One Shot: Soulmates
Aditya sighed, ignoring the noises around him in the canteen as he waited for his friends. He looked at his wrist, the place where, ideally, there should have been an initial printed in black ink. But Aditya didn't deserve having a soulmate, did he? He didn't deserve love. It was as if Fate itself had decided that Aditya was bound to have no one to love him.
When every child hit puberty, they would get a soulmate mark: The first initial of their soulmate's name. Almost everyone had one. In fact, people looked down on those who didn't have a soulmate mark.
And guess who had the honor of being mocked as the "Man who will die in his house alone with 30 cats"?
Sighing, he looked up to see Brinda and Ram enter the canteen, hand in hand. Aditya's heart did a backflip, but not in a good way. He loved Ram. He was his best friend, the only one who didn't judge Aditya for not getting a mark when he too had a mark and had always stopped people from bullying him. But his soulmate mark was a "B" and Brinda had a beautiful "R" on her wrist that lay below her silver bracelet.
"Hi Aditya," she said and sat opposite him.
"Dude, how did you finish the test so fast? It kicked me in my..." he looked at Brinda, who was looking away, pointedly, not wanting to hear anything about male parts.
"Legs." he continued, and Brinda laughed.
"It was easy. I finished with the Cost Sheet first because I knew I would waste my time on it. Kunal had told me that the problem could go lengthy."
"Uggh, I should have listened to him." Ram facepalmed.
"Yeah, but when he was teaching, you were busy bickering with Bri," he said and hoped that his voice didn't give away his annoyance at his friends' closeness.
Brinda looked at them in mock horror and gasped.
"Did you just say I am the reason why Ram will fail the test?" she asked and slapped him lightly. He winced, just to indulge the younger girl who shyly took her hand away.
Ram looked between the two and ducked his head, hiding a smile.
"I got to go. Vikrant and I need to meet Professor Roy. So Bri, can you give Aditya a lift?"
"What?"
"Ram!"
The two looked at him in shock, and he simply shrugged.
"You know Roy is going to keep us waiting and do all the corrections in the assignment. You will waste your time. Instead, Bri can drop you, and you can go study for tomorrow's test," he said as if it was no big deal.
Before the two could say anything, Ram bid his goodbyes, kissed Brinda's cheek, and ran out.
"It's fine, Brinda. I'll go by auto." Aditya said hurriedly. He went to the counter and paid for his tea.
He turned to look at Brinda, her arms crossed across her chest.
"Does my bike have rats on it?"
"No," he replied, confused
"Do I ride my bike rashly?"
"No," he answered cautiously.
"Then why will you go by auto? I'll drop you, come on," she held his hand and pulled him out of the canteen. And Aditya wished she didn't. Because a simple touch like that caused a current to pass through his entire body, and he could hear his heart pounding against his ribs. He looked at Brinda, her hair let down, and her eyes darkened with kohl, while her silver bracelet made soft noises as the trinkets hanging from it hit against each other.
The whole ride back home was just Brinda whining about her test. Being a year junior to the other boys, she didn't really take the internal test as seriously as the others took, but still, apparently promising to put a question in the test and then not putting it was enough for Professor Jha to be on Brinda's hitlist.
He couldn't help but look at her through the rearview mirror. He didn't speak much, just gave her short replies and hmms when it felt appropriate, and instead enjoyed the small amount of time he could, with his crush, before she would go back to Ram, her soulmate.
They reached outside his apartment complex in 45 minutes, and she horned at the guard who waved at her and opened the gates. She stopped the bike below his building and took off her helmet.
"Should I come to pick you up tomorrow?"
She asked as he got down. He looked at her and gulped nervously.
"It's fine. I am sure Ram can come to pick me up."
She nodded and started her bike. But then she stopped and got down.
"Aditya, is something wrong?"
"No, of course not," he replied quickly, ignoring how his heart dropped to his stomach at her concern.
"I am just worried about tomorrow's test,"
"Liar, tomorrow you have Accountancy, and it's your favorite subject," Brinda said and pursed her lips. He looked at her in surprise, and he could feel the tears prick in his eyes. Why was she this nice? It was impossible to love her, as it is, and she was only making him fall for her more, and he would fall in love with his best friend's soulmate.
"Brinda, I... I really need to go. I am sorry," he stammered and turned on his heels. He almost dashed to the lift of the building and didn't look at Brinda. She was still standing there, and she glanced at him. She sighed and sat on the bike. Aditya watched her start her bike as the lift's door closed.
~*~
It was past 11 o'clock in the night when he heard something hit against his room's window. He opened it to see that Brinda stood outside his building holding something in her hand. It was a rock, and she was aiming at him. She looked at him and lowered her hand down.
