We spent the night at Sakshi's. Since it was a single house filled with lot of guests, the morning was full of chaos
and disturbance. Some were rushing to the bathroom, some to the kitchen, some shouting instructions to the decorators, kids playing in the lobby and some just roaming around. The wedding rituals were going to start at 12 O'clock. We had brought our lehangas with us yesterday. I was avoiding Aaron as much as possible since Jamie was almost always with him and I was not comfortable around them yet. Aaron tried talking to me but I gave him short answers with a fake smile and walked away from there.
"Hey Kayla?" Irelene shouted from the top stair. I looked up and she motioned me to join her. I raised my eyebrows questioningly.
"Sakshi needs help with her hair." I nodded and climbed up the stairs to Sakshi's room. I was wearing jeans and simple purple top. Jen was wearing simple white cotton kameez shalwar. Sakshi was in her red bridal blouse and leggings with her make up half done and her hair in a loose braid.
"Hey Sakshi." I greeted her with a smile.
"Hey babe. Tie my hair up please."
"Sure. What style do you want?"
"Tie them in a bun and leave some fringes in front." I nodded and did her hair the way she wanted it. Jen continued to complete her makeup and finally she wore her lehanga's skirt and her jewellery. Her cousin, Kirti, placed the dupatta on her head and the bride looked beautiful.
After getting Sakshi ready we all went to get dressed as well. Only an hour was left for the rituals to start.
"Hey Kayla can you help me with my hair as well please?" Kirti asked me.
"Yeah sure."
I tied her hair in a waterfall style and soon after her two other cousins came up to me to style their hair and by the time I was finished almost everyone was ready. Only fifteen minutes were left for the rituals to start. Guess being late had become my signature move. As much as I tried to be ready on time, I somehow always ended up being late. I sighed and walked to the room that was assigned to me, Jen and Irelene. As I entered Irelene was walking towards the door. She was all dressed up and looking fantastic in blue lehanga with red blouse and dupatta.
"How do I look?" She asked turning around in a circle.
"Fabulous."
"Thanks. Now get ready quickly. Sakshi already left for the altar and Jen had to go with her. I'll be waiting downstairs for you." I nodded my head and she left closing the door
behind her. The altar, also called the mandap, was out in the front garden where the bride and the groom had to make seven rounds around the fire, and with each round taking a vow, with the pandit (a religious man) chanting some verses.
I quickly put on a black lehanga with golden embroidery and little streaks of red in it and golden colored blouse
with red embroidery and golden and red dupatta with little streaks of black on it. I put on red colored hanging earrings and applied my makeup. I tried tying the knot at the back of my blouse but couldn't do it. I tried tying it many more times but failed. Finally giving up, I went out of the room to call Irelene but no one was in the house. I groaned and moved back to the room. I was trying to tie it again when someone stood on the door that I had left ajar. I looked in the mirror and my heart stopped; there on the
door stood Aaron in black sherwani with his hair disheveled. He took a step towards me, not breaking the
eye contact through the mirror. He took few more steps, still looking at me and I dropped my eyes feeling shy under his gaze.
"Kayla." He said standing behind me. I managed to look at him through the mirror. "There is no one here. I heard you calling Irelene so I came to check whether you needed help with anything." My heart was beating fast. I nodded and turned my head to look at my back and then lifted my eyes
to meet his. He understood what I wanted and nodded. He moved few strands of hair from my back to the front, his fingertips leaving a trail of Goosebumps where they touched my skin. He held the two strings of the blouse in his fingers and gave them a tug to tie them together and with every tug he pulled me back towards him. My heart was going crazy and with the last tug my back was against his chest and a small gasp escaped my mouth. I looked up in the mirror and met his eyes that were already looking at me filled with sea of unexplainable emotions.
"Do you know how damn beautiful you look?" He whispered against my ear, his hot breath hitting my neck and sending shivers down my spine. I remained silent and blushed.
"Still going to ignore me?" He raised one eyebrow and I looked down.
"I... I'm not... I'm not ignoring you." I stammered.
"Is that so?"
"Y... yes." He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him.
"So you're not ignoring me from last two days?"
"No."
"Oh!" He said sarcastically. "Then what is this behavior of yours?" He asked placing both his hands on the mirror on either side of me, pinning me to the it.
"I don't know what you mean." I said not meeting his eyes.
"Stop lying Kayla." He said a bit louder. I looked up in his eyes and my heart started to beat at an inhuman rate.
"You know exactly what I mean." He said softly. "So stop lying. I know something is bothering you. Just tell me what is it and why are you being so cold towards me?" He demanded.
"Fine. Yes, I'm ignoring you and yes, I'm being cold towards you." I snapped at him and he looked taken aback by my tone.
"Why? What have I done?"
"I thought we were friends."
"We are." He was confused.
"Well, if we are then when were you going to tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"About you and Jamie." He looked confused.
"What about us? You know everything already." I gave a sarcastic chuckle.
"Oh yeah? Well I didn't know you were in love with her or is it that you don't know that you proposed to her?" He looked at me as if I had said the world's most stupid thing and
then he burst out laughing. I was confused at first but then angry.
"Great. Now you're making fun of me." I said angrily and he immediately stopped laughing.
"I wasn't making fun of you but what you said is ridiculous."
"Really? I heard you proposing to her."
"Wh-? Oh that?"
"Yes."
"I wasn't proposing to anyone babe. I don't think you know but Jamie is a part time actress and I was rehearsing her lines with her and the love confession was in the script."
