OS Series - Songbirds [P10 : Pg3] - Page 2

7. Onions and Weeping Willows

Her closed palms lay on her beaded wedding skirt. Her veil is withdrawn now revealing her swollen pink eyes and puffed-up face. He is sitting across her surrounded by the elders. The news has spread like a wildfire that he had to marry the younger sister.

The eldest of the family - his grandparents and parents, his maternal and paternal uncle aunts are all here to counsel the two of them.

‘What is done is done. Now that you both are bound in holy matrimony. Try and live together with each other.’

He nods solemnly, his eyes fixed on his bride. She sits with an impassive face, her shoulders weighed down with traditions and other embellishments and perhaps the grief - the suddenness of an unwanted marriage.

‘Are you okay, child?’ His mother asks her. She nods wordlessly.

‘It is her who had to suffer the most,’ his grandmother whispers to others.

‘Go and take rest.’ Considering the circumstances, the rest of the ceremonies have been canceled.

In his - their room, he removes the piece of cloth that he had been wearing around his neck since the pheras.

It is late evening when he returns from the washroom freshened up and changed into a half sleeve button-down shirt and pants. She is sitting on the middle of the bed decked in wedding finery and his heart smashes against the ribcage. And, she is still sobbing.

Running a towel over his head, he wanders off to the balcony of the room to put the towel over the drying stand.

He returns and she has still not moved.

‘I am not an onion, you know.’ He says.

She wrinkles her brows and raises her eyes.

‘You’ve been crying since the moment you stepped into my company. The only other object known to cause such discomfort to a person's eyes is the aforementioned vegetable. And, I’d like to believe I am not an onion.’

‘Oh, please be rest assured, you are not.’ She says between her sniffs. ‘But it seems you’ve married a weeping willow.’

What happened exactly? Did the other sister run away?

He actually lucked out. But the bride was not expecting this.

This interesting GN!!

I read all the chapters just now, loved it. Short and very sweet.

I was thinking Reema might run away from her wedding.

I definitely didn't expect her to elope with the groom's brother 😜

I wish he had not thrown away those Jhumkis though. He would have been able to gift them to her now. But he was just being Yudhishtir..... sigh.

Hope he is able to make her fall for him soonish,

Per kya pata woh Pehele hi usse pyaar karti ho per Keh nahin payi

Cool story 👍

Thank you for your likes and comments on the previous chapters, friends. 😊 I have changed the names. I hope it doesn't bother y'all since mostly I have used pronouns to address them.

8.Confession

‘Are you going to sleep?’ She asks. She has changed into a short plain suit with puffy sleeves.

‘Yes, I think so,’ he replies, beating his pillow. Both the bedsheet and pillowcase are of somber pink color. ‘The wedding was exhausting.’ He lays the pillow in the middle of the bed, then remembering his changed status, scoots to the side.

‘But how can you?!’ She is exasperated. Her long dark locks frame her round face that glows as a consequence of the bride's sister’s facial regime.

‘Umm. I will just lay down here, close my eyes and wait for the sleep to engulf me.’

His answer infuriates her.

‘Our life has been ruined. You were supposed to marry the elder sister and you are here with the younger one,’ Her flailing arms cut angry movements in the air. ‘Don’t you feel cheated? How can you even talk about sleeping?’

‘Then what do you want to talk about?’ His is calm and composed and it irks her.

‘This!’ She exclaims. ‘Our marriage!’

‘What about it?’ He asks.

The house unlike a wedding house sleeps silently.

‘I do not like it! You were supposed to be my brother in law and now ...and now this!’ Her face looks torn and disgusted. ‘It is so wrong. So wrong!’

‘I understand,’ he says.

‘You do right? You find this uncomfortable and disgusting too, right? That I became your wife?' New hope lights her face. ‘Why did you say yes? Your single no would have saved us.’

‘Why did you say yes?’ He counters.

‘Because...because my father asked me to. My parents were all broken...I could not say no,’ she sighs. ‘I wish I had. At that time the marriage didn’t seem so real. But now it does. Now, in this room, alone with you...as I think about the days ahead of us… and the nights...Why did you say yes?!’ She asks impassionately.

‘Because I wanted to marry you,’ he replies with a straight face.

‘You what?’ She sputters.

‘I liked you the first time I saw you and couldn’t stop thinking about you.’

She steps back in horror.

‘Shut up! Please...Shut up! You are my sister’s fiancee!’

‘I was. Now I am your husband.’

‘How despicable! How disgusting of you! You were engaged to my sister. You were supposed to like her!’

