Chapter 21
A week later.
7.00 am, Sunday:
His lifeless and blood-smeared body lay in front of me, surrounded by a pool of red blood. I curled up my body in a corner, crying endlessly. His handsome face was hidden in the dark shadows, hence was not visible. Suddenly, everything felt eerily quiet. I slowly shifted my body near the corpse to get a better view. Immediately, its eyes fluttered open; blood red in colour.
"Riddhima." Aditya whispered.
I felt a cold chill running down my spines.Gasping, I opened my eyes, to find myself in my room, comfortably tugged in the blanket. I sighed and pushed myself up from the bed. It was just a bad, bad dream. Just a dream, I repeated to myself, getting a good glimpse of my reflection in the mirror. Sighing to myself, I jumped from the bed. It was the time when the darkness was fading away, and the sun was about to shine brightly in the sky again. The horizon was submerged in colours of red and yellow, with a hint to blue and violet in it.
I realized that I was shivering; the nightmare had really gotten to me this time. I needed to calm my mind. Trying to push the disturbing out my mind, I tried to focus on my breathing momentarily. When that did not work, I decided to freshen up and cook some meal for my family.
As I walked out of the room, checking myself in the mirror, I heard a clattering of plates in the kitchen, making me panic. Armaan was out of town on account of his new album, Dadi and Anjie di were in the temple, as far as I know, I thought. And my mind rushed back to the nightmare that I had been having since the past few days. Slowly, I pushed open the door, making sure that I do not make a sound. I tip toe across the hall and pop my head slightly into a kitchen to check to find the devil in the room.
I sighed in relief.
"Good morning, Sunshine." Without looking up, he greets me, flashing his cute dimples. I find myself melting under his cuteness, but quickly remind myself that I was angry at him.
With the hands on my hips, I march over to the kitchen.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I question him, while he chops down the onions without any hassle and breaks two eggs neatly.
"Making breakfast for my girlfriend on a sunny Sunday morning." He flashes his teeth at me brilliantly and then gets busy in cooking.
"May I remind you that this is my house? And I thought that we had a fight yesterday?"
"Excuse me, this is not your house. This is my girlfriends house, got it?"
"And yes, we had a fight yesterday, your point?" He points the knife at me, his blue eyes boring into mine.
Immediately, I snatch the knife away from his hands and point its edge right back at him.
"You are not allowed to cook for your girlfriend when you decided to abandon her and go to promote some stupid album of yours, alright? AND you are not allowed to enter her household, whilst she is pissed! Did you get the point now, dorkhead?"
"Riddhima?" I hear Dadi's faint voice from the living room and frown. She is supposed to be in the temple, and I am supposed to go and pick her up. How did she come back? Armaan, of course, had picked her up from the temple.
"Oh, my good lord! I am talking about my girlfriend Dr. Riddhima Gupta." Armaan immediately jumps over and wraps his arms around Dadi, who smiles and shakes her head. I manage to suppress a smile.
"Ew, gross! What made you think that you could be my girlfriend? Yuck. You are disgusting." Dadi giggled at that, as Armaan tightened his hold on Dadi.
"Yeah, whatever." I rolled my eyes, sticking out my tongue, as he muttered something under his breath. Dadi giggled even more.
"Tum dono kitna ladte ho." Dadi shook her head, smiling.
"Pehle isne shuru kiya." Armaan and me said in unison and then glared at each other. Dadi laughed even more. Shaking her head, she walked out of the room.
"Hmph!" I looked away, utterly furious and got busy in preparing a cup of coffee for myself.
I switched the coffee maker, a pair of arms wrapped themselves around me and held me tightly. I sighed. How I needed that right now. He placed his chin on my shoulder, and I feel him pouting already.
"I am sorry. I did not mean to leave you, but I had too. Or else, my publicist would have eaten me alive I swear." He whispered softly.
