Differences Between Us :: Arshi FF [COMPLETED] - Page 6

"Kya hua? Upar tak aavaaz aa rahi thi-" (What happened? I could hear the noise upstairs-)

"Payal ko invitation mila hai," La replied grimly. Khushi glanced at her elder who blushed deeper. "Dinner at Shaantivan, tomorrow night." (Payal's got an invitation...)

Khushi's eyes grew wide and she smiled in delight for her sibling. "Achha?" (Really?)

"Haan! But hum dono invited nahin hain!" La's voice came spitefully. (Yeah! But the two of us are not invited!)

Payal immediately looked hurt. "La, tum chaho, to main nahin jaaoungi..." (La, if you say, I won't go...)

"Chup!" shouted Garima. "Ek dum chup! Apna bhavishya koyi aise barbaad karta hai kya? Tu jaayegi! Akeli jaayegi!" (Shut up! Just shut up! Does someone ruin her furture like that? You'll go! Alone!)

La got up and angrily stormed back to her room. But her mother did not care. This was Payal's time. And no one, not even herself, could get her out of Garima's limelight.

***

"Par Amma-" (But Amma-)

"Maine kaha na? Tu ja!" (I've said it? You go!)

"Theek hai... Ricksha ke paise to djiye!" (Fine... Give me the money for the ricksha!)

"Payal! Maine tujhse keh diya na? Tu paidal jaayegi!" (... I've told, right? You'll go on foot!)

Khushi sighed and decided to interfere for her sister. "Par Amma, dekho to, baarish hone vaali hai. Jiji bimaar-" (But Amma, see, it's going to rain. Jiji will get ill-)

"Arrey, moorkhon! Yahin to mein chahati hoon! Payalia agar baarish mein bheeg jaaye to bimaar hojaayegi aur usse aaj raat vahin rehna padega!" the mother explained with a kind of sadistic shimmer in her eyes. Then, she saw her eldest daughter eyeing Khushi miserably and turned angry. "Tu abhi tak yahaan hai? Chali jaa!" (Fools! This is what I want! If Payalia gets drenched in the rain and falls ill, she'll have to stay there overnight! You are still here? Go!)

And the door closed on Payal's face.

***

It was only late at night that the phone rang in the Gupta House. Shashi made a quick grab for it and the other females gathered around him. He spoke in short hurried phrases and his face bore a worried look. When he finally put the receiver down, he turned to his wife.

"Payal ko tez bukhaar hai." (Payal has high fever.)

***

"Bauji? Hum jaa rahe hain." (Dad? I'm going.)

"Tu kahaan jaa rahi hai, maharani?" (Where are you going, Your Highness?)

Khushi turned to find her mother blocking her way.

"Amma? Aap?" (... You?)

Garima stood before her ferociously, her fists on her hips. Khushi took a deep breath before replying to her mother defiantly.

"Hum jiji se milne jaa rahe hain." (I'mm going to meet Jiji.)

The woman was shocked for a few seconds. "Tu nahin jaayegi!" she spluttered when she had regained herself. (You are not!)

"Kyun?" (Why?)

"Tu mujhse savaal karti hai? Chup chaap apne kamre mein jaa, Khushi!" (You dare question me? Go to your room silently, Khushi!)

"Nahin! Hum jiji se milne jaayenge! Jiji bimaar hain! Unhein humaari zaroorat hai. Aap hatiye!" (No! I'll go meet her! She's sick! She needs me. Move!)

"Besharam ladki!" (Insolent girl!)

"Jaanedo usse," Shashi's voice came calmly from behind them. "Jaa, Bitiya," he told Khushi. (Let her go. Go, child.)

Khushi smiled at her father, perhaps the only sensible person in this house, and mouthed a thank you at him before leaving.

"Jaa!" she heard Garima's voice behind her. "Tujhe rickshaw ke paise main nahin doungi!" (Go! I won't give you the ricksha fares!)

Ha! Money for the transport? Who said Khushi Kumaari Gupta needed it? she had her own feet to walk. And besides, she weather was fine today. She walked in the Kolkata streets greeting all those she knew.

Aaj mausam hai suhaana,

Jiji se milne ka hain bahaana...

Lala lala lala...

***

"Arnav? Which one should I wear? The orange one, or the black one?"

"The one you prefer, Malvika," he replied in boring tones, without looking up from the screen of his laptop.