‘It was the most disgusting thing to do, indeed. I, therefore, erased you from my mind and did try very honestly to be loyal to your sister. Had we gotten married, she would have had both my heart and mind. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But, the irony here is she ran away. With my brother.’

‘Your brother ran away with my sister,’ she corrects him.

He shrugs. ‘Same thing. Now, our parents tell me to marry you. Why should I have declined when I was being assured of your acceptance of this relation?’

‘Disgusting man! I hate you,’ she announces unable to find the right words to express her emotions.

‘Why am I a disgusting man when I simply said yes to a marriage which my heart truly accepted.’

‘Stop it, will you! I don’t want to hear any of it! Don’t tell me what your heart wants or accepts,’ She stomps to the balcony.

His eyes follow her. He wonders what his next course of action should be. Should he go off to sleep? Or should he apologize? But for what? She needed answers, he gave them to her.

Marriage should start with truths, he had heard it repeated in so many movies.

Sighing, he picks his pillow and duvet and starts making his bed on the floor.

‘The bed is yours,’ he says out loud. Then switches off the lights barring the bulb in the balcony.

The floor is hard and cold. Her words were harsher.

Is he truly a disgusting man?

When she comes back into the room, he says, ‘I was assured of your assent. But now that I think about it, I should have asked for an audience with you. Should have personally asked for your opinion. Please accept my sincere apology.’

She scoffs climbing on the bed. ‘What use it is of now?!’

‘And don’t act as if you’re sorry,’ she peers down at him, her middle parting filled broadly with saffron vermillion. ‘You just confessed to being an opportunist.’

‘At least I am an honest opportunist. There is hope,’ he replies.

‘I want this marriage dissolved! I cannot see you as my husband! Not after the knowledge that you were supposed to be my brother-in-law.’

His heart caves in.

She slips into a peaceful sleep immediately while he tosses all night.

The situation is uncomfortable but there is no easy way to make it better. The siblings ran away and they will be back sooner or later.

At least he was very honest with her. He did try. She needs to see that.

9. Cute Devil and Me

When he wakes up, the sun has still not risen. She hadn’t closed the balcony last night and from where he lay on the floor, he can see the darkness of the sky.

He feels the darkness settle upon the mornings of his life, too.

‘I want the marriage to dissolve,’ she had said.

To find a reprieve from the cricks in his neck and shoulders, he turns on another side, when the dazzle of a light forces open his lids.

He gets up to see that she isn’t sleeping. Rather, her eyes are focused on her laptop screen as she sits on her stomach, scrolling down the internet page.

She’s so engrossed that she doesn’t feel him getting up. It makes him stand on his knees, pad closer, and peer at her screen. He hopes it is not some boyfriend or secret lover she’s sharing her grief with.

Not wanting to be married to him because he was her sister’s fiancee and not wanting to continue being married because she has someone else in her life are two very different things. The former is bearable; the latter, heartbreaking.

He sees on her screen though, animated pictures in white and black taking up the entire page. A boy - supposedly a boy - with half his face covered in hair. One of his eyes is missing. Then there is a girl with a straight fringe running across her face. It is so long it goes past her maxi dress. She has no eyes. In one picture they are standing apart. In the next, he’s breathing on her neck, causing small strokes of line to appear on her cheeks

There are text boxes filled with dialogues. He reads one to get a proper context.

‘You will not wear this for others. Remember, only I can see you. Only I get to undress you.’ is written in dark bold letters.

Her fingers move to the small square of her laptop to scroll when she finally feels someone. Looks back, and taken aback by his face up so close, she yelps, scooting back in fear.

‘You! You scared me! What are you doing?’

‘You weren’t asleep. I was just curious to see what you were doing.’ He replies, unfazed.

‘Is that some sort of graphic novel?’ He asks.

She flicks the laptop shut, extinguishing the only light in the room.

‘I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I was reading a manga.’

‘Oh, okay.’ He replies backing off. His eyes, having adjusted to the dark, he can now see her. ‘Interesting piece it was. What is it called?’

‘Cute Devil and me,’ she murmurs.

‘What?’

‘It was just something random I picked up. Good night.’

‘It’s almost morning,’ he corrects her. ‘And if you are reading and not sleeping, can you take the ottoman and give me the bed.

‘Take it. It’s all yours,’ she says while hurrying down the bed. What kind of groom snatches away the bed from a bride in the middle of the night? She thinks. I was just about to go back to sleep. How insensitive!

‘Or if you want,’ he interrupts her stewing. ‘If you want you can share the bed with me. I will take only one side. Rest is yours.’

She is still sulking. His request was fair. Looks like no boyfriend in the picture.