Character Page:
Female Lead One: Aurora Dale Rodrick
Female Lead Two: Natalia Lily Noronha
Female Lead 1 Husband: Damon Parker
Female Lead 2 Husband: Rafael George Robert
Soft romantic songs were playing in the background. Uncles are gossiping about the Nation’s unbalanced economy. In contrast, Aunties and the estimating others saree and jewellery prices.
Handsome boys are sighting beautiful girls with the motto 'single but ready to mingle', while the beautiful girls are acting strangely nice as if not aware of the boys' sightings.
Children are busy playing and running around. Everyone has balloons taken from decorations. But legends are busy searching for a table to sit at with their plate filled with a variety of foods.
Amongst all these people, I am standing in the middle of the stage. Not alone, but with my newlywed husband, Damon. I feel over the moon as it is my marriage reception today. My face is full of smiles but my legs are begging for some rest as they have been working non-stop for the past 2 hours standing and posing for pictures with my relatives.
But more than me there is another soul dead; tired of running here and there. Her heavy embroidery lehenga is making it more difficult for her. All her makeup has been washed out by her sweat. Her eyes are red due to lack of sleep since last month. She is running here and there to make sure everything goes smoothly. It is none other than my bestie also known as my Partner in Crime, Natalia. If it was before 6 years, I would have felt very happy seeing her tired, but not now.
My husband, Damon nudged me to look at the camera. A smile crept on my face seeing the camera as I remembered our first meeting.
It was my first visit to Paris. I went there for my internship in the Diploma in Fashion Technology which was to be held for about 6 months. I had applied for three interviews there. One was scheduled for the next day while the other two were scheduled 2 days later.
My limbs were strained as I sat in the same position for a long time. The journey took about 9.5 hours from Mangalore. So I decided to walk around the train station while waiting for my cab. I also thought to update my Instagram story. So I took some selfies with the name board in the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. But the selfie couldn’t cover the entire board. So I thought of asking for help from someone else to take a picture of me.
A girl crossing across me wearing a salwar caught my eye. She was a little taller than me but looked around my age. I asked her to help me take some pictures, to which she denied saying she was not good at taking them.
I mentally rolled my eyes at her excuse. Is clicking a picture of someone too hard to do? Anyone could simply take a picture. It seemed she was so arrogant to even help others take a picture. I just insisted saying I could adjust with whatever photo she took.
She sighed and agreed but also apologized in advance if the photo was not good. I was irritated with her behaviour of acting innocent but just smiled tightly and nodded.
I was so confused when she took so long to take the pictures but anyhow shrugged at it. She returned my phone when I told her it was enough and she went away saying she has some important work, not before apologizing once again. I shook my head in disbelief seeing her weird behaviour. I was about to check the pictures she took, but before that my cab had arrived.
At the Hostel, I was introduced to two other girls from Mangalore. Being an extrovert, I galled with them quickly. They told me that there was another girl who would also be staying with us. They said that she was very arrogant as she didn’t even talk to them. I got curious to see her after hearing about her from them.
In the evening, I was scrolling through my Instagram when I remembered the photos I took at the Airport. I opened my phone gallery only to be welcomed by the top 7 lines which were filled with many blurred images. I saw it confused only to get shocked as those were my pictures which were taken at the station earlier. Some had only half of my face while some pictures portrayed me like an alien.
So she was indeed not good at taking pictures it seems. Even my 7 years old niece could take pictures better than this.
A doorbell interrupted my scolding’s. I opened the door to see the same girl standing there. I blinked my eyes several times to make sure it was her. But it turned out that she was the roommate whom the girls told me about earlier.
I felt happy when I got to know that she was a Konkani person too but I was masked with an angry stare on my face as I was still mad at her. I told the girls about the morning incident when they questioned me. They mocked at her after seeing the photos. I was about to defend her as I felt bad for her but before that, Natalia just went towards her bed and laid there covering herself with a blanket ignoring us all. I thought she was so arrogant seeing her behaviour.
The following day, I woke up hearing loud music which turned out to be Natalia's alarm. I asked her to turn it off as it was so noisy but she just turned to the other side of the bed without minding me. I was about to scold her but my eyes caught the clock. I rushed up getting ready hurriedly as I was late for my interview that day. Fortunately I got selected in my first interview itself.
A month passed. Natalia was always silent and she ignored most of our questions. The only good thing about her is that she knew how to cook well. We all would have Lunch outside while breakfast and dinner would be prepared by Natalia.
After two months of Internship, I was appointed in the same company. Natalia and I behaved like strangers. I avoided talking to her as she mostly ignored me without answering to my questions first. I was frustrated with her arrogant behaviour.
