Arshi FF: Tune Into Me-chapter:26 Updated Page 101 - Page 61

can only say beautiful. the whole chapter felt like a song. carry on darling.

I read all the parts in go
And I just loved this uniquely diff concept
This story is very diffrent and refreshing
I would love to read further
Plz pm me when you update

25: A shade, An Unveiling

It was a warm afternoon. Well, warm enough for a monsoon wedding to be marshalled at the sea-shore. A beach wedding. A white wedding, literally, more because everything around was in the shades of white, off-white, and just earthy colours. The only spark of colour around was of blue--- cerulean shade blue woollen checked traditional cloths, incorporated quite naturally into the theme of wedding decorations.

The sand, earthy golden, cascaded along the sea-bed. The waves, blue and teel-ish, rustled with the sand particles. The sun, light orange, in the far end was already playing hide and seek with the grey clouds. Everything clearly reflected sorted shades, underplayed and peaceful.

The air, well precisely colourless, brought with itself, the wet sand aura"also colourless. The aroma of it resembled the one that teases your senses just before the possibility of a rain. Or of that one which indicates that somewhere nearby, it already was raining.

"It is going to rain" Arnav said, the first thing as he walked into the venue stepping on the blue-carpet that paved the way for the guest entrance, plainly.

"Shh!" Sameer silenced him, his eyes quickly scanning around the two of them making sure no one heard him. "You're not supposed to say that out and loud. It is believed to be unlucky. It doesn't rain on a wedding day"

Arnav made a face and then looked around him, at the sky, the sun, the clouds and the beach. "But uncle, look at the weather! "

"Well, you can keep the weather forecast to yourself. People aren't going to appreciate it" They continued to walk and Arnav took a moment to appreciate both the weather and the venue.

"I thought the traditional checked cloths should be of red. The traditional red" he stated, just as they took their seats in the middle of the rows of chairs, which were dressed with dusty white.

"The tradition is to use clothing made of woollen checks. It is said that the checks are originated from this part of the world and hence they integrate that in weddings. Red, blue, doesn't matter"

"Ah, the customization of traditions. Same in every part of the world"

"What did you think? Indianism is Indianism."

"Thought so, the narrow me I guess" Arnav sighed dramatically.

"Having travelled good parts of the world, I'd say It's with Humans, to create traditions and to customize them and eventually unfollow them"

"Thoughtful" Arnav shrugged in appreciation. Sameer shrugged too in response and the conversation was confined to that, seamlessly. In the silence that followed, as the two waited for the events of the wedding to begin, Arnav's mind wandered off to the night before. He had been in a trance since then. The night seemed like a meditation which turned into a deep slumber, while the events still passed in his visions, all in a whim, in some lame indescribable unveiling of something which he isn't really sure if he could give it a name. Last thing he remembered about the night, or the last sensible thing to be precise, was a vision of him walking back to Khushi to place the book back in her hand. Unopened"so to appear.

And the next thing he knew, he woke up to a loud knock of Sameer at his door, while he was disorganized in his couch, in an empty little tree-house.

He heard about people thinking alike. But people tuning alike? Its time people should start calling him a maniac. He concluded.

Khushi. The name started giving him some kind of terror altogether. What was she? The next question was--- had she been always the same? Is that the reason why people always loved them together? Okay those were two questions. Right. He was losing it. Or rather, he just couldn't find something which he just realized he had already lost it. Long back.

There was weird silence within him altogether. That pin-drop silence within the space of his chest. And that was scary. Haunting almost. And heavy in way. After listening to so much of music coming out from just literature--- written music by Khushi, there was just silence within him. And it substituted his otherwise, vague musical mind so much that it started to have a poignant effect on him. The thought that all that he had created until then; meaning, all the innovations of music which he thought came to him ever since he was in Belhaven; wasn't really his. Just his, atleast. The realization was unsettling. The tunes, never came to him, neither came to him when with her. Not just to him. The tunes came to them.

Initially there was anger, on himself. For his inefficiency to think novel. And then there was confusion. Then there was inadequacy to comprehend the situation. Somewhere in between there was a sense of bonding. But,most of all, after every reaction had come and passed, there was just void. Spooky Silence.

He wondered if this silence would ever end. Or maybe this was the silence before the storm.

