RosesHaveThorns#2(AR) Note: Page128 24th September - Page 82

Chapter 14

"What are you doing?" Anjali whispered in Armaan's ear so Riddhima couldn't hear them

"Planning." He whispered back. "Hey Anji, I'm kinda hungry, what kind of food do you have here?" he asked.

Anjali smiled at his cuteness, "Wait here I will get you both some snacks."

"Thanks." He said as she walked in to the kitchen.

"So I was thinking we should do it in the living room because there's loads of space here." Riddhima said, sitting down on the couch and dumping her bag on the table in front.

Armaan sat next to her and looked at her with a mischievous glint in his eyes, "Really? I thought you would want to do it in the bedroom, it will be more erm comfortable and no one would disturb us." He winked.

Riddhima looked at him weirdly not having a clue on what he was talking about, but then she replayed it all in her head and her eyes opened wide.

"EWWW! You're disgusting!" She jumped off the couch standing away from him. Armaan started laughing at her slow speed.

"What are you talking about? I was talking about the project. You know so that we don't get disturbed whilst doing some school work. Why, did you have something else in mind?" He grinned liking the position he put her in.

Riddhima frowned, "Shut it Armaan." But that just lead him in to another roll of laughter. She picked up her stuff and headed to her room and he followed laughing the whole way.

He wished he didn't laugh that much because as he walked in to her room, he choked on his laughter when he saw the inside of it. Calling it a tip wouldn't be enough to describe its state. The bed wasn't made and the curtains were closed, there were bottles of vodka on the shelves where books should be placed and all over the desk, cigarettes packets lying all on the floor as if they were replacing the job of a rug.

"Make yourself at home." Riddhima dropped her bag on her bed and sat on the sofa which Armaan didn't notice until now because he was still shocked at seeing all the mess.

"Erm seriously?" She looked at him to see him with a mixture of emotions of worry, disgust and shock. She realised then that her room was a mess and that may be the reason why.

She rolled her eyes and pushed the takeaway boxes off the table so she could put her books there and threw the clothes off the sofa to make room for him to sit. She patted the seat next to her indicating to him to sit with her. Armaan took cautious steps towards her, making sure he didn't stamp on anything that looked likely to give him a disease which was basically the majority of the room. He made it to the sofa, safe and sound, and looked at it deciding whether to take the risk or not, in the end he shrugged off his jacket he was wearing and placed it on the sofa and sat on it.

"Drama queen." Riddhima muttered.

"Have you seen your room?!" She rolled her eyes again at his remark and opened one of her books to find the page she was up to.

They quickly revised what the learnt that day and then began from where they left off , he didn't want to push too much in to her brain too fast so went at a slow speed making sure to keep going over each thing again so she wouldn't forget it and linking it to the bits it was connected to.

He noticed how she had no pictures of her or her family hanged up, not even any posters of any kind. Just plain white walls, he wouldn't even figured out they were white when he stepped in to the room until he actually looked properly at them. He found that quite strange, not a single image...

"ARMAAN!" he almost jumped hearing his name being screamed in his ear, but not out of surprise or fear but pain. He turned to see Riddhima to grinning madly at him and he arched his eyebrow up.

"Yes Riddhima?" He sighed.

She punched him on his shoulder, hard, "Shut up, be more glad to see me. Look what i have." She held out a bunch of papers in front of him.

He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, "Erm paper? Riddhima you shouldn't have!" He exclaimed mockingly.

She glared at him, "You're pushing it Armaan. No idiot, they're pictures, well my pictures to be more exact with my family. Look." She grinned.

He took them from her and looked through them, "Woah your sisters hot!" He teased.

Her face dropped, "You're asking for a slap today Armaan." She warned.

"Sorry. These are great, you all look really great." He said sincerely.

"I know we do." He rolled his eyes at her reply, "We all decided to go to a professional studio and we all got portfolios done, I'm gonna hang my frames in my room all over." She beamed.

"Riddhima, no one is going to want to see you everywhere when they go over to your house. It's bad enough we have to see one of you."

She looked at him with a pokerface, "Go kill yourself Armaan." And she walked off making Armaan run after her, laughing at her reaction...

And suddenly the photos are not here? Did she remove them? But what did she do with them then? And why did she remove them? He glanced at her face, which was fully focused on her work.

He came out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door. Anjali walked in with some refreshments.

"Here you are Armaan." She placed the tray in front of him.

"Thanks Anji." He grinned at her, showing off his dimples.

"Riddhima do you want anything?" She asked her sister politely, but there was something else in her tone too. Hope?

"No, I'm fine. You can leave now." Riddhima mumbled not looking up from her notes. Anjali face dropped and she worked out the room quietly, but not before giving Armaan a small smile.

"You know, you shouldn't be so rude to her. She's your sister." He said after the door closed behind Anjali.

"Thanks for the new information Armaan, I hadn't realised she was." She spat at him, "And mind your own business, it has nothing to do with you."

He ignored her tone and tried once again, "She cares for you. She's trying to protect you."

"No she doesn't. The only reason I'm still in this house is because she has no choice but to keep me here." She still didn't look up from her notes.

