Ryan : My Hyper Cousin

"There is nothing on earth more beautiful to me than your smile...no sound sweeter than your laughter...no pleasure greater than holding you in my arms. I realized today that I could never live without you, the stubborn little hellion that you are. In this life and the next, you're my only hope of happiness. Tell me, Lillian, dearest love...how can you have reached so far inside my heart?"

-Lisa Kleypas

"Oooh! I can't wait!" shrieked Liya stepping out of the car.

"Calm down, sis," said Diya with her million-dollar smile, "They are not here yet. We are early"

"Unfortunately" I mumbled under my breathe with a tired sigh.

My cousin was getting married in 3 days. They had invited us to come to their house and help them with the preparations as my mom was my cousin's best friend since middle school or something. My parents gladly agreed and now here we are standing in front of my cousin's house. We had to pack our things for 4 days and stay here until her wedding. Boring isn't it? I had tried to get myself out of this but, my so-called cousin specially requested that I was there, so I've got no choice.

"Priya!" came a high-pitched shriek beating Liya's shrill.

My cousin's mom came running towards my mom and they both hugged each other giggling like college girls.

"Alan, welcome again." smiled uncle, my cousin's father.

"Thank you for inviting us" my father beamed as always and they both shook hands.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw a figure clad in jewelry walking outside the house.

"Deedi!!" my sisters ran towards the figure and strangled it which was the bride by the way.

[Deedi means older sister in Hindi]

"Yah! I can't breathe" deedi said backing away from them.

"Is that the bride?" asked Jimin standing beside me watching all the setup.

"Yep" I sighed.

"Oh, my busy girl has finally come," said Deedi walking towards me, my sisters following behind.

"Hey, deedi" I said putting on a smile.

"Hey? Is that what you say when you finally meet your long lost friend after a whole year?" she widened her eyes acting exaggerated as always. Not really.

"I was busy, deedi" I sighed.

"I'm not taking that as an answer" she shook her head, "I'm very disappointed".

I just gave her a sheepish smile and shrugged my shoulders.

She hasn't changed a bit.

"Come on inside everyone" her mom smiled towards everyone.

And just like that, we dragged our luggage inside.

My parents kept laughing and chatting along with my sisters and deedi. Jimin excitedly looked around the interior designs with big round eyes.

"Wow, Indian houses are quite cool," he said pointing at a family tree or something imprinted into the wall and a courtyard with water plants right in the middle of the living room.

"They are hella rich," I said in a low voice.

"Explains it" he whispered.

Going inside, moms went towards the kitchen along with some middle-aged ladies, dads went over to someplace to talk about the budget or something, and my sisters and deedi went towards her room probably to talk about clothes and jewelry she'll be wearing.

"What are you gonna do?" Jimin asked as I stood awkwardly.

"Just gonna sit somewhere" I shrugged, "You can go and explore the place, you know."

"You okay with it?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's a good place. Go look around" I gave him a thumbs up.

"You'll be bored" he pointed out.

"Nope, as long as I have my buddy here," I said pulling out my phone.

"Haha, I'll be back in a minute," he said and walked off somewhere still looking around.

I plopped down on the couch and started looking into my phone looking through all the paranormal websites I'd message yesterday. But none of them had replied.

I sighed.

What am I gonna do?

My trail of thoughts was cut off by the noise of a car pulling over, outside. I waited lazily as I guessed who the next person might be to witness my fake smile.

"I'M FINALLY HOME" a voice screamed enthusiastically.

I know that voice.

The moment I dreaded has come.

Everyone in the house came running into the main hall as the owner of the voice came stomping into the hall with a billion-watt smile in, a heroic stance with a backpack hung over his shoulder, and a sunglass.

"Hello family!" he chirped and hugged his parents.

That my fellow readers, is my third cousin, deedi's second younger brother: Ryan. She has three younger brothers; Rithik, Ryan and Rahul, in total, they are a six-member family with a girl and three brothers.

Deedi ran towards his brother and they both hugged. All the people seeing the reunion shed invisible joyful tears.

"Don't cry, sis" Ryan said pulling away from the hug, "Save it for later".

"I missed you, idiot" she laughed amidst the tears.

Everyone laughed along with the overflowing love.

I saw Jimin passing through the people and peering at what's going on. He looked towards me but I just shrugged him off.

"Go fresh up, Ryan," his mother said and he nodded his head with the same smile.

Everyone dispersed the crowd and went away back to their business.

Rahul came towards me tiredly and fell onto the couch.