But a particular incident which happened after a few months made me hate her even more. I was telling my roommates about my boyfriend who was initially my crush but later on became my love. Natalia silently eavesdropped on it and next day, she advised me not to trust him as he was a playboy and not an honest, good guy.
I lashed out at her denying her, saying she was just jealous of me and used cheap tricks to separate me and my boyfriend. She looked at me with hurtful eyes and tried apologising to me but I just ignored her and started avoiding her completely after that.
I even started cooking simple dishes for my breakfast and dinner as I thought that she might poison my food in jealousy. I wasn’t really great at cooking so it wasn’t delicious but it was edible and that was all that mattered. She was visibly hurt by that but I wasn’t a fool to believe her and fall for her crocodile tears.
Soon after a month, I went to a café with my roommates. As usual, Natalia didn’t accompany us. While we were busy chatting, my eyes caught a man’s shirt which was pretty similar to the one I gifted my boyfriend the previous week. He was sitting behind a girl who was hugging him tightly.
I told my roommates about the shirt while one of them playfully planned to sneakin front of the man to check whether it was my boyfriend or anyone else. But before that, I saw his face as he turned to kiss the girl.
It turned out to be my boyfriend causing my heart to bleed. Him kissing another girl passionately in a public place shattered my heart completely.
I went back to my hostel as a lifeless statue but my roommates who I thought were my friends, were getting ready to attend a concert. And the worst part,instead of consoling me they advised me to think well before getting committed in a relationship.
I looked at them in disbelief as they supported me and teased me with him till yesterday, but now when I find out the truth about them they are talking the exact opposite of it. They just went away after advising me some more. It was not comforting at all. They didn’t even try to ask me about my current feelings.
But an unexpected thing happened. Natalia, who had gone halfway to her hometown, returned back to the hostel. I looked at her surprisingly but she asked me something which was enough to break me down completely.
“Are you good Aurora?”
That was my last straw and it led me to sob badly. I was searching for some comfort without knowing it was beside me all the time. As I was scared of Natalia’s reacting about this, I didn’t tell her a thing.
But now she was standing in front of me, leaving the most important day of her life to be with me when I’m completely broken. It was the day of her marriage proposal but she was near me just to make sure I was okay after going through a revelation which was already a revealed a long time back but I was too blind to see it.
I hugged her crying badly, letting out all my anger, sadness and frustration while she hugged me back, comforting me and murmuring sweet words in my ear. She kept repeating these words in my ear: “Aura, he is the one who should mourn because he lost a beautiful gem like u.”
Shortly, I composed myself and insisted her to go back to her hometown as she had her marriage proposal planned that day but she denied saying that if he was her soulmate, then destiny would cross their paths at the end for sure.
Later I came to know that Natalia has been an extroverted and jovial person like me but the same boy who cheated on me had cheated on her too a few years back. He deceived her by telling everyone that she was poor as she didn’t even own a smartphone.
Since then, she became an introverted person and thought that nobody liked poor people. She wasn’t arrogant but was hesitant to talk to us since she was poor and thought that we would make fun of her if we knew. She didn’t want to connect with everyone and be deceived by us too after knowing about her family background. She was hurt deeply and so she hated when others pitied her.
Only then, everything struck me. She had never used a camera before and that’s the reason for her clicking unclear pictures of me. She ignored me on the first day because she went to the hospital and was sick the whole time. I felt ashamed of myself as I hadn’t noticed those things and was always hating her for no reason at all.
The alarm was for me as she didn’t want me to be late for my interview. She also told me that I had always cooked without salt and that she was the one who added it to make my food taste better.
Years rolled by with us being the best companions. I made her an extrovert like me while she cured my wounds and became my shoulder every time I wanted to cry. After two years, she got married with the boy whom she missed out that day. Well I guess he was her real soulmate.
Someone nudges me from my left side. I turn to see Natalia standing beside me telling me to see the camera. “A kissing pose sir”, The cameraman told my husband, to which I kissed my bestie, Natalia’s cheek tightly, making her lose her balance. She tightly wrapped her arms around my shoulder balancing herself and kissed my forehead wiping my tears.
From the corner of my eye, I see my husband smiling happily admiring our bond knowing that we will never fall apart.
Sometimes friendship means to simply be there for your friend. Not to give advice or try to fix anything. Just be there and let them know that they are acted for and supported at every step they take. Thank you to my bestie Natalia because; Like a strong needle, you helped me – an uneven thread and made me into a beautiful woven piece called the cloth of life.
Written By
Eldreena Diya Rodrigues
7th Std
St. Theresa's ICSE School Mangaluru)