Love Sounds Better

Chapter 1: I Met Him, And Shove Him In A Trash Can. Surprise?

(9 years back)

There were only three important things to my 9 year old brain right now.

I need to get out of this itchy Indian dress Ma put me in.

I need to get out of this astrologer's house, go home, and finish watching My Little Pony with Samira, my bestest friend.

I'm hungry, so I need to convince Ma to get food from outside. Preferably TacoBell.

Unfortunately, looking at my circumstances, I don't think any of the three are possible. Well none of them will be possible now. I'd have to wait until this "meeting" is over. Which is parent-talk for "let's sit and drink chai with this astrologer for a couple hours."

"Radha, the bindi has to be in between your eyebrows," Ma sighed, re-sticking the black circle sticker on my forehead as we approached the door of this astrologer's huge house. No, more like a mansion. This place was enormous. The size of a football field or two.

Ma and Pa both held each one of my hands and walked up to the gigantic maroon front door. Pa reached over to ring the doorbell, but I squeezed his hand. He looked at me with a question in his eyes.

"Do we have to? I don't think this is real, Pa, you know that. Can we just not?" I asked, for probably the millionth time.

"Whether you think it's real or not, there is no harm in giving it a try," Pa said, reassuringly squeezing my hand. Before I could argue, he rang the doorbell.

The door flung open, and we were greeted by a tall, skinny man. Very tall. Even taller than Pa.

"Sharma Ji! Kamala! Welcome, welcome! Please come inside, I've been waiting for you!" The man said, assuring us inside his house. He led us to a couch, where he introduced Ma and Pa to his wife. I wasn't paying attention to them though. I was just watching the man. He was the astrologer who would tell me my soulmate?

I smirked to myself. Yea right. Soulmates aren't real. I just want to get home and hang out with Samira. But then again, she would try to convince me soulmates are real because she picked out the camera. And apparently this astrologer knew who her soulmate was from picking out a camera. Like seriously?

"So, you are the Radha I've been hearing so much about," the man said, turning to me and holding out a hand. "I'm Vivan Shah. It's a pleasure to meet you, Radha. Almost every client of mine is talking about you: the cheerful, easy-going, lovable Radha Sharma. Looks like every boy wants to be your soulmate, huh?" he asked, grinning.

I shook the man's hand. "Two things," I said. "One, I'm not sure about how real this soulmate's business is. Two, should I just call you an astrologer?"

"Radha!" Ma chided, lightly tapping the top of my head. "Apologizes, she normally isn't this rude."

The astrologer just shook his head and laughed. "Don't worry. A lot of people don't really believe in soulmates when they first come here. And as for your other question, kids normally call me Uncle Viv."

Uncle Viv turned to his wife and said something in Hindi. She nodded and spoke to my parents in Hindi, as if explaining some instructions. That's all I could make out. And before you ask, no, I don't understand Hindi. Not yet. Only a very tiny bit. I caught the words "room," "Radha" obviously *eye roll*, and "match". So, from that, I concluded that they were going to start the "matching" process.

Great. Just what I was waiting for. But like honestly, I just want to do this stupid thing and get it over with. At least that way Ma and Pa would stop fussing about it and worrying about it.