Ariya FF: It's not Easy to Forget You COMPLETED 01/01/2015 - Page 7

CHAPTER 9

The sun rays falling in the room, continuous chirping of birds & the sound of cows told Riya that it was morning. She slowly opened her eyes. She stretched her hands in the air and a yawn escaped her mouth.

"Ri... you'll never change..."

Startled, Riya looked at the source of the voice. There they were, Sameer & Karan, near the door with a small smile plastered in their lips...

Riya: "Are you both on a mission to startle me as soon as I open my eyes?"

Sameer & Karan chuckled at her question.

Riya : "By the way, what are you guys doing here in the early morning?"

Riya anxiously waited for their response. On the other hand Sameer & Karan were finding it hard to tell her what they came for. It was Karan who broke the silence.

Karan: " Riya... woh... actually...Erm..."

Riya (a little amused): "What Karan Bhaiyya... what with this Erm-actually-woh stuffs? Tell me what's it?"

Karan gulped down hard thinking what will be her reaction after to coming to know the matter... he was damn sure that she will create a scene... But he has to tell it...

Karan: "Riya... We are going to town for a day... some urgent work arose... and before you ask, NO, You can't come with us..."

He said all this in one go. Riya was looking at him open mouthed. Then she shifted her gaze to Sameer who was looking at her helplessly... Riya didn't utter a word and sat down in her bed itself, lowering her head. This amused both Sameer and Karan as they expected altogether a different reaction. And knowing Riya well, they also knew that this new reaction is not at all good... it was time for Sameer to step in as she would probably melt in his sweet words... He slowly walked towards the bed and sat near to her. He placed his hand in her shoulder.

"Ri... What happened? Don't you want to shout at us?"

Riya looked at her brother, all gloomy.

"What is the use of shouting as you already said that I CAN'T come with you guys..."

She said pouting. Sameer smiled at her innocent reaction. He knew what was coming in his way. She is gonna emotionally blackmail into convincing him to take her with them. He cannot afford to do that. So he decided it's better to use her weapon to herself.

Sameer: "Ri... my sweety pie... try to understand... it is some important office work we have to do... The head office is sending some officers to a place called Calicut, which is just 2 hours from here. We need to discuss some matters with them... How can we take you there... you'll be left all alone..."

Riya (Trying to protest): "But I will be alone here na... Take me with you... I will wait for you... No problem..."

Karan (Trying to butt in): "How you'll be alone here? Arjun 's Mom is there na... Moreover, Arjun will also be here... he will take you to all the places over here..."

The name Arjun brought the desired effect in Riya as Karan expected. Her cheek turned into a light shade of pink. Karan could not help but to wonder what had transpired between Arjun and Riya that the mere mentioning of Arjun 's name would bring colour works to her cheeks...

After a few minutes of convincing a half happy-half sad Riya, the duo left the house leaving Riya behind. Arjun noticed how her face went down seeing her brothers go away at least for some hours. Suddenly it reminded him of the conversation they had shared in that night in Riya's house. He could understand the same fears surfing in Riya's mind again. He had to divert her from all these fears at any cost. He knew what he had to do, Introduce her to the cutest, craziest, naughtiest and chubbiest gang of kids in his place.

All the sadness in Riya vanished to the thin air as soon as they reached to the kids. The kids were playing in the paddy field some fun games. As soon as they saw Arjun , they ran towards him and started jumping on him. Arjun was having hard time controlling them and Riya was having hard time controlling her laugh. Arjun was right. They are indeed the cutest, craziest, naughtiest and chubbiest gang of kids. As she was also childish, Riya didn't find it difficult to mingle with the kids. Within a few minutes Riya was also acting like a kid. She was participating in all the games of kids. Arjun was happy to see her like that, soo carefree... even though he was enjoying each and every game the kids & Riya were playing, he managed to not participate with them. However he had to let his shield down for a last a game for the sake of Riya.

