Anu And Her First Love

ANUSHIYA SMITH
It's been two days since we landed in the US and today I was going to welcome my mother and father-in-law. I was so excited to
see them. When I heard her voice in our engagement she seemed a nice and sweet woman.
Arjun was busy with his work if he'll go out in the morning for work and he'll come back home after the sky gets darker. I didn't
have anything to say about that. That was his work and that was his priority too. If I was being honest with myself I was missing
him lately.
Whenever he came back from work I was eagerly waiting for him to spend some time with me like talking about something like
today I went here or I ate this in lunch and I liked or hated it or I went out with my friends or my friend was funny and he told me
this silly joke which we were all laughing until our stomach started to ache, anything, something like that just anything. I just need
a regular couple's time, like my appa share his day with us and amma. I just needed to hear his voice, that's all that I want. But
when he came back from work he went to our room and never come back until the sunrises the next day.
Adam was getting the worst nightmares. Whenever I was trying to sleep he'll murmur this, "HELP ME, HELP ME," then I put my
hands on his chest and tap slowly to make him come back to normal and go to a peaceful sleep. Adam and I play games on his
iPad when after he came back from his school. Spending time with him makes me a child, again.
Except for that one breakfast I cooked for Arjun, Alice didn't let me cook in her kitchen because if I started cooking that may lead
her to become jobless. She scolded me for that as I laughed. I told her that I wasn't a good cook as you that makes her laugh. I
told her that I'm not at all good with American foods and serve me Indian and pleaded with her to take this as a request. And also
I taught her some of my favorite and basic Indian dishes like idli, dosa, Chettinad chicken. When I said chicken her eyes gave
me that surprised look. I asked her why and she told me that, "Do Indians eat Non-veg at all. I thought India has the highest
vegetarian rate." She said that right but India is also the second-largest population in the whole world. We'd become good friends
in the past two days. She told me about her son who was studying junior in high school. I was surprised I thought she'd have a
baby, not a teenager.
"What? Did you just say your son is a teenager?" I asked Alice, confused. How can that even possible? She looks very, very
young and she's saying that her son was a teenager. I thought she was kidding me.
"Yes? Didn't I?"
"But you look younger than having a teenage son."

"Don't I look like thirty?" she asked casually and happy someone told her that she's younger than she looks. I know how that
feels. My mom gave that smile whenever someone tried to impress her in this "you look young, is she's your sister?' they always
mention to us that we both were sisters and nobody believes that we are mother and daughter.
"No"
"Well, I'm 35 now." She laughed like she just shared the secret that she shouldn't.
"Is it a love story, then?"
"Yeah, it's a long story."
"Then say. I was dying to know about you" I pouted.
She looked at me for a second.
"You're my one and only friend here." I pleaded.
"Ok, fine. Don't make that face" she rolled her eyes.
I giggled.
I jumped on the kitchen counter as I tried to sit. Once I sat on the counter, she took an apple from the refrigerator, washed it, and
cut it into pieces. She handed over me a piece and she bit one in her hand.
"Are you ready to go visit my high school?" She announced.
"Yes!" I shouted in excitement.
"That was my first day in senior in high school, it was a rainy day. The rain was pouring from the sky. I went to school with an
umbrella anyway after a big argument with my mother. And there I saw this guy named Andrew, he was one of the popular guys
in the school." She stopped, blushing.
"Then?"
"Then... what are you thinking what'd happen?" she challenged me to guess it right. She winked.
"What? Did you bump into him?" I asked doubtfully.

She laughed. So after all I guessed it right.
"Yes," she nodded. "And I got scolded from him for that. While getting scolded the bell rang and he gave me one last warning
glance before he let me go. I was so scared. I was getting late for my first class, so I ran. When I entered the class Mr. Seth
already began his lecture. Finally, he let me in with detention." I giggled. "I was searching for a seat to sit. There was only one
seat that was empty at that time so I walked forward to it and sat on that seat, placing my bag on the table and picking out my
notebooks. Listening to Mr. Seth I felt some fire on my skin like I was burning. I turned my head to my left-hand side and saw that
same person who I just bumped into, sitting beside me and staring at me, his head on his fists and his lower lips were tilted
forward.
"When I noticed that he was staring at me I turned my gaze away from him. He took a piece of paper from his bag and wrote
something in it and threw it on my desk. I didn't look at it and the bell rang, the class was over and he went to his next class with
a smirking smile on his face.
"Once I was in my room alone, I opened it. I was shocked." She paused and looked at me.
"What? What's in that letter?" I asked, curiously.
"The devil's face," She let out a breath.
"That's it, no more than that? Why devil's face?"
She ignored my question and ran to finish her short story.
"Then we started dating and our relationship became serious than we'd ever imagined and became high school sweethearts.
Once we graduated we get married with our parent's permission. That was it, the happy ending." She finished the story.
"You're really lucky that you'd married a person you loved" I whispered. She noticed that and took my chin in her hand and tilted
it to meet her gaze.
"He may need some time but he's a good man" She assured me.
I jumped out from the counter and took her hand in mine, made her swung. She giggled at my sudden activity. We both were
dancing like a couple and I can't control my laughing while dancing.

Then I released her hand and I started swung alone in that huge room feeling the air as they pass through my skin. While
swinging, my brain inside my head started swinging alone and I lost my vision I can only see the blur vision. Alice hissed
something behind me I can't understand what she's trying to say until I bumped into a wall. It was hard and I started rubbing my
forehead. And made the "Ahh" sound in pain.
"Um-hrm" someone cleared their throat. I tilted my head to see where the voice was coming from that's when I realized I didn't
bump in the wall. I bumped into his hard chest. I thought that was a wall. I'd heard about bodybuilding but he was a building
made of rocks, not bricks.
"I'm sorry," I said tilting my head to see Arjun who was standing in front of me with his business bag on his left and his right hand
holding his phone near to his right ear. I took a step back from him.
And there was not only Arjun, there were a lot of peoples standing behind him. Some of them were familiar to me and some of
them weren't. One was my mother-in-law whom I've to call Devi even though I didn't like to call elders by their name. She was
laughing at me for my dance steps, I guess. "You made Alice dance! That's the biggest achievement of you. She said she'd
never danced before not even on her wedding." She was still laughing at Alice who was standing beside me blushing and
shaking her head in shy and went back to her kitchen to hide her embarrassment from us.
Now I was the only one standing there with awkwardness.
I don't know why I was kept bumping into him.
Once we came back to normal he introduced his elder brother, Rahul who was the CEO of his very own company, and his
younger brother, Venkat, who was studying in med school. While smiling at everyone I remembered that I didn't see these faces
on my wedding day. Why didn't they attend our wedding? There'd be something fishy about it. I started thinking and imagining
things that I shouldn't. The three of them look triplets but at a different age
But when he tried to introduce me to his brothers he refused a little bit. "And this is Anushiya. My..." he pressed. Just say it
already my heart was curiously waiting for him to spit it out. On the other hand, his mother was also waiting for him to say it like
his son was walking for the first time. "My wife," Finally he said it, and my heart-felt relief as if someone took the weight from me
that I don't know I was holding it.
Once he finished introducing me to everyone he fades away in the stairs.
One thing I was sure, that I couldn't sleep that night.