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PART 12
Shilpa entered the locker room, feeling exhausted and tired. Armaan was standing near his locker, pinching the bridge of his nose between the eyes. Shilpa was too tired to offer any greeting, so she just walked past him and towards her locker. Armaan noticed her presence and walked to her.
'Hey', he said in a weared out, raspy voice. Shilpa turned around and smiled at him, 'hey to yourself'
'Tired?', he asked. She nodded, 'bad day'
Armaan was thoughtful for a few moments before saying, 'Want to come for a cup of coffee?'
Shilpa shook her head, 'I just want to head home and get some sleep Armaan'
He insisted, 'I know, but a coffee won't do you any harm, will it? C'mon Shilpa, just one?'
She seemed reluctant for a while, but then she looked at Armaan's hopeful face and gave in, 'Fine. just one coffee'
He smiled, 'Righto'
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Shilpa continued to stirr her coffee endlessly, visibly spaced out and mentally absent from the scene. She cupped the mug with both her hands, and the warmth imbibed from that mug made her feel slightly better. Armaan noticed her staring into her mug. He quietly observed her for a while before saying, 'Want to talk about it?'
Shilpa snapped out of her reverie and looked up, 'huh?', she recollected her thoughts and continued, 'talk about what?'
'About whatever's bothering you', replied Armaan.
She looked away and then lifted her glass to take a sip, 'nothing's bothering me. I'm fine'
Armaan rolled his eyes, 'I may not be a psychologist, but I think I can make out when a person's 'fine' or not'
She sighed, kept her mug down and looked up to meet his gaze. There was an impatient pause during which Shilpa debated whether to tell Armaan or not, before she gave in to his offer and spoke, 'You remember Mrs. Varshney's case? I talked to you about it today?'
'That breast cancer case?'
'Yeah, that one'
'What about it?'
Shilpa hesitated, 'It has been...bothering me. I mean, not the case itself but something that I find myself incapable to do most of the time. I...can't connect with the pain, Armaan. Her son was so broken today, you should have seen his face. And Mrs. Varshney, she looks like life just got drained out of her, you know? but the worst part is that I can't seem to feel any remorse or sympathy towards her or her son. And this bothers me', she paused and looked down and spoke softly, 'it bothers me damnit'
There was silence after she finished talking. Armaan felt a growing sense of protectiveness towards her. She wasn't weak; neither mentally nor emotionally, but he knew that somewhere, she tried to hide her vulnerable side deep within. He stretched out a hand and placed it on top of her, to reassure her of his support.
She looked up, and Armaan thought he saw light tears glistening in her eyes, but before he could ask anything, she suddenly pulled her hand back and blinked away the tears. Taking a deep breath and erecting her back, she said, 'Oh well, I know what I have to do', she started collecting her things, 'I'll just go and get drunk'
Armaan looked at her confusedly, 'What?'
She got up, 'I'll just go and get drunk. It's the best damn solution to everything', and started to leave when Armaan called out, 'Wait', he got up too, 'I have a better option'
She raised an eyebrow, 'What's that?'
Armaan smiled, 'let's get drunk together. At my place. It was fun last time, it's gonna be fun this time too'
She grinned, 'you know what? I think you're falling for me'
Armaan walked close to her and whispered, 'You might just be right, you know'
Shilpa instantly broke away from his strong gaze and tried to take a step backwards. Armaan smirked at her and suddenly took a step backwards, 'This was to get your attention. If you feel delusional again, just let me know', and then winked at her, feeling victorious that he had thrown her own lines at her.
Shilpa felt foolish that he had tried her own trick at her, and it actually worked. She acted shocked for a while before bursting into laughter.
'Let's go, I like getting drunk with you', she said as they walked towards the exit.
'Same here, wonder woman', he replied with another wink.
'Wonder woman?'
'Yeah, if I'm he-man, then you're wonder woman'
She laughed again at his nomenclature. Maybe the bad day would have a nice end afterall.
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Shilpa walked into his apartment and looked around, 'Nice place. I didn't know you would be so classy in your taste'
'Really?', Armaan enquired.
'Yeah, I thought you'd have a more...wild, macho type place', she said, still walking around the house.
'This house is just a reflection of one of the aspects of my personality. You won't believe it, but I love classical music'
She turned around and looked at him skeptically, 'You don't'
He smiled, 'I do'
'Bad taste he-man. You know what the real thing is? hard rock, metal rock and funk rock. Now that's what I call music. Classical would put me to sleep', she replied and sat down on the sofa.
Armaan made an idignant face and sat down next to her, 'Excuse me, this is mature stuff. Way beyond the intelligence level of kids like you'
Shilpa made a 'yak yak' gesture with her hands, 'Whatever. If a piece of music can't grab my attention, well, then it's worthless'
'It's atleast better than the crap noise that you like!', he replied, now in a slightly higher voice.
'Oh yeah?', she asked in a volume matching his. Armaan stood up in order to intimidate her, 'Yeah!'
She flung her arms in the air and said, 'Fine! Can we get drunk now?'
Armaan stomped his foot childishly and made his way towards the frigde. When he was out of sight, shilpa smiled to herself and leaned her head back.
He returned after a while with two bottles in his hands. Shilpa sat up and said, 'Aaahh..this is - what's this?', she asked suddenly.
'Appy fizz!', he replied cheefully.
'Appy fizz?', she asked with a dazed expression on her face, 'No beer?'
Armaan shook his head, 'Nope. But this stuff is even better. Have you even tried it?'
'Um, no'
'It's pretty awesome. We're gonna drink this', he walked towards a shelf and picked out what looked like a DVD, 'and watch this film'
He held it up for her to see. 'Angoor?', she asked. He nodded with a grin and excitedly strode towards her, 'you're telling me that neither have you had appy fizz and nor have you watched Angoor?'
She looked around sheepishly, 'erm, yeah?'
'You haven't lived! seriously, have you been under a rock for the past, what, 40 years?', he exclaimed, 'This is one of the best films ever. Seriously'
He put the DVD into the player, and walked back to the sofa. Scooting closer to shilpa, he lifted his bottle of appy fizz and took a swig at it. Shilpa stared at him in amazement, and wondered whether she was looking at the same serious doctor she had talked to a few hours ago.
'What are you thinking?', he said and brought her back to reality. Picking up the bottle, he shoved it into her hands and said, 'You'll love this dude. It's a lethal combination - this film and appy fizz. Trust me'
She smiled at his childlike innocence and did what he asked her to do - trust him. An hour later, both of them had finished three bottles each, Shilpa was all over the sofa and Armaan had fallen down on the floor after having an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
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Sorry about the late update. busy times =( I'm making a vid on tum mile, although the storyline isn't exactly the same. here it is:
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLIxT_Aw8E0[/YOUTUBE]
^It isn't complete yet, but it shall be done soon! :)
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