...is obviously not constructive to a guy. For boys, constructive use of time implied work, play, eat, sleep. A 4-way cycle. For girls, the list was never-ending - work, eat, sleep, read, sing, dance, write, paint - the list was never ending. Be it 4 am in the morning, or 6 pm in the evening, dawn or dusk, girls could always find something to do without being bored. Boys on the other hand, just needed an excuse to use the statistically award-winning and most used phrase - 'I'm bored'. Talking about money, for boys, constructive use of money would imply buying something that would be sufficient to help you survive. Just survive. For girls, money implied something that could buy you everything that could help you live, live for real, live the way you want to. For boys, practicality mattered way more than irrationality and the wishes of our childish hearts. And yet, it was these boys who made the world's greatest love stories - because all their rules, all their practicality, and their apparently constructive use of time and money, was invested into everything that was practical and constructive to a girl. Especially, a girl like me.
I could tell by the look on Armaan's face as he parked his precious Porsche in the parking lot, that he wanted to be anywhere but here - here, a place where people lost more money than they would ever earn, a place you couldn't leave without making sure your hands could hold no more, and your feet could support you no more.
"You could look a little happier, Armaan, I'm not taking you there to torture you!" I rolled my eyes.
"I seriously and heavily doubt that." He replied in a monotone. "Just, hurry up, okay?" He looked at me pleadingly.
"I will try, just don't sit on my head and annoy me, that will just slow me down, and that's not what you want, do you?" I ruffled his hair, as we stepped into the mall through their automated doors.
"No!" He said in a small voice. I pulled his cheeks; annoying as they were, boys could be extremely cute when they wanted to. And Armaan was no exception. But his cuteness wasn't going to earn him reprise. "Can you not pull my cheeks! I hate it, you know it!" He said irritably.
"Get used to it!" I ordered.
"Where to first?" He sighed.
"Let's finish off the groceries first, I need to make sure the dinner's perfect! It was good they cancelled yesterday, I want to cook the dinner nicely.." I mumbled, as we stepped into Grocer's Cart.
"I know for a fact this Nikhil dude's a jerk. He cancelled on us yesterday."
"Not him, Armaan, your sister did. Because she had something to do at Uni. Not Nikhil." I rolled my eyes. Unfortunate as it was, for Nikhil that is, Rhea had to report back to Uni for some urgent work, and that couldn't have waited. She had called me up in the afternoon to inform me that the dinner would have to be postponed. Also, she had warned me about how Armaan would throw a tantrum about that as soon as he would hear about the postponed dinner. And she had hit the nail, spot on. He had thrown a tantrum, and rather unfortunately for me, he had been in a sour mood ever since. But unfortunately for him, I wasn't someone who would sit down and listen to his nonsensical tirade, and I had yelled at him, and grounded him for a week, to which he had shut up and sat in one corner of the living room - 10 feet away from me - for the rest of the evening, sulking and fuming.
Obviously his being grounded involved coming out for shopping with me the next day - today. That was barely a joy ride for him, I smirked.
"She's just covering for him, I know how a girlfriend's mind works." He scoffed.
"Tell me that the next time I defend you." I dared him, telling him to shut up through my eyes; and he did.
"Go to Aisle 14 and pick up these things. You forget one thing, and you watch what happens to you." I threatened.
"Don't yell at me!" He said indignantly.
"Then stop behaving like a baby, and do as I say!" I ordered. Sulking, he snatched the list from my hand and walked off. Once I was sure he was out of earshot, I laughed, and laughed heartily. How I adored annoying him.
"I liked that dress!" He said, following me.
"I don't care Armaan, stop prancing!" I said in disbelief. After grocery shopping, we had headed off to do my birthday shopping. Fate, however, had other plans. Every shop we went to, every dress I tried on - either I would hate it, or Armaan would. And the one dress we would agree on - would be bare too expensive to even think of buying.
"But you liked it as well! I know you did!" He muttered.
