PART 6
"Pregnant? How can you be pregnant?" Arnav asked confusion dripping from his voice and etched on his face.
"Huh? You can deny all you like. But I am pregnant with your child!" Khushi continued crying.
Arnav had been watching out for Khushi since the past two days when she had kind of fainted in his arms. He didn't know why but since that night when he had covered her naked body and lulled her to sleep he felt protective towards her. Today when he had heard Lavanya tell Khushi while they were leaving the class that they are going straight to the doctor for her he had not been able to stop himself. He had panicked the entire way, fear freezing his insides and worry clawing at his mind.
But he had not expected this. This was so ridiculous that it was not even funny. When they had not done IT and she had not done it with anyone how could she be pregnant? Arnav quickly drew the right conclusion. There was some misunderstanding. He had not won all those awards for nothing!
He took her tear drenched face in his hands and started, "Listen Khushi. It can't be. There must be some other reasons for your symptoms."
She pushed his hands away, "I heard the doctor tell the nurse Arnav. It is not because of stress as I had thought. For my father's rotten cheating behaviour, me moving so far away from home, impending exams, the fact that I slept with you, that you are my professor, that every time you look at me in class when you pause I hold my breath, that I can't stop thinking about you, about us! It's not because of stress damn it! It is because I am pregnant. You made me pregnant! You took advantage of my drunken state!" Khushi shouted.
Arnav felt a happy, peaceful feeling travel from the tips of his toes to the tips of his hair. Since when had he changed so? Since he met her that fateful night. And she just mentioned that she thought of him as much as he thought of her. She had been doing a very good job of avoiding him and the indefinable thing that was between them. If this is what it takes...
He smirked a naughty smirk. The doctor didn't tell her now, did he?
"Khushi are you really so sure I took advantage of you? You dragged me to your place. You barged into the shower. You pulled my towel. You undressed yourself even when I asked you to stop. You pushed us on your bed. Don't you remember anything baby?"
Baby? Khushi looked at him her eyes throwing daggers. But she couldn't refute his words. While he was talking she remembered flashes of what had transpired. He was so right. She was so pregnant. She didn't know what to do. She covered her face with her hands and said, "I am so my father's daughter" and cried.
Arnav hated himself then. He pulled her hands away and took her in his arms. He waited for her sobs to die down.
"You are not him. I am not him. I won't forsake you. Ever" Arnav told her earnestly, truly promising her a forever.
Khushi took a couple of steps back, out of his arms, "What do you mean? You are really not thinking what I am thinking that you are thinking, right?"
When he continued to look at her steadily she started freaking out once again, "Are you nuts? What makes you think I want it? It was a mistake. A huge mistake"
"Oh come on baby. Don't call our baby 'it'? That's my seed you have got in there. The sign of our love...or lovemaking. Whatever you wish to call it. I will be with you throughout. I will go to the doctors with you. Bring for you every food you crave for. Hold your hair when you puke in the washroom. Go shopping with you when you won't fit into your clothes. Gush with you when we see our lumpy sonographied baby for the first time. I will hold your hand during labor and will be the first one to hold our baby. What say? By the way, what do you think? It's a boy or a girl?"
Khushi just stood there numb and horrified while he talked with something akin to mischief in his eyes.
"You need help!" Khushi shrieked and ran away.
Arnav laughed heartily or sadistically. Reader you take your pick.
****
It was thankfully a Friday. Lavanya was going to some distant aunt's place for the weekend. She would return only by Sunday night.
When Lavanya asked Khushi over the phone where did she run away from the doctors' she lied that she had lost her Digital Electronic 1 text and was going to a bookstore at the other end of the city to purchase it. She, thus, stayed clear of the University and the apartment they shared telling her only that the doctor asked her to walk and meditate to reduce stress.
She didn't allow Lavanya to voice her doubts if she found anything fishy.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she entered her empty apartment at night. Her thoughts were in turmoil the whole day. This was a welcome solitude.
Alas! Her phone rang. It was an unknown number. She answered with the hopes that it was the doctor telling her that they made a mistake.
"Hello baby! How is the little one doing?" Arnav asked her with barely concealed amusement.
"It is all a joke to you, isn't it?" Khushi snapped.
"The apple of my eye can never be a joke to me. So, Khushi when are we going to the doctor for the first routine check-up?"
