Page 8 of Red Flags and Rishtas
3
A Messy Affair
Aloud noise woke me, and I almost fell off the bed. Karan’s bed. When I turned my head, I found him staring at me in his morning daze, as if he was trying to figure out who I was and how I’d gotten there.
‘Wake up, you fool.’ A man’s voice came from outside the room, followed by a few thumps on the door.
Karan clutched his head and rubbed his eyes.
‘What happened last night?’ he asked me, groaning.
‘Um, you passed out,’ I said, getting on all fours to retrieve my heels from under his bed. ‘And I guess I did too.’
He groaned again, and I heard him fall backwards onto his pillow.
The thumping on the door continued. ‘You’re going to make us late!’
Okay, so this was going to be awkward. It looked like this guy’s brother would witness my walk of shame without knowing that there wasn’t much to be ashamed about.
‘What time is it?’ Karan asked.
I checked my phone. 10:00 a.m. And five missed calls from home.Shit.
Mom would’ve wanted me at home and freshly bathed by now. I did a mental calculation of my ETA – it would take me at least fifty minutes from the South Delhi hub of Hauz Khas, where Karan’s apartment was, to the foreign lands of Noida, where I lived.
The Delhi NCR region included various districts like Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Sonepat, but somehow, the least liked area was the place I called home. In school, kids often teased me by saying only gundas lived on the other side of the Yamuna, Jamuna paar.
My phone rang again, reminding me that I needed to get out of here right now. ASAP. Yesterday.
As I was popping up from the floor, heels in hand, the door to Karan’s room was thrown open.
‘Karan, wake the hell—’
The man in front of us stopped mid-yell when his eyes found me. He took one look at me in my creased dress and frizzy hair and whipped his head in his brother’s direction.
‘Seriously, man?’ he demanded, pointing a rude finger at me.
I yanked my bag off the bed and threw it around my shoulders, eagerly waiting for my cue to leave. Karan, however, seemed to be in no such hurry. He ignored his brother (and me) and stretched his gorgeous body lazily.
His brother picked up something tiny and black from the wooden cabinet next to the door and threw it at him.
‘Hey!’ he shouted, ‘Don’t touch my action figures.’
The tiny black thing, I realised, was a miniature Batman.
‘When the hell are you going to grow up?’ his brother asked, his annoyance growing.
He couldn’t have been that much older, but it looked like he had assumed the role of a parent. There was definitely some resemblance between the two brothers, especially in their general build and height, but I was in too much of a hurry to stay and observe. Karan, I realised, wasn’t going to make this easier for me. I’d have to take the emergency exit.
I kept my eyes on the floor as I made my way towards the door, and the stranger who was blocking it.
‘Ananya, you can stay for breakfast if you like,’ Karan said just as I was about to slip outside.
I saw the look his brother threw at him. Homicidal.
Shuffling my feet to face him, I waved him off, saying, ‘Nah, I’ve got a thing.’
By a ‘thing’, I meant an arranged marriage meeting.
