Chapter 12
Finally after a deep long slumber, Riddhima fluttered her eyes open to be met the by the shimmering daylight. She lifted herself up only to fall back down again with a groan; her whole body was sore and tired. How long had she been in bed for? When did they bring her here? How did they bring her here? Who brought her here? And how did that person find her? She closed her eyes hoping for some memory to reappear in her mind, but all she could remember was someone, a man, calling her, running towards her and catching her as she fell unconscious. After that everything was blank. Who was that person? And how did he know her name? What was her connection to him? Was there even a connection to him or was she thinking too much in to it?
She turned her head to the side to see a tray full of food and a packet of tablets. Who brought that here? Since when did people start bringing food to her? Why? She was so used to getting it herself; her sister gave up on bringing her breakfast knowing it would go to waste. Riddhima was glad she did, it irritated her so much, seeing her sister pretend to care. Should she be glad that someone made the effort to do this for her, or worried? Should she even be feeling anything at all?! She kept staring at the tray, not knowing what to think or do, she didn't even know whether she was confused about it or not. She was just blank, and staring at it.
"It won't kill you to try it you know," Riddhima almost jumped by the sudden sound of a voice, she looked at the door to see Armaan leaning against it coolly with a smile on his face. He gestured with his head towards the tray, "The food, I mean. You can eat it; I guarantee there's no poison in there." Riddhima rolled her eyes at his little joke; he walked in to her room and sat on the bed, making Riddhima scrunch her eyebrows in confusion. He lifted his hand to her face, and placed the back of it against her forehead, "How you feeling?" he asked softly. What was he doing? Why was he in her room? How did he even get in to her house? She thought. He smiled knowing what she was thinking, he picked up the tablets and the glass of water and brought it in front of her, "Here have this, you need it to fully recover."
Recover? From what? She was perfectly fine last time she checked, why did he think she wasn't? Did something happen to her? How long had she been unconscious for? And why? She stared at him for a few seconds but only got a warm smile from him, no answers. Feeling her anger build up, she removed the blanket off and stood up to go to the bathroom, ignoring the unbearable pain she was receiving from doing that action. But before she could step in to it something, or more like someone, blocked her path. She glared at him but only to get a smug grin as a response.
"Move." She ordered him, warning him through her eyes.
But obviously he remained unaffected, "Nope. First eat your medicine."
She scoffed at him and tried to walk past but he wouldn't let her, her patience was running out, "Look, I have no idea why you are in my house and I don't want to know either, so just get out. And do us all a favour, don't come back." She tried to walk past him once again but he was as stubborn as her.
"Tut tut tut Riddhima is this how you thank your saviour?" he said cheekily, leaning against the bathroom door.
"My what?! Have you lost it?" She said incredulously. "You didn't save me from anything, now move." She pushed him out of the way and he let her, knowing not to push her too far since she was already extremely annoyed. Plus it wouldn't help him at all with his plan; it would just make it more difficult. He knew there was a limit with Riddhima on everything, some things you can push too far, some you can't, this was one of the 'cant'. He heard the water running in the bathroom and thought she was probably showering; he left the room not wanting an awkward moment for when she came out of there. He decided to make himself some breakfast before the real drama started, and he really needed the energy for that.
She came out the bathroom, and got changed for school. She was putting on her black eyeliner when she spotted the tray of food behind her through the mirror. She bit her lip to stop the temptation to eat it, but it looked so good. It Had been a long time since someone made something for her, a very long time, the last time that she gladly she gladly accepted something was when... No she wouldn't go there. Her stomach suddenly felt empty, she walked up to it and sat on the bed whilst placing the tray on her lap. She stared at it for a few moments, may be she could eat it, no one would know, well they would but still. She was really hungry, heck she was starving now! Plus she hardly did ever eat; she noticed she had lost a few stones because of that. She picked up the slice of toast and unwrapped the foil around it, it was still quite warm, she took a bite and almost moaned out of delight. It had been forever since she ate proper home food, she normally just went to takeaways, chippy's etc. The toast had that nice homely taste to it which she loved, she took another bite and before she knew it she had already finished 2 slices. She quickly ate the 3rd slice too and drank the glass of milk given with it.
