Chapter 1

saucechips

@saucechips

[MEMBERSONLY]

Hey guys! So while I sort my existing threads out, I thought I'd share here a random OS I had written more than a couple of years back that had been posted exclusively on my blog, and not here. It's a random AU one shot written on a rainy afternoon. It is very likely that some of you have read it already, but for those who haven't, here you go and hope you enjoy it! <3

OS: But you know, whatever

It was usually the shrill annoying cacophony of my alarm clock that marked the beginning of my mornings but today, my eyes slowly flickered open by themselves to the sight of heavy rain thrashing on the window panes; the outside world a blur through the translucent sheets running down the length of the glass. I sat up with my brows crossed in mild confusion. Wasn’t it pleasant and windy last night when I went to sleep? Oh well, you never could predict the weather these days.

I could hear the faint clank of utensils from the kitchen. Arnav was up. Well, nothing very surprising about that. Granted I hardly new much of my husband of- what had it been now?-oh yes, two months, but I knew he was an early riser; which was weird because he slept awfully late at night. His room was right next to mine and I could see the lights on through the ventilator glasses till late in the night when I went in my ghoulish semi conscious grumpy state to fetch water which I invariably forgot to check off my list every night before retiring to bed. One day I bumped into him in the pitch black of the night, and as his account of it goes, apparently pushed him out of my way with a string of grumpy unintelligible sentences. I must have been looking a sight because I could hear a faint chuckle while going back to my room. Guy’s got a nice chuckle. But you know, whatever.

I threw the duvet off myself and stretched for a lazy yawn. The start of the day and my motivation to do anything mildly constructive was already running in negative figures.  It wasn’t like I didn’t have any work to do. Oh, loads. But you know what they say, procrastination never killed anyone. I hope. All I wanted to do was to watch Netflix; slumped upon the couch with hot coffee by my side. Yes, I’m a being with high aspirations in life.

I saw Arnav crossing my door which I left ajar some nights when I had an attack of any of my stupid irrational fears- like I’d faint randomly and no one would realize and it’d be hours and I would eventually die and my body would start decomposing before it was discovered. With the door left ajar, Arnav would cross and notice me slumped on the floor and do something about it before decomposition started. Except if I like- you know, fainted on my bed or something. Or while I was asleep. Could you faint in your sleep? Oh dear God, why am I so weird? At this point I should probably mention that I am a perfectly healthy twenty five year old and don’t have any plausible reason for speculating on such possibilities. But you know, a girl’s got to be mentally prepared.

Arnav looked at me while passing by my door and gave a slight nod of recognition. I stretched my lips into a straight smile. We did this ritual almost every morning. At times it was the only gesture we exchanged all day in case nothing related to house essentials or absolute necessary information came up.

“You’re up? I don’t think I heard your alarm ringing?”

Oh yes. We also had a five line small talk sometimes.

“Han? Oh yes, I woke up by myself this morning.”

“I see”

“My alarm tone reaches your room?”

“I think it reaches our neighbor’s room as well”, Arnav leaned slightly on the wooden frame of my door. He was wearing loose tracks and full sleeved V-neck white T-shirt. He had that hairstyle that would remain in place if a storm passed over it. Mine on the other hand was anyway all over the place mostly. I think my hair took up the physical world’s responsibility of manifesting static electricity upon itself. Anyway, this is how men should dress you know..tall men like him at least. Did he look like this every morning? I wouldn’t give him that bad on a ten I guess. But you know, whatever.

“Oh I never realized” I replied, suddenly conscious of my very unkempt, straight out of bed state. My hand involuntarily went to my head to tidy my hair into a rushed ponytail.

Suddenly, the corners of Arnav’s eyes crinkled in mind amusement. “It does. So does your polite conversation with your alarm thereafter”.

I think colour rose up my cheeks because they suddenly felt warm.

“I do nothing of the sort”, I replied with great assertion.

Arnav cleared his throat. “Well..Stupid freak, insane bitch…to start with. If I’m not wrong, you also advised it to get a life once.”

