IPKKND FF - Where Happiness Lives Part 10 Pg 95! - Page 29

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Quick recap - Arnav and Khushi are thinking about eachother and Khushi goes to RM to help with decorations for Aakash's birthday party where Arnav see's her. They become lost in one another until NK interrupts the moment and Arnav trips him spraining his ankle and then silently walking away. Khushi single handedly decorates the poolside and comes across Arnav again, Anjali then invites her to the party and gives her a black dress to wear. Becoming uncomfortable because of Shyam, Khushi slips away from the hall and goes back o finish the poolside decor where Arnav see's her and kisses her. TWICE. She avoids him, but having finally caught up to her, he tells her that it meant nothing all over again and Khushi leaves, heartbroken. A few days later for the sangeet, Khushi doesn't show up and stays at home pretending to be ill. Arnav fears that Khushi has stopped coming back to him everytime he does something wrong. Khushi changes into the green dress she wore when she first met Arnav and someone rings the doorbell. Here Goes...

"Who is it at this time?" Khushi complained as she started towards the door. She had been in a foul mood for days now. Ever since he had... She stopped herself from thinking about it again. The moment when he had insulted her again had played out in her mind countless times. She remembered, when she had been crying against the door of her room on Diwali night, how she had told herself she would never let this happen again. With every tear she told herself that she wouldn't ever let him take advantage of her again and throw away everything that was dear to her. Make her feel like she had no worth.

She felt so angry for putting herself in that position again. She wanted to go back to that moment by the poolside and push him away before he had a chance to hold her. Push him away and embarrass him for what his heart felt, just like he had done to her.

However, she knew, even through how much she wished, that even if she went back to that moment a million times, she would never be able to push him away.

***

Lost in her thoughts of him she didn't notice the table right in front of her on the way to the door and her leg collided with the edge in a loud bang. The force of the collision had her falling backwards to hit the ground beneath her as a glass from the corner of the table joined her path and shattered on the ground next to her, sending shards of glass flying all around her.

He heard the sound on the other side of the door and panicked. He knocked on the door powerfully, impatient to hear from her.

"Give me a minute" she called, distressed at the mess she had made. She picked away at the small pieces of glass cutting her skin until there was nothing but a few scratches left on her hand. She lifted herself up, cringing at the pain in her forearm where she had broken her fall and went to open the door. She fixed her bangles along her arm to avoid the scratches. They were the same bangles Anjali had given her, she hadn't gotten round to returning them yet in all her attempts to avoid Arnav.

She swung the door open and the person she saw standing before her made her react so unpredictably, because she would have never thought to see him, especially tonight.

"Y...you?" she stuttered, trying to find her voice. When she met his eyes, all the memories of what he had done came flooding back to her at once.

"What are you doing here?" she shouted "Go away! I HATE YOU" before stepping back and shutting the door right before him.

She leaned against the back of the door, breathing heavily and closing her eyes as she realised what she had just done in the heat of the moment. The image of him just seemed to send such furrowing emotions through her, she couldn't help it, not after what he had done.

He knocked on the door again, surprising her with the calmness of his knocks. She would have thought he would be pounding on the door after what she had just done. She took in a few large gulps of air before turning back around to finally face what she knew she could not avoid.

***

I love you. There, I said it. Now can you can stop being angry at me?

Look, I'm sorry about what I said, about everything I have ever said to you. I was wrong, almost all the time, and I don't think I've ever been sorrier in my life.

And neither have I ever been so in love.

I just, I don't even know how you did it, but the way you made me feel, all the things you made me feel made me want to hate you. And when I couldn't, even when I tried my best to, I took the frustration out on you.

I never knew how you found it in you to forgive me all of those times. To come back and let me off with a fresh beginning each time. I admired you for it, and yet, I was jealous of it at the same time. And I realise now, that every time you did that, you made me love you even more. How you never gave me the opportunity to hate you, even though I looked for one high and low.

And now, when you didn't come, I don't know what had happened. All I knew was that it was my fault, because it couldn't be yours. I know you too much to know you would give up on anyone so quickly. You find the good in people, you find the good in the world. You found it in me Khushi, and you let me see it. You let me see it every time I'm around you, and I don't ever want to let that feeling go. You make me feel like I'm not the horrible, hateful, arrogant man that I know I am. It's the goodness in you that brings the goodness out in me, and you are the only one to have ever done that. I can't let that go, I can't let you go.

Please, just promise me you will always be there, promise me you won't ever not turn up like you did tonight. Promise me you will always find a way back to me.

When the door in front of him flew open he saw her, and his mind blanked completely. All the thoughts he had put into what he was going to say turned into a wisp of smoke in his mind and dissipated as he took in the image in front of him. She looked beautifully familiar.

"What..What are you wearing?" he said, instead of the speech he had put together in his mind seconds before.

