The Unnecessary Alliance

THE SANGEET

Make sure to drop tonnes of comments🥹. They are finally getting their happy ending.

VANIE's POV

My eyes move frantically around the crowd  in hope of seeing the man I am marrying, but he is nowhere to be seen. Ishani and Rooh sit next to me, asking me to pose for the camera, but I can't. I can't seem to sit still and bring my focus to the cameraman. My eyes keep wandering away from the lens in his search.

It's our sangeet and mehendi today and I made it quite clear to him on the call yesterday that he cannot be late after I forced him to wear traditional clothes. He was acting like a little child and refusing to wear the fancy Kurta I had picked out for him, but a little silent treatment worked like a charm. All I had to do was ignore two of his calls, pout and there was his text sitting on my screen.

I will wear whatever you choose for me.

So, I had a matching sherwani, which I had picked along with my outfit a few days back, sent to Avinash's place.

It's an emerald colour sherwani with a vest on the top that has intricate golden details. It matches with my emerald lehenga, which has pink flowers, leaves and flamingos embroidered on the skirt and feathers on the blouse.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, four days ago Dadi had Aadi leave his own house. She had his bags packed and threw him out of the house. Because according to her we might have moved in after the engagement, but we are going to do the wedding the right way. And the right way included my man living two blocks away from me.

So, it's been me and the girls for the last four days. They have terrorised the place. Every night there is either a movie marathon going on or random dance practices. They argue over steps, they fight and then make up within seconds. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. I look forward to see them bickering. And the best part about 'I can't be with Aadi' rule is sneaking.

Sneaking out of the room, while all of the girls sit and chat, to call him or send him a picture has been quite exhilarating. Every time they catch me texting him they start teasing me and no matter how much I pretend to hate it, I secretly love it when they tease me with his name or pry me for more details.

Not just that, in the past few days every time he sneaked into the house, they all would tease him. Ishani even asked him to pay if he wanted to meet me. And he paid. When he entered the room last night I felt the thrill of doing something forbidden. So, after Dadi caught us holding each other, while our tongues did their naughty business, she  came up with the no touching rule. She told us yesterday, "The two of you should be 10 feet apart at all times and never alone. There should always be a third person present keeping an eye on you, spoiled brats."

And then she threw Aadi out of the house.

I was disappointed when everybody teamed up against him and pushed him out. My poor baby. But at the same time I also had this wholesome feeling in my chest that engulfed me like a warm blanket. This is the family I have always wanted. This is everything I could ever ask for. If it were for my parents I would have been sitting in some designer outfit and posing for pictures while greeting guests I didn't even know.

And I am glad that I chose not to invite them. But I did want to invite Swastik. No matter how rocky my relationship has been with him, he is still my brother.

I even had an invitation sent to him, because what  my parents did had nothing to do with him. Throughout the years it was our parents who pitched us against each other, compared us and shadowed his every mistake. But, he couldn't come. At least that's what Aadi told me. He said that Swastik was starting his masters in America and needed to be there. But I strongly believe that he deliberately chose to fly away. And I can't help but feel a little bit of disappointment.