Blooming Flower ✔️

Chapter 9: Hiccup

The countdown to Irfan's wedding reception started a few days ago. At that time, we had two weeks to go. Two dreadful weeks that I knew would pass by too quickly, and then before I knew it, my sunshine's rays were going to be moving to another city to brighten up other people's lives. I hoped that wherever he'd be, the people around him would be blessed with the positivity that radiated with every step that Sunny took.

    But, even though that thought weighed down on the back of my mind, I tried to ignore it as I was over at Jen's house a lot, hanging out with her siblings, throwing spirals with her brothers, or braiding her sister's hair. Either way, it was always fun, and it was a good distraction to the thought that he was going to be leaving.

Because Jen was a lot more available than Manish was, now that he had to clean out a lot of his stuff that was in his room so that it could be shipped off to Seattle. Of course, this gave us no reason to not be in contact, but it was easier to talk to someone who wasn't losing his mind slowly over his possessions.

"So, anyways, are your parents moving Irfan off of his ass so that he can actually do some work for the reception?" I asked Jen, as I smoothed out Hiba's hair so that I could practice French braiding on it. I took the comb and ran it through her slightly naturally curled hair so that it could be freed up a little bit. If I learned how to do it on Jen's sister, then it could help me do it on myself so that I didn't end up creating a bird's nest in my own hair.

Jen chuckled, and said, "Oh yeah. Irfan's finally getting off of his lazy ass so that he can help a little bit. My parents are absolutely in love with Mallika as their daughter in law, and to be fair, I don't blame them. She's so wonderful. Irfan scored way out of his league."

Hiba chuckled from under my fingers, and said, "Didn't he? I mean, like, he always scored pretty girls, but pretty girls with a good personality? Yeah, he got way too lucky this time." We all laughed over it, as I separated a curl from Hiba's head.

Then, we heard footsteps come up to Jen's door, and then, a knock came at it. "Jen, you in here? Hiba?" the familiarly deep voice of Irfan inquired.

Jen gave a slight smile, but with her eyes widened, as she said, "Yeah, I'm in here. Jaya's here, too." She looked at me, and quickly mouthed, "Speak of the devil."

"Oh, Jaya's here?" he asked, as the door swung open. I smiled at Irfan, who looked pretty much the same since the first time I met Jen's family over 8 years ago. His thinning hair was combed neatly, and his strong jaw and pale skin was a slight contrast to Jen's slightly tanned skin. His mellow face remained nonchalant, despite the fact that Jen and I were literally joking about his love life a few minutes ago.

He gave me a slight smile, and said, "How are you, Jaya? It's been a while."

I smiled back at him, and said, "Oh, I'm okay. Congrats on your wedding! I'm just getting ready for medical school." Irfan's face droops with empathy as he realizes that we're going to be stressing ourselves even more for the next 4 years with school and an excessive amount of lectures, exams, and yelling.

"Wow, that's not fun. Rest in peace, girl. Jen's not going to like it either. She couldn't even handle a college level French class, yet she thought she could go into medical school." Jen gave him an eye roll, as Hiba tucked a curl behind her ear.

Mallika came walking by the door, and the fresh air of beauty blew in the room like a cool breeze. Her perfectly tanned skin, along with her pale pink lips and high cheekbones was a definite contrast to Irfan, although a rather pleasant one.

Mallika looked at me, with a big smile on her face, and said, "Jaya! How are you?"

I smiled back at Mallika, and said, "I'm doing great, Mallika. How about you?"