All You Need is a Little Faith
Page 1
All You Need
Is A Little Faith
All You Need
Is A Little
Faith
VAANYA SINGH
BLOOMSBURY INDIA
Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd
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Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070
BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY INDIA and the Diana logo are trademarks of
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in India 2019
This edition published 2019
Copyright © Vaanya Singh, 2019
Vaanya Singh has asserted her right under the Indian Copyright Act to be identified as the Author of this work
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the publishers
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ISBN: PB: 978-93-89391-96-1; eBook: 978-93-89391-95-4
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To my brother and best friend:
the sibling that God gave me and the
one I adopted along the way
Contents
Prologue
Prince Charming and the Princess
CHAPTER 1
Sometimes I wonder if love is worth fighting for. Then I look at you and I’m ready for war!
CHAPTER 2
Gravitation can’t be held responsible for people falling in love.
CHAPTER 3
It’s okay to be a glow stick; sometimes we need to break before we shine.
CHAPTER 4
If my heart was a canvas, every inch of it would be painted over with you.
CHAPTER 5
‘You will love him to ruins’
CHAPTER 6
I loved her not for the way she danced with my angels, but for the way the sound of her name could silence my demons.
CHAPTER 7
Blessed are the cracked because they let in the light, Faith.
CHAPTER 8
Men should be like Kleenex: soft, strong, disposable.
CHAPTER 9
Even when we fight and I put up a wall, I want you to climb over it and show me that you still care.
CHAPTER 10
I love you for not only what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
CHAPTER 11
If I had to choose between loving you and breathing, I would use my last breath to say ‘I love you’.
CHAPTER 12
We should love, not fall in love because everything that falls, breaks.
CHAPTER 13
When I text you, it means I miss you. When I don’t text you, it means I’m waiting for you to miss me.
CHAPTER 14
Ya, I know he’s cute, but he’s mine; touch him and I’ll kill you.
CHAPTER 15
I don’t want expensive gifts. I don’t want to be bought. I have everything I want. I just want someone to be there for me, to make me feel safe and secure.
CHAPTER 16
We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness and call it love. True love.
CHAPTER 17
Love me or hate me, both are in my favour ... If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart. If you hate me, I’ll always be on your mind.
CHAPTER 18
Love is like the wind; you can’t see it but you can feel it.
CHAPTER 19
Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds. It dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing ...
CHAPTER 20
Sometimes you need to feel a little cold before you touch the sun.
CHAPTER 21
My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.
CHAPTER 22
They say Disney World is the happiest place on earth. Obviously, they’ve never been in your arms.
CHAPTER 23
I want a girl who doesn’t know she’s beautiful, so I have an excuse to let her know all the time.
CHAPTER 24
We came, we saw, we loved.
CHAPTER 25
You say you love me. Yet you leave me alone to cry.
CHAPTER 26
Love is a madness.
CHAPTER 27
But love is blind and lovers can’t see.
CHAPTER 28
She’s fire and ice. You will fear the cold and crave the burn.
CHAPTER 29
Never regret anything, because at one time that was exactly what you wanted.
CHAPTER 30
Imperfections are perfections to those who love you truly.
CHAPTER 31
She had the spirit of a gypsy, the heart of a hippie and the soul of a fairy ...
CHAPTER 32
You’re a king and I’m a queen and now well stumble through heaven.
CHAPTER 33
I want you. All of you. Your flaws. Your mistakes. Your imperfections. I want you and only you.
CHAPTER 34
All you need is Faith, trust and a little bit of pixie dust.
Epilogue
Dancing under a starry night.
About the Author
PROLOGUE
Prince Charming
and the Princess
VAIBHAV
‘Vaibhav, pass the ball here!’ my little brother Aditya yelled from across our big lawn.
‘Alright,’ I said, before kicking the ball. Aditya was about to kick the ball back but stopped abruptly.
I turned around to see a black limo with tinted windows pull up in our neighbourhood. A man and a woman stepped out; the man looked somewhat familiar ...
‘James!’ my mother screamed before running towards the man and giving him a hug that almost made him lose his balance. Seriously! Mum acts like a teenager at times!
My dad went and greeted the couple, too. After talking amongst themselves for a minute or so, they called out to Aditya and me to meet them.
‘Vaibhav, Aditya ... you remember James, don’t you? He’s the fa...’ Here mum was cut short by the roar of an engine. The lady slapped her forehead and muttered, ‘I told them not to race.’
Two cars, rather two Lamborghini Sports, the latest models, one blue and one white, zoomed past us. After a few antics, both cars parked normally. I stood there with my mouth open in astonishment.
A guy got out of the blue car. He was tall and well built, had blonde hair and looked a lot like the lady.
