Falguni's POV:
Ma called from the kitchen, asking if I'd packed what I'd need for tomorrow.
I mumbled a yes, though the small open bag on my bed said otherwise.
Inside were a few essentials, a dupatta, some jewellery, the perfume Devansh's mother liked, and the lipstick Ma insisted looked "bridal" and some other necessities which I might need.
Every item I placed inside felt heavier than it should've been. Like I was packing parts of myself I wasn't sure I'd get back.
When I finally zipped it shut, I caught my reflection in the mirror. Same face, same girl, but the eyes looked… uncertain.
Later, in my room, I curled up against Coco. The ceiling fan hummed above steady and merciless. My phone lit up on the side table. Aarush.
Aarush: "What's the atmosphere at your place? Full-on chaos?"
I laughed quietly, he wasn't wrong.
Falguni: "Relatives everywhere. Loud. Everyone acting like I should already be glowing with excitement."
Aarush: "And are you?"
I hesitated.
Falguni: "Not exactly. It's more like… suffocating. Smiles, questions, expectations."
Aarush: "Yeah. Families can be like that, writing your future without even asking for your draft."
I stared at his words. They were too close to the truth.
Downstairs, I could still hear my bua's voice floating up, talking about lehengas and jewelry, about how lucky I was. My phone buzzed again.
Aarush: "Are you okay with it? With him?"
I froze. No one here had asked me that. Not once.
Falguni: "He's good. Responsible. The kind of man families approve of."
Aarush: "That's not what I asked."
The voices downstairs rose in laughter. I hugged Coco closer, staring at the screen.
Falguni: "I don't know. Maybe I'll learn to be. That's how it works, right?"
Aarush: "That sounds like you're trying to convince yourself."
His words hit harder than I wanted to admit. I closed my eyes, hearing both his concern and my relatives' chatter downstairs. Two worlds pulling me in opposite directions.
Falguni:"Convince myself… maybe. But isn't that what most people do? Adjust, compromise, call it destiny."
Aarush:"Maybe. But you don't sound convinced. You sound… trapped."
The word made me sit up straight. Trapped. I hated how it fit so perfectly.
Falguni: "I don't know what I sound like. I just know tomorrow I'll walk into that garden, and everyone will clap like it's the best thing to ever happen to me."
Aarush: "And you'll smile for them."
Falguni: "Of course. What else can I do?"
There was a pause. The dots blinked, disappeared, blinked again.
Aarush: "You could smile for yourself. Or… for someone who actually sees you."
I swallowed hard. His words weren't dressed in teasing this time; they were steady, real. And for a second, I wondered, did he mean himself?
Downstairs, I heard my chachi calling my name, laughter following. The sound made my chest tighten.
Falguni: "Do you ever think… maybe I met you too late?"
Silence. The longest silence yet.
Finally, his reply came.
Aarush: "I think timing's cruel like that sometimes. But I also think connections don't care about timing. They just… happen."
I hugged Coco against me, as if he could hold the weight pressing down on my chest.
Falguni:"And what if I can't hold onto this… connection? What if tomorrow changes everything?"
Aarush:"Then tomorrow changes everything. But tonight? Tonight, you're still here. Talking to me. And that matters."
I closed my eyes. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, but I couldn't type anything more. I didn't trust myself to.
So instead, I just read his words again and again, until they blurred into the glow of the screen.
Downstairs, the voices carried on. Dresses. Jewellery. Responsibilities. Upstairs, in the quiet, my heart carried something entirely different.
And for the first time, I wondered which life was really mine.
Aarush's POV:
I stared at the screen, thumb hovering over the keypad. How do you stop someone who's already decided to ruin her life?
She kept saying it like it was nothing, "it's expected, it's what's right."
But what about her? What about us?
I typed. Deleted. Typed again. The words felt too heavy or too light, nothing in between. Finally, I pressed send.
"Falguni… do you really want this? Tomorrow? Him?"
My heart pounded as I waited. The three dots blinked, disappeared, blinked again.
Her reply came: "Want? It's not about want. It's about what's right. What's expected."
Expected. The word cut through me. As if she was just some puppet meant to perform.
I clenched my jaw. She deserved so much more than a life of adjusting.
"Expected by who? Them? Society? Families? …Where do you fit in all that?"
I could almost see her, biting her lip the way she does when cornered.
But her answer was the same wall she always built: "It's not that simple. You can't just say no to your family. Not here. Not like this."
God, if only she knew how badly I wanted to reach through this screen, grab her hand, and tell her she wasn't alone.
Instead, all I had were words.
"Maybe not. But you can't just say yes either, not if it breaks you."
For a second, I thought she'd hear me. But then her message came: "I'm not breaking. I'll adjust. People do it all the time."
Adjust.
That word made something inside me snap.
"You call that living? Adjusting into something that doesn't feel like you? You don't deserve a half-life, Falguni."
I pressed send before I could second guess it. My throat burned. My hands shook.
The typing bubbles appeared, then vanished. Appeared again. She was hesitating. Maybe I was getting through to her.
Her next words twisted like a knife: "What would you have me do then? Walk out? Tell everyone no at the last second?"
I stared at the message.
Yes. That's exactly what I wanted her to do. To fight. To choose herself. To choose… maybe even me.
This time I didn't hold back.
"I'd have you choose yourself. For once. Just once. Before it's too late."
My thumb lingered on the phone even after the message sent.
Too late. Because tomorrow, once she slipped that ring on, she'd be gone.
Not just from me, but from the person she was meant to be.
I closed my eyes and leaned back, the silence of my room pressing in.
I didn't know if my words were enough.
But I prayed they would be.
Because if she walked into tomorrow with the weight of everyone's expectations but not her own heart…
I wasn't sure I'd forgive myself for staying silent.
_________________