"Khushi..."

He almost but jerked his stance, away from his little reverie hearing the very name of his thoughts. "What!?" He replied urgently.

"Everyone is looking for Khushi" Sameer stated, alarmed. Arnav absorbed the statement for a moment and then looked around at Aileen, Cam, and a couple of others who he didn't really recognize. They were all looking at the entrance, impatiently. Cam trying to call Khushi-from what it seemed to him.

"The bride should make the entrance in sometime. She should be here"

"Oh, she must be here somewhere" Arnav brushed his concern off.

"Or hiding somewhere, not wanting to come out as the bridesmaid" Sameer answered, worried.

"Are you kidding me!? She cannot ditch the bride in the last moment"

"Uh, yeah but.. Arnav can you please check her room for me?"

"Back in your house?"

Sameer just looked on concern edged on the thin lines of his forehead. Arnav nodded assuring him and looked back at the path that he just walked. The wedding venue was in the very neighbourhood and so, it wasn't a long walk. Fifteen minutes later, Arnav found himself at the base of the long linear stair case of Gupta Villa, that lead up to Khushi's room and he had no clue what to expect, if she was in there. Sighing to himself, he climbed the stairs, his shoes making an echoing sound in the empty hallway and just when he was about to open the door of her room, he heard her talk. Yell actually. An alarmed yelling.

"Don't! Don't come in"

He wondered if it was to him. And at the same time, he fumed at the audacity of this girl. Was she seriously spending the evening of her best friend's wedding sulking in her room?! She was unbelievably disappointing at times.

"Uh..."

"Who is it?" he heard her snap again. He noticed her voice sounding as if guarded. The voice wasn't coming directly. It came as if she was speaking through a tunnel.

This time there was sudden concern replacing his anger, easing his complete stance, as a result of some foreign emotion alerting him to be concerned.

"Maddy?" he called out

"You..." Her voice then surprisingly turned low. "I, uh..."

"Are you okay in there? Can I come in?"

"I'm afraid not. Can you please get Aileen for me? I'm kind of stuck..." she sounded embarrassed.

"Oh... you know the venue is little away and it's getting late for the bride's entrance. People are waiting for you out there.."

There was then silence at the other side of the door. "Maddy?"

"I can't...I can't come. Can you please go and tell that I'm gone or something?" she sounded low, too low for the fierce Khushi that he is so familiar with. And if he said that, people would very well believe her. It was so easy for people to understand her wrongly. He was no exception either.

"You should let me help you"

"NO!" she's back to her freaking out tone.

"How long have you been in there?"

"How long since dad came to pick you up?"

About half an hour. He answered his own question.

"I can't breathe" she then confessed. Again, that foreign emotion allowed him to be glad that she did.

"You should let me come in" he stated, this time a little more determined. There was silence again. He waited for good two minutes before he spoke again. "I'm coming in Khushi.." after another silence filled pause, he slowly opened the door.

There was she. Only, he could just see an up sided dress stuck to her torso and face altogether. Her hands fixed upwards. His gaze for a moment travelled down. Her navel exposed, below which was just her inner, and long bare legs. He swallowed a thick lump, his lips suddenly dry and his eyes taking her in completely. There was a slight tug of war between the jerk and the decent guys in him, which he brushed it off with great difficulty and tried to concentrate on her. As in, on rescuing her.

"Would you please stop gaping at me?" she pointed out and he had to look away.

"I'm not! Don't flatter yourself" Keeping it playful, always helped. "How in the hell can you get stuck like this"

"Would you...would you just help?"

"Yeah, sorry"

He walked to her, his hand reaching out to place on that of her wrists, that were up, clasped together, stuck inside the dress. He mechanically turned her body around to locate the edge of the dress, using which he could pull it off. The tips of his cold fingers touched the skin above her white laced bra. She shivered. Suddenly, the playfulness dissipated. In its place was dead silence. He could sense her embarrassment, shy. At the same time, he could sense the drought in his throat. On purpose, he turned her again, to let her back face him and on purpose again, he allowed his fingertips to trail down her spine.

She hyperventilated, her body reaching out for the support of the cabin nearby, as she let her knees lean.