Khushi steamed at his words. After what he had done, this was what he had to say. She stepped back for the second time, ready to shut the door on him a second time when he threw out his arm and stopped her.

"Wait" he commanded.

"What?" she said, outraged. He was still barking orders at her? This man was unbelievable "No, No I am not going to wait, you wait, outside, for however long, an hour, 2 hours, all night, I really don't care" she shouted, turning around.

"You don't care?" he asked, so fearfully, so quietly, that she couldn't even be sure that he was talking to her. He reached out for her arm, about to touch her skin when she flinched back from the painful bruise that had rapidly appeared under her skin.

He looked down at her arm and held on to it, looking down at the purple mark swelling under her cold pale exterior.

"What happened?" he asked, confronted by a surprised look from her.

Not only did this man have the ability to hide almost every emotion he felt, but he had the strangest reactions that she just could not comprehend. One minute he was angry, the next, he was smiling, then he was arrogant, only a second later to have his ignorance replaced by concern. She couldn't take it, he was driving her up the wall.

"What does it matter to you?" she spat at him, remembering the look in his eyes when he had told her a second time that she didn't mean anything.

"Khushi!" he pleaded, as she stepped back inside, stopping the door with his hands "I just need to talk to you"

"Well I don't want to talk to you, how is that for a change? We'll do what I want"

"Just stop for a second dammit"

She looked at an imaginary watch on her wrist "There, it's been a second" she said smartly "Goodbye"

"Khushi..." he urged, pushing the door open and stepping inside so he stood in the door frame.

Her heart was giving up. Why did he have to torture her like this? She felt her throat clog up from all the memories that were running back to her, all the thoughts of what she couldn't have.

"Look, I ... yesterday.." he began as she felt her eyes burn.

"Khushi, I didn't mean to hurt... what I mean is, you shouldn't have to miss out on your sisters sangeet because of me. What I said... I shouldn't have. It was wrong, what I did and .."he looked up at her, ready to apologise fully when he saw that she was crying.

She cursed her tears, always letting her weakness show.

"Nothing, nothing" she muttered. Every time he spoke to her, she wanted him to say it. She had never thought about him so clearly before, but since that kiss. Since she had felt how much he wanted her to, she just needed to hear him say it. Why wasn't he?

"Look, please don't cry, I'm sorry okay, I didn't mean to..."

"It's not that" she choked, wanting him to leave, she didn't want him to see her crying while he boasted about how he was always right. She lifted a hand to wipe away her tears roughly.

"Just leave, please" she pleaded.

He grabbed a hold of her hand as she was lowering it.

"What happened to you?" he enquired, staring at the cuts along her skin. What had she done to herself?

"Nothing" she tried pulling away "I just fell that's it" she sniffed.

"God dammit Khushi, can you not even take care of yourself" he scolded, holding her fingers ever so lightly.

There it was again, that side of him that gave away that he still had a heart. It might have been cold and frozen, but it was there.

"Please, just go" she whispered through quivering lips, she wanted to go to her room and cry her heart out. She had felt like it for days now, and she couldn't hold it back any longer. That's what happens to you when the person you love doesn't care, and he throws your love back at you, because for them, it isn't worth keeping.

He couldn't believe she was asking him to leave, just like that. She had tears running down her face, because of him. As much as he hated those droplets of misery, he always seemed to be the reason to cause them. Why couldn't he make her happy? He wondered what she felt right now, did she hate him for what he had done? He tore his eyes away from hers, unable to stand the hurt they portrayed.

He sadly looked down at her hands again, hovering above the cuts along her skin and up her arm until his eyes froze over what he saw, his breath catching, his grip around her wrist tightening.

They were there, the rings of vibrant gold that clung to her silky skin, making the slightest of tinkling sounds when she twitched.

His mothers bangles.

And that is it for today, please leave a comment below, it motivates me to write more. I know this chapter isn't too great so I have a pre-cap for the next one. Remember to email me if you want updates :)

"You wore this" he whispered "the first time we met" tracing his fingers lightly across the beads that sat under her top, grazing her bare skin lightly.

She smiled softly, but sadly, remembering the moment "I didn't know you observed me so closely"looking up at him.

***

He stood, in the exact same spot he had stood in days ago watching where she had been dancing in practice for tonight before her Buaji had given him a piece of her mind. She had looked determined and strong. So independent, he had thought.

And now he watched her stand so close, so close to him. He thought they had hated eachother, and now, all of a sudden, Arnav had left his brothers sangeet to come and see her? Khushi was his and his only, and his jaw clenched from rage as he saw Arnav skittle his fingers on the belt along her waist.

He crushed the rose he held in his hand, the petals too weak to stand up against his strength, they went running down his hand to hit the floor below silently, crushed out of life.

How could she do this to him? How could she?

Next Chapter 5 -Spectrum