Armaan observed it all from outside and couldn't help but secretly laugh, she was still quite the same, she didn't like showing her weaknesses even if they were the most ridiculous ones. He was about to go downstairs again when he heard something falling, he turned back to her room to see her searching for something, frantically. She was almost tearing her whole room apart, what was she searching for? He walked in to the room but she paid no heed to his mere existence, she was too busy trying to find something.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing, I'm trying to find a thing of mine," she replied, still searching. But then she remembered something, he had said he saved her, saved her from what? Was he the guy that brought her home that night? If he was, that meant he knew where it was. She turned to him, "Erm you said you saved me, I'm thinking you were probably the guy who brought me home that night. When you brought me home, erm did you see any packet on me, like a small one with some powder in?"
Armaan looked away; even now he couldn't lie to her. It was something he couldn't do. He knew what she was talking about and he was prepared for it. Here comes the hard part, he thought. He stayed quiet for a while but that didn't help him. She knew when he was lying, when he was hiding something, he was keeping something from her. Something about the packet.
"Where is it?" she asked almost threateningly, he didn't answer, "Give it to me now."
He sighed, let it begin, "No." he watched her eyes turn from shock, to confusion, to anger.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "You have it." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. He nodded, "hand it over," he shook his head in negative, "Hand it over or else." She warned him through her gritted teeth.
"Or else what? What exactly will you do?" he enquired her smartly, "You are using drugs Riddhima. Drugs! Do you even realise how serious this is?!" he was now right in front of her face, only a few inches apart, furious.
But it didn't affect her; she held on to her anger "This has nothing to do with you! Just give it back to me now! It's mine!"
"Don't you even think about it Riddhima! You aint getting it, none of it! Do you even know how bad that shit is for you?! You are practically killing yourself!" he yelled at her.
"Like I said before, it has nothing to do with you. It's my life I'm messing up not yours, so keep the f**k out of it!" she was not going to be intimidated by him; he was not going to get his way.
"It has nothing to do with me? Are you kidding my Riddhima?! This has everything to do with me! With me, with Anjali, with everyone who is around you! When are you going to get it in to that thick brain of yours that there are some people you actually care about you! Not like that useless piece of shit 'Vicky' who doesn't give a f**k about anyone but himself!" he had to cool down now; this was getting out of control. He was supposed to be calm with her, not scream it in her face, but he couldn't help it, her words were making him furious. It was like she didn't care.
They stood there, with their eyes narrowed at each other, not speaking a word. Riddhima finally spoke, "give it to me now Armaan."
He sighed, and then straightened his face out, looking at her blankly "No. I'm not giving it to you and you can't make me cause you have nothing on me. If you want it, you have to earn it. You will have to do whatever I say or you won't get it back."
Riddhima was outraged now, how dare he?! "Are you blackmailing me?! F**k you Armaan, I need that packet. I really need it, it's important."
He stared at her. She was desperate, like it was the most important thing to her, it never used to be. She used to despise these things, now she was obsessed with them? He felt the pain soaring through his heart, displayed in his eye, this was someone else now. But only for now. Soon she will be the Riddhima that she loved, not this mess.
She saw him staring at her but was confused at the way he was staring at her. It wasn't in angry nor hatred, what was it? She never saw him look at her like that before, like he felt sorry for her. But she didn't need his pity, she was fine without it, it sickened her knowing he thought she could do better. She was fine the way she was. She was perfect the way she was. Actually no, no one was perfect, there was no such thing as perfect, but everyone is right the way they were. The way people behaved, dressed, talked, it made them who they are, and they were right the way they were, no matter who thinks otherwise. No one should change themselves just for someone's sake; they should be who they want to be. Be who they are, be their selves.
"No, first do what I say" he spoke with finality.
"No." she argued back.
"Fine I guess I have to tell Anjali about your little 'need' wont I?"
"Be my guest, she probably knows anyway. As if she gives a shit." She snapped back immediately. She knew he was trying to use her weaknesses against her but first he would have to know what her weaknesses were.
He had no choice to go take it further, he was expecting this, yet wasn't prepared. "I will tell the police."
She analysed his face, narrowing her eyes, not showing her surprise at his reply, "You're bluffing."
"Think what you want Riddhima, but we both know I can and will go to the police." He smirked at her.
She frowned slightly, the police couldn't know. It would cause huge trouble for her. And of course her friends too, they would kill her. She had no choice but to surrender, "Vicky will kill you if he finds out about this little blackmail of yours."
"Well he won't if he doesn't know, and he won't know as long you keep your trap shut. I mean you won't actually tell, will you?"
"No, I don't need anyone to fight my own battles for me; I can do that perfectly fine myself." She spoke confidently. He was expecting that, she never let anyone or anything prove she's weak because she wasn't.
