disappointing your parents. When parents decide to have a child, they also take upon the responsibility of taking care of them, their happiness and supporting them, not clipping off their child's wings before she even starts to fly."

Alisha slapped both her hands on the table. She was furious. The action attracted the attention of the few people who were sitting in the cafeteria. "It's nothing. Carry on with life." She instructed them and flashed a smile and they went back to their routine. She whipped her head to look at Inaaya. "Just because you and me have it easy doesn't mean everyone has too. Let her decide for her own life. You and me are no-one to constantly tell her what to do and what not to do. You aren't in her shoes." She said in a low terrifying voice.

Something flickered in Inaaya's eyes but it was gone soon before anyone could've noticed that look. "Easy for you to say that it has been easy, life has been easy when you haven't been in my shoes." There was an eerie calmness in her voice which confused the other two.

"What do you mean?" Alisha asked.

"Nevermind." She shrugged. "But if you think that I won't pester Niki with it everytime we meet then I apologise in advance cause I will. I'm going to try to make her take a stand for herself so she doesn't end up sacrificing herself for something as stupid as this ridiculous tradition and mindset and whatever it is."

"It's not easy." Nikita mumbled, a lump forming in her throat.

"And to live the rest of your life regretting the choice you made, blaming yourself for giving up when things could've been so much better if you had just for once decided to chose and prioritise yourself is even harder." Inaaya countered back in a soft voice.

Nikita watched her helplessly finding herself in a conflict. Her phone rang and she picked it up.

"I must leave now. I'd told my mother that I'll be home by 4 and I'm still at the college." She said and stood up wiping her hand with the tissue and picking up her bag. "Are you coming Alisha?"

"You go. I'll come later." Alisha replied and gave her a small smile.

"Okay then bye. Bye Inaaya." She waved at them.

"Bye. Take care." Inaaya said and hugged her and she went.

"Alisha, I'm not in mood of any lecture." Inaaya spoke and sat back on the chair before Alisha could speak anything.

"How hypocritical of you!" She mocked. "And it was fine to criticize and lecture Niki and ruin her somewhat decent mood? Stop bringing that topic again and again."

"Till when? Wait till the day of her wedding and then tell her what an awful life decision this is although she knows this all this while?" Inaaya chastised.

Alisha sighed. "It isn't like she's getting married tomorrow itself. There's time, 9-10 months atleast. The time she isn't at home is the only time when she is slightly happy and not worried about her future and everything and you constantly keep ruining it."

"I know you care for her Alish," Inaaya held her hands, "and I care for her too genuinely. But avoiding problems doesn't mean they stop existing. Niki, can't go about her life as if with every passing day, she's not losing her freedom a little bit and act as if nothing's wrong. It's better to speak up and put an end to all of this for once then letting the situation build up, wait for the climax like a fool when things are already down the drain. It doesn't work like that, it never does."

Alisha stared blankly for few seconds and then sighed. "Am I going to win with you?" She asked defeatedly and Inaaya's lips curled up a little and she shook her head. "You're too stubborn." Alisha rubbed her temple.

"We've been on opposite sides regarding almost everything and we've reached a point where it doesn't offend anyone of us."

"For the first time, we've had a conversation and not a full blown argument. That's an improvement I guess." Alisha smiled.

"Maybe." Mischief twinkled in Inaaya's eyes. "I'm going to annoy Niki so much that she won't have any choice but to vent out all her frustration to her parents. She's keeping in a lot which she isn't ready to even tell us."

"I really can't with you Inu." Alisha resigned.

Their conversation was interrupted with the ringtone of Inaaya's phone. She excused herself to talk.

After a while, she came back and picked up her bag. "The fresher's party we're arranging for the first year students which is in two days; we're falling short of some items and now I've to go and buy them. I'm so fed up." She threw up her hands and exhaled loudly.

Alisha laughed at her friend's state. "Go and have fun sweetie." She blew a flying kiss earning a glare in return.

"Bye." Inaaya said grumpily. "Aren't you coming?"

"I need to return a book in the library. I'll do that and leave." Alisha answered and waved her hand.

Inaaya nodded and left.

Inaaya, Alisha and Nikita weren't the best of friends especially not Alisha and Inaaya but they were good friends who certainly had good intentions for each other. The three of them had met during the debate competition in their first year and were together since then. Inaaya and Alisha have always had contrasting approaches to almost all situations, different opinions on almost all topics. It was unusual how even with so many differences, they were such good friends who never took offense and moved on as if it was nothing. It didn't make any sense to the people who watched them but that didn't matter.

Their friendship made sense to them and that was enough.

They could snap at each other, say some mean things, yell and shout and then after sometime, they would be back to world peace.

Inaaya was on a call with her team member who was telling her the list of things that needed to be brought. She was in a hurry. Her phone was balanced between her ear and shoulder while her hands were rummaging through her purse as she kept walking through the veranda without paying attention in front of her.

And then, she collided with someone. Her shoulders bumped against someone's, making her lose balance and drop her purse and phone.

"Shit!" The curse left her lips and she bent down to pick the money and phone that had fallen on the ground. Thankfully the phone's screen didn't have any crack or any other issues. She didn't see with whom she had crashed into. She was too busy to pay attention for that. The person who had had collided with her helped to pick the money and other small items scattered on the floor and put them into the purse.

"Thank you." Inaaya murmured hastily without looking up as she got up zipping her purse. She had taken a few steps forward when a voice made her halt.

"Hey! Stop."

The words, the voice ringed a sense of familiarity within her. She felt confused momentarily. Turning around, she looked at the person to whom the voice belonged.

Hazel brown eyes were looking at her, in her direction. A kind smile adorned the beautifully carved face.

"You dropped your handkerchief." He said. There was it, the voice again that was making her mind go into some deep thinking, pondering. And then, something internally kicked within her making her realise that she had important tasks at hand. She put all her thoughts at halt, erased them and brought her hand forward to take what belonged to her.

"Thank you." She said for a second time as she took the cloth from him making their fingers brush against each other unintentionally in the gentlest manner.

She turned away, shifted her attention back to the phone call and started walking while the guy stared at her till she disappeared from his sight with a sense of familiarity that the heart seemed to recognise but the mind failed to put together the pieces.

Again.

***

First chapter eeks! No proofreading so if there are any mistakes lemme know. And I desperately hope that y'all liked the chapter. Do vote and let me know your views and suggestions through comments :) lots of love.

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