Akdha FF- |Married To A Stranger...| Chapter 2- Page 16. (8.1.16) - Page 12

Guess who decided to update.😆 Well the chapter was almost ready, just some bits were left that  I finished after being greatly inspired by this great writer here- Aisha!!❤️ So of course, this update is for our friendship.. Miss you.😃

Okay, this one's also totally for you guys, yeah, you! You all have made me feel so loved and appreciated, its quite surreal to be honest, and, you all have also given me a reality check of some sort whenever needed.

I don't know what I would do without you. To those who lost interest, I'm sorry. I didn't really thought it would take this long..😲

And well the chapter is NOT proof readed.. so yeah😆

Chapter-2

Following the announcement of the flight that had just arrived on the airport, a young guy, probably a fresh college graduate came into their view as the girls let out a high pitched shriek.

"Augustus!!" Jodha squealed, jumping up from her seat and rushing towards him. Throwing her arms around him, she laughed as he replied. "Missed me much?"
"No, I was really busy to even think about you.." She replied, her sass fully on as she smirked. "You haven't changed."
"Neither have you." She retorted, before taking in his appearance.

Okay, so maybe he has changed a bit. His hair were no longer gelled to perfection, instead were worn down- a messy and unkempt look she was sure she'll adore in no time. After all, it suited his personality, and not to mention that she thought his brown hair were way better when kept down.

Dressed in a comfortable Tee and his favorite pair of jeans, he pulled off an effortless look. His golden-brown eyes twinkled a bit as he scrutinized her, looking cute in her light blue top and white shorts.

"Come on, let's go.. college is over for the day and you sure have got lots to catch up on!" She informed, and Erica casted a glance at him. She'd never been too fond of him, his rude comments and snarky behaviour always got in the way. But with this new style, he looked a bit.. nice?

Stop it Erica. He's the same self obsessed guy you met an year ago. Nothing has changed!

"Hello there.." He grinned at Erica as she took an involuntary step back. "It's been a long time, eh?"
"An year." She answered politely.

"That's a lot of time.. what's up?" He winked at her. She found it incredibly hard to stay unaffected when this supposed rude' boy was being so nice, and even flirtatious to her. Where has the guy who called her names and asked her to start dieting gone?

It's not just you.. he probably does it with every girl he meets.

"Let's leave?" Jodha stated, more as a question as she witnessed the two enemies being annoyingly polite to each other. Or so she thought.

"Yeah.." Both answered in unison, and Jodha locked eyes with Christie before walking out of the airport.

~~~

"The joy of freedom..." Remarked Jodha as they entered the apartment rented by Christie and Augustus. They'd decided to take a year's break and had come flying down to India. Their jobs, however were unaffected as they worked from home.

"An apartment of your own? That's so cool!" Erica smiled, her eyes roaming all around the living room before finally getting caught with another golden-brown ones.

"I know.. We can hang out here, it'd be fun!" He suggested, looking a bit nervous as he expected a response to his idea.

"We?" She questioned, her eye brow shooting up.

"Yeah.. we.. Like me, you and the others maybe?" He smiled a bit at her embarrassed face.

Of course he meant all of you. Not you and him, alone. Her sub-conscience taunts her as she looks away.

Once done with the setting up of the apartment, which included breaks and snack sessions after every 15 minutes, they all plopped down on the floor.

"Okay so, Jo tell me about you and Mr. So In Love?" Christie threw the much awaited question as Erica spotted what she suspected was a hint of uneasiness in Jodha's eyes. But then again, she can never be sure about her.

"That's not a really big thing, Chris. He was being such a nerd, and it felt wrong. It was like it wasn't meant to be, we weren't meant to be. And..."

"And?" Augustus prodded further as Erica bit her lip. She was having a hard time trying not to look at him. It was stupid, she never felt any of this before. Must be his stupid hair. She tried to reason with herself.

"And I never really liked him that much, I guess. He was being unreasonably stupid, and expecting me to support him or something. I didn't want to be with him anymore." She breathed.

"Oooh.." The group said in understanding as Jodha gave a small smile to all of them. "what about you and Chase? Still going strong, yeah?" She smirked as Christie blushed a bit.

"He's no fun!" Augustus complained, his hands up in the air as Christie swatted his arm. "No he's not!"

"Whatever you say, little one.." He teased, messing her hair up as Jodha and Erica laughed at the sight of Chris' hair sticking up in all directions.

~~~

"The Mall? This is your secret place' or whatever crap you called it?" Jalal asked surprised as he steps out of the car, Edward behind him.