"Hey, Rahul" I said for formality. He's a year younger than me and doesn't talk much.

"Hey Mia. Wassup?" he asked. We talk like normal people, well, he only talks to me amongst my sisters. Maybe because we share same brain cells, I don't know. He's also a nerd like me.

"You look exhausted" I pointed out.

"Yeah, sitting in the car for 2 hours is no fun. His flight was late" he said leaning back.

"Makes sense," I added and turned into my phone.

"How were the exams?" he asked sitting up straight and adjusting his glasses.

"It's good. How about you? I had heard that your math exam was hard"

"It was. The syllabus was mixed a little."

I hummed, "And how about your Mars study? Any new discoveries?"

He is obsessed with mars and exoplanets. His greatest dream is to go to Mars. Call him a weirdo but that's his dream and he's always talking about it, I stress, always.

"Nothing much. Just news provided by NASA" he shrugged.

"I see," I said.

We talked about some random things as people passed by busy talking about arrangements. I thought Jimin went his way back again but I saw him standing under the chandelier and looking up at him. What is he even doing?

"Hey babe!" a loud noise caused me to flinch along with Jimin.

I looked over at the owner of the voice. There stood Ryan at the bottom of the stairs smiling wide at me.

"Babe? Why is he calling her babe?"

"Are they dating"

"No way!"

I heard a bunch of whispers coming from passing by teenage girls.

"Don't worry" his mom came out of nowhere with my mom, "They call each other names. They are childhood friends". I saw both of them giggling and walking away.

Ryan skipped towards me and stood right in front of my sitting form. He opened his arms wide and smiled just the same, if possible wider.

I raised my eyebrow.

"Aren't you gonna give me a hug, babe?" he asked.

I saw Jimin walking towards us with an angry face and staring daggers at the boy before me. He crossed his arms and started tapping his feet on the floor as if contemplating what to do.

"Who's this loudspeaker, Mia?" asked Jimin still staring.

"Can you stop calling me babe?" I asked with an annoyed face.

"What? You don't like it? What about 'sweetheart'" he smiled cheekily.

Even though Jimin didn't understand the language he could still understand with his expressions.

"Just kidding," he said and sat beside me.

I scooted away from him towards Rahul, who was rolling his eyes at his brother's behavior.

"How are you, Mia?" he asked.

"Not fine as you are here," I said blankly.

"Funny!" he mockingly laughed, "Why are you so cold? I want my old Mia back" he pouted.

Right then, my eyes followed a certain someone who was indirectly the reason for my coldness. The reason I changed drastically. I started to hate myself and my life because of him. He came towards me like a mountain but went away like rain, drowning me in it.

"Are you bugging Mia again?" asked Rithik.

"What? Can't I bug my girl friend? Go get your girlfriend" retorted Ryan pulling me by my shoulders.

"Keep your hands to yourself, Ryan" I sighed tiredly shaking his hands off.

"I'm gonna pry his hands off" fumed Jimin now on the verge of killing Ryan.

"You are so cute" Ryan pinched my cheeks out of nowhere.

"Yah!" Jimin shouted.

"Do that one more time and you'll have to go to your sister's wedding with a purple eye" I hissed yanking his hands away.

"You are hot when you are angry" waved Ryan.

Don't let him get on your nerves. Calm down.

"Did you miss some brain cells when you stayed in the USA for a year?" I sighed.

"Nope. I missed you a lot you know" he said leaning closer.

"Sorry not sorry, I don't," I said getting up.

"Where are you going?" he caught my wrist.

"To hell," I said simply and walked past Ritik followed by Jimin.

"Hey, wait for me" I heard Ryan calling out but I guess someone held him back.

"Who the hell was that guy?" asked Jimin as soon as I shut the door to a room.

"My cousin," I said and sat down on the bed.

"Why was he touching you and all?" Jimin sat down beside me.

"He was my childhood friend. We used to be pretty close till he went to the USA for studies two years ago." I sighed rubbing my forehead.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing. We both became busy with studies" I said

"Just like that?" he asked a little confused.

I nodded.

I can't tell him now. Bruh!

"We are so happy everyone's here!" chirped aunty amidst the dinner.

I heard everyone cheering and clapping while I internally groaned.

We are sitting outside the house and were having dinner together yeah laughing and chatting around. It's 3 days before the wedding but almost half of the relatives are already here. I just hate the wedding stuff. Tight schedules and rushes. The middle ages ladies gossiped around about their husbands or anything in particular while the fathers or gentlemen talked about problems and events happening around them like almost they are talking about Oscar Awards. And the younger generation is divided into two; teenagers and kids. Teenagers messed with each other when kids ran around the place. Typical wedding scenario everywhere, I think?

