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Back Mirror, Mirror Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Cover
  2. Andaleeb Wajid
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
  21. 19
  22. 20
  23. 21
  24. 22
  25. 23
  26. 24
  27. 25
  28. 26
  29. 27
  30. 28
  31. 29
  32. 30
  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
  37. 35
  38. 36
  39. 37
  40. 38
  41. Epilogue
  42. THE BEGINNING

When Raghu brought the car, Ma stepped down carefully and sat in the back. To my dismay, both Papa and Aunty V sat in the back with her, which left no option for me but to sit in the front.

Deciding not to agonize over it, I got in and pretended not to notice how sexy his arm looked when he changed gears. I was hopeless. All these days of pining after him and the one time he showed real interest in me, I’d blown it.

We drove home in silence. Raghu was extremely careful over the potholes which were scattered on almost all roads in Bangalore.

Aunty V helped Ma settle down in bed and we all went to our rooms to sleep.

I looked at myself in the mirror before I removed my dress. Something weird seemed to happen every time I wore it. The first time, there was the news about the baby. And now, the realization that this crush on Raghu was far worse than I had thought it was. And possibly not as one-sided as I’d thought.

25

When I relayed what happened to Nisha, she was really concerned about Ma. ‘I hope Aunty’s fine now,’ she said.

After a while, we went on to talk about what had happened between me and Raghu. Anirudh was not in today and it was weird not to have him hanging around, but I was secretly pleased to have Nisha to myself for once.

‘Ananya, why did you ask him if he was flirting with you?’ she moaned.

I didn’t know why I couldn’t have just shut up instead of completely losing my cool.

‘Never mind. Maybe he’ll like your no-nonsense approach,’ she said, trying to console me.

‘Er, I don’t think he did. He stopped talking after that.’

She sighed. ‘Give it a little time. He probably needs to figure it out in his head too. Have you spoken to him after that?’

‘I haven’t seen him since we got home. We all went to sleep for a bit and when I woke up, he was out. He didn’t come back home until I had gone to bed and when I left for college, he was still sleeping,’ I said. It sounded like he was avoiding me, I thought wincing.

She looked at me with an astute look I was very used to. ‘So, tell me the truth. Just how much do you like him?’

I looked away for a few seconds to compose myself and licked my dry lips. ‘I like him a lot,’ I said finally.