"Mom asked me to help you buy something... like a new shirt or stuff..." He shrugged and watched as Jalal's frown deepened.

"I don't need new clothes, and if I do I can surely get them myself. We're getting out, now." He pulled out his aviators from his pocket and slipped them on, earning an awe inspired glance from his younger brother.

In a twisted, Edward inspired way, he looked up to his elder brother.

"But where will we go if not for here? If not for shopping, let's go and eat at McDonalds?" He suggested, and Jalal agreed after a minute of contemplation.

In the years that he'd been away from India, Jalal had changed a lot. He was no longer the shy, nerdy teen guy he was when he left for the UK. Not that he'd become a party animal, but he sure loved parties more than books now. Maybe the effect of London, or a change he'd deliberately sought- he wasn't sure. When he left the country, he'd made a promise to himself, he would change. And he did.

"Here's McDonalds, let's go in?" Edward suggested as Jalal nodded, walking in before him.

"He hasn't changed much." The younger brother concluded.

"So he says, yeah I didn't... anything wrong?' and Ms. Young stares at him like she's seen a bloody ghost, and the whole class goes ooohh... It was awesome, I tell you!" Edward gossiped, taking no notice of his elder brother who didn't appear as interested as him in his college stories.

"Are you done with your burger?" Jalal asked, sparing him a glance as Edward casted him a weird look. "My drink isn't finished, I'm not going without finishing it!"
"so much for a responsible college student.." Jalal muttered under his breath.

Fifteen minutes later, after Edward had finished sipping on the remnants of his coke, Jalal strolled out, followed by his younger brother.

"Where to now, sir?" he joked as Jalal made a face at his jibe. "You're stupid."
"Stupidity is far more fascinating than intelligence. After all, intelligence has its limits."

His head tilted a bit to the side, and he replied- "where did you get that from?"
"I'm a man of intellectuality." He grinned proudly as Jalal shook his head.

"You wish.."
"I wish for a lot of things, a lot really. I wish for a perfect girl for me- the one who'll know which cheesy line I'm going to say to her. I wish for a never ending supply of food. I wish for an awesome career which doesn't require a lot of work, and of course.." He winked, "I wish for a mind blowing sister in law."
His eyes widened a little, as he averred,  "Alright that's enough. We need to go back, now."

"How about I show you around Delhi a bit more and then we head back? It's still early."
After thinking it through, Jalal agreed. "I'm not sitting in this car a minute after 8, that's it."

