The Sixteenth Birth

*Ritz's POV*

What were my parents thinking? How can they do this to Maya? And on the other hand Maya being the obedient daughter was quiet as a ghost the whole time. But I being her sister know that deep down she is regretting her decision. While all her friends are having a happily ever after she will end up in something filthy.

"I will have a happily ever after too Ritz, I am confident about this." Maya enters my room humming merrily.

"Did I say that out loud?"

"Yes." She has started to set her hair up looking in my mirror.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Caressing my face."

"You know I didn't mean to ask that," I pause, "Oh please don't tell me you are marrying that moron!" I hiss at her.

"Actually I am."

"No! C'mon living the rest of your life with that man is not a joke, Maya. Just because he is hot doesn't mean you have to give in. He's a stranger."

"Stop it! He is a stranger to you! Not me. I am seeing him for about a year now. It is our decision to get married not mom and dad's. So what if it is an arranged marriage, I am glad I met Vivian through this."

"What about Martin?"

"Martin and I broke up long ago!"

"But I know you still love him."

"No, I don't. You don't understand honey. It will be nice there in India. I like Vivian, he is the best. Much better than all the guys I have dated. Combined!"

"I will talk to mom about Martin, "

"Please. Ritz! "

"Excuse me, girls," Hannah catches mine and Maya's attention. Hannah is one of our housekeepers, and a sweet lady. She has been with us for a long time, so I am quite a friend to her. "Mrs. Dobrial is calling you downstairs. Please come."

"Okay." Maya and I say in unison. We reach downstairs and enter the huge lavish hall of our mansion. Dobrials residence in Los Angeles is in talks when it comes to business. My father, Mr. Sanjay Dobrial, hasn't left any stone upturned to become one of the successful businessmen in the state.

Mom is sitting on a white couch reading a magazine. She is a black headed woman with black eyes that resemble Maya's and her skin contradicts it being fair. Her face always has sharpness and wit is her weapon.

"Hello young ladies." mom greets us "What happened? You both were arguing?"

"No-" before I can say anything Maya cuts me off.

"Yes, Ritz and her tantrums," Maya complains. I facepalm in my head.

"Oh Ritz, honey we have had this conversation before. I know you are irritated because you don't want to go to India." Mom laughs as if she can read my mind. Yes she did.

"How do you know? Don't tell me you're a vampire." I reply in sarcasm.

"Ew, bad one. Look, because I'm your mother. Even if you don't say anything I know what you are up to." Her tone dripping with wit.

"Drama." I add annoyance lacing my words. Then mom and Maya both laugh and start chatting with each other forgetting my existence. Being the younger sibling this is quite regular for me.

I leave the hall, embarrassed and lock myself in my room. I throw myself on my bed, closing my eyes. Gosh! India will be so boring. Those dirty streets, small houses and blah blah...

I have never been there but Maya told me that India is a not so good country with low maintenance. Maya studied there from 7th till 10th grade and came back to Los Angeles, my place. I am born and brought up here. Tomorrow morning we will be leaving for India. I haven't even packed yet.

Did I just say that I haven't packed?!

NO!

I jump from my bed and pull out my huge bag. I am going to leave for India for the next three months for Maya's wedding and hence for my senior year.

"Sh*t!" I curse under my breath."Oh! This is so scary next one year in India and I haven't even done my packing. Ugh..." I say with both my hands on my bursting head.

Running into my wardrobe I pick some of my favourite dresses when a voice makes me freeze.

"Sorry Ritz! Your packing has been done." Minnie enters. She is also one of the housekeepers and is responsible for my clean wardrobe. I am too lazy to do that.

Now you see how cool am I? Note the sarcasm.

"What? Who did that?" I ask both surprised and angry. "That means my favourite dresses are not in the bag?" I dreamily glance at my rack of Gucci attire.

"Mrs. Dobrial asked me to do that. She gave a plenty of new ones to pack your bag." Minnie informs, it being the most haunting news to have ever struck my eardrums.

'What? My mom has packed my bag.' No this cannot happen!

"Mom!" I scream and storm out of my room towards her's.

Just when I am about to step into her room her words make me stop. "Sanjay, you know the risks we are taking by going to India." What? Why? "There is still time, we don't have to hide it," I frown and enter the room.

"What's up?" I question. The anger on her for packing my bags suddenly got replaced with this curiosity.

"Ah..."She partly says on the phone and partly to me. Her expression turns scared than it already was for a second, enough for me to notice, and goes back to normal.

"Lo aa gayi![Look she has come!]"She swiftly covers her face with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes."I will tell her now." She hangs up and beams at me which is creepy. "Ritz. Oh about that," she pauses and picks up the glass on her nightstand and sips water from it, "You should know about what you are going to wear in India."

"That's what you have been hiding? And wear what in India?"I frown. I expected that.

"The Indian clothes I packed for you."The words float in the air for a moment and then I burst.

"You can't do this!" the curiosity got killed and my rage is back to square one.

"Do what?" And a sliver of laugh escapes her lips. What's funny about this?!

"Why did you pack my bag?" I demand.

"Oh dear! We are leaving for India for your sister's wedding not for a visit to Paris. I'm sure you would never pick clothes which are appropriate for an Indian wedding," She sighs, "Also after the wedding ceremony when I and your dad return back here, I will send the rest of your dresses to India. Fine?" I don't answer, still angry with her for packing my bag without asking me.

