I don't like you Neil D'Silva

*7*

"MAMA he is already getting on my nerves an we haven't even started fixing his restaurant yet, I just feel like strangling him. Ugh!" She lets out an exasperated sigh as her mother massages oil into her hair. Farah was currently sitting in her parents' living room watching Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, an Indian movie about three friends living their life on a Spain trip. "you know habibti, he was meant to be back in your life, its just written in your kismet," she rolls her eyes. It's like her kismet decided 'hey let's fuck Farah over by putting Neil back into her life,'

"yeah beta, you never know, you might fix things with him. How is he anyways?" Her dad asks as he walks into the kitchen with some samosas, chai, and jalebi's, a swirly sweet orange in colour and definitely Farah's favourite. "what if I don't wanna fix things with him?" She asks.

"well whatever happens, happens, you can't go against the universe," her mom gently massages her head and Farah feels all her stress vanishing away. What if they're meant to fix things, she thought. She's been having mixed feelings about him lately. In the two times that they've met each other, all she felt was how he annoys her, yet she wants him close, how he frustrates her but still wants to be around him, and how she shouldn't be having certain thoughts about him and yet all she wants to do kiss him. To steer the topic away from her, she says, "mama did you know Zarah has a new boyfriend?" Her sister, who is sprawled on the couch, turns to glare at her.

"Really Zarah?" Their father asks with a raise of an eyebrow. Zarah awkwardly smiles at him while Farah smirks. She knew Zarah wouldn't let her get away with this, but she desperately needed their parents to talk about something else, anything but Neil. "so tell us a little about him," her mom asks and Farah tunes out the conversation. All she could think about was Neil, which confused her. She thought of their high school days. They were the couple. Everyone would always come up to them and say 'I wish my relationship was like yours.' They had dated for almost 3 years; half the sophomore year although senior year. She really did wish at a point that Neil and her would make things work, but they couldn't. The relationship had become too much for them to handle. They didn't stop loving each other, but they both thought that they had lost themselves in loving the other. And so they thought that a mutual break up would do them good. If only she knew...

"what do you think Farah?" Her dad asks and she is brought back to reality. "huh?" She looks at him confused and he asks her again, "should we invite Vihaan for the function tonight?"

"yeah why not, but what function again?"

"well your cousin Fatema has her sangeet tonight," her dad says. A great thing about her parents marrying was the cultures getting mixed. Her Arab cousin Fatema wasn't engaged to an Indian, but god her mothers family loved their culture. And so Fatema was having a sangeet, a night wear people dress up and listen to music and dance their hearts out.

"oh right. Wait I didn't get my lehenga from the dry cleaning," Farah says, getting worried and frantic stood up and ties her hair, ready to leave the house.

"Don't worry, I already got it," her mom says.

Tonight's gonna be one heck of a night.

*****

The music blasts through the house, 'London Thumakda' from the movie Queen playing at the highest volume it possibly could play at. Farah's heart beat matched the beats of the song, her hands involuntarily covering her ear to block out the sound. She stood up from the couch, fixing her blue and silver lehenga (long flowing skirt) and the dupatta over her backless blouse. She stopped one of the servers and picks up the glass of champagne. In a corner, she spots Zarah in her baby pink and gold lehenga getting touchy with Vihaan, who had dressed up in a Salwar Kameez same colour as Zarah's do they could match. She rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. Cute, she thought.

She walks towards Fatema, her heels clicking on the hard tiled ground. This entire place was covered in red and gold decorations, with various flowers adorning the place. The place looked as if it was pulled straight out of a Bollywood movie.

"Farah!" Her aunt Jenny, her father's sister calls out. Her greying hair cut into a sleek bob bounced as she walked towards, her sari perfectly wrapped, "How're you beta? What have you been doing?"

"I'm good aunty, how're you? Well all I do is designs people's houses of course, what else could I do?" She awkwardly chuckles,

"ah yes of course but beta work won't always be there, you need a life partner, a shoulder to cry on you know?" There it is. Her aunt was trying to feed her the 'marriage, soulmate' bullshit. That's what all her aunts do, try to feed Farah the 'darling you're getting old now, find someone and settle please,". If her desi, brown aunties and uncles from her dad's side couldn't convince her, then her khalas and khalees from her mom's side would try to get their sons to marry her. Farah tried really hard not to roll her eyes, "do you know Frederick? Your uncle John's son, he's thirty years old, not that old, and he's an architect. Imagine the two of you working together, wouldn't it be great?" Farah awkwardly chuckles at that, trying to not seem rude as her aunt tried to be a match maker.

"actually aunty I do have a boyfriend," she says, making up a lie so her aunt would leave her alone,

"oh really, who is he? What's his name and did you bring him tonight?"

"His name is Neil Reed D'Silva and he's actually here tonight," oh fuck why'd I say that?

******
Sending love your way
HappyWatermelonKid•~•