"Armaan, its too expensive! And besides, the neck was too deep, I get too conscious then, and then there would be no point because I wouldn't enjoy the dress!" I explained.
"But it was so sexy!" He mumbled. I stopped in my tracks and turned as he realized what he said and stuck his tongue out in an 'Oh darn!' kind of way.
"Do me a favor, and shut up!" I said sweetly.
"Why? I have rights to comment that way!" He shrugged.
"Comment like a pervert? I know exactly what you were thinking when you saw me in that dress Mallik, so back off!" I warned. And I too damn right knew everything he had been thinking since then. The way he had looked at me when I walked out of the fitting rooms - I knew I had taken his breath away. It was fairly obvious anyway, because he had been yawning, and looking at me with disinterested and droopy eyes throughout my trial sessions. It was only that one dress that had caught his attention.
However beautiful and special his eyes had made me feel, I was still apprehensive; the last time he had looked at me that way, he had shied away and things had gone wrong. Obviously, I knew he was comfortable with our intimacy now, but I didn't want to take a single chance to mess it all up, all over again. It was another question altogether, that the dress was way too expensive. And I had other plans for our hard-earned money.
"Riddhima, that dress was expensive, fine, but still it looked nice!" He said calmly.
"Armaan, I don't want to spend money on those kinds of dresses, which I know I'm not going to wear later.. That dress isn't something I can wear with family definitely, I can't wear it somewhere where it looks cheap, and that leaves the dress to be worn with you. Now, I know I'm going to spend my life with and you and all, but that's not the only dress I'm going to wear whenever we both go out. So I might as well buy something which I know can be properly used up!" I said sensibly.
"How much do you girls think?" He asked in disbelief.
"I have to think Armaan.. We should save up some money, I mean I know we already are, but there are other things I have my mind on, and I don't want to compromise on those just because of careless splurging!"
"What are you on about?" He sighed, leaning onto the rack, as I carelessly swept through the rack of dresses - not even one caught my attention.
"I don't know.. But recently, I've been thinking, we've had so much of expenditure going on in our lives - the Vegas trip-"
"The Vegas trip wasn't all that expensive!" He objected.
"Yeah, my Dad paid for the fuel didn't he? Ass!" I argued. "The surprises that you've so generously showered on me, and plus most of our earnings go into the rent.. We should start being a little more responsible with it.. I mean, when we get married-"
"You want to get married?" He asked shocked. He looked positively mortified.
"What? No!? I mean-" I said, apprehensively. "-yes, someday, right? Whenever we get married, I want our married life to start in our own house, not this rented apartment.. Plus, you want to buy your own car, because you want to give your Porsche back to your Dad.." I said carefully.
"Munhckin, you think about stuff like that?" He asked surprised.
"Of course, Armaan!" I laughed.
"I didn't know you did.." He said smiling sheepishly.
"Whatever..So the basic thing is, I want to be a little more responsible and-"
"Riddhima.." He cut across, shutting me up. There was a strange confidence in his voice. "You don't have to worry about those things baby.. That's all my responsibility, not your's alright? I promise we move into our own house, the very day we get married, and knowing you, I'm pretty sure you have your dream house interior decorated in your mind!" He laughed, making me smile. "Don't fall back on what you want right now, Munchkin, what am I here for? Its all my worry, okay? Its none of your concern! Right?" He said softly.
"Wrong." I smiled. "And before you ask me to elaborate, I will explain what I mean, but later, now's not the time and place!" I kissed his cheek and walked past him to find another rack of dresses which would hopefully make me fall in love again.
"Armaan, look!" I said excitedly, as he devoured his ice cream, his face half drowned in the cone.
"What? What?" He asked mirroring my excitement.
"Build-a-bear!" I said longingly.
"Oh, that." He said in a monotone. Clearly, he was expecting something better.
"Can we go?" I said pleadingly.
"What? No!" He laughed, ridiculing the idea. "Oh, you're serious?" He realized, as I glared at him. "Munchkin, you just went on and on about how we should save money and stuff.. And then you want to spend money in this useless stuff? Honestly?" He laughed.