"You know that's not true." He said softly.

"Look," she looked up from her notes at him, "We're not here to talk about my personal life, we are here to study. So can we just get on with it?"

He knew she wouldn't listen, he sighed, "Sure lets continue."

They carried on studying, him revising the notes as well as teaching them to her. By the end of the hour he taught her about a quarter of what she missed in the year but it was enough to exhaust them both, mentally.

"I need a break; I'm going to the bathroom." She made her way to the door on the right hand side of the room which he realised was probably the bathroom. She stopped before entering it and faced him, "Don't touch anything." She warned.

"Wouldn't want to even if I could." He mumbled. She rolled her eyes at him.

As soon as the bathroom door shut, he got up and started to walk around the room. What did she think? He would give up this opportunity to snoop around? Yeah right! He was bored and he wasn't going to just sit around wait for her to get out of the bathroom.

He cringed in disgust trying to avoid all the clothing on the floor. How can anyone live like this? How can a girl live like this? For a second the thought of Riddhima being a boy crossed his mind. He shuddered.

He walked to her wardrobe and opened it up to be surrounded by darkness. Literally. It was full of black clothing and black shoes. He might have spotted a bright light of white in there somewhere but he couldn't be sure. She must have chucked all her old clothing, he sighed, he couldn't say he was surprised. He closed the wardrobe and walked near her bed looking on the side table. But he felt a creak on the floorboard and realised it was loose. He bent down to towards it.

Riddhima walked out the bathroom and grimaced seeing Armaan near her dressing table holding her eyeliner in fascination. "I thought I said don't touch anything."

"We both knew I wasn't going to listen."

"Whatever. Don't do it again. It's private." He frowned at her, "I think we studied enough for today, you can go now."

He was about to say something but stopped, she was probably right they did study a lot today, she needed a break. He nodded and they packed their stuff and made their way downstairs.

"You leaving already?" Anjali asked seeing them come down the stairs.

"Yeah see you later." He hugged her affectionately. "Don't worry." He whispered in her ear and he was sure she tightened her hold on him for a second. They pulled apart and smiled at each other warmly.

Armaan turned to Riddhima, "You can have a hug too if you want." He winked.

"Ha!" she scoffed and made her way to the kitchen. Anjali and Armaan laughed at her response.

"You should always smile like that. You look beautiful."

Anjali smiled, "You're so sweet and cute Armaan."

"I think you mean hot and sexy." He winked teasingly at her. She laughed at his cheekiness.

"Okay got to go now, bye." He hugged her again, briefly this time, and made his way out the house.

"He's such a lovely boy isn't he?" Anjali asked Riddhima walking in to the kitchen.

"If by lovely you mean irritating, then yes." Riddhima walked out and up to her room, shutting the door loudly.

Armaan drove up to the beach near his house, it was one of his favourite places because there he could think and enjoy the peace and quiet. Even though it was near his and Riddhima's house, he hadn't been there for a while now, he felt like he didn't have a reason to, and he still didn't but he felt like going.

He parked his car and walked to his spot on the beach. It wasn't crowded today, there were a few by passers but it was peacefully quiet. Riddhima and he used to come here all the time last year, sometimes with friends or sometimes just the two of them. Of course that was when it was sunny; it was England they lived in, a sunny day never came much often, not even in the summer. It was a miracle for him that today there was actually decent weather and that too in the winter! It used to be so much fun, they would just lie on the sand and absorb the heat or take a splash in the sea, rather he did because Riddhima couldn't swim and he always had to drag her in to the water. Those were the times where there were no worries, where they would protect each other and take away their problems. Now they caused each other the problems, whether wanting to or not.

He didn't want to cause her any problems, he wanted to take them away, that's why he was doing all of this. What he was doing was right, he just had to prove that to her. Make her realise that this was what she needed not her life right now. She needed to be brought back. Back to the times where she would be the happiest girl ever, enjoyed every minute of her life.

He felt that excitement grow within him thinking about Riddhima being happy again, that was his one mission that he wanted to accomplish. It was in action and all he had to do was wait for it to be absorbed by her and let it affect her. He wished for one thing from her right now, that she would not hide things from him. If she would give him that much it would make it so much easier for him to do his job.

His phone rang abruptly making him realise that he had been on the beach for too long.

"Yeah Rahul?" He answered.

"Dude get home now. There's a erm surprise for you."

"Surprise what sort of surprise?" Armaan was confused, it wasn't his birthday yet.

"A bad one." Rahul mumbled, barely heard by Armaan, "Just get home please." He cut off and Armaan made his way to his car.

He opened the door to Rahuls' house, which Rahul and he called his home, and walked in to see Rahul sat down on the sofa with a depressed look on his face.

"Erm Rahul, you okay?" He asked.

"No thanks to you and your family. You ruined my life." Rahul replied blankly.

Armaan was shocked, what did he mean? What did he ever to Rahul?! And what did his family do? Last time he checked his mother never even paid enough attention to Rahul to do anything to ruin him.

"Er what do you mean Rahul?" He asked warily.

