| NAINA |

I couldn't help but stand still at the entrance door's jamb and eavesdrop on Meeta's confrontational conversation with Angad. I had my fingers crossed while pretending to be engrossed in my mobile. I knew Angad's mother was watching me. Or perhaps, them.

"Ummm... Meeta." I looked up and saw Angad looking at me and trying to say something to her. I glared at him and had my glare fixed for a second before looking at my mobile again.

"Meeta." His voice was firm. "I know how you feel. But, please listen to me." Okay, he was ready to confess. "I may not be showing off what I feel, but to be honest, I love you to the moon and back."

My wide eyes instantly shifted their gaze to that lying cheat in front of me. Tears did roll down, after waiting for the right opportunity to flow.

"I love you more than I could ever imagine. Yes, I agree that I am bad at showing off emotions. And, I'm sorry. I should have let you know that I love you. But, I swear, I can't wait to make you mine." His words might make her heart-shaped eyes pop out, but they tempt me to pull his collars and create an everlasting mark on his cheeks.

But then, I resisted that temptation. I do know ethics, unlike him who wanted to discuss private stuff with his mother and fiancee in a public place.

Meeta, believing his magical lies, hugged him like his girlfriend and said, "This was what I wanted. Thank you for assuring me. Will you be there for me?"

"Always," he promised while looking at me with a fucking fake apologetic look in his eyes.

I wanted to break that hug and tell Meeta that he was a liar. I wanted to tell her that she was illusioned. And that was when the thought struck me.

What if I was the one in illusion, and not her?

***

"Mumma," I whispered in a cracky tone while I saw her sipping a cup of tea with Charlie the first thing after entering my house. "Mumma!" I couldn't help but wail and hug her as she stood and took two steps forward. Those that were escaping my eyes weren't just tears but the urge to tell her all and leave everything. It had anger in me, guilt, pain, desperation, and depression.

"It's okay," Mumma whispered and patted my head. "I'm here for you. Don't worry." I never stopped crying. What Mumma said had made me cry more. Her words melted me like butter. "I said, I am there for you. Do you want to be alone for a while? Cry as much as you want to and step out. You'll be fine."

I thought over it and said in a muffled tone, "Yes."

Just as we broke our hug, Mumma took me to my room and closed the door behind me. But surprisingly, I didn't want to cry more when I was alone. Is it in my genes that I am an attention-seeking drama queen?

I landed on my bed like a crashing missile. In one way, I was a crashing missile as well. I was crashing inside. My happiness, hopes, positive vibes, and dreams. I was waiting for everything to crash slowly. I was waiting for him to reconstruct it all.

I was engrossed in my turbulent emotions when I heard someone knocking on the door. The knock sounded like the person wanted to say something important, not urgent.

I opened the door and saw Charlie standing in front of me. I pointed my chin and raised my eyebrows while she informed me something surprising that made me feel surprisingly good.

"Mom needs some vodka for the night."

***

I had five shots that made me super-tipsy. Charlie had two, hence she remained sober. Mumma had three and swore to stop after two more shots.

As Mumma's fourth shot had its bottoms up and she was pouring some more vodka into her shot glass, she slurred, "Guys. We forgot to clink our glasses and say, 'Cheers!'. Shall we do it now?"

"Yes, please." I sounded super-slurry and raised my shot glass for a cheers.

"Come on, ladies!" Charlie became prepared for her third shot and the cheers that led to it.

"Cheers to..." We said it monotonously in unison and stopped midway, thinking how to continue.

"Cheers to my new girlfriend," Charlie beamed with a wide yet shy smile.

"Cheers to my shitty boyfriend!" I exclaimed. The room was awkwardly silent for no reason and the ladies were looking at me as if I stated I was pregnant with Donald Trump's child. "What? Did I say something inappropriate?"

Mumma broke the silence by exclaiming, "Cheers to my daughter's fucked-up boyfriend!" And surprisingly, I didn't feel defensive about my mother speaking ill about my boyfriend. I felt good. "Naina. Why do you have to stick to him after all that happened?"

"I don't know, Mumma. Maybe, I loved him too much. Maybe, I was drunk in love," I confessed while a lone drop of tear escaped my right eye.

"Give me your mobile." Charlie sat upright and extended her hand at me with a demanding look.

"Why?" I queried.

"Give me," she commanded.

"Fine," I groaned and eyed the curious Mumma while handing over the mobile to Charlie. "My passcode is--"

"1990," she said as if she further wanted to say, "I remember it."

Mumma asked, "That's your birthday, right?" I nodded yes. My birthday was on the 1st of September 1990.

"Charlie, what are you doing?" I whined and tried to look at what she was doing. But she lay down, thus stopping me from looking at my mobile.

A few seconds later, she sat straight, returned my mobile, and informed me, "I'm done." I frowned as if to ask, "What did you do?" while she replied, "Look at your DMs on Instagram."

So did I, knowing little about what she did. I opened the first chat box and read the very recent text that Charlie spoofed me.

Me: You deserve something worse than hell but not Meeta. Fuck you, bastard!

As I looked up to see who she had sent the message to, it had Angad's ID on it.

"Oh, shit!" I was bellowing at what she did and rolled on the floor laughing. "What did you do, Charlie?" I could barely stop laughing. I should be freaking out and slapped her hard, not laughing at the same.

"Naina, what happened?" Mumma sounded concerned while I gave her my mobile. She read the message and joined my laughter party. "You surely are a legend, Charlotte!" It looked like Mumma's mind malfunctioned as well. Well, Vodka does it to everyone, even if you are Dalai Lama or Donald Trump.

"He deserves it, Mom. He deserves all of it for breaking her heart," Charlie cursed.

Just then, the laughter party halted while Aqua was crooning to Barbie Girl. Yeah, that was my ringtone! Mumma stopped laughing as her eyes landed on my mobile screen. She sat upright and returned the mobile to me.

"Angad read the message. And, he is calling you now," she informed.

***
Yet another short set of drama here. I hope it was as good as always. I'll be back with another load of drama.

See you soon!

Song Courtesy: All Too Well by Taylor Swift.