The girl pouted, yet without catching his attention. Akaash entered the room right then and his sister straightened her herself at once. She put on an adorable smile and repeated the question to him instead. Akaash sank in the nearest armchair and sighed.

"Black." His voice was even duller but Malvika took no notice. She skittered out happily and Arnav lifted his head to look at his worried friend.

"Are you still worried about her?" he asked, almost scathingly.

Akaash looked up, frowning. "Arnav, you know, I don't like the way you talk about Payal."

Arnav shrugged. "How is she now?"

"Same. The doctor said-"

A servant entered the room, stopping Akaash. "Payalji ki behen aayi hai." (Payalji's sister has come.)

Akaash nodded. "Andar bhejo." (Send her in.)

Arnav felt his heart thudding faster than usual. In came Khushi Kumaari Gupta, clad in a simple red anarkali which fell to her knees. His favourite colour... How had she known? Her long ebony hair was bound in a french plait from which a few shorter locks of hair escaped to tumble around her face. She had this healthy glow about her, like the sun in a beautiful early morning. Her cheeks were slightly red.

He realised she had walked to Shaantivan from her house, just as her sister had the previous night, as his eyes travelled in her windblown hair, but that had done nothing to reduce her beauty. In fact, she looked even more appealing. Even before he realised it, he was out of his chair, on his feet and staring at her with an unknown feeling. His heart was beating like mad, and its rate increase several notches higher when her eyes met his. An unfamiliar warmth enveloped him.

"Khushiji? Aap..."

Arnav turned to look at his friend who had broken the charm by just speaking.

"Hum... Voh jiji se..." (I... Jiji...)

"Yeah, wait a second. Shaanti!" he called out and a middle aged maid scurried in the living room. "Khushiji ko Payalji ke kamre mein lejaao." (... Take Khushiji to Payalji's room.)

She glanced at Arnav one last time, then followed Shaanti. Akaash sat down to see his friend was still standing, his eyes fixed on the doorway through which Khushi had disappeared. He glanced at the empty space, then back at Arnav.

"Tumhe kya hua?" (What happened to you?)

Arnav jerked and turned to Akaash. He blinked blankly before shaking his head and sitting down.

Downstairs, Arnav and Malvika were already seated at the table, waiting for Akaash and Khushi. Lunch was a quick affair but soon after, they moved to the living room, part of which had been converted to a small study for Arnav and Akaash, as the study in Shantivan had not been equipped as planned yet.

Khushi realised Malvika could be nice if she wanted to, but the power of her wealth and heritage made her somehow arrogant. The girl did try to make a conversation as Khushi was going to open her book to read silently, Payal resting in a deep sleep on the first floor and she having nothing to do, but it was obviously done at her brother's mute prompting.

"So, Miss Gupta, did you like Shaantivan?"

Khushi raised her brows in surprise as she had never thought Malvika would bother speaking to her. "Oh, call me Khushi, please. And yes, it's very beautiful."

It was Malvika's turn to look astonished. "You speak English very fluently, if not perfectly! Where did you learnt it from?"

Out of the the corner of her eye, Khushi felt she saw Akaash rub his forehead with embarrassment and she smiled. "At school, where else?"

"Yes, but... you mean here? In Kolkata?"

Khushi pursed her lips, trying to hide her growing smile and shifted in the couch where she sat next to Malvika. "Well, you see, our father sent us to a private school, run by British, Irish and French nuns. And yes, here, in Kolkata. A bit in the outskirts, if you want, but here, yes."

"Really?"

"Yes, but the school is closed down now, actually it has been closed for a few years, I think, two or three, because a fire had broken out there and damaged the building completely."

"Oh. And you did go to college?"

"Yes," Khushi replied with a slight chuckle.

Malvika observed her nails, pouting her lips. "I expect you stopped there then."

It was not a question. And the arrogance in it was subtle but Khushi felt it. And it hurt her somewhere. Her jaws clenched immediately at the insult. How could rich people be so judgemental was totally out of her understanding.

"As a matter of fact, Miss Dogra, we have all been to university." She felt the atmosphere in the room change. Akaash emanated growing embarrassment and Mr Raizada's eyes bored onto her, abandoning his paperwork. "Payal is, in fact, a medical doctor. Lavanya is still studying to become an accountant. And as for me, I have studied engineering as well as literature, because I wanted to become an engineer but literature is a passion I inherit from my Nani. Just in case you wanted to know, I am still studying and I aim to get a doctorate before I'm thirty. Coming from a middle-class family does not mean limited education. Our father's business can pay for our studies. The only reason we are not working, is because our parents do not approve it. Instead, we three sisters help in household as well as in the family business as much as we can."

