Trinkets - Chapter 41: Chapter 41

When Mahika wakes up, it's pouring outside and the house smells exactly like it used to when she would come back from school at fifteen and dump her backpack on the couch to greet her mother in the kitchen with a hug.
Her mother would bend down, kiss the top of Mahika's head, and smile with gentleness drifting in her gaze. "Hi, mera baccha. Did you have a good day?"
And fifteen-year-old Mahika would nod, burrow herself closer to her mother, and forget about how badly she wanted to never go back to school.
Twenty-three-year-old Mahika doesn't have to worry about things like that, though, so she slowly sits up, stretches her arms above her head, and curves her back until she hears a satisfying little pop from her spine - courtesy of yet another late-night studying session - and then slumps forward with a yawn.
Her eyes, seemingly with a mind of their own, find her phone on the bedside table before anything else. There's a tiny, sleepy smile on her lips when she leans over to pick it up, because she knows there'll be some exasperated texts from a certain girl waiting for her.
They're in response to Mahika's texts about how she's staying up to study for the exams she has next week. She had silenced her phone and kept it aside after telling Amoli that, because she knew it would have been nearly impossible to put the device away once they started to talk.
Why are you up late studying before a WEEKEND?? says the first one, and the corners of Mahika's lips are already curving up some more.
Do you hate yourself? Be honest, says the next, and Mahika shakes her head in amusement as she types out a reply.
judging me for this while you were up watching that reality tv nonsense? 😟
Her text is delivered and seen within two seconds, and Mahika blinks in surprise when she sees the tiny 'typing...' under Amoli's name.
What happened to Hi Hello? Good morning?? How are you???
And it's called Indian Matchmaking. Show some respect 😒
The snort Mahika lets out echoes in her room. hi. hello. good morning. that's embarrassing as hell btw, she replies, resisting the urge to lean back against her fluffy, flowery pillows and curl up under the blankets with her phone.
Rude and unnecessary
yeah? what other monstrosities are u keeping up with next?
bigg boss? 🤢 splitsvilla? 🤢
...Yes
🫢
😔
omg... no way
😔😔
i don't think we should be together anymore
But Mahi 🥺
i'm sorry
this is inexcusable
You're being unreasonable!! Everyone has flaws!!
theirs aren't this outrageous
Why are you attacking me like this
It's barely 9 am
ok we will come back to this in an hour then
☹️
Mahikas mother is standing by the kitchen island when Mahika makes her way out of her room, humming under her breath.
"Good morning, Ma," Mahika murmurs, coming up behind the shorter woman to place her chin on her shoulder. The soft, gentle scent of her mother's familiar vanilla shampoo drapes its warmth around Mahika like the morning sun.
"Good morning, mera baccha," she says back, and Mahika hums happily when she gets an affectionate pat on the cheek and a kiss to her temple. "Slept well?"
"Mhm..." She nods, and wraps her arms around her mother in a loose hug, looking down at the counter where her mother expertly chops coriander into tiny bits. "You didn't wake me up," she murmurs with a pout, eyeing the casseroles. "I wanted to help with breakfast."
Her mother waves the words off and reaches back to lightly tweak the tip of her daughter's nose before twisting open one of the dishes. She tears a piece of bread roll to hold it in front of Mahika's mouth after dipping it in green chutney, and the latter obediently opens her mouth to let her mother feed her.
Mahika isn't surprised by her mother's lack of response to her words, well aware that there's no way she's going to be able to get her mother to let her help for the next couple of weeks, at least.
"You've done plenty," her mother had said the other night. "I miss doing things for my baby."
Mahika had fixed her with a half-fond, half-exasperated look over her laptop screen from the couch. "You've done plenty, too. Besides, I'm not a baby anymore, Ma."
"Nonsense. You will always be my baby no matter what."
Mahika has spent a lot of years making a home out of the people around her.
But having her mother back in the house beside her for good reminds Mahika that her first home was always her mother.
She points at the other casserole while she chews, now lightly swaying her mother from side to side.
"Puran Poli," her mother answers her silent question with a smile in her voice, like she already expected to hear the happy squeal Mahika lets out. "Your sweet tooth is the same as always, I see."
"Some things never change," Mahika sings, opening her mouth for another piece. God, she missed her mother's cooking. "Besides," she continues after she finishes chewing, covering her mouth with one hand, "you made it because you know my love for sweets is-oh, Ekta aunty made Rajbhog a few days ago! Let me just..."
Mahika has already launched herself off her mother's back before finishing her sentence so she can rummage through the refrigerator and pull the box of homemade sweets out.
"Amoli brought some when she came over that day, and I swear if her mom started a business I would be filling our fridge with her sweets from top to bottom..."
She rambles on as she feeds some to her mother, unaware of the surprised stare fixated on her as she shoves another piece in her own mouth.
"...I could eat like, twelve of these at once, Ma, I think I have a problem, actually..."
"I didn't know you two made up," her mother says after she finishes chewing, entirely unaware of the way Mahika freezes over like a block of ice, sugar syrup dripping back into the box from the fork now held still in her hand. "That's really nice."
Her mind flashes back to the time she ranted all of her frustrations out to her mother on the phone; tired and hurt from the situation with Amoli after they had all met up to help Naina finalize her wedding outfits.
And then she thinks of the words 'made up' and her mind immediately brings up very vivid memories of giggling between kisses and dainty fingers tracing the shape of her spine, and Mahika has to swallow back the squeak threatening to leave her mouth.
Her mother is, of course, completely oblivious to the commotion inside Mahika's head as she puts the lid of the box back on and pats Mahika's shoulder before walking to the kitchen island.
