Chapter 54: 78%
[Music Selection: It's an old song... so feel free to skip it if it's not your taste]
He was quiet as they walked to the car and got in and even once he put the key in the ignition and started the car and pulled out of the long driveway, he remained so.
She noticed that he did not make eye contact with her at all; in fact, he appeared to be looking at nothing in particular and seemed to be on autopilot as he navigated his way through the roads away from the Raizada mansion.
"You made her cry." She said after a while, more as a statement than as a judgment.
He didn't respond or look at her, but kept staring straight ahead.
"Even at your worst with me, you were only stand-offish or occasionally rude, never cruel." She added.
He kept his silence and did not even with a blink alert her that her words were being heeded in any manner.
When they were near the road to turn to her flat, she spoke again, "Do you think she smells like Lavender?"
Her question must have been strange enough to catch him completely off-guard or maybe he was just ready to talk again, because he finally asked, "What?"
She turned to him and watched him carefully as she repeated, "Does she smell like Lavender to you?"
"Of all the preposterous questions." He said almost matter-of-factly. "I have never actually met a person who smelled like Lavender."
"Then what does she smell like?" she asked, not letting him redirect her from her query.
"What?" he asked, giving her a look.
"What does she smell like? Roses? Jasmine? Lilies? Chrysanthemums? Gardenia?"
"She doesn't smell like a flower."
"No? Not a flower... hm... then what? Apples? Peaches? Strawberries? Blueberries?..."
"She doesn't smell like a fruit either." He said, cutting in.
"Then?" she was persistent.
"I don't know! It's not flowers or berries or chocolates or whatever. It's just her!"
"Ah, so you have noticed what she smells like!"
"Oh, come on! I have a nose. This hardly requires any special effort."
She was quiet for a moment before she said, "What do I smell like then?"
"Eh?" he turned to her in surprise.
"What do I smell like, Rajeev?"
"Roses?" he asked, his inflection making it sound like he was responding to a multiple choice question that he was guessing on.
She laughed, which made him give her another perplexed look.
"I do not smell like roses. How cliched. I smell like Lavender, of course." It was her turn to be matter-of-fact.
"You do?" he asked, curious.
"I do. At least I do to the man who keeps kissing me whenever he sees me. He insists it's because I smell like Lavender."
She looked over at him and saw him raise an eyebrow.
"He's still kissing you? What is wrong with him? After all the shit that he pulls!"
She smiled as she looked away from him. "I don't know Rajeev. I think men like him alternate between kissing and being jerks while they try to resolve something in their head. I indulged him to some degree before because I didn't mind his kisses and his personality, I was used to. I am starting to think that you are a lot like him."
"What the hell! I am nothing like him! I have never kissed that girl... knowingly." He added the last word under his breath, but she heard it just the same.
"No, instead you made her cry. What did she do to you that was so awful that you wanted to hurt her that badly?"
He didn't answer and slipped back into his silence.
They pulled into the visitor space in her garage and he parked the car.
"What did she do to you that was so awful that you wanted to hurt her that badly?" she asked again, now turning fully to face him.
He rolled down his window and stared out for several moments before he answered, "Nothing. She has never done anything that was bad enough to deserve what I did tonight."
She reached her hand out to touch his shoulder, but then decided against it. He wanted to be left alone, she could see.
But she wanted him to at least acknowledge one thing.
"You went to see her before." She said and saw him sigh.
"How much did you and ASR hear?" he finally asked.
"Oh, Arnav only came at the end when you were telling her that she has no decorum or impulse control and that she is only tolerated by the human populace because she is his sister. I was there to hear the other part as well. When you told her that you didn't sneak into her room to profess your undying love, but because you felt guilty because she had gotten hurt trying to protect your girlfriend."
He closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair, mussing the unruly curls that had grown longer in the past month.
This time, she did touch his shoulder and he turned to her and the weight on the remorse in his eyes made her reach out to hug him.
He didn't return the hug, but allowed her to hold him like that for a while.
When she asked him if he wanted to come up, he shook his head and pulled away.
"Thank you, but I need to be alone."
She nodded and pulled back.
Just as she was about to get out of the car, she heard him ask. "So, did he resolve it?"
She looked back at him questioningly.
"You said that when men like him are trying to resolve something in their head, they alternate being jerks and kissing?"
She was surprised, but then smiled as she answered, "It doesn't matter if he resolved it, Rajeev. I did. That's all that matters."
As she was opening the door, he asked, "Are you sure?"
She was about 78% sure.
"100%." she answered with a smile as she got out of the car.
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Edited by -publicenemy- - 13 years ago
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