Chapter 3:
"What happened to you?" Payal asked her cousin who was dragging her feet and looking completely lost.
"Huh?" Khushi asked seemingly dazed. Payal raised an eyebrow at that.
"Khushi!" Payal raised her voice by several notches. Khushi looked up.
"What?" Her voice trembled.
"Did something happen at our neighbors?" Payal prodded gauging her expression.
"Yes." Again the answer was short and didn't give out any useful information.
"What happened?" Payal asked again though Khushi's single word responses were taking a toll on her patience.
"He kissed me." She was still gung-ho about it.
"Are you sure you weren't imagining it?" Payal asked. She had met her neighbor several times in elevators and at Laundromat but he didn't seem as one to initiate a conversation let alone a physical contact.
She gave Khushi a once over and wondered what had attracted her hot neighbor to this...plain and flat figure.
"I can still feel his arm around me and smell his perfume." There was raw emotion in her voice and her entire form wrung like a creeper around a tree. Payal took three steps back as if her words physically pushed her.
"So how was it?" Payal asked after the words hand sunk in. Khushi seemed to have come to her senses as she was making a hole on the floor due to her continuous pacing.
"How is it generally?" Khushi asked thoughtfully. Payal didn't know if she was joking or serious. But looking at her expression she hazarded a guess.
"Mostly exciting, stimulating and...arousing," she replied keeping the description as technical as possible. Khushi hummed and regained her pacing.
"Was the kiss that good?" Payal asked. "I mean it's very rare to see you so out of it," she added when Khushi looked at her blankly.
"I don't have any previous experience in this area provide a comparative analysis," Khushi replied. Payal did a double take.
"You've never been kissed?" Payal asked with widened eyes.
"No."
"Why not?" Payal blurted out.
"Is that a mandatory act that has to be performed before one reaches a specific age and based on which their intelligence and personality are judged till that said is performed or for the rest of their lives?"
Payal burst out laughing.
"I am sorry okay? I wasn't thinking," she said chuckling.
"Clearly," Khushi replied with snide in her voice and went back to pacing. That killed Payal's laughter completely.
"Khushi please sit down. There is something I need to discuss with you." Khushi sat on sofa wordlessly.
"Akash will be moving in with me here in two weeks."
"Living together?" Khushi asked looking at her strangely. Payal nodded without change in her expression. She intentionally kept her face blank and looked at Khushi's face intently.
"I have two weeks to find myself a new place." Khushi inferred what Payal had just implied. Payal simply nodded.
"Okay." Khushi's reply was flat. Payal waited for her to continue but there was nothing.
"I think I will ask Arnav to kiss me again," Khushi said getting up. "Good night Payal," she added and walked towards her room.
"Wait. WHAT?" Payal yelled at her cousin's back recovering after moments. She stared as Khushi walked inside her room and closed the door. What the f**k had just happened?
*****
He felt good. No, scratch that. He felt amazing. After dreamless sleep, long shower and healthy breakfast he felt he could deal with any shit that could fall on his lap that day. He had consciously ignored the events of previous evening which were hazy at first. He had initially assumed that Khushi's presence in his apartment was just a dream but when crossed living room towards main door, he saw the fallen bowl, liquid it had once contained and knew that the events of previous night were anything but a dream. 'f**k,' he thought.
Though at that moment he wished it was as the other person involved in those said events was standing in front of the elevator. He stopped in his tracks and for a fleeting moment contemplated on ditching elevators and taking the stairs. Good for health and all that jazz. Not to mention escaping from the woman came for free.
He stood there unable to decide when he heard his name being called.
"You aren't coming?" He heard Khushi call. He nodded and walked briskly. He swallowed and occupied one corner of elevator while she occupied the adjacent corner. Silence was breeding exponentially with every waking moment.
"I don't know what came over me last night. I apologize." He burst out an apology. Khushi, who was staring at the floor lost in her thoughts, was suddenly jolted back to reality.
"Must be the fever," she muttered and shrugged. He was surprised at her acceptance. He had expected to get his ears boxed and stomach punched. Or at least three liters of tears, five pages of emotional speech and probably slap or two. Or on the other hand, she would come on to him pretty strongly.
But neither had happened. This was a dimension he wasn't accustomed to and never found himself in till this point in life.
Indifference by a woman for a kiss he voluntarily gave.
He had kissed her few hours before and she acted as if he had merely said hello.
'So that's how it feels,' he thought. 'That's how it feels when a woman kisses me with all her passion while I insult that moment of binding by being apathetic about it.'
What he didn't understand was why did it matter to him what she felt in the first place.
To be continued.
Edited by CynicalNoob - 13 years ago
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