Now I definitely must have colored. Why do I have to be so embarrassing in life?

“You must be hallucinating”

Arnav smiled and straightened himself as he turned left to leave for his room.

“Yes, that’s the stuff I usually hallucinate about” were his last words before he disappeared down the corridor.

After a nice warm bath, my hair tied tightly into a towel I walked into the kitchen. It was just 8:00 on a Sunday morning. What was I becoming? Next thing you’d know, I’d be watching the crack of dawn.

There was still coffee left in the pot covered with a lid. I don’t think Arnav has much sense of measurement. This is invariably always the case. Almost every morning, more than a mug is still left in the pot after he’s finished with his cup. I never bring it up because I can’t let him know that I heat up the thing every morning and pour it straight into my mug. Delicious coffee he makes. I think it’s the only thing he can make- never seen him doing otherwise- but it’s good.

Following the usual regime I heated up the almost freshly made beverage and poured it into my “Life is short. Achieve and conquer!” mug and slumped on the living room couch to watch Netflix. Irony runs very strong with me. Take my marriage for example. Few years back I’d have laughed tears out at the preposterous idea of an arranged marriage. Yet right here I was, living my worst fear come true- an arranged union with a guy I barely knew stuff about beyond what goes in your usual Curriculum Vitae. Nah. Not a forced marriage. Circumstances. But anyway, we gave each other enough space for the solar system to orbit between us so all was cool.

Click.

Click.

Clickclickclickclick.

I hate my life!

The stupid black screen of my laptop stared back as if mocking me. What could have gone wrong now? I had servicing done just a couple of months back! Great, now with everything else my life support system had also given away leaving me locked inside a house with thrashing rain outside absolutely alone. Well not really alone, but same difference.

Arnav crossed the living room and disappeared into the study. Should I ask him? Would he know? Would it be awkward? Or I could just get it serviced. Ya, like that was going to take two hours. Maybe I could just casually ask him. It’s not a big favor to ask right? It’s just advice. What if it’s a bother to him? Would he make a face? Tell me had more important work to do?

He emerged back out of the study with a charger in his hand that he probably must have left there last night. Okay, let’s go for it.

“Um..Arnav?”

He stopped in his tracks and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

This is probably a bad idea. He has a charger in his hands. He must have been probably doing something. I should have dealt with this myself.

“Yes?”

“Er..do you ever have a black screen laptop situation? I don’ t know..it was working just fine till last night. Suddenly it won’t switch on. Just a blank black screen every time.”

Arnav walked over to my couch and slightly bent to look into my laptop a hand in one of his track pockets and a charger in the other. I’m no short person, but with his height it felt like he was looming over my head, what with me sitting into a balled up posture on the couch. I put my legs down and straightened myself.

“Did you try a hardware reset?”

Okay. No idea what that is.

“No..I don’t think so”

“Do you know what a hardware reset is?”

“No..I don’t think so” I replied. Might as well be honest, he’d figure it out anyway.

He suddenly sat down with a thump right next to me on the couch and took the laptop into his lap. My eyes involuntarily widened and then I quickly blinked and corrected them. Trust me, it’s not like I’ve never sat next to a man on a seat before. Or that Arnav had sat right on my lap or something. He was in fact almost a foot away. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the conscious awareness of our relation and the fact that we’re alone in the house, on a rainy day, on the same couch, a foot apart. See this is why I should have enough sleep at night. Early risers have lives that suck. Messed up heads and everything.

“Any idea what it could be?” I asked five minutes later because I am the epitome of patience.

“This could be a RAM problem maybe, but can’t be sure till I check. Were you doing something important?”

Um. Yes, Netflix.

“Kind of”, I lied.