"And if only once I choose your clothes there is no need to be so angry." She says, this time a hint of anger in her voice. "Besides, you should thank me for packing your bag which you haven't done till now." She is right but I don't wanna lose this argument that easily, so I say,

"But I know you will make me wear those Indian kurtis and sarees. Am I correct?"

"Correct! Exactly! Now no more arguments over this and check whether the clothes fit you or not." With that my mom leaves the room. And again she is the all time winner of any conflict.

She kept this till the last date so I have no option but to go according to her plan. Clever!

What can go worse! How could I forget my elder sister's wedding is going be a big fat Indian Wedding and those traditional clothes are a must. They are so heavy with a lot of shiny work done on them. Ew, they always poke your body and make you uncomfortable. I pick them up and try all of them, they are a perfect fit. Well some of them were decent and others, well, you know.

After cursing a bit about the dresses I leave the room and go to Maya's. Unlike my room, hers is a shade of blue and bottle green. Mine is dark with purple and maroon.

"Hey honey, you here? Well, that's good. C'mon tell me what should I wear tomorrow. This one? Or this one?" Maya holds two dresses in both her hands giving me a glimpse of her latest collection. One is purple and the other is red.

"Hmm..." I moan lost in thought. Both of them are perfectly designed. Red or purple. Both are my favourite, I'm so confused.

"Red...no, no...ah...purple will suit more...ugh...I guess red is better." I blabber and grin like an idiot gaining an amused expression from my sister.

"Useless as usual. I'll wear red. It suits my personality!" She waves off. Sister siblings thing. Though she is right. She is tall and slim, that little red dress would fit her perfect tall frame. I'm not that tall, just 5'4.

Maya is about to leave her room when I stop her.

"I'll miss you." It slips out of my mouth. Maya turns and looks at me as if I'm a lost kid looking for her parents. Her eyes shine due to the hidden tears in them while she forces herself not to cry.

"Don't cry my Behna (sister) I will visit you frequently and gossip a lot."

Maya lets out a chuckle and pulls me in a hug, "I'm gonna miss you the most in this house. And there are still three months for me to go so let me enjoy them with you and these few hours left for us in L.A." My eyes widen in excitement.

"Yeah, let's go out for dinner and then we'll go to-"

"The aquarium." Maya completes my sentence but with the wrong word.

"No, that's boring. I think the pub is better."

"We are not drinking, I don't wanna suffer a hungover during the flight."

I sigh but continue, "Fine, the beach?" Maya sighs but nods and gives me a tiny squeeze before she leaves to get changed. Meanwhile I put on a coat and wait for her in the living room.

I take out my purse and grab my cellphone.

3 missed calls.

I huff, as usual my cell is on silent mode and I got many missed calls. They are from my friend Marissa. I call her. After four rings she picks up. "Hey! What's going on? When are you leaving for India?"

"Hmm...tomorrow morning. I've told this to you so many times. You need to get your brain checked. You know, you may have short term memory loss!"

"Shut up!"

I giggle and wait for her to say something.

"I mean are you really gonna go, you don't like it, right? The place is boring like you said."

"I don't know for sure. I am just making a fuss about it so that this trip gets stalled but guess what? When you are the youngest of the fam nobody gives a damn!"

"Chill! I hope you like it."

"I hope so too and I'll have to continue my senior year there. Oh, almost a year."

"Leaving mum! Ritz let's go!" Maya exclaimed from behind me.

"Yeah, just a sec!" I tell Maya and continue my conversation with Marissa. "Um, Rissa will you join us?" I ask her.

"Where to? I'll be there." She assures me. I tell Marissa to come to the beach and I leave with Maya.

"Maya, I invited Marissa, is that fine?"

"Yeah why not? I invited Angela and Summer, too."

"Oh, really! I missed Summer."

"Yeah, now you two are gonna gossip about everything in the world, right?"

I laugh and agree with Maya. Summer is like my elder sister. She's so caring and always spares some time for me. She's a very talented fashion designer and is listed in one of the top designers of our country. She has definitely worked with celebs but she has never said which one to me because I would wanna meet them.

The car stops bringing me out of my thoughts. I slide out of Maya's BMW and approach the sea. Marissa is already here.

She comes running towards me, crashing me in a big bear hug,"I missed you so...much." Marissa cries.

"We just met yesterday, stop it drama queen." I pull away from her.

"I mean, I will miss you so...much."

"Aww...I'll miss you too, so so much. If you don't mind, come to India with us. I mean, for some time." I joke.

"No, I can't miss school and the holiday workshops." She interrupts.

"Where is my pretty gal?!" Summer rushes in my direction and engulfs me in a hug, crushing my body,"Sweetie pie! How are you? It's been ages since we've stopped catching up on each other's lives." Summer says enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I know Summy."

The rest of the night goes by with food, drinks, celebration, giggles, jokes, gossip and what not. There is no end to this.

Maya and I get back home by 11:30 at night. Early but yeah, it is getting late today. I need to reach the airport at 4:30 in the morning. So I slip in my pajamas and jump into my bed.

'India, I'm coming. I hope you're worth it.'