Chapter 37

 

She was sitting amidst a clutter of things, surrounded by her laptop, headphones, and couple of other crap that only she understood. Outside her tent, she could hear the boys having a blast. Chris really had bonded with the other two and it seemed to rile her to no ends. It hadn't been 3 weeks and Chris was already off enjoying with the Vega boys as she liked to call them. The Twatwaffle and the cutie pie. Of course NK was the cutie pie. He was just so adorable. His presence was a great help. Chris and she would have screwed their project on the first day of the field itself if it wasn't for NK. When the boatman who was supposed to ferry them to the middle of the lake said something that seemed like buuulshiiit and they replied back something that seemed whaaat craaap, NK repaired the damage and told each of them what the other meant. Otherwise, rest assured, either the boatman or Chris would have killed the other.

 

She smiled fondly as she remembered that particular memory and immediately something burned into her thoughts. The sound of a glorious, infectious laughter that had erupted from Arnav's mouth on hearing the whale talk she and Chris were trying to imitate. The one Dory does in Finding Nemo. Talking to the boatman was like talking whale, "aaalo...weee waaant yyyooouuurrr boaoooaaattt..." and when they were trying to speak the local accent, Arnav was busy laughing his head off. Khushi had never felt so conflicted in her life. She was both amused and irritated at him at the same time. His laughter was so contagious that her mouth crept into a smile before she realized what she was doing and had the sense to stop and not make a fool of herself.

 

Arnav was making her edgy. His advances sure were different from what she had experienced all those times back and something monumentally had changed inside him. He was becoming this all sweet and sugary person compared to the devil incarnate she had imagined him to be and it wasn't helping one bit. More and more days passed and she felt herself comparing Arnav with her Rinnie. Aggressive yet gentle, passionate yet serene, arrogant yet humble. She wondered how could a person be such a paradox.

 

Not that she didn't know what Arnav started to feel for her. Of course she knew. That was the biggest worry. She knew he had somehow started liking her. Whether he had accepted it to himself, she didn't know but she wasn't stupid enough to not see the epic behavioural change in him and it freaked her to bits. She wasn't ready for this. She couldn't handle if another person showed so much interest in her. It unnerved her.

 

His conduct around her put her in a fix and she had no idea how to resolve it. She didn't want to get involved in a mess she couldn't handle and she pretty much knew she couldn't string him along. Her love life had crashed to the bottom long ago and she wasn't really keen on rekindling it again. And she wanted nothing to do with this man who reminded her of Rinnie every single moment. It was just too painful.

 

Rinnie...that name triggered an unknown sadness and she slipped back in time as she trudged down the happy memories shared with the person who thought her how to love...

 

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April 1999

    Dehradoon

 

There was a burst and she screamed. What she heard next was the sound of a glorious laughter. The lights switched on and Rinnie came into focus, clutching his stomach as he tried to control his laughter. She narrowed her little eyes,"You!"

"Hahahahahah!" Rinnie still continued to laugh as he attempted to escape from her. Cool breeze hit her face as she came outside chasing Rinnie. There were so many stars, so beautiful that she forgot she was annoyed and angry at Rinnie and she stood there, transfixed, staring at the beautiful patterns the stars were making in the huge canvas of the sky. Painting of the gods! Sister Avantika had said. Yes! Painting of the gods.

 

"Beautiful..." she heard Rinnie whisper behind her and turned to hit him hard when her eyes fell on the small mud bell that was in his hand, tinkling. Her eyes widened in sheer joy. The bell was crude but she could make out he had made it for her, "this is for me?"

"Yup..." he smiled his cheeky smile and she knew this boy was going to do something naughty, "what?"

"You need to give me something..." he said innocently. Her eyes widened still more. He laughed as he ruffled her hair, "a hug..."

 

She smiled as she jumped on him and hugged him tight, "thank you..."

"Your smile means everything to me. I can do anything to see you smile," he said sweetly as he put her down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She smiled, "I don't want anything. I just want a promise."

 

A single tear fell from her eyes as she remembered the promises they had made as children. Nothing meant serious and gifting crudely made bells and sharing breakfast and dinner had meant the world to them. Now that she thought about the silly promises, she felt angry. Why wasn't she able to move on. What was it that was holding her fast to the thoughts of Rinnie. Why was she still affected by his memories. She felt like she was drowning in a vortex of memories. Frustration welled inside her as she got up and ran out of the tent. She needed some peace.

 

 

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Should she call or shouldn't she call? Lavanya was going crazy. So many days had passed since she had confessed to Khushi about her love for Chris and since then she hadn't done anything, not even call him once. Khushi was messaging constantly, trying to find out about what was happening but Lavanya didn't have the guts to pick her call up.

 

Surely, Khushi would blast her the  moment she would pick the call. Who wouldn't. She was so excited when she first heard that Lavanya was in love with her best friend. And here, Lavanya was acting like a scaredy cat.