“Hold this, I’ll bring my screwdriver”

“Sure”

See, white was not everyone’s color. He should be glad it went on him and very well at that. Had he put on cologne? That was a nice wooden musky smell invading my nostrils. I appreciate good smell. Objectively. Yes, I’m very objective about such observations so don’t get me wrong. He also had dark eyes. Hmm, never noticed that before. Mine are a deep shade of brown. Chestnut I guess. I like dark eyes. I think he cut himself shaving this morning. There’s a scar on the chin. I think he used a trimmer. He’s not clean shaven that’s why. No, I wasn’t staring at him. Objective observation it’s called. What, you’ve never done it?

“Holy-! Where do you keep this thing?”, he exclaimed and I broke out of my tranc-observation! I broke out of my observation.

“Why? What’s the matter?”

“Too much dust. Must be heating the inside and creating issues. Is that…”

I craned my neck forward to see what he was pointing at.

“Ah. Chips. Damn, these were so tas-”

I stopped when I noticed his expression.

“Oh..oh ya. Tch, how did it get here?”, I quickly morphed my features to mock absolute concern.

He blew on it and dusted the insides with some brush he kept for that purpose. What a weirdo. I had one brush and I used it on my teeth once a day. Bas.

“Password?” He asked after five minutes.

“It’s on?! Oh great! Password is…um..can I just-?”

“Oh. Ya cool. I won’t see, put it and give me” , he immediately lifted it from his lap and moved it towards me.

“No. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I think you’ll-it’s just that it’s kind of…embarrassing”, I explained as I took it from his hands.

Arnav smirked. “It’ s okay”

I awkwardly typed in my password and the wallpaper emerged. Thank Heavens. And then, just like the rest of my life, it crashed and then again, went blank.

“Are you kidding me?!”, I groaned.

With a passive expression he took it back onto his lap.

This was my sixth yawn. I knew because I was counting. I was counting because there’s only so much adrenaline rush that 10% loading….11%loading…12%loading…can provide. Arnav was doing a complete format of my drive. Also the fact that I had had mere four hours of sleep the night before. The only reason I hadn’t actually slept then and there was the presence of my husband right next to me and the ocean of awkwardness flowing in all its majesty between us.

Seventh yawn.

“Didn’t have coffee today?”, Arnav finally asked from the other side of the ocean.

“Han?”, I asked, furiously rubbing my eyes. “No I did, it just wasn’t strong enough today I guess”

“Yeah, I couldn’t find the new pack, had to do with whatever there was”

Silence.

Er…what?

Before I could process what he had just said, he quickly interrupted my deduction mechanism.

“Sleep issues?”

“No. Actually yes, sleep deprivation maybe, I have trouble sleeping with the door ajar”, I replied.

He made a mildly confused expression. “Well, don’t keep it ajar then maybe?”

I sighed. “No, just a precautionary measure”

“Precautionary?”

Shit. What was wrong with me. I sent a silent request to my brain to maybe use the filter attached between itself and my mouth.

“No nothing, just I prefer keeping it that way these days. It’s a phase. It’ll pass”

“Precaution against what?”, he insisted.

Oh let it go husband! Persistence much?

 I cleared my throat. “You know… just in case of fainting or something.”

At this point, he half turned towards me.

“If there is some medical condition that I should be knowing, it’d be best if you-”

“No! No it’s nothing of the sort. It’s just- I’m not used to sleeping alone at night..so you see, if hypothetically I were to faint, it’d be..” (Now that I was actually saying it out loud it sounded stupid and immature) “nice to be found at the pre-decomposition stage”. I sort of rushed through the last part of the sentence.

Arnav looked at me with a strange indecipherable expression for about a moment or two and then looked away and took in a deep breath. It took me a few seconds to figure out he had begun laughing. He had his hand on his forehead, his arms resting on either knees, and I could see his body visibly shaking with suppressed laughter. Amusement at the expense of my vulnerable fear. What a gem, my husband. Though after a moment, I couldn’t help a slight smile tugging at the corner of my lips. It was a little stupid if you thought about it now.

He recovered almost as fast as he had lapsed and picked up the laptop and handed it over to me.

“Okay...ahem. I’m sorry. Yeah, so… about the laptop, I guess it should be fine. Though get servicing done soon.”