‘You cheated!’ he exclaimed.
An extremely attractive girl hopped out of the white car. She was wearing blue denim ripped shorts with a white crop top that revealed a belly button piercing. She was sporting a black leather jacket. The most alluring part about her was her hair—long, ginger waves that fell till her waist. Gorgeous was the word for her. As she came towards us, I got lost in her green eyes.
‘You always say that, Alex,’ she replied, rolling
those beautiful eyes.
‘But you always cheat!’ the guy, whose name was Alex, replied.
‘Whatever helps you sleep at night,’ she muttered.
‘I told both of you not to race!’ the lady, whose name I still didn’t know, replied.
‘Sorry, Beth,’ the hot girl apologised, giving Beth a hug. Mum and dad introduced me to the couple, James and Beth.
They had married each other a year ago. They had both lost their respective spouses from their previous marriages. Beth had a son named Alex, and James a daughter. For some reason, James seemed very familiar.
As the girl came closer, I put on my smirk and extended my hand.
‘Hey, gorgeous! What’s your name?’ She looked at me, but instead of drooling like the other girls, she passed me a look of pure disgust.
What the hell!
‘Hey,’ she said, turning to Aditya and ignoring me. ‘Are you a lesbian?’ Aditya blurted out.
Alex burst out laughing. I hadn’t realised that the elders had gone inside.
‘Why would you think that?’ she asked, trying hard to control her laughter.
‘Well, you’re talking to me and not drooling over my brother.’
‘Aditya, believe me when I say this—I have no interest in your brother.’
‘How do you know my name?’ Aditya asked suspiciously. ‘You know, it’s a crime to forget your favourite person in the world!’ she pretended to be sad.
‘Faith?’ he asked, with wide eyes. ‘The one and only,’ she replied with an all-too-familiar smirk.
CHAPTER 1
Sometimes I wonder if
love is worth fighting for.
Then I look at you and I’m
ready for war!
FAITH
‘I am warning you, Faith, if you don’t get out of bed in the next minute, I’ll throw ice-cold water on you,’ Alex threatened for the umpteenth time.
I sprang out of bed because I knew he was quite capable of doing so.
‘I’m up!’
I loved Alex dearly. He had helped me get my life back to normal after it seemed like I would never get out of the abyss that I had sunk into. Soon we became best friends; we even introduced our single parents to each other, causing them to fall in love. The day I came to know Alex was to become my stepbrother, I was the happiest person on earth.
I had a leisurely shower, washing my hair with my favourite shampoo, Orchids. I decided to dress in a plain white T-shirt teamed with my denim dungarees—perks of going to an international school! Slipping my feet into my striped Converse shoes, I walked out of my room.
‘Mornin’,’ Beth greeted me as I entered the kitchen. ‘Mornin’,’ I replied, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She was the best stepmum ever. She made my dad happy, for which I was grateful.
Dad was seated at the counter next to Alex. They were flipping through some bike magazine. I’m more of a car girl; I’d rather drive a car than ride a death trap!
‘Alex, hurry up! We’re getting late for the first day of our school,’ I almost whined.
‘Since when are you so excited for school?’ he asked with a raised eyebrow.
‘Since today. I don’t want to miss anyone’s reaction when they see the new me after my weight-loss makeover.’
‘You’re evil.’
‘I know. Now come on.’
It was a short drive from our Sainik Farms’ bungalow, and we decided to take my car to school. Alex asked our chauffeur to turn on the radio; they were playing Faith by Stevie Wonder. I hummed along all the way to school. However, as soon as I saw the familiar gate, I started feeling nervous. Sensing my discomfort, Alex gently held my hand and said, ‘Don’t worry, sis. You’re not the old you. You’re a totally different person now. You’re not the Faith they remember.’
‘Thanks, Alex.’
We found a vacant parking space near the entrance. Alex got out first. I wanted to laugh when I saw the reaction of all the skanks. Sure he was hot, but I only saw him as a brother. Taking a deep breath, I too got out of the car.
The whole parking lot broke into whispers. ‘Who’s she?’
‘She’s hot, man.’
‘I’d tap that ass.’
I smirked and walked towards the gate. Alex pulled me closer protectively when he saw a bunch of guys eyeing me.
‘Hey, beautiful, do you need help?’ a guy asked, jumping right in front of me.
He looked somewhat familiar. ‘No,’ I said in a neutral voice. ‘No?’ he repeated, shocked. ‘No,’ I said simply. ‘But no girl has ever said “no” to me.’
‘Well! There’s a first time for everything,’ I said, patting his cheek and walking off.
Burns’ Midas Touch was playing somewhere in the background. The guy walked back to his group. One of them in the group looked familiar. I was walking away when something took over me.