That game was called biscuit eating'. A thread was tied between two poles and some biscuits were tied to the thread. The participants Arjun and Riya have to stand in both the Sides of the thread facing each other. The game is, they have to eat the biscuit which has been tied to the thread. They can only use their mouth. They have to keep their hands at back. To add difficulty to this, kids also planned to shake the thread in between.

Riya and Arjun were all set for the game. As soon as a kid blew the whistle they both started jumping. It seemed relatively easy for Arjun as his height was an advantage for him; however the continuous shaking of the thread proved a problem to him. On the other hand Riya was trying hard to eat the biscuit by jumping. But she was not willing to give up. She tried hard... harder and harder... and when her lips were almost touching the biscuit, she lost her balance and fall on to Arjun . Arjun , who was busy involved in the game, caught Riya only to lose balance and fall with her on top of him to a hay stack... Riya opened her eyes slowly only to see herself on top of him. She looked at his face for a second and the next moment she burst into laughter seeing the hay fibres in Arjun 's hair and ears. Arjun glared at Riya, but that didn't make her to stop. Eventually Arjun also joined her in laughing followed by the kids...

On their returning journey to home, Arjun found Riya to be very happy. She was just like the old Riya he had seen the first time. She was singing, jumping, dancing, twirling... Arjun could not help but to smile at his cute angel. His thoughts came to a sudden halt as he saw her standing in front of a tree, her gaze falling at the top. He shifted his gaze away from Riya to the tree to check what fancied her. A smile crept in his lips as he saw a bunch of ripe mangoes in a branch. Even though Riya didn't utter a single word to him, he knew what she want... he walked towards the tree and started climbing it.

Riya could see the care Arjun had shown for her. She told nothing about what she felt yet he could understand it. She felt soo proud to love a person like Arjun . She watched him climbing the tree fearfully. Even though her heart told her that nothing will happen to him, she could not stop worrying. She heaved a sigh of relief as finally Arjun could manage to get the mango. Arjun showed her the mango and about to get down from the tree, suddenly he lost his grip and fall down from the tree.

Riya witnessed this horror stuck... She screamed his name and ran towards him... To her relief he was alright as the height of the fall was really small... She looked at him all concerned. He sat down and showed her the mango by giving her his best dimple smile. She looked at the mango in his hand and then at his face which was filled with sand. A tear dropped down from her eye. She took the end of her duppatta and started wiping the dirt off his face. Arjun closed his eyes as her hands touched his face. He opened his eyes and got locked with a pair of baby brown eyes which were looking at him lovingly...

They lost the count of time as soon as their eyes met... they became oblivious to their surroundings... only they could see is the passionate eyes of each other... they don't know how long they have stood like that... it was the sound of a cycle bell which broke their trance. A flushed Riya started twitching her duppatta, looking elsewhere... Arjun also was feeling shy to look at her so decided to walk towards the house quietly, followed by Riya.

As they reached the house, they could see Sameer and Karan waiting for them. Riya was happy to see them back. She ran towards them and hugged them tightly. Sameer and Karan were happy to see how much happy Riya was.

Sameer : "Some bird is telling me that my Ri is soo happy today... is that so?"

Riya (stammering): "Bhaiyya... woh...today we were with a bunch of kids. Let me tell you, they are the cutest, craziest and naughtiest kids... we played with them... while coming back I saw a mango and Arjun ...(She paused as her mind rewind back to the passionate eye lock. This made her flush like tomato)... And Arjun got the mango for me..."

She showed Sameer the mango trying to hide her true feeling. Sameer smiled and patted her cheek... She didn't forget to glance a look at Arjun as she went inside with her brother. Even though Riya could easily hide feelings from Sameer, she didn't realised that her other brother was watching the each and every change in her. Before following Sameer and Riya, Karan went to Arjun .

"Arjun , what kind of Mango you gave to my little sis that she continuously blushing like that?"

Karan smirked and followed others leaving a flabbergasted and embarrassed Arjun behind...