A Few Hundred Poppies

10. Deshi Weddings Pt. 2 : Wedding Kachchi

"WHAT?!" Earning several turned heads, I bit my tongue. We stood by the balcony of the high-ceilinged hall with its avant-garde decor, detached from the simmering crowd of relatives and family friends. I lowered my voice to a hush, "What? No, Fariah! Fucking no!"

Fariah grimly tapped the floor with her heels. I eyed them with jealousy - Ma never let me wear pencil heels, she said that it makes people conceited, which is pure bullsit. "Well, Zayan seemed to hit it off with you at Fiona Api's wedding. It seemed fishy to me too when he bitched about you like that," she muttered, tapping her lip with her index. "Did something happen between you two?"

As I struggled to answer the question, to my relief, a figure appeared beside me to save me. I was low-key getting mad at continuously being the damsel in distress, by the way, but West's look quelled my chagrin and invoked appreciation.

"Hi, Fariah," West greeted, settling into a comfortable stance beside me. The teal shirt peeking from under his black coat was a shade lighter than my knee-length kameez. Dang, he looks good in everything.

Fariah uneasily muttered a 'hi' and departed after asking me to join the rest of the cousins with West.

I motioned for him to follow me into the balcony, a furtive look ensuring that Bapi was busy enough at the other end of the large hall with his cousins. Ma had said that she was feeling nauseous, so she couldn't come. I knew, of course, that the real reason was that she didn't want to go through another night of snobbish aunties showing off their diamond necklaces.

"You know, when you said that Zayan was bitching about me, you could've mentioned that he was going around telling people that he saw us have sex,"  I said. It had sounded less embarrassing in my head. I couldn't help the warmth from coating my cheeks and ears while

West scratched the side of his neck. "What can I say, I'm an old-fashioned man."

I raised an eyebrow at him, unable to help a small smile. "None of the grown ups have heard this, though, right?"

Before West could reply, our attention was stolen by a conversation commencing in the corner behind the curtains of the balcony. "Aditi would never do that, her imaan, her belief in religion is stronger than that. Why are you after her, huh?" A high-pitched voice ranted, and I marvelled at Fariah's belief in me.

West smirked slyly. Uh oh. He pulled the curtains open in a swift motion to reveal Fariah trying to pry her svelte hand out of Zayan's clutch.

"Do what?" West snapped with the solemnity of an approaching storm. Zayan stared stupidly at West, then at me (who was glaring at him with all her strength) and back at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, lowered his head, and scuttled away across the room.

"A mess, isn't he?" West muttered, loud enough for Fariah and I. Both of us nodded in agreement.

"I'll, I'll go," Fariah said distractedly, heading for the washrooms.

"Don't worry," West began, pushing the curtains to their former width so that we were shadowed from everyone's view. "He didn't have the guts to tell the grownups after your cousins lashed out at him like that."

I nodded, biting my lip. After a moment, he treaded, "You know, Aditi Rashid, I think I just found the perfect plan to teach that psycho a lesson," half a smirk began to etch itself across West's features. "Fariah is your aunt's daughter, right? So she wouldn't lay a finger on her if she were to, say, leak some information about Zayan Elahi?"

My eyes widened with the epiphany. Why didn't I think of this before? Oh wait, I used to think that Fariah hates me.

"West, I could fucking kiss you right now." I blurted out, and his smirk grew into a pleased smile.