 

She would have called him probably if Akash hadn't had that accident. In the worry of what would have happened to her favourite cousin, she had forgotten everything else and kept herself busy in taking care of him She could have called when everything was going fine with Akash but she was freaked out of her mind. What would he think if she confessed that she was in love with practically a stranger. What would he think about her.

 

Oh no no...

 

She couldn't call him. She just couldn't. She couldn't be in love with someone whom she had met not more than 4 times. How could she. Nope. Just nope.

 

But she didn't know her life was about to change while she was evaluating her decisions. Her phone beeped and it was Chris...

 

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The deadline was looming closer and Payal still hadn't found a way to get closer to Akash. In another day her whole life would be ruined because of one drunk mistake and she had no idea how to reverse the tide.

 

Her shock was indescribable when she received a video CD on her doorstep. Luckily no one was around that day or her life would have been finished. She had no idea who was doing it or who had taken that video. She just knew if her mms was leaked, her life would be ruined forever. She was drunk and the next day she got up, she was in her bed, asleep. Shyaam told he had dropped her the minute he came to know she was high. Her Shyaam. He wouldn't have done like this to her. But something was wrong. There was someone else who had utilized her, created a video of her and sent her to blackmail her into doing something wrong.

 

Not that she wasn't interested in getting closer to Akash. It was the only way to catch Arnav's eye and she would have done it anyway. But being pressurized while a knife hung around her, she was unable to do anything out of fear.

 

The silence around her was shattered when her phone began to ring. Her hands began to shake thinking about the cold voice that was haunting her dreams and every waking moment. She finally answered the call and the voice, icy cold, asked her again, "what happened?"

"He is still in the hospital and there is not moment I get to be with him alone. Please give me some time...please," she begged.

 

 

She couldn't believe her ears. Was he really giving her time. A huge relieved smile spread on her, "thank you..."

 

"There was some improvement without your help," the voice continued again, "you just got lucky. One month is all you get to get close to him. If you know what's good for you then you will make the work happen."

"Yes..." she breathed, "yes sir... I will do it..."

 

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Diya had buried herself beneath her quilt, feeling miserable. Lavanya and Akash surely shared something great and it was killing Diya to think she was coming in between them. She had cried herself to sleep for the past few weeks and she didn't understand why she felt so miserable. She didn't feel anything for Akash so why was she so much affected that probably Akash had a girlfriend and that was Lavanya.

 

Lavanya was like a sister to her. She knew Lavanya from a long time through her bestie NK and it was like cheating on her sister. That just felt very wrong.

 

But her questions still remained unanswered. Why was she so affected that Akash had a girlfriend. She never knew anything about him and it wasn't a rule that he had to tell everything about his life to her. So why was she feeling so sad to think that there was some other girl in his life. Why was she feeling so low that it wasn't her who was taking care of Akash.

 

What had changed in a few weeks? Why did Akash matter to her so much? She still remembered her state when she came to know about his accident. She had never felt so hopeless in her life when she saw him in a pool of blood. Her fear of something happening to him just reached its peak and she hadn't had a moment of peace until she heard the doctor say he was out of danger.

 

With a jolt she realized that all the answers to her question was staring at her the whole time.

 

She was in love with him...

 

That's why it mattered her so much...

 

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Anjali battled every day with her phone, trying to control herself from calling her Chhote. She wanted to  talk to him, tell him everything but Akash had strictly forbidden her from calling Arnav because he didn't want Arnav to come back. She could see why Akash didn't want to inform Arnav. It was out of concern for him.

 

Arnav had spent so much of his time being chained to all the painful memories of his life that he needed this time to be free, to fly out of the cage that he had created for himself, to spread his wings and fly. He needed that and Anjali didn't want to spoil the fun he was having.

 

Especially when he was with Khushi...

 

Khushi's name brought a smirk to her face as she clutched her phone and turned around. If Arnav was with Khushi then he would be having a blast. That girl would sure be making him dance on his toes. Her smirk widened as she thought how Khushi had defiantly declared in front of everyone that Arnav had kissed her. She had spunk!

 

Anjali was secretly hoping that tables would be turned by now and Arnav would actually start liking her instead of sitting and moping. It would surely be amazing to have someone like Khushi in their lives. Especially Arnav's since only that girl could look into her brother's eyes and make him feel incredibly uncomfortable. That kind of talent wasn't in everyone.

 

Arnav practically scared everyone out of their wits. While all the others were always running around like they had they had spotted a snake, this girl was the one who had the flute to make the snake dance to her feet. Quite an interesting pair.

 

"Please make my wish come true..." she prayed and turned around to find her husband staring at her with such intensity that it made her legs feel like jell-o

 

While she was hyperventilating due to Vinay's gaze, her brother was running around to find Khushi...