"Bummer.." Teased Edward.
Raising an eyebrow, he shot a glare at his mischievous brother who wisely decided to shut up for the remainder of the day.

~~~~

Christie's Apartment

Browsing through her phone, Jodha's attention is diverted when Christie begins another of her spiritual' talks. "You know, Erica.. we're all connected to each other in some way, it's a special way.."
Erica looked at Jodha, amused and awaited her sarcastic response which she knew was bound to come.

"Yeah, through facebook. I know.." Jodha smirked at her guess as Christie aimed a pillow at her.

"No idiot, its called- the human soul connection. We are part of something much bigger than just ourselves.."
"Oh right... she's talking about twitter." She donned a serious face and battled Chris' murderous glare.

"Can you let me talk for a second?"
"For what? Listen to you go on and on about this stupid soul thing? No. Soul connection and soul mates don't exist."

"I knew it!!" Augustus jumped in the discussion, "I knew those dumb novels lied!" He had a proud look.

"You mean that you don't dream of an ideal guy, eh?" Christie smirked.

"Yes, yes I do. An ideal guy doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't do drugs, doesn't swear, doesn't get angry.. and the most important one!" Her eyes shined, " doesn't exist." She finished, her eyes flicking back to her phone screen as Christie gaped.

"An ideal guy might not have all of these qualities, because, may  I add, you swear a lot, you are angry practically all the time and you drink like there's no tomorrow.. so what I was saying is, the right guy for you might not be perfect', because nobody is, but you'll have that guy in your life. The one who can bring your world down with a blink of his eyes."

"We'll see about that." She challenged

"We will."

"Pizza or Chinese?" Erica asked. "Chinese sounds good.." Augustus said, and Erica nodded, dialling the number of a Chinese restaurant. "But pizza sounds better.." He winked, as she glared at him, disconnecting the call and throwing the phone at him.

"Order whatever you please." She gave a fake smile. "Thank you for the freedom." He chuckled, a sound that awakened something in her.

"Guys, excuse me and Erica for a minute?" Jodha asked casually, taking her wrist and pulling her out of the room as Erica looked at her, confused.

"We need to talk." She stated clearly.

"Thought so?" Erica replied, more of a question.

"You fancy him. You fancy Augustus." She gushed, jumping in her place as Erica's eyes widened, almost popping out.

"What? NO!" She denied, shaking her head frantically.

How did she know?!!

"Cut the crap, I know you do. The question is, how, and well, why?"
"I..." A glare from her silenced Erica, she knew she had to say the truth. "Fine.. yes I do." Her voice came out as a squeak, and she looked around to make sure no one listened to it. "It's just.. I don't know. He's being so great, he's not that rude guy anymore.."
"And..?"

"I should stop. I know I should. But it's just.. I don't want to." She confessed, her brown eyes boring into Jodha's blue ones as she looked helplessly.

"It's a crush isn't it?"
"I don't even know.. I guess. It has to be a crush."
"Oh god girl.." Jodha sighed, taking her in a hug as she mentally promised herself never to become like Erica.

"WE'RE BACK!!!" Edward yelled the moment he stepped in the house. Much to Jalal's irritation, they'd reached home after 10.

"As if she wouldn't have known..." Jalal muttered, his eyes rolling silently at the display of immaturity.

"Was Delhi good enough for you?" She asked, before messing up Edward's hair who made a face at her gesture.

"It's okay." He smiled, "definitely a change from London."
"You'll like it here. It's a great city."

Jalal nodded, glancing around the living room. "Are you both hungry? I'm sure I can manage to make you a quick dinner."
"No, we're fine." "I'm actually dying of starvation." Replied Jalal and Edward respectively. Jalal glared at his younger brother, wondering why he would want to trouble his mother. But maybe that's how it is.

Alisha Mohammed smiled at her sons and started walking to the kitchen when she turned back and said, "Oh and Jalal.."

"Be ready, we're going to meet someone on Sunday."
Jalal stared at her, aghast and wide eyed as an overjoyed Edward tried to bite back his smirk.

"What?" The group, joined by Anne gasped in unison as Jodha finally revealed her revenge plan.

"You're such a little devil.." Augustus frowned, he'd definitely not expected her to plan it all out.

"What makes you think I am not?"
"and you're going to go to his house and vandalise the shit out of it? That's... I don't know, immature?" Erica warned her, concerned as Augustus quickly glanced at her, and looked away.

"You're totally nuts!" Chris confirmed.

"Yes and its crazy!" said Erica

"What if you get caught?"

"What if he involved the cops?"
Augustus, who'd been silent all along, seemed to have found his voice as he stated, "This will be fun.." He winked at her, and Jodha had to push back a laugh as she realized something. Her partner-in crime was back.

"We'll totally make him regret the moment he decided to mess with my favorite girl." He said slyly, an idiotic grin covering the majority of his face.

She jumped up to high five him, at the same time when the two girls backed away, clearly trying to talk their way out of this plan'. "Good luck doing that." They both wished them, attempting to run over to the door and escape when two hands covered their mouths and pulled them back.

"You two are so not trying to ditch the plan." Jodha chided, a lame attempt of being intimidating as she wiggled her index finger at them.

"What are we? Gangsters?" Erica gasped

"Naah, we're the badass gang." She pulled up an invisible collar and smirked

"In other words, gangsters." Augustus laughed, Jodha joining him as the sound of their chuckles resonated through the room.

"When I said I'm up for revenge plan, I totally did not mean a law breaking situation." Chris justified, to which Jodha cocked up an eyebrow.

