You Were My Crush: Till You Said You Love Me! (18 page)

Mrs Gupta opened the door.

‘Hey, beta! What took you so long?’

‘Traffic,’ I said, trying to compose myself.

‘Shaina.’ She turned to her daughter. ‘Why don’t you make him sit at the dining table? Call your sister, too. She’s sleeping I think.’

We walked to the dining area and I couldn’t see Manoj or his family there. Shaina’s father was missing, too, so I assumed they had gone for a walk or something that adults do. ‘Where is everybody?’ I whispered in Shaina’s ear.

‘They must have gone out,’ Shaina told me. Diya came out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes, still sleepy.

‘What are you doing here?’ Diya asked as she saw me.

‘Diya beta. You also sit down with them. I will serve all three of you together,’ she said and Diya joined us at the table as well.

‘Are you sure we should eat, Aunty? Shouldn’t we wait
for Uncle and the others?’ I asked but Mrs Gupta was too busy filling up the plates in front of us. She pointed out to the different casseroles in front of us and told me I shouldn’t feel shy and I should eat whatever I felt like. She disappeared into her bedroom.

‘You were sleeping inside?’ I asked Diya. ‘Didn’t you meet Manoj and his family?’

Before Diya could answer, Shaina butted in, ‘They don’t like Diya. So Mom must have asked her to be in her room. Is that right, Diya?’

Diya smiled and nodded.

‘It will be so strange if they walk in now and see us all eating,’ I said.

‘I don’t care what that bastard thinks,’ Diya said with disdain. ‘Where were the two of you?’ she asked us.

‘We were hanging out at his place, but then Mom called and told me that Manoj and his family were here to decide the date of our engagement. So we rushed back!’ Shaina explained.

‘Aha! Okay,’ Diya said and nodded her head. ‘I’m surprised you’re here, Benoy. Manoj hates you; you clearly love my sister. On a scale of one to ten, you’re clearly a ten as far as undesirability goes.’

‘She wanted me to be here,’ I said, gulping as fast as I could. I wanted to run out before Manoj came, because I would have punched him otherwise. ‘If left to me, I would thrash Manoj to inches away from his death, and then thrash him some more.’

‘You would have done nothing!’ Shaina argued.

‘Excuse me?’ I said.

‘What excuse me? You just sit where you are and try to act all wise and understanding, Benoy. Why couldn’t you just tell me that I should walk out of this wedding?’ Shaina bellowed.

‘I agree with my sister,’ Diya said.

‘Excuse me! The last time I said I loved you, you said I was spoiling it! And you were ALWAYS SO FUCKING HAPPY marrying this guy!’

‘But I could have been happier with
you
. I know that. You know that. You didn’t even have the balls to talk to my parents once about you and me. They love YOU! And you still couldn’t tell them that you loved me,’ Shaina argued.

‘Yes, I agree again. You don’t deserve her, Benoy,’ Diya added.

‘You know, FUCK BOTH OF YOU! I was the one who was crying day after day after day, and you, Shaina, were the one frolicking around with that bastard! And you blame me for this mess? When have I ever taken a step back from saying that I love you and that you’re the best thing that ever happened to me?’ I said and banged my fist on the table.

‘You never fought for me, Benoy,’ Shaina said and looked away.

‘Totally,’ Diya said, still eating.

‘You know. GET LOST! Both of you,’ I shouted and got up. ‘I am fucking leaving. I am not into your games.
I love you but you never fought for me! I am with that guy but I have no problems kissing you and then dumping you for no good reason. He’s an asshole but I will still be with him.
I’m DONE with all this!’

I started putting my shoes back on.

‘See, you’re still running,’ Diya pointed out.

‘You’re always running,’ Shaina said.

‘Manoj and his family are minutes away from getting here,’ Shaina said.

‘And if you loved my sister as much as you say you do, you wouldn’t be leaving. You would sit here, punch him in the face and kiss Shaina right in front of his family. Instead, you choose to run. You’re a coward, Benoy,’ Diya said, disgusted.

‘FINE! I will just stay here and show that bastard his place. I will beat him up, right here, in front of his parents, and in front of yours. Don’t give your community crap then! Don’t go telling me that your parents would lose all their respect and their daughter is a slut. I am SERIOUS. I WILL FUCK THE GUY UP!’ I growled and clenched my fist.

‘We will see,’ Diya said and Shaina nodded. They sat on the sofa while I paced around the room, trying to remain angry, reminding myself of everything I had faced because of Manoj.

Twenty minutes passed by.

‘Where the fuck are they?’ I asked angrily.

‘Maybe they just knew you would beat them up, and hence decided not to come,’ Diya said.

‘I think that’s a fair assumption,’ Shaina said and laughed, and then Diya laughed.

‘What the fuck is going on here?’ I asked Shaina.

She got up from the sofa and walked up to me. She put her arms around me and kissed me on my cheek. ‘No one’s coming,’ she said.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, perplexed.

‘I broke up with him two weeks ago,’ Shaina said. ‘The day I met you and cried. I had already broken up with him, but I thought I would go back. But then you called and came over, and I knew if I went back then, it would be the biggest mistake ever.’

‘You knew?’ I looked at Diya.

‘Of course I knew!’ she exclaimed.

‘So Manoj’s chapter is like finished? He’s not coming? Like no engagement and all the bull crap?’ I asked in disbelief.

Shaina kissed me again. ‘Nope!’

‘Why didn’t you guys tell me? I was dying. I was literally dying!’ I shouted.

‘I wanted to tell you,’ Shaina said. ‘I wanted to run to you the moment I knew I had to be with you, but Diya wanted you to toil after me! Trust me, it was hard for me to stay away.’

I kissed her.

‘You’re a witch, Diya,’ I said. ‘You should know that!’

‘If it weren’t for me, you two wouldn’t have met,’ she countered.

‘You never know,’ Shaina said.

‘I love you, Shaina,’ I professed and turned to her.

‘I love you more,’ she said and kissed me on my lips.

‘That’s gross. This is officially the worst day of my life,’ Diya said.

Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Grapevine India Publishers Pvt. Ltd 2011
Published in Penguin Metro Reads by Penguin Books India 2013

Copyright © Durjoy Datta 2013

Cover photographs © Getty Images

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-0-143-42155-9

This digital edition published in 2013.
e-ISBN: 978-9-351-18296-2