"I missed you." I mumbled. Fingers trailed down my neck and I felt the shifting of my hair. I froze as I felt his soft wet lips on my neck. Now matter how many times he did that, it always had the same effect on me, and always will. I love it when the does that.
"It was like I had stopped breathing, without you there." He mumbled and I felt my heart flutter in happiness. Which girl wouldn't be happy, if her handsome singer-actor boyfriend said something like that to her?
I turned around to look into his eyes, his hands still around my waist.
"Cheesy." I grinned, my eyes wandered around his lips.
"Mm-hmm." He said, and then locked his lips with mine. It had never felt so right, as it felt now. All my fears and pain seemed to disappear, as I melted under his hold. So lost in him, I didn't realize that omelet was long from done- it was burnt as ash.
"Sister coming in. Please be decent." I heard di's voice from outside and then saw her walk in with her eyes closed. I smiled.
"Nothing A rated going on in here right?" She asked, and I felt my cheeks growing warm.
"Not yet." A naughty Armaan smirked near me, making me blush a little more. Glaring, I smacked his arms. I didn't have the courage to meet di's gaze right now, knowing the kind of look she will give me right now.
"God! Look at you two." Looks like di is in a teasing mood, yet again, I figured as she waved her hands in our direction.
"Lover boy is not able to keep his hands of my sister, huh?" She raised her brows at me. I lowered my face immediately.
"From the scenario in the kitchen, I can tell that you two had been making out, by the way." I just felt like running away from here, wanting to bury myself in a hole or something. I tried to keep a straight, unaffected and stern face, but failed miserably.
"Oh, look who is talking Anj." He grinned, and I looked at him curiously.
"Should I tell Riddhima what you and Atul do in the hospital the whole time?" The devil in the kitchen spoke in a soft and angelic voice. A rush of red blood crept up di's cheeks, but she was better than me in keeping a stern, unmovable face. Not that good though.
A week ago, when I woke in up Armaan's arms, was the day when my tragic life turned around. It was the day when Anjali di told me about her and Atul, and that they wanted to get married. Dadi's happiness new no boundaries then and everything had started to fall in its place. A date for an official engagement had been set. Dadi wanted to get Armaan and me married with them, but I managed to get away from that discussion, in spite of Armaan's over enthusiasm with the proposal.
Obviously, Dadi and Anjie Di could tell straight away about Armaan from the look on my face that morning; it was no surprise at all and that did not surprise me. What surprised me was that Armaan was already ready to accept me as his wife, and it seemed to surreal' almost as a dream. But I decided to take it slowly, since I did not want Aditya to know about this advancement. Though Armaan did not care, I did. I very much cared about his life since he was my life. I made him swear that he will keep our relationship a secret, and so he did. Only my friends and relatives knew about it. Armaan, somehow, managed to keep the reporters and paparazzi in hold, so that the thing did not come out in public. I was not ready to go out in the public eye, either.
"Armaan." This time, me and Anjali di said in unison, glaring at him. He laughed, and so did we.
"Were you two so busy making out, that no one bothered to look at the poor omelet and poor poor coffee?" Anjali di feigned concerned, looking at the ash-black omelet and then the coffee maker. Armaan and me both turned red, being caught red handed this time. Di laughed.
"Okay, I guess I will give you two some space.." I looked up to glare at her. She studied my expression and laughed again, and so did Armaan.
"So clean this mess up. I will be in the living room.. so be decent." She winked at us, before leaving.
"Okay, that was embarrassing." I exhaled, turning around. When there was no response from his side, I turned to find him inclined against the kitchen counter, with his folded arms, his at me and a huge grin on his face.
"You look so hot when embarrassed." He smirked, winking at me.
"Shut up. I am still pissed, okay? You will need a lot more than sorry and a kiss to make up things with me, mister." Saying so, I looked away adamantly and walked out of the room. I smiled as I heard him mumbled, "girls". Everything is perfect.
Edited by Heart - 13 years ago
Tum Se Tum Tak
Ganesh Kartikeya
193