Rahul looked up at him accusingly, "Your family had to give birth to that!" He pointed to the figure coming out of the kitchen and Armaan just had another shock of the day.

Muskaan came out of the kitchen with her big curly hair and a dress, with her arms full of crisps and biscuits and her finger stuck in the Nutella jar and a huge grin on her face.

"Oye Rahul, don't you have any food in your house? I'm starving man!" She screamed at Rahul who just rolled his eyes at her as she came towards him.

"Muskaan?!"

"Armaan?! Hey!" She dropped all her food on Rahul oblivious to the groan of pain he let out, and ran to Armaan to embrace him.

"What are you doing here?" Armaan asked getting out of the hug, still surprised by her sudden appearance.

"Well I came back from my holiday from India last night and stayed at a hotel because I was too tired to come home. How are you?"

"I'm fine, how are you?"

"Not so fine. I came home this morning and no one was there weirdly enough, normally Auntie and Uncle are there. Anyway so then I saw your buddy Rahul here and let me tell you, he is one rude person! Saala kutta! He didn't even invite me in, what kind of friend do you have?!" She complained.

Armaan chuckled at her, she would never change "Saala kutta?" he asked with his eyebrows raised

"Punjab helps you a lot man when it comes to insults." She winked back.

"Excuse me I'm rude? You're the one who invited yourself in and then rampaged my fridge!" Rahul intervened.

"Well you weren't going to so I had to do it myself. It's not my fault you don't know how to treat your guests." She yelled back.

"Obviously you would do that, fat shit." He mumbled loud enough for her to hear.

But it was a bad move for Rahul, "I'M FAT?! You're the one who's wearing pants ten times bigger than he's supposed to."

"Hey! I've put on a little weight, I'm gonna start to lose it soon." He defended himself.

"Sure you are." She scoffed.

Armaan just stood there enjoying this moment. It had been a while since he saw the both fight, and he wasn't going to ruin it for anything. Muskaan was his cousin, just a year younger than him and she was supposed to start University but she wanted to take a gap year to have a break from the studying. She lived with him since she was a little kid, her parents died in a car crash and his parents were nice enough, surprisingly, to take her in. He loved her like a sister the minute she walked in, and he treated her like a princess, always protective of her. He made sure she never felt lonely or left out in school or at home, which lead to her cheery, loud confident self. Rahul and her met when he came over to his house and straight away they got along, and by got along he meant arguing like little kids and hated each other from the first minute. He knew they didn't really hate each other but they would never admit it because hatred was all they showed for one another. When she got tired of college and was about to drop out he convinced her to finish her last year there and take a gap year to relax and then decide properly whether or not she wanted to continue her studying in University. He was always there for her whenever she needed and so was she.

"What's all the noise about?" Armaan broke out of his reverie to see Sirma mom standing at the door with shock written on her face.

"Oh you know the usual, two wild animals at each other, nothing new." Armaan shrugged at her. Rahul and Muskaan both glared at him, and he held up at a peace sign, "Peace amigos."

Sirma chuckled at the three and moved forward to take Muskaan in to a big hug.

"How are you Muskaan beta?" She asked.

"I'm fine Auntie. How are you?" Muskaan asked warmly.

"Oh now she's polite." Rahul coughed.

"Arre haramzaade! Why the hell do you need to butt in for?!" she screamed at him. He shouted back at her which led to another argument between them.

Sirma and Armaan looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Those two would never grow up.

"I'm about to cook dinner, you staying Armaan?" Sirma asked him, he nodded and she went in the kitchen to cook dinner.

They ate talking about Muskaan holiday and joking around and when they finished they helped Sirma clean up and then they all sat down to watch TV whilst Sirma went upstairs to go to sleep.

"So I heard you're engaged." Muskaan spoke quietly looking at the TV, making sure Rahul couldn't hear them.

"Not yet, the engagement hasn't actually happened." Armaan replied not taking his eyes off the TV too.

Muskaan look at him and raised her eyebrow. He sighed at her stubbornness.

"What do you want to know Muskaan?" He said giving up.

"What happened?" She asked softly.

"Something bad."

"Did she reject you?"

"Something like that." She sighed knowing he wasn't going to tell her, "I'm happy now Muskaan, seriously. I like Naya a lot."

"But do you love her?" She asked further.

"No, not yet. But who knows I might later. I feel like I'm already falling for her." He smiled, "When she gets back we'll see what happens and we'll probably get engaged."

He could feel Muskaans gaze on him and turned to her and smiled, "I've gotten over her now Muskaan. I am happy. And Naya is perfect for me, she really makes me happy."

Muskaan finally smiled at him, "As long as you're happy, so am I."

"Hey what are you two talking about?" Rahul asked turning around to look at both of them.

"Nothing." Armaan replied.

"Yeah! It's none of your business as usual." Muskaan glared at him.

Rahul shouted back at her and Armaan blanked out their arguing lost in his thoughts.

He was happy. He is. He's getting everything he wanted now, a girl that might love him, his best friend back. Everything was going to plan. But only better than last time because this time he was getting the love he wanted.

...

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