CHAPTER ONE
Arjun
“The stars are absolutely in your favor.”
A smile twisted Arjun Mehta’s lips, his cosmic black eyes twinkling at the middle-aged woman sitting with her legs crossed in front of him. A fresh set of scratches blossomed on his skin, thanks to the mangled mat they sat on. Every year he’d have his astrological chart read, which meant pulling out the neon orange rug beforehand. He called it his good-luck charm.
“You’re sure, Auntie Iyer?” Arjun asked, leaning forward with interest.
Auntie Iyer wasn’t actually his aunt, but rather a next-door neighbor turned family friend. Like most Indian children, Arjun was raised to refer to the elders in his community by either Auntie or Uncle. The title was often used as a sign of respect, but Arjun saw it differently. Auntie Iyer was as much a part of his life as his own mother, and referring to her as an Aunt made their connection feel more concrete, even though it didn’t stem from a pure blood tie.
“Have I ever been wrong?” When Arjun clicked his tongue in defeat, Auntie Iyer laughed. “Your senior year is characterized by one word: balance. Your hard work will be rewarded in the fields of education, athletics, and love, though there will be multiple obstacles in your path.”
Arjun’s heart slammed exactly twice through his rib cage. Once in fear. Once in hope.
“Love?” he sputtered. “We both know I’m not the most eligible bachelor in town.”
That was a lie.
A total of fifteen thousand people lived in their town. His graduating class consisted of 122 seniors and Arjun knew from experience that a majority of his classmates did not find him attractive. That was, until his junior year of high school, when his culture became a trend.
In elementary school, Auntie Iyer would pack him lemon rice for lunch whenever his parents forgot, and his classmates would bully him half to death about its neon yellow color. Now they asked if he could make them “Golden Milk,” a newly trademarked Starbucks drink born from the same yellow turmeric that stained his rice. The girls that once scorned his bronzed skin, calling it a tan that had somehow lost its way, now attached themselves to his arm. They marveled at his curly black hair as if his features had transformed from uncomfortably alien to fetishizably exotic. His town had expanded its palate to include him last year, but that didn’t mean he wanted to appease their picky taste buds.
“You know better than anyone that the stars never lie,” Auntie Iyer said as if she could read his mind. When he didn’t respond, she placed a hand on his cheek. “Are you okay, beta?”
Arjun was suddenly overwhelmed with heartburn so severe it scorched his intestines to a crisp. He wondered if his body was trying to distract him from what the stars could mean for his relationship with a certain someone...
Who just so happened to be Auntie Iyer’s beloved daughter.
He knew better than anyone that Madhuri Iyer couldn’t give two shits about astrology, or about anything Indian, for that matter. Himself included. Even if his prophecy indicated romance and even if that involved her, Madhuri wouldn’t let it happen. As much as he hoped otherwise, Arjun knew that if it was Madhuri versus destiny, she’d win. Hands down.
“I’m alright,” he responded after a beat of hesitation. “Do you know any more information? Anything concrete I can keep an eye out for?”
Auntie Iyer scanned his charts from the past seventeen years, breathing life into the stacks of paper littering the floor. He was overwhelmed by the memories flying out of the pages, their edges frayed and made brittle by time. He saw the first time he scored a goal as the varsity lacrosse team captain, his school cheering his name louder than any sound he’d ever heard before. The first time his teammates lifted him on their shoulders when they won the state championships. The first time Madhuri lunged at him to celebrate, clinging from his shoulders like she was meant to be wrapped in his arms. He recalled the way her smile sparkled like an undiscovered galaxy, as if she were seeing him in a way she never had before.
Wishful thinking.
“You’re going to be given an opportunity by a woman who shields you from reason, and sometimes even basic common sense.” Auntie Iyer’s lips widened into a toothy grin. “She will have rejected you on multiple occasions and will continue to do so until she faces the truth of her feelings for you. And when that happens, it is up to you to decide if she is too late or right on time.”
“Great,” Arjun muttered. “The stars are sticking me with a girl who doesn’t even want to love me. You’re sure you’re not interpreting this wrong?”
Auntie Iyer lifted a neatly threaded eyebrow, peering at him through her rounded spectacles. Her expression twisted into a deadly combination of hurt and annoyance. It was only a matter of time before she threw her chappal at him.
“I haven’t read a chart wrong in my forty-four years of life. You should know better than to ask that,” she chastised. “Have you suddenly turned into Madhuri? Do you need me to beg you to have faith in something other than cold logic?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. You should know better than to think that of me.” He cut his eyes at her, throwing his hands up in defense in case a slipper went flying at his head. Arjun was being disrespectful, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want a prophecy to be the reason he fell in love, especially not when it had Madhuri’s name written all over it.
To say he and Madhuri had been best friends for years would be an understatement. When Arjun thought of his life as he knew it, he saw Madhuri. She was a constant, a single thread of gold bridging his past and his future, and he had long concluded that a world without her would be thoroughly mundane.
The truth was Arjun had fallen hopelessly in love with Madhuri by the ripe age of thirteen. And now, four years later, he was still trailing after her with hearts in his eyes, too afraid to speak up out of fear that he might lose the best friend he’d ever known. He’d nearly lost her once before—in their freshman year of high school after a particularly upsetting fight. In the aftermath, he’d resolved to never risk their stability again, not even for his own feelings.
Arjun was forced out of his thoughts when Auntie’s chappal connected with his face. “Ow!” he yelled, scrunching his nose in anguish. “What was that for?”
“Disrespect.” Auntie Iyer huffed. “I’ll ask you one more time. Are you okay?”
He wanted to answer her, he really did. Madhuri, however, had other plans.
“Amma!” A shriek echoed through the living room. Madhuri’s nimble fingers ran through her waist-length hair as she glared at the two of them, unquenchable flames blazing away in her pupils. “Are you seriously reading his chart? No one in the twenty-first century even believes in astrology other than you!”