By the time Khushi had finished, Malvika sat before her, red as a beetroot and her brother was hiding behind a book.

"I would like to see my sister now, if you please."

Khushi stood up and stalked out of the room, but not before shooting a glance at Raizada.

Strangely enough, she thought she had seen his lips twitch and his eyes shine bright with amusement.

***

"Yeh kya kiya tu ne? Pagal ho gayi hai kiya?" Payal blurted when Khushi had finished narrating to her what had happened earlier in the afternoon. (What did you do? Are you out of your mind?)

Khushi sighed, pacing in front of the bed, still flustered. "To? Hum aur kya karte? Chup chaap Bauji ki badnaami sehte?" (So? What should I have done? Listened to my father being insulted silently?)

"Ussne Bauji ka naam-" (She did not take Bauji's name-)

"Naam lene se kuchh nahin hota, jiji. Indirectly, unka matlab yahi tha." (So what, Jiji? That's what she meant.)

***

"Malvika, you shouldn't have."

The girl watched her brother worriedly as he paced in the living room.

"Bhai... I just..."

"Just... just... just don't talk to me okay?"

She turned to Arnav, who was equally observing Akaash thoughtfully. When she had caught his attention, she stared at him with a pleading expression with asked for help. Arnav sighed.

His friend was right.

As much as he hated it, it was true. Etiquette was something they had been taught as from infanthood. But it seemed, Malvika had not grasped any of it in terms of speaking. She had hurt the Gupta girl.

As you had, a few days ago, a tiny voice said in his head. He sighed again, in frustration this time.

It had been a mistake. He had not known her enough. It had been his pride speaking. But then, it could be the same for Malvika. She barely knew Khushi. And by the way, to err is human, right?

"Akaash," he finally said. "It's okay, she made a mistake."

"A mistake? She bloody cut my damned nose and threw it in the fire! What must Khushiji be thinking of us right now?"

What did she think of him when she had heard that comment he had made about her? Not good-looking enough...

"Listen, she made a mistake, she'll apologise."

"What?" Malvika ogled at them in pure shock. "You can't expect me to-"

"Yes!" Akaash exclaimed. "That's what you'll do! You made a mistake, now you go and bloody apologise."

An argument followed but Arnav did not hear a word of it. He just felt the sting, deep in his chest. He had made the mistake of insulting her too. Should he ask for forgiveness too? But then, there was another sting. To his pride. Arnav Singh Raizada? Ask for pardon? No way.

He walked to the glass French doors which opened on the garden and stepped out, his jaws clenched together. He went directly to his ruby red Floribunda rose bush. They were budding now. He caressed one of the buds gently. Roses were his mother's favourite flowers, especially this variety. Except that she loved the white ones but Arnav's favourite colour was red. The buds were just small balls of a pale yellowish green, not very attractive, but once they bloomed into large red flowers, they would be marvellous to look at.

She was similar to his roses, he realised, suddenly. At first, when you did not know her, there was nothing you could feel for her. But as you got to know her, there was nothing that could stop you from being pulled to her. The attraction grew, the force of the pull did too. Even you did not want it.

That's it, he decided. He should stay away from her. Before it was too late...

***

"Khushiji?" she heard a whisper. She glanced at her sister who was deep asleep, then at the doorway, where Akaash stood. He smiled kindly at her and motioned her outside. She closed her novel and tiptoed out. It had been some time since she had cooled down now.

"Kya hua, Akaashji?" (What happened, Akaashji?)

"Neeche aaiye. Chaai taiyyaar hai." (Come downstairs. We'll be having tea.)

Khushi shook her head. "Nahin, hum yahaan jiji ke saath theek hain." (No, I'm fine with jiji here.)

A look of guilt flickered on Akaash's face. "Dekhiye Khushiji, neeche jo kuchh bhi hua, usske liye I'm very sorry. In fact, Malvika bhi aapse maafi maangna chahati hai. Please, neeche chaliye?" (Look, whatever happened downstairs, I'm very sorry for that. In fact, Malvika wants to apologise too. Please, come downstairs.)

Khushi sighed and looked at the young man who was practically pleading to her.

"Theek hai." (Fine.)