"Yea, I've been wanting to do this since I was 10 years old Armaan, but Mum never let me do it!" I said sadly.
"Well, she was right in stopping you! What is it with you and soft toys anyway? I can't believe you were just preaching me about saving money, being all mature and responsible, and here you are behaving like a 8 year old spoilt brat. Riddhima I'm tired of Daddy-ing you around, and more than that, I'm tired of holding your bags, so can we please go?" He sighed.
Throughout his ramble, I kept looking at him, somewhat hurt by his words, and yet hating the fact that he was right. Taking a deep breath, I walked ahead, not sparing 'Build-a-Bear' another glance, leaving Armaan behind.
"Any display of affection, and I swear to God-"
"Be nice, Armaan. You better behave yourself. Remember how much Rhea loves him, and how much you love Rhea.." I warned him, doing his tie.
Here we were, at ten to 8, waiting for Rhea and Nikhil to arrive. We had come back from our shopping spree 2 hours ago, loaded with groceries, other basic essentials, and 2 dresses for me, which had finally seemed good enough for my wardrobe.
"What about how much she loves me?" He said sadly.
"Armaan, just because she's in love with someone for real, doesn't mean she's going to love her brother any less! You and Papa have been the only men in her life Armaan, I know that, but this day was going to come sometime!" I kissed his cheek.
"Yea, whatever!" He sighed.
"Oh my God, Armaan, this tie is just annoying me now! You've never worn a tie before, you don't like wearing ties, we both don't know how to tie a tie, so please tell me why you're so inclined on wearing a tie just tonight!" I said, frustrated.
"So this dude gets intimidated by me. So he knows who he's dealing with, and so he knows that I have the ultimate authority over my sister." He explained.
"You're a weirdo, nothing more." I rolled my eyes. "Deal with this yourself, I don't know how to do it!" I said, giving up, and began picking up his towel and his clothes from the floor, which he had carelessly strewn all over the place after his shower. As usual.
"How will I do it? Oh Munchkin, please!" He said pleadingly.
"I don't care, youtube it!" I muttered, not sparing him a glance.
"You're being cold, what's wrong?" He asked sighing. "Ever since we came back.. You wouldn't let me help you with dinner, you weren't ordering me around to clean up the place, right now you're picking up my mess without complaining and yelling at me.. And now you're not pulling my cheeks when I'm being cute. Riddhima, honestly what's wrong? Are you mad at me for the whole Bear thing?" He held me by my shoulders, making me face him.
"Armaan, I'm fine, and as you can see, extremely busy. I didn't let you help me cook, because I wanted to do it myself. I didn't ask you to clean up, because you're good at messing up and not the other way around, and I didn't yell at you for messing up the room, which I just cleaned by the way, because I know there's no point, you're never going to learn. I didn't pull your cheeks because you told me to stop doing that because it annoys you. And no, like you said, I'm not an 8 year old spoilt brat, who gets mad at you because I didn't get to do something which I've been wanting to do since I was 10. I'm not a child, which you obviously think I am, and I don't want you to Daddy me around, because you're oh-so-tired. So I'm fine, and not mad at you. Anything else?" I sighed.
"No.." He said softly. I could tell he was not convinced.
I heard the bell ring, and looked at him expectantly.
"What?" He asked.
"You're blocking my way. Can I go, so I can open the door, they're here!" I sighed.
"Oh, yea.." He realized, and moved away from in front of me, making way for me to go. Shaking my head, I made my way out of the room.
~~*~~
Happy Birthday Rhea :) Hope you like the part.. There's still half of the chapter left, Part B, but your birthday has 22 hours more to go, so I'll update it tomorrow :) <3
To others, really disappointed with the decreasing no. of comments, but never mind, I'm just going to update the few parts that AWOTB has left in its kitty, for the people who did care enough to comment :) <3
Enjoy <3
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
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