"Isn't it fun?" nudged Ryan smiling goofily sitting beside me.

Yep, he somehow sat beside me again, annoying the hell out of me.

I just rolled my eyes and turned away from him.

"Do you know? We are hosting a bachelorette party tomorrow night" now he winked.

"Can you please shut your mouth?" I said moving my chair away from him.

"Why?" no use, he scooted towards me again.

Can I just dig a hole and go right to hell? I really understand the meaning of that expression right now. Hell is even great than being in his presence.

"Tell me, Mia. I'll kill him right now" gritted out Jimin who stood behind Ryan's chair.

I really wish I could.

"Just leave her alone, Ry" chuckled Deedi sitting across from us.

"Nah-uh, I won't leave her alone until she talks naturally to me" he shook his head.

I heard the people sitting at the table laughing at us.

That's it!

I stood up abruptly, "Excuse me" and I walked away taking my plate.

"Hey are you alright?" asked Jimin who had followed me.

"Nope, I'm not. I just wanna go home." I sighed disposing my plate.

"I don't blame you. That guy sure is annoying" he said with a tone of disgust.

"I know" I sighed washing my hands.

"Come he-"

"Whom are you talking to, Mia?" asked Ryan walking towards me.

"Here the dork comes" gritted out Jimin. He sure is scary when he's angry.

"A ghost," I said icily. It is true...I'm getting the hang of it!

I saw him sighing and facing me, "What happened to you, Mia? This is not you".

"I don't know what you are talking about".

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." he walked towards me and grabbed both of my shoulders, "I was gone for a year, are you mad at me for that?"

I just stared at him. I was seriously not interested in the conversation.

"I'd tried to contact you for so long but you kept ignoring me. What did I do? Tell me!" he shook my shoulders.

"Aish, what's your problem?" I yanked his arms away and stepped back.

There was hurt, anger, and desperation in his eyes.

No, you didn't do anything. It was your brother and I can't tell you that.

"Please...tell me. I beg you..." he was in utter desperation now, stubborn as always.

"Ryan, it's not you or anything," I mumbled a bit truthful.

"Then what is it?" he pressed.

"I just thought this suits me well. This is who I am, who I truly am." I said as took a glance at Jimin watching us impatiently. I'm glad again that he can't understand anything.

"No it doesn't." he shook his head, "I like your brighter self. That smile and laughter." he looked longingly to the distance dramatically.

"I like this me, Ryan" I grabbed his sleeve and smiled a little, "Please don't ask more".

He didn't look satisfied but didn't stress further and I'm thankful.

"We are still friends right?" he asked

I nodded my head with a smile.

"Then, can I get a hug?" he opened his arms for me.

I just rolled my eyes and hugged him.

"I really did miss you, babe," he said still hugging.

"I didn't." my voice was muffled.

"Why?" he broke the hug.

"You kept spamming me every week. How can I miss you with that?" I asked.

"Yeah..." he scratched his neck, "Sorry".

I shook my head, "No need. I'm sorry for not contacting you".

"That's okay. I'll make you pay".

I raised my eyebrow.

"At tomorrow's party. First dance?" he asked mischievously.

"I was thinking about not going," I said.

"Please!" he stretched leaning towards me.

"Okay, okay, geez" I pushed him away.

"You have to come okay," he said walking backward, "Or I'll drag you off".

"Yeah" I waved him off as he ran away smiling to himself.

I turned to Jimin who was looking at me with a suspicious face.

"What?" I asked.

"What was that?" he asked walking towards me.

"What was what?" I scrunched my eyebrows.

"Are you sure you are just childhood friends?" he asked placing a hand under his chin.

"Don't tell me you thought of him as my boyfriend or something" I scoffed.

"Maybe...?" he smiled sheepishly.

"He is..." what's the Korean word for gay?

"He is what?"

"Um, he sees all the female community as his sisters, and um...you know interested in guys...what do you say for those kinds of people in Korean?"

"He is gay?!" he exclaimed clapping over his mouth.

"Yeah, he's gay" okay I learned a new word.

"Woah, I didn't expect that" I shook his head bewildered, "He is pretty good looking".

"Yeah, he's got a bunch of confessions but you know, he'd to reject them all. Hashtag bless for those girls" I shrugged.

"Woah, that was sudden" he chuckled.

"C'mon, let's go back" I yawned.