"Get ready quick, I'm taking you to Uni today." He said calmly. He read the annoyance in her expressions but she had no choice.
"I am ready." She almost growled, crossing her arms across her chest.
He scanned her up and down once, "Sure you are." And he left the room leaving a fuming, insulted Riddhima behind, who was tempted to smash the tray on his head.
She quickly finished up with her powder and eyeliner, etc. and came down after 10 minutes. His expressions dropped seeing her still in the same outfit, which of course was black. He had to fix that soon, he thought. He looked to the side at Anjali, who had a blank expression her face seeing Riddhima, he was sure he heard her sigh as Riddhima came down the stairs but he knew it wasn't the relieved kind of sigh. She glared at him and gave a glance at her sister which almost looked like a dirty look.
"Shall we go?" she said sounding depressed. He stopped himself from smiling and nodded, "Then what you waiting for, come on." She walked out the house towards his car.
Armaan gave a quick hug to Anjali, finally making her smile, and ran after Riddhima. He saw her leaning against it muttering to herself, most probably curses about him, making him grin at her childishness. He opened the car and sat in the driver's seat as she did the same silently. He started the car, and drove in the direction to the University; it wouldn't take too long for them to get there, only around 10 minutes or more depending on traffic.
They both yet again didn't speak a word, he noticed they had many awkward silent moments; it never used to be like that. Before they never could sit in silence, they would all day about anything and anyone, but now they had nothing to talk about because they didn't know each other anymore. Well he didn't know her, he wondered if she still remembered him, all the stuff between them. She behaved like she didn't, but did she?
He turned to see her staring out the window with a bored look on her face and decided to break the silence, "Well isn't this cosy?" He didn't know what made him say that but he was glad he got a response from her, even though it was a dark glare, he looked straight ahead on the road, "Guess not." He muttered.
She turned back to the window again, leaning her head against it with a miserable look on her face. She couldn't understand what was going on. Why the hell would he want something to do with her? Wait, why was even doing this?! What would he get out of it? And the question that confused her the most was, why was she even listening to him?
He was back to glancing at her again every other second, but she didn't make one move at all. She was in deep thought, but what about? He was actually surprised that she didn't fight him much when he blackmailed her, he was expecting her to swear, curse him, etc. and then shove it back in his face, but no, she agreed. Was she that desperate for the drug? Was she that attached to it? Should he worried by this thought? He stared at her, her attire, her face. She was still beautiful, but she didn't show it, she hid under all the make-up. Was that one of her weaknesses, her outer beauty? Was she trying to hide it?
He sighed loudly, purposely, gaining her attention again. She raised one eyebrow in question, to he just shrugged.
"Oh nothing, I was just wondering what people will say when they see us together." He spoke nonchalantly.
"If you didn't care before, why do you care now?" she smirked. He swore his heart nearly skipped a beat hearing her words. Now that was something he was not expecting, especially not this soon. He thought he would have to work hard to get the memories back, but no she already knew them herself, she didn't need reminding. She remembered them, but made herself forget them. But she remembered them.
He didn't reply but grinned for the rest of the journey. Finally they made it to the University, the saw students passing them, entering the grounds. Riddhima gulped, everyone would see them come out of the car together, what would they say? What would Vicky say?
"Don't worry, no one will say anything," she turned to see him smiling at her, but his smile then turned devilish, "Plus I should be the one worried since I will be seen with you."
He could see her anger surfacing and started laughing seeing her face red in anger. She stormed out of the car, towards the building, not caring who saw her come out of it. She hated it when he made jokes about her, but why? She shouldn't care. She wouldn't care.
He grabbed her arm stopping her from walking off, and tried to catch his breath, "I was only joking Riddhima." He said grinning, but could she sense something else in his voice? Sincerity? Warmth? Or was that what he wanted her to think?
"Why are you doing this?" she asked curious, she noticed his expressions drop, "You aren't gonna get anything out of it so why? Unless you do get something out of it." she pressed on.
"Nice try Riddhima, but you aren't knowing anything. I do have a reason, but that's for me to know and you not to find out. So you can either give up now or just keep trying until you do give up." He arrogantly spoke, smirking as she frowned in disappointment.
"How can you still talk to me after what I said?" He winced at her words; he didn't need to be told to know what she was talking about. She noticed his slight wince, and took note of it, how did he feel about that day? About what she said to him?