"The apple of your eye is not falling from my tree Arnav. The sooner you understand that the better"
"All my apples will fall only from your tree Khushi. The sooner YOU understand this the better" Arnav told her seriously.
Suddenly not wishing to argue anymore, she palmed her face and told him, "Arnav I really do not wish to discuss this. Would you please discon..."
"What do you wish to discuss about? Let me guess... You are the kind of girl who loves Pride and Prejudice, right?"
"Huh? Are you really discussing Jane Austen with me?"
"Yeah! Why not?"
"Have you even read it?"
"I haven't but my Di has. And she is absolutely fascinated by that buffoon called Darcy"
"Don't call him a buffoon. No one can call him that! Wait! You have a Di?"
The two of them spoke till Khushi slept of sheer exhaustion.
****
Over the next two days Arnav called her every minute he had to spare. Khushi would debate about answering his calls. But then the temptation would get too strong to resist. He would always start with enquiring about 'their' child but they would progress to talking about everything under the sun. Their families, their favourite books and movies, the places they had visited, the museum-worthy people they had met, their dreams, everything. She didn't discuss her father. He didn't mention NK.
The only thing that was troubling him was that Khushi had not stepped out of her apartment at all. It was unhealthy. He had initially thought that he would take her to the doctor for a 'routine check-up' and when the doctor would clear the air he would properly kiss the mouth she would have opened in surprise and shock.
But instead she had stayed in, talking to him but refusing to see him.
They were getting to know each other better and that was all he wanted. She was a whirlpool and he was getting sucked in. But he didn't mind for a change. Sunday evening as he stepped out of the tube after Khushi refused to meet him once again he thought he had been selfish for long enough.
****
Khushi looked at herself in the mirror, at her stomach in the mirror, from the front and the sides. She ran her hands over her stomach. Oh! She was so confused! There was nothing to be confused about. This is not what she wanted out of life. She wanted her mother back. She wanted that father of hers whom she once loved. She wanted to be hugged by Buaji again. The apple of my eye... Arnav's words rang in her mind like a church bell tolling, bringing a sense of peace and calm to her.
When she heard the doorbell she simply opened it. Not checking who was on the other side so absorbed was she in recollecting all their telephonic conversations.
"You?"
Arnav pushed the door open and invited himself in.
"We need to talk Khushi. It is high time" Arnav said seriously.
"We have talked for hours these two days Arnav" Khushi was clearly dodging the subject.
Arnav came close to Khushi, took her face in his palms and kissed her forehead.
"I am sorry Khushi"
"Why are you apologizing? Both of us made the mistake" Khushi tried speaking evenly but her heart was beating erratically at his close proximity and the kiss. Khushi involuntarily leaned in.
"Khu..." He looked into her beautiful doe eyes, saw the faint blush on her cheeks, felt the softness of her skin on his and lost himself. He leaned towards her too.
He kissed her on the mouth. Slowly. She kissed him back. Longingly. Their tongues danced, not battled. Exploring and taking in the warmth their mouths offered. Kissing as if they had all the time in the world. His hands held her face while hers held his arms. Not moving anywhere else. There was no need to rush. This moment would last a lifetime.
They didn't hear Lavanya enter.
He broke the kiss so gently as if she was a porcelain doll. Still cradling her face he finally confessed, "Khushi you are not pregnant."
"What?"
"Yes Khushi. You don't have to worry anymore"
"How...how do you know? Why are you so... so sure?"
"Because we didn't sleep together that night"
"We didn't... But you...and I... naked... on bed...?"
"That's one story to tell"
"You lied to me! I am...am...not pregnant. I am not pregnant. Are you sure we didn't sleep? You were drunk too"
"Khushi I was not as drunk as you. I was just teasing you all this time. Sorry"
"I am really NOT pregnant? Are you sure?"
"Khushi why are you insisting on it so much? Did you miss your periods these past two months?"
"No...no... I actually didn't... I didn't"
"What you heard at the clinic was a misunderstanding. Your life is back to normal. As it always was. Nothing has changed"
"Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed!"
She pushed his hands away and slapped him hard on the face.
"Why didn't you sleep with me? I wanted our baby!"
****
Phew! I tried to give my best. It is extremely difficult to match up to the standards set by the brilliant authors collaborating on this SS. I am sure the coming chapters will be as fantabulous.
I have tried to incorporate something from every chapter written before mine.
Hope all of you like my installment.
Aveiro you next!
Edited by Rasgulla_sp - 11 years ago
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