“Oh great…Thanks. How do you know this stuff?”

“It’s basic. Everyone does.”

Gee. Thanks.

I would obviously have to shut my door tonight no matter what. Pride before pain; always. Anyway, now that I actually had said it out loud, my fainting theory did sound pretty absurd and irrational. I’d live. Drawing the curtains together, I glanced at the wall clock. 1:00 a.m. Plus it was a Monday tomorrow. I audibly groaned.

Bolting the door shut and switching the lights off, I retired to bed. Moments later I had drawn the curtains apart back again. Really needed to fix a night bulb in here. With the door ajar, some light used to pour right in and I never felt the need. Pitch black darkness always made me uncomfortable.

I wasn’t even half asleep when there was a knock on the door. My brows furrowed as I quickly sat upon the bed. Arnav at this hour? I quickly threw the  duvet off and hurried to open the door.

The door opened to the sight of Arnav with a pillow tucked under one arm and a novel finger-marked in the other hand.

“Hey”

Hey. After that one word salutation he had walked past me into the room with absolutely no explanation like it was the most normal thing in the world. For the rest of the married couples in the world it might be, but DUH..not us! He walked to the recliner in the room and adjusting his pillow, casually sat upon it. He looked at me, the me who by the way was still holding the door open and seriously contemplating on the possibility of having fainted sometime back and having a semi-conscious hallucination.

“I don’t need anything else. You may close the door.”

He didn’t what? And I didn’t need to what the what?!

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out so I cleared my throat and tried again.

“Erm..you’re..?”

Silence engulfed us for a moment or two. Then Arnav looked at me as if doing some serious calculation in his head and then spoke, “See the issue is, if you faint on the floor that’s fine. I can walk past and spot you on the way. But what if you faint on the bed? Or you know, in your sleep? That’s some serious risk of commencement of decomposition”

I couldn’t believe he managed to string that sentence with as passive an expression as he had started with.  We both must have had a silent moment of eye contact after which I broke the gaze and bit my lower lip in an attempt to mask my expressions. I have been told repeatedly, that it is an absolutely failed attempt at the same, but for some reason my brain thinks it’s an awesome reaction to everything remotely warranting complete passivity of expressions. It’s like biology itself is not on my side.

After letting the words sink, and being unable to think of any befitting response whatsoever, I turned around and slowly bolted the door shut; then extended my hands to the right to reach the switchboard on the wall and switched the lights off.

I walked to the bed and very consciously sat upon it and began pretending to fumble with things on the side table.  Paper clips, pens, mug, bottles, oh I had to arrange it all. In the dark. I could even hear the hands of the clock ticking in the silence of the room.

One. Two. Three. Four.Five……

…

Ten, Twelve, Thirteen..

“Oh hell..” Arnav suddenly groaned and got up from the couch. I straightened my posture a little more if it was possible. He opened the door and walked out of it and almost in no time, (during which I was craning my neck through the door gap to see if he’d come) was back with a small table lamp in his hand. The door was shut back again.

“You mind if I use this? I was kind of in the middle of reading something”, he asked.

“…No, not at all. There’s a switch by the couch. You can plug it in”

“Cool, thanks”

In no time the room was engulfed in soft dim yellow light and Arnav with one arm underneath his head and the other holding the book up was apparently comfortably stretched on the recliner, his eyes firmly affixed upon the pages of some novel I couldn’t make out the name of. Slowly I lied down upon the bed and drew the duvet over myself right upto the neck. I turned sideways and shut my eyes as I involuntarily smiled into the pillow. Maybe for a little longer than the situation warranted for. Maybe with a little faster heartbeat for 1:45 a.m. and a coming Monday morning.

But you know, whatever. 

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Hope you enjoyed it! <3 Would love to read your thoughts!

P.S.- The blog is inaccessible to all at the moment. It was proving too ugly for my own eyes and I hope to make the interface a little more bearable before restoring access again. 

[NOCOPY]