"I just am. And I'm doing this because I feel like it, not because I hate you." What did that mean? Did it mean he didn't hate her for what she said that day? Or that he was doing this for another reason other than his hatred for her? None of them made sense; she just thought he would do because he hated her.
"So...What? You're doing this as revenge?" She wasn't going to let it go that easily, she would make him tell her.
"Maybe, maybe not. You can think what you want but I'm not going to tell you if you are right or not." He shrugged.
Dammit, he wasn't going to tell her anything! She knew he knew she wanted to know, but instead of telling her, he was irritating her even more. "Well you got what you want now; I came to Uni with you. Now give me it."
He folded his arms across his chest, smirking, "No. Let's see how much this packet is worth, shall we?"
She almost growled, "Give it to me. Vicky will kill me if he finds out I don't have it."
"Aha so it's this Vicky's is it?" He was really fuming in his mind though, that 'Vicky' was always there! He was always with Riddhima; he now took his place in Riddhima's life. He was making her do all this, he knew it, she wasn't exactly being forced but he knew that Vicky guy would give her no choice. Something always annoyed him about that guy, he was bad news. "You're scared of him, that's why you haven't told him yet."
She walked away angry yet again, he always seemed to judge her, analyse her, she didn't like it. But then she felt him pull her back, she was about to turn around and yell at him when she felt his hot breath against her ear. She tried to get out his hold but he secured her arm on her back tightly, she heard him chuckle at her struggle.
"If you want it, you are going to have to win it." He whispered challengingly in her ear. She pulled her arm back and glared at him before walking away towards her friends. He grinned seeing her annoyed, he hadn't done that for ages, it felt good. He was definitely going to do it more often now. He went towards his group grinning as he greeted them.
But one person noticed their interaction from the moment they stepped out of the car, he was annoyed yet confused, what was she doing with him? He saw Riddhima walking up to them, and decided to ask her himself.
"Hey Ri, come here." Vicky called her, she came to him and she sat beside him. "What were you doing with him?" He asked pointing to Armaan.
Riddhima became alert, he had seen them two together, what was he thinking? Did he have any idea about the heroin? No he couldn't or he would've said it by now, what could she tell him? Sure she could lie very well but she knew he wouldn't believe it unless it made perfect sense. She started to fumble giving an explanation, but to her luck the bell rang right on time.
She sighed in relief hearing it, "Sorry Vicky I have to go, it's time for a class." She quickly got her bag and almost ran in to the building. She knew he was suspicious, she just hoped it was about something else. He could not find out about the drug or she was dead.
Something was wrong, everything was changing, he could feel it. Vicky knew from the moment she started going to Uni again that it would change everything completely. It would change her. But no, he couldn't let it happen, she was meant to be like this, she had to be like this. It was all going wrong; this is where she belonged, and where she would stay. He wasn't letting all his hard work go down the drain, especially not for that Mallik guy. He was bad news. He was getting in the way, he had to take him out of the equation now, or it would just get harder to solve. But what was that Mallik guy doing with her in the first place, he couldn't help but think. He was up to something, something not good. He had to stop him.
"Vicky," He looked up to see Maya linking her arm with his, "Let's go have a cig baby."
"Sure, come on." He agreed, smirking at her. He could think about his problems later, first he would drown them out before they got too much to handle. He had a plan to everything, he would solve it.
She walked in to the classroom and saw Armaan sitting at the back, when he saw her enter he took his bag of the seat next to him, indicating her to sit there making her roll her eyes in frustration. But she knew the consequences if she declined his offer, so she made her way to the seat beside him. He gave her bright innocent grin as she took her seat in which she answered with an almost silent growl. Armaan chuckled inwardly seeing her foul mood, he was actually enjoying this, it was like old times, like but they weren't old times, no those were real and reciprocated, this was just one-sided.
"Right settle down now students," The professor spoke loudly, Armaan didn't even realise that by now the classroom was full of chatty students, who quietened down hearing the professor's voice "Today you will be sitting a small test so I can see how much you actually learn in my lesson and to see if whether you even do or not. Anyone that fails the test will have to re-sit it again in a week's times. Any objections?" The room vibrated with silence and covered with deep frowns on every students face, except from one, the class's nerd of course, who gave a little clap before he took out his stationary set, ready to work. "Good, you may begin right away when you get your paper. You have 1 hour and half and then I shall mark it and give back your results by the end of the lesson." The professor grinned seeing the misery displayed on his students face, oh the glory he felt knowing that he was the cause of it.