"Oh!" It was all I could say and felt guilty. "I'm sorry then."
"It's okay." He gave me a tiny smile but that smile soon turned to a smirk.
"Why did it bother you so much?" He raised his eyebrow and looked intensely in my eyes.
"I was just upset that you didn't want to share such huge news with me."
"Really? That's it?"
"Yes-"
"So you're saying that hearing the confession didn't bother you?" I nodded. He took a tiny step towards me closing the little space between us. "Then me being this close to you shouldn't be affecting you either." He said near my ear, my heart started thumping loudly in my chest.
"Y... yes."
"Really?" I nodded. "Then why is your heart beating so loudly?"
"W... What?"
"Your heart, it's beating so loudly that I can hear it." He looked at me with a smirk and I blushed crimson red. I
opened my mouth to say something but no words came out.
"See? It affects you. Me being this close to you affects you. Seeing me and Jamie together affects you and you can't deny it now when your heart says otherwise."
He looked expectantly at me but I remained silent. He sighed and pressed his lips together in disappointment and turned around to leave. Seeing him walking away triggered something in me and I blurted out without thinking what I was doing.
"Yes, you're right." He stopped but didn't turn back so I continued. "It affects me. It affects me a lot more than you think." He turned around to look at me. I took a step towards him knowing that there was no turning back from this now.
"It affects me Aaron and do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm in love with you." He looked surprised by my confession.
"What?" He said after few seconds of complete silence.
"I know it came as a surprise but I'm in love with you. I wanted to tell you how I felt the day I heard that confession so I couldn't bear it and left. I don't expect you to reciprocate my feelings but I hope it doesn't change anything between us. I hope we can still be great friends. I want our friendship to remain same." I said all this looking at him and he didn't utter a single word the whole time.
"Yes, it's a surprise to me but it sure has changed everything between us. We can't be the same as before." My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach.
"Please don't stop being my friend." I said desperately.
"I can't do that. I can't be the same. I don't want to be the same. I want to be selfish this time. I want to think about myself. Do you know how many times I wanted to be selfish?"
I looked at him not knowing where he was going with this. He took quick steps towards me and held me by
my shoulders.
"I wanted to be selfish back when Chaz said he liked you. I wanted to be selfish when you said you liked him back. I wanted to be selfish when you cried over him. I wanted to be selfish at the ball. I wanted to be selfish when I saw you with Aiden. I don't even remember how many more times I wanted to be selfish. But there was only one thing that was stopping me and that was you; the fear of being rejected by you. The fear that you won't talk to me ever again if you knew the truth." He said the last part softly.
"What-" I began to ask but he interrupted me.
"I love you Kayla. I've always loved you." I was dumfounded for few seconds. Everything around me went
dead silent. All I could hear was my heartbeat with his words ringing in my ears.
"What?" I asked once I regained my senses. He smiled a little.
"I said I love you and have always loved you and only you. You're my first love. I don't remember when but all I know is that my heart belonged to you since forever."
"You were in love with me all this time?"
"All along." A wave of relief washed over me and I felt as if I was the happiest person alive. I was happy beyond words.
"I love you Kayla." He said again and this time with a sweet smile mixed with love, passion, intensity and a
promise.
"I love you too." I said looking into his eyes. He leaned forward and kissed my lips. The kiss was filled with infinite unsaid emotions that we both felt. It was full of love. My lips moved in synchronization with his and I felt complete as if I had found a part of me that was missing. I felt as if I belonged to him from the beginning, I was his and he was mine from the start of time. The kiss was soft yet
passionate. The kiss felt as if it was always meant to happen, waiting patiently for this exact moment. I smiled in between the kiss.
"Get some room guys." We heard Sam say and Aaron smiled in between the kiss and finally we broke apart and looked at him. He was standing in the room near the door with a mischievous smirk on his face and holding Jen's hand who was smiling at us.
"So you know how to kiss." Sam told Aaron with a side grin and walked towards us. Aaron smiled at him.
"Learned from the best." Aaron said and we all laughed.
"Finally. I was wondering when you two were going to tell each other about your feelings." Jen said after hugging me and Aaron.
"Wait." Aaron said while thinking about something.
"You knew?" I said his thoughts aloud.
Jen and Sam looked sheepishly at us.
"Yes."
"You both knew how we felt about each other and never told us." I said narrowing my eyes accusingly at them.
"You both made us promise to not tell the other and remember Kayla? I was always forcing you to tell him. You
never understood the meaning behind that." I rolled my eyes.
"And you Jen?"
"Remember the day Sam and Aaron left early in the morning and lied about the practice?" I nodded. "Well, they had actually gone to see who this Aiden was and that is when they told me." I huffed angrily.
"What about me? You never told me either. When did you know about her?" Aaron asked.
"The day Jamie arrived." Sam said.
"The day we went shopping for the bridal clothes with Sakshi." Jen answered.
"You guys could have saved us from the heartbreak and the lot of pain."
"Wasn't it worth it?" Sam asked with a smile.
"Every single bit." Aaron and I said at the same time and Sam and Jen chuckled.
"They are so adorable. Well we'll leave you two love birds now. Oh and before I forget, we actually came to call you. The rituals have started. Come quickly." We nodded.
They gave us one last smile and left.
"So?" Aaron asked holding my hand.
"So?" I repeated.
"Be my girlfriend?"
"Yes. Of course." He smiled and gave me a small passionate kiss and we left together to attend Sakshi's wedding with our hearts beating the same beat, filled with light of our love and glowing with happiness.