"So what are you doing today? It's Saturday so I hope you're not planning on staying holed up inside your room to study all day..."
Mahika's eyes flit to her phone that's lying face down on the coffee table, thinking about why she had stayed up late on a Friday to study just so she could have the weekend free, and the real answer to her mother's question gets stuck in her throat.
"Mahi?"
Mahika blinks a few times and looks away from her phone.
"Are you listening?"
"Mhm..." Mahika looks over at her mother to find her leaning back against the counter with her arms folded across her chest.
"Internally stressing over your exams, baccha?"
Mahika shakes her head, a wry smile playing on her lips.
Everyone around her knows that Mahika tends to suffer in isolation when it comes to college stuff. But the funny part is that this time, she could not care less even if she tried.
She's had more than enough time to prepare.
And besides, between work and getting together with her friends at the cottage, her priorities have... shuffled around a bit.
"Nah," she responds, and means it. "It's not that."
Mahika was freeing her weekend so she could finally ask Amoli out on a date.
It feels a bit silly thinking about it; it does every time Mahika looks back on how every part of her and Amoli's story so far has been so... non-linear.
But somehow, she doesn't mind.
She can only hope that Amoli doesn't either.
"Want to talk about it?" her mother asks tenderly, and for a few seconds Mahika almost, almost considers just opening her mouth and blurting out a simple, "Ma, I have a girlfriend."
But years of holding something back turns the said thing into a habit.
So Mahika just gives her a half-smile and says, "Nothing serious." When her mother continues to look at her like she knows something Mahika doesn't, Mahika forcefully widens her smile and adds, "Besides, I got the habit of overthinking from you, so you can't really blame me for being a bit out of it sometimes."
"Hm... Being terrible at deflection... you got that from me, too."
Mahika huffs out a laugh, shaking her head. "Fair enough."
Satisfied that the smile on her daughter's face is now a genuine one, the older woman smiles as well.
"You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" she asks, letting go of her mom-voice in favor of what Mahika mentally refers to as her you'll-always-be-safe-with-me voice. "I know I wasn't physically around for a lot of your -"
"Ma, no," Mahika interrupts immediately, making her way over to her mother for another hug because if there's one thing she hates more than anything, it's when her mother gets guilty about stuff she had no control over. "None of that, please. I've never once felt like you weren't here for me when I needed you, okay? I promise."
Her mother sighs, and Mahika just hugs her tighter.
"Then why does it feel like I've missed out on witnessing so much of my baby's life?"
Mahika chuckles and shakes her head. "You have not. You're highly underestimating how boring your baby's life is."
"Somehow, I feel like that's not true."
"It is." Mahika rolls her eyes. "You can ask my friends if you don't believe me. You can ask Dhruv, actually. You know he would expose me in a heartbeat if you asked."
Her mother's shoulders shake with laughter. "So no staying out all night drinking and meeting boys behind my back?"
Mahika knows she's joking, but the irony of the situation isn't lost on her. Her daughter 'meeting boys' should be the least of her mother's concerns. "I do drink, but you know I'm responsible about it," she settles with.
LIES, her brain screams at her. She was the farthest from responsible the last time she drank.
But it's the reason why she has what she has with Amoli today, so she doesn't think she needs to look back on the day negatively. Not anymore, anyway.
"Should I be worried that you haven't answered the second part of my question?" her mother presses playfully, and Mahika pulls back to fix her with a Be Serious look.
"No," she replies, deadpan, and her mother stares back at her for barely two seconds before she bursts out laughing.
"Ah..." her mother drawls after she sobers up a little. "I feel like I should be grilling you with more questions about this, but I suppose I trust you a bit too much, huh?"
Mahika feels a pang in her chest at the words, knowing that the longer she spends hiding from her mother, the more it means that the trust isn't reciprocated.
"Well, you're old enough to know what's right for you," her mother continues, pulling away from the hug with a scrunch of her nose-like she doesn't exactly like the idea of Mahika being old enough-and pulls a chair at the dining table to sit down with an exaggerated sigh. "But I still feel like we should talk about some stuff."
Mahika raises an eyebrow, and leans back against the doorframe. "Stuff like..."
Her mother widens her eyes with meaning, like Mahika should know what she's talking about.
When Mahika continues to stare at her in utter cluelessness, she sighs and leans back in her chair. "Well, you know I had you when I was barely twenty-one, and I loved you to death, honey, but having a kid at that age was not exactly part of my plan and -"
"Um...?"
"- I'm hoping you're being... you know. Responsible and stuff."
Mahika squeezes her eyes shut when the full realization of what her mother's talking about dawns on her. "Ma..." she groans, pressing the heels of her palms to her eyes.
"I'm just saying! You're already twenty-three and -"
"Oh, my God. Stop."
"Mahi..."
"Ma, please."
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about."
"I don't... can we not talk about this?" Mahika knows the tips of her ears have turned bright red by now. She doesn't even have the heart to look her mother in the eye. "I appreciate you being super chill about... well, sex and stuff, but can we please not do this?" Before her mother can say more, Mahika quickly adds, "Besides, you don't have to worry about that stuff with me."
Her mother tilts her head to one side, looking up at Mahika in question.
"Just... yeah. Don't worry. Not about this. I'm not -" Mahika's breath gets stuck in her throat once again, because what is she supposed to say, really? "Don't worry," she says again, suddenly much, much quieter.
Maybe her mother senses the defeat in her voice, or just decides to have mercy on her and let it go. For now.
"No boys?" she asks softly.
Mahika swallows back the lump in her throat and stares at her mother's forehead instead of her eyes.
"No boys," she repeats.
➷