ArHi FF! Gravity - Thread 1 - [Completed] - Page 10

I read d lsst three updates together.. theywer all jst grt.. so wat made khushi run away from d mandap...hmm... and well looks ike she has too many things to set straight..

I don't know how Payal can blame Khushi for the accident. She can blame her for the marriage not taking place but not for Dev dying.

I understand now the bitterness that Payal feels.. But I would think she would know khushi better than anyone. Dev's death has nothing to do with khushi.. It could have happened way back home or the next day but I do understand what Payal went through was not easy..

payal is completely right in what she feels.. for whatever reasons khushi left isnt clear but she has deeply hurt a lot of people

This is such a great story. It's showing so much promise and is very intriguing. Looking forward to reading more.

wow two captivating chapters!! i feel terrible for payal and understand where she comes from..loved the little convo arnav and payal had!..and yes khushi...what can i say..that was just a blow from her sister...wait untill what Arnav has to say to her...can't wait!!

A very good morning and wishing you all a great weekend!

Chapter 6: Don't be cruel

Though she had woken up early - earlier than everyone she chose to stay in bed till Payal was out of the house. She didn't want to walk around eggshells or have any confrontation with her again. She didn't have the courage to face her sister again in lieu of previous night's encounter.

She was mostly scared that if she faced her sister again, she would be held responsible for more things than what she was already aware of. She didn't have it in her, yet, to take the things that world threw at her. She was studiously ignoring the fact that she would have to face Arnav next; they lived in same city and he was close to their family.

"How did you sleep?" Her mother was standing by the foot of the bed and folding clothes. Khushi stretched her back and sat up.

"You know I never slept for more than three hours when I was there?" She said watching life unfolding outside the window. "I was scared of my dreams." She said pulling her knees to her chest and throwing her arms around it. Garima saw her daughter but couldn't recognize the woman behind her. Though Khushi was the most outspoken one amongst her friends, she never spoke of her opinions or her preference. She was a true enigma.

Garima was staring at her daughter and wondering how to formulate a response. The clichd yawn inducing way of taking her in a hug sounded disingenuous. Instead, she settled for unsolicited advice. "Payal is scared of being awake." Khushi turned from window and looked at her mother wide eyed. "In dreams, she finds solace," she said and walked out of the room allowing Khushi to brew on it. Tears pooled in her eyes when the implication of her mother's words fully hit her.

She wanted to scream and tell what she had discovered the night before her wedding. On that night she had sincerely believed it to be truth. She had always been the pragmatic one of the lot but on that particular night she had given into her emotions and taken a drastic step. Over the seven years she dissected the so called truth she had found out about hers and Arnav's parents. With time, she found holes in her theory, rickety foundation on which the truth was based on and the argument had started sounding flaky.

But then she was sure...so sure...

*****

"Why didn't you tell me about Dev?" Khushi asked her father. Pankaj looked up from the newspaper he was reading. There was resolve in her eyes and he knew this question was coming. He removed the spectacles and motioned Garima to come over.

Her father took a deep breath. "You didn't contact us for almost two years Khushi. By then we had been through so much after Dev's death and...Payal's depression that-"

"What?" Khushi asked stopping him. "Payal had depression?" She asked looking from her mother to father.

"I thought Payal told you about the accident last night," said Garima and looked at her husband.

"She did but she didn't give me any details," Khushi said wondering why her parents looked visibly upset.

Garima sighed. "You know where Dev's farmhouse is correct? It is a bit off the road and the road isn't used a lot. That evening Dev's car was hit by a lorry and he lost control. The car severed and landed in a ditch. Dev died on spot and Payal was injured. There was no network coverage to make a call from cell phone and there was no one on the road. Payal had hurt her legs pretty badly but she got out of the car and managed to get Dev out. She sat there hugging his dead body for several hours before help came." There were no tears in her parents' eyes. Maybe they had shed for a lifetime already. Now it was immutable acceptance of their fate.

"Is that when-?" Khushi couldn't finish.

"She didn't get out of the house for almost two months. Had it not been for Lavanya's continuous badgering, she probably would have stayed in for few more months or worse," Pankaj said remembering Payal's expressionless face.

"Lavanya...as in my friend Lavanya - the rich brat?" Khushi asked in sheer disbelief. Lavanya she knew was a rich girl with complex personality and an attitude that drove her up the wall. Lavanya and Khushi knew each other from school but their disciplines during graduation had changed. While Khushi had chosen engineering, Arnav and Lavanya had pursued economics and communications respectively.

"People...change Khushi," Pankaj said kindly understanding how foreign this may all have sounded. "Lavanya and Arnav have been driving factors in Payal's recovery." He said fondly. "Payal is not fully recovered you know? She still has her...moments." He said looking at a stain on coffee table. After everything that had happened, Pankaj had lost the verve that he once possessed. Had it not been for his wife Garima, he would have shriveled and withered away into nothingness in a matter of years. Garima had helped him heal along with their daughter.

"Still, you could have told me..." Khushi said feebly. A part of her had wanted to know about what had unleashed after her disappearance while the other part of her had chosen to ignore the past and start afresh. She hadn't made any contact for two years hoping that the distance and lack of communication would induce a sort of detachment in her.

Even after two years she could tell the exact number of wrinkles on the corner of Arnav's eyes when he laughed at a lame joke. She could distinctly remember Lavanya's perfume which had cost more than her first semester fees at engineering college. Payal's voice was now the sound of her inner monologues and her parents' laughter a salve on a bad day. Nothing was forgotten. If only, the memories had become stronger.

"Would you have come back if we did?" Garima asked serenely. She looked at Khushi as if she already knew the answer. Khushi looked down on her lap and played with the hem of her veil.

She wanted to lie then and tell them that she would have taken the next flight home. But she knew the truth.

Yes, she was the pragmatic one. She was the one with a strange sense of both attachment and detachments at the same time and it boggled others so much so that they didn't understand if she was being honest or venal or both at the same time.

She looked up from her lap and looked at her mother in the eye and shook her head.

"No." She said clearly. "No, I wouldn't have come back." She affirmed her answer and her state of mind.

Garima smiled sadly and nodded.

Music Selection: Don't be cruel by Elvis Presley

Next Chapter: Chapter 7, Mona Lisa

Change is the only constant in life and yet we find it so hard to accept that. Khushi left without looking back and finds it difficult to accept the changes that have taken place.

Pragmatic or not, life does not work on simple rules or logic……...it is rather difficult to understand many things and by the time one does, the bus would have left.

Happy weekend to you too.

feel bad for the whole situation...the whole family is stuck into...