Armaan and Riddhima groaned, along with the rest of the class, as they got their papers. What a way to start the morning eh?! Armaan saw the teacher lean back against his chair smirking, and all he wanted to do right now was smack it off him. Why did he need to go Uni? Why couldn't someone get a decent job without going through all this trouble? He wished he could kick the ass of the guy who came up with the idea of exams, even if he was in his grave by now, which was a lucky escape from the 21st century kids for the guy. He opened the paper and started reading the questions, it was quite easy, and luckily for him he had looked over all his notes a few nights back so it wasn't something new. He answered every question not missing out anything; he did not want to repeat this experience again. Out of habit, he turned to his side to glance at Riddhima, her eyebrows were scrunched up and she was biting the end of her pen, and then her lip too. He wished he could help her but he couldn't without getting them caught, he didn't want to get in to trouble. Plus he felt like he shouldn't help her, that he should let her do this on her own, he couldn't help her through everything even when she didn't want it. She has to learn to do things on her own; he had to let her do things on her own. He felt the need to let her learn for herself and he didn't feel guilty about it. He turned back to the paper and continued answering the questions.
On the other hand though, Riddhima was not finding it quite as easy as Armaan. She got stuck on the very first question! Luckily she found a few after it okay-ish enough to answer but what she couldn't understand was why the world was against her?! What had she done to deserve this kind of punishment? Okay lectures are bad enough but tests in lectures was just plain torture. She knew every other student in the world would be feeling the same if they were in her place, sadly only around about 50 right now where experiencing. She wished she had revised, she didn't want to do the rtest again, she was regretting her actions. But she couldn't change back time now, all she could do was try her best, that would at least help her a little. She tried to answer all the questions but she was sure she got most of them wrong; before she could check over it she heard the professors voice calling out.
"Time's up, please pass your papers forward to the front of the row." He requested from them. He put the papers on his after receiving them all and turned back to the class, "For your sake, I hope you passed. Right, now I will mark the papers and I would like you take notes on the following presentation I will play, next lesson I will ask you questions on it to see if you learnt anything from it."
He went to play the video and took a seat on his desk and started marking. The rest of the students got out their books and started taking notes on it, obviously not everyone. There was always a group that never listened, it was just a tradition in every school for every year, one student put his headphones and started to listen to music, another fell asleep leaving a pool of drool on her desk, and two guys started throwing paper balls at each other. Real mature, Riddhima thought, but that was life.
"So how did you find the test?" Armaan asked her getting out his notebook.
"Ehh it was okay." She started taking notes from the movie and he mirrored her action. He was quite happy with her reply, not the actual words but the fact she answered him without question, that she gave him a straightforward answer, he wasn't used to it anymore. They spent the next hour taking notes silently; they didn't have anything to say to one another so why force themselves to talk?
"Right class, I have finished marking your papers and I must admit I am impressed by the results. I will hand these out so you can look at your results." A teacher complimented his class - Not something you see every day.
He walked up to Armaan and Riddhima last since they were right at the back of the room, "Well done Mr.Mallik you passed." Armaan breathed out in relief, "Whereas Miss Gupta, you failed. I am highly disappointed about this; I thought you said you did the notes?"
"I did but I couldn't remember them all because there were so many of them, and I couldn't word it properly in the text because I revised it differently." She defended herself.
"Well I don't care about your excuses Miss Gupta, you will be resitting it again same time next week and I don't want to see it as a fail again. Now go and learn it."
"I can help you learn my notes." Armaan offered when he saw the teacher walk away.
"No thanks, it's not needed." They heard the bell and got their stuff.
"I don't mind seriously."
"And I'm saying no, seriously."
He frowned hearing her harsh tone, he was only being nice. He wasn't going to ask her again but then an idea popped in to his head, "Fine, I guess you don't want packet back then." He knew it was wrong. He shouldn't keep bringing it up but he had no choice but to, it was the only way to get closer to her and if it meant being like this then he would do it.
She narrowed her eyes at him, "That ain't fair. I have done everything you asked for and now you are asking me for more?"
"Yeah I am. I told you before if you want it, you are going have to earn it." He slung his bag on to his back, "Meet me in the library at free period to start our first lesson." He walked out the classroom followed by an infuriated yet helpless Riddhima.
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Hope you liked the part guys. Please comment and like :)
Love Zarqaa
P.S. See note below :)
Edited by cant.be.assed. - 13 years ago
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Bigg Boss 19
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