"It's not a," she pulled up air quotes, " law breaking situation as you call it. We're just gonna go and have fun."

"And get arrested. Wow, this is actually what I wrote in my bucket list, Jo." Came Erica's retort.

"Come on Eri, you're being paranoid for no reason. I swear on every ice cream in the world, we're not going to get arrested."
"Ice cream? Really?" She rolled her eyes as Jodha bursted into giggles.

"What?" He shrugged, " I like ice cream."
"Who doesn't?" Jodha challenged

"Well, the 90-year-old neighbour who used to live next door to us when we were in London hated ice cream." He informed.

"Did you ever cut him a bit and saw blood?" Chris made no attempt to hide her overly shocked features.

"What?" He stared, confused, "what do you mean?"

"I mean, was he human?"

"Chris..." Erica said, extending the syllable as she rolled her eyes.

"So... getting back to the plan.." Augustus brought their attention back to the original topic as the little group plonked back on the couch.

"When are you planning to do it?"
"Easy peasy. On his birthday, that's like, day after?" Jodha smiled innocently.

"Did you just say easy peasy?" He looked at her aghast as she replied, "Jesus, it was a joke."
"No need to call me Jesus, Augustus would be fine." He smirked after finishing the sassy reply, receiving a jab on the chest in return.

" Won't he be out partying? That's what guys do on their birthdays.." Erica pondered upon the possibility, hoping he'd choose to go out and get really drunk just so she didn't have to get involved in the plan. Though, she couldn't deny, the rush of being involved in a situation like this, it was thrilling.

"He's a nerd. Typical nerd. He told me he stays in for his birthday, watching stuff on laptop and drinking beer. He does like to get drunk, so that can be a plus." She had a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Sounds like a perfect target..." Augustus snorted, probably imagining all sorts of things he could do to his house.

"Oh trust me..." She replied back, her voice laced with mischief and soft as ever, "it's going to be the best night of our lives.."

"Mom?" He knocked politely on her bedroom door. 24 hours and he still wasn't comfortable in the house, his house. Maybe staying away for years really does change everything.

"Come in, Jalal." He could almost hear the smile in her voice, it was that evident.

"So who's this person we're going to meet?" He questioned, he was never really a big fan of small talk, he'd rather just come out with it.

She stared at him for a minute or so, almost trying to remember his now sharp features and subconsciously comparing them with his then round ones.

"You've changed a bit.. you know?" She concluded, closing the book she was reading after inserting the bookmark. "Physically, I mean.."
"Mom, everyone changes.. physically." He answered uncertainly. His mom wasn't being much of a help, she'd changed the topic and he couldn't help but wonder why.

"You work out too much." She stated firmly, "you looked just fine when you left, 3 years ago."

"It was different, back then."
"Your Dad was home when you left.." She shrugged, trying to mask her slouched shoulders as she mentioned the man she'd loved with all her being.

"We used to have fun, didn't we? All four of us.."

"Mom.." He said, his voice barely recognizable as he tried to muster some strength into him. "Who're we going to meet? I'm not going to ditch it or anything, I'm just curious.."
"I know you won't." She smiled, "and as for who, it best remain a secret." Her smile morphed into a grin as she saw a flicker of confusion appear on her son's face.

"Okay okay.." She gave up. "You're not in college anymore, Jalal. You have business experience from London and fortunately, you have your dad's company that you need to take care of. I thought it would be good to invite some key board members of the empire for lunch, you can just talk stuff out with them?"
His eyes widened, out of all the things he'd expected, this was definitely not in the list. Heck, he'd even thought, just for a second, that he was going to meet a girl for marriage.

"You're interested in business, right? Cause I totally understand if you want to do something of your own, you know..."
"Mom it's okay, seriously. Calm down. I was just, caught off guard.. Sure, lunch sounds good." He tried to pull his lips into a smile, but the surprise element still wore too heavy on him to allow him to do so.

"You sure?"
"of course mom." He finally smiled, a small one but a smile nonetheless.

"Okay then.." She dropped the matter, shifting onto another topic that held more interest to her."And Jalal?"
"Yeah mom?" He looked up, only to be caught by her eyes shining a bit.

"what do you think about marriage?"

He choked on the water he was drinking and hurriedly put the glass back on the bedside table.
"Whaat?" He looked at her with eyes widened even more, if that was possible.

First the business meeting, and then possible marriage. No, he was totally not ready for this conversation. Sure when he'd called her up and said he wanted to settle down, he was aware she might think of it that way, but he'd never really thought about it.

"You're going to get married some day, Jalal."

"Y...Yeah."

"Stop stammering." She laughed

"I never thought about it, to be honest." He replied, dodging her sharp gaze.

"Well,  I, for one can understand. Take as much time as you want, I mean, it's a big decision, really. We'll wait." She reassured him as he nodded meekly.

"goodnight mom." He wished her and kissed her cheek before getting up and taking hurried strides towards the door.

"But don't take too much time." She chuckled, as he turned back, " no one would want to marry you when your hair turns grey."
And with that, he actually ran to his room, leaving Alisha to burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter as she shook her head.

**********

I am a total fan of his mom.❤️She's like wow! I thought I didn't give proper intro to Jalal's life in the previous chapter.. so here is is.😃

Am waiting for big, huge comments to tell me what a meany I've been..😆

Love you all,

Anushka.❤️