"Come down!" she signed, and he looked at her in shock.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Come down, or else I am coming up," she signed in answer.
Aditya facepalmed and ran into the living room.
"Maa, can I go out for a walk? I am feeling a bit stuffy in the room."
His mother nodded, distracted by the ongoing TV show. He closed the door behind him and ran down to the lift, pressing the button with more force than required. If Brinda lost her patience and went to his apartment, then it would have been his judgement day.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her as he pulled her in a corner so that no one saw them.
"I wanted to talk to you,"
"Are you mad?"
"I am mad? Seriously? You are the one who gives importance to some stupid letter printed on our wrists, and I am mad?" she yelled, and he shushed her.
"What are you talking about?"
"Vikrant told me why you are avoiding me," she snarled. Aditya realized she had reached her tipping point, and now he had to brace himself for yelling or beating from her.
"I don't know what you are talking about," he tried, but she glared at him. He knew what she was talking about. When they were in the second year, which was Brinda's first year, Aditya had drunkenly confessed to Vikrant that he had a crush on her. Vikrant had, to his credit, hidden this news from the other two boys and Brinda for a year.
"How did you find out?"
"He told me by mistake," Brinda shrugged, and Aditya raised his eyebrow suspiciously. With Brinda, there was no such thing as a mistake, it was all bullying and threatening.
"Fine, I threatened to tell his mother about the letters he had written to the first-year student," she said and looked down.
"But that's not the point. The point is that you are being stupid," Brinda looked at him, and unlike the usual anger, there was sadness in her eyes, as if she was disappointed in him.
"Brinda, you have an R on your wrist, and Ram has a B. What am I to make out of it?" he asked dejectedly.
"Do you even know how this whole thing works?" she asked, and he looked at her in confusion.
"It's not always romantic love, Aditya. It can be platonic too. Did you think that Ram is interested in me like that?" She asked and rubbed her forehead as if to massage away a headache.
"He isn't?"
"Obviously no, you idiot! And neither am I! I love him, he is the best, but just as friends. We never saw each other beyond friends, maybe as siblings, but that's it. I thought it was obvious," she said, and he looked at her, thinking of all the times Ram and Brinda held hands, or he would kiss her forehead or cheek. She looked at him, and her eyes widened.
"Oh... That's why you thought that we were..." she asked him. It was as if she had read his mind. He nodded and looked down, ashamed of himself.
"We are both touchy people, so we tend to overdo it, but trust me, I don't like him that way, and neither does he," Brinda said and held his hand. He looked at her with tears in his eyes. He couldn't believe it.
"Aditya, I know you believe in this soulmate thing, but you need to understand that I don't. For me, relationships that are made based on mutual love and respect matter more than the fated ones." she air quoted the word fated.
"I should have known. Not even fate can decide for you," he rolled his eyes fondly.
"You know me, taking names, kicking fate," she said, with some arrogance in her voice. This would have seemed rude to anyone else, but Aditya found it endearing.
"That means that you like me?" he asked, still unsure that someone like him could have someone who loved him.
"Yes, you idiot," she said and hit him in his stomach. He chuckled and clutched at his stomach.
"I like you, too, Bri," he said and blushed.
The two looked at each other and then looked away, their cheeks flushed red.
"So can I come to pick you up tomorrow?" she asked, and he nodded shyly.
"Good night, Adi,"
"Good night, Bri," he said. She hugged him, and he felt his heartbeat so fast that he would get a heart attack.
"I'll see you tomorrow," she said and looked up at him, and he nodded. She gave him another hug and ran out of the complex. He watched as she thanked the watchman and got into a car. He then looked closely at the driver. It was Ram waving at him, and then he hugged Brinda.
Aditya couldn't help but chuckle. Only Brinda could have managed to get Ram to drive all across half the Mumbai this late at night just to propose to him.
Sighing, he skipped to the lift with a small smile on his face. He couldn't wait to spend the next day with his friends and girlfriend.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two are sho cute, I just love how Adi looks at Bri proudly when she does something and I stand by my belief that BriRa are platonic soulmates who would have married each other at 40 had they not found Aditya and Priya respectively.
I love soulmate stories, but I feel that such marks, or being destined to fall in love with just one person doesn't give people the chance to explore and find other people to fall in love, thereby holding them down.
Also, I am not a commerce student, so I have no idea about their subjects. If you think I made Ram swear a bit, it's because I noticed that my male classmates tend to swear more if they get comfortable around you, irrespective of your gender, and I think it holds true for all college going men (they get older and learn to control their tongue, that's a given)
Let me know what you think in the comment section.
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