"Don't.." she said a little breathlessly. Her voice didn't sound repulsive. Just scared. Scared of what was going on between them. His gaze remained deep, unblinking, fixing and attuned at everything that belonged to her. All he heard in that minute fraction of second was the sound of breathing. Accelerated breathings. In tune. In that moment, like he had gotten used to by now, a tune busted itself into his senses. And into her senses as well. That he now knew. And the supposed silence, he had been dreading of, ended.

Pushing away that moment and everything that came along with it, he finally found the edge of the dress; holding it with his two hands firmly, he pulled it out of her head, releasing her red/black jungle of flocks to spread all around her face. The face with minute make-up. That at the moment looked flawless.

"Lipstick.." he immediately commented, still staring. As if drugged. The tune, he was sure filling itself in the space between them.

"Clare insisted" she answered. Their bits and pieces of conversations filling in between the imaginary tune in their minds.

"Your hair..." he almost said sighing.

"Aileen did it for me. Turned the still red strands into streaks or something"

He sighed again. Keeping his eyes on that of her's intact, he handed her the dress in his hand. When he entered the room, if he thought it was difficult for him look away from her body, now, it was her eyes that he was finding difficult to look away from. There was some mystified spark in the way she looked at him. Never seen her look at him like that. Hell, never seen any woman look at him like that.

She wasn't taking the dress from his hands. Whatever happened to the initial shy, he didn't know. He didn't bother.

And then, cute disappointment filled her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked, his hand still offering her the dress.

"I cant wear this. It doesn't fit. I'm fat"

That finally broke whatever spell was casted between them, and he laughed. Out and quite loud.

"Stop it. It's a size 2! And doesn't fit me!!!"

"S..so?" he said between his laughter.

"So, I'm fat" she stated.

She observed him chuckle teasing her for another moment and then grabbed the dress away from his hand, trying to put it on from above, vigorously.

"Hey, hey wait!" he reached her again, allowed the dress to exchange hands again and observed the garment for a while. He then unzipped the zipper at the side to which she widened her eyes. Amused at her shocked expression, impulsively, he put the dress on her, from above her head. She came to her senses immediately and replaced her hand in putting it on, her body. It slid on, onto her form perfectly.

"See?" he allowed his eyebrows to go all the way up.

"I didn't know that the zip would be at the side"

He rolled his eyes. "Are you even a girl!" He exclaimed reaching out to her, impulsively again. He placed his hands over hers, permitting himself to zip her up with a nod.

"How many would you have unzipped to have known this" she retorted. His eyes turned deadly. "You wouldn't want to know" He replied crisply and then tore away her gaze to do the zipper. There it was, at the side of her waist, in the curve of her navel, almost unnoticed, a small outline of guitar and from it, two music notations emerging"A cleff and a quaver. Whatever he intended to do at the curve of her navel, halted. Whatever were his thoughts, ceased to exist. His eyes quivered up to that of hers. He could see she had the same look as that of his. Only, he didn't know what it meant. His thumb, on its own will, traced along the tattoo and sensing the way her skin reacted, all at the same time.

"This.."

"Arnav.."

The missing words or sentences were uttered at the same time. He now didn't know what was hard to look away from. Her eyes or the tattoo. Her hand replaced his over the tattoo covering it, protecting it. He didn't appreciate it.

She had a tattoo that resembled music. Why or on what kind of thought process could have driven her to do this?

She was getting mysterious by the day. Unveiling rather. And the discovering was almost torturing him. Squeezing his eyes shut with great difficulty, he zipped her dress up in a swift moment and walked vigorously towards the door.

"I'll be down" He stated and with that, shut the door behind him, leaving her with her own silence.

Awesome update dear..

Loved the update,but i thought arnav will kiss khushi 😉

l totally loved the update Dee...a big n hearty thank you for taking out time from ur busy schedule to give us such wonderful update...thanks again...Will be waiting eagerly for your next update...please please please if it's possible, update soon...

Awesome update. You left us hyperventilating in the end

It was a magical update and so your writing.

It was a short update...not length wise...but wid events happening *pouts*

But it was good. ND I feel somewhere the whole scene in khushi's rroom could hv been done better by u. Not tht its bad..but knowing ur work...i felt something was missing. Plus for tht particular a little more description of feelings at both ends would have done wonders.

Thnx.
Meg :)