The Arrangement

Chapter Thirteen: Laid Bare

I stared at the lehenga in horror.

"You-you want me to wear this?"

The girl standing next to me beamed. I didn't know what her name was, but everyone here pretended to know each other, so I did too.

"It's what all the dancers will be wearing. The outfits need to match."

"Right." I looked down at it again. The top of the lehenga was more of a bra. I'd seen clothes like this in Bollywood movies. The gray blouse covered mostly the chest, while the stomach and most of the back were open. To make up for the simple blouse, the skirt was big, flowing and detailed with silver and red sequins on the border, and red and white flowers embroidered on the rest of the skirt. Sparkling stones were added to the flowers in shades of charcoal and rose. The veil to wear with it was just as big as the skirt, and patterned with the same flowers.

It was beautiful, but all I could think about were my tattoos.

"It's... quiet revealing," I murmured.

The girl seemed puzzled. "Everyone is wearing this. If you wear something else, you'll be the odd one out."

I nodded, and that was enough for her. She rushed out of the room as if  eager to leave. I could hear the bustling of people outside. This whole situation was terribly familiar for me.

We were in Delhi, staying in Kunj's house.

His daughter was getting married, an occasion that would last a whole week. Today was just the first day. Lips pursed, I sat down and ran my hands over the material. Somehow, Jayanti and Darshan had roped me into doing a dance performance with the rest of the girls. They told me it would be easy to remember, and that a couple of hours to learn it was all I needed.

I'd seen performances at the weddings I had gone to in America, but I'd never been part of one. I was elated that they'd even considered having me do it without seeing whether I could dance or not (I can't, but that's not the point). Seeing the lehenga I would wear though, caused a ripple of apprehension in me.

I'll cover myself with the veil, I told myself. I'll figure it out, but I really want to be part of this dance.

If I was being honest with myself, the dance was just something I needed to take my mind off what had happened at home.

The beauty shop I had done an interview at had hired me. I was supposed to start this week. And then, Kunj appeared at our home one day with an invitation to her daughters wedding. He'd brought his wife and daughter along with him, both beautiful and youthful. The daughter, Sanjana, was a tiny girl. Her skinny frame made her look like she was around eighteen years old, though I assumed she was older. The whole time she'd been at our place, her eyes never met anyone's, and her head remained bowed. She seemed like a really shy girl.

After they'd left, I told Jayanti about the job.

"I don't know, Aditi," she had said. "It'll look bad if you don't come to the wedding. Why don't you speak to Darshan?"

I didn't want to speak to Darshan. It's why I had gone to her. But Darshan was the man of the house, and he decided everything, so I had no other choice.

"No," the man had said immediately. "It'll be rude if you don't come. Think about how it'll look on our family."

"But..." I hesitated. "Nobody else is hiring me. I can't risk-."

"Then you'll just have to keep searching."

When I'd looked into Darshan's eyes, I saw the gleam in there. He was happy to take to this away from me, and I knew why. It meant we would fall one step behind in moving out.