I turned around and walked towards the little group. ‘Faith,’ Alex whispered in his ‘what are you up to?’ tone. I tapped the rejected guy on his shoulder. ‘Do I know you?’ I asked once he turned around. ‘I don’t think so.’
I thought for a moment before I realised who the guy was. ‘Samrat,’ I barely whispered.
‘Wait, how do you know my name?’
‘And Ron,’ I said, pointing to the guy standing next to him. I didn’t know the third guy though.
‘My! Look at you now, all ho...’
But I didn’t get to finish my sentence because Satan himself walked right up to the group.
‘Faith,’ Vaibhav said, with questioning eyes. Everyone was surprised at hearing my name. I shot him some daggers and grabbed Alex’s arm.
‘Come on, Alex,’ I said, dragging him along.
‘Faith, wait!’ I heard Vaibhav call out but I ignored him. I was done with him, forever.
Vaibhav and I went way back; we used to be best friends. He was like the other half of my soul. But that was until my mum passed away. He turned his back on me when I needed him the most. Since then, my life went downhill ... until I found Alex.
And now I was back—a different person, you bet! Vaibhav didn’t even recognise me when he saw me for the first time after three years—after that event that had turned my life upside down.
‘Faith?’ Aditya asked, with his eyes open wide. ‘The one and only,’ I answered with my signature smirk.
He opened his mouth and then closed it like a fish. I pulled him into a hug and then ruffled his hair. I had forgotten all about Vaibhav until he chose to speak.
‘Faith...’ Vaibhav whispered in a soft voice.
I pretended to ignore what he was saying. ‘Aditya, meet my brother, Alex.’ Dad got married again; to his mum. We practically got them together,’ I added in the end with a chuckle.
Then I told Aditya that I had come back to town and was rejoining school. I asked him how his eldest brother Malhaar was. Did he still play football? All this while, I was pretending to ignore Vaibhav. It was turning out to be a tough job since he seemed to have made it his life’s goal to annoy me.
‘So, why have you moved back?’
‘You got a piercing?’
Those were some of the questions he asked me. All I did was ignore him.
‘Well, Aditya, it was nice catching up. I hope to take you out for ice cream sometime.’
‘Sure, Faith. Any time.’
‘Bye.’
The rest of the school day was boring. While Alex socialised, I kept to myself. When people came to know that I was back, there was only one expression on their face—shock.
It was during lunch that my life spiced up a bit. This was because the school-slut, a.k.a. Vidya, decided to grace me with her presence. The whole cafeteria went quiet to witness the scene.
‘Oh! So, the little rat has decided to come out of hiding,’ she said, twirling her black hair.
‘Hello to you, too, Vidya.
‘I have been longing all day to ask you a question—are you a lesbian?’ she tried to provoke me.
�
��What’s with everyone thinking that I’m a lesbian?! I mean, it’s not bad being a lesbian, but still ... honey, I’m straighter than the pole your mother dances on,’ I replied without getting worked up.
She gasped. ‘How dare you say that, bitch?’
‘Well, I just did,’ I answered simply.
The whole cafeteria burst out laughing. Vidya lunged at me. I ducked and she lost her balance.
‘Bye, bye,’ I said before walking away.
CHAPTER 2
Gravitation can’t be held
responsible for people
falling in love.
VAIBHAV
It had been a week since Faith had made a comeback. And for the entire week she had avoided me like the bloody plague. Every time I tried to talk to her, she would either run away or ignore me.
We had been friends once, right. So, what was the big deal?! But no, Faith had a completely different view on this. I thought everything was going to be like this until her parents called us to their place.
Faith, Alex, Aditya and I sat opposite Beth, James and my parents, Anusuya and Kabir.
‘So why are we here?’ Faith asked. ‘Well, we have something to tell you,’ Beth said anxiously. ‘Thanks for stating the obvious, mum,’ Alex replied. ‘We are going along with your parents on a holiday to catch up,’ said my mum bouncing up and down.
‘You mean with us, right?’ Aditya asked.
‘No, Aditya, without you kids. That’s why we are all here together to tell you this. All of you kids will be living together while we are gone,’ my dad said.
‘Wait, what do you mean?’ I finally asked. ‘This is a month-long trip. You and Aditya will be living with Faith and Alex for the duration that we parents are away,’ dad continued.
We all stared at each other until Faith broke the silence. She got up from her chair and looked at her dad straight in the eye. ‘How could you?’ Saying this, she ran away to her room.
Everyone was silent before Alex said, getting up, ‘I’ll go check on her.’
‘Vaibhav and Aditya, I advise you to go and pack,’ dad finally said.
‘Okay,’ I said before dragging Aditya along.
‘What was that about?’ he asked once we were outside the house.
‘No idea.’