ArShi FF: Something About You Thread#1 *COMPLETED* - Page 22

After almost twenty minutes, when Khushi was sure Arnav Singh Raizada wasn't there anymore in her home to create havoc with her consciousness, she made her way downstairs, now dressed in her Pajama bottoms & a spaghetti-straps pink top. She stuck her neck around the door to their kitchen where she could hear her Amma & Jiji talking. They were, very predictably, talking about Arnav & his family. Amma was lamenting how the death of his parents sent Arnav away from his family, to try & forget everything & the stigma of being the son of an adulterous father. & then she said, though visibly reluctant to admit it, that if it hadn't been for Arnav's decision to continue staying on over there to try & boost up things for his family business in international markets when the market in India had been too gloomy for fashion houses, the Raizada fashion empire wouldn't be where it was now, in an unparalleled position in the Indian fashion industry.

& then Garima started to say something about how Arnav didn't seem to mind staying abroad too much, as later when he had been able to afford to come back home, he had refused to do so despite repeated requests from Anjali & orders from Nani ji. He had denied Akaash's offer to go over there & help him, if it was the excessive pressure of work there which kept him from coming back. & when Manohar Singh Raizada, his Mama ji, had gone over there to pacify him to come home, he had stated to him, he didn't want to come back to a place where he had to carry too many baggage on his shoulders. There in New York, nobody knew what Arnav did before he shot to success & a tiny amount of reasonable fame & neither did they even want to. Nobody cared what was in his past, unlike people in India. Manohar had come back very heartbroken, not just by Arnav's claims of never coming back to India, but even by the lifestyle Arnav led over there & the strings of girls he had had no qualms flaunting in front of his own Mama ji. Garima had come to know all these from one of the gossip queens of their society, who claimed to have got it all straight from the horse's mouth, namely Manorama Singh Raizada.

Listening to all this from her mother's mouth, Khushi suddenly felt very depressed for some unknown reason & she warily made her way to the hall & flopped down on her favorite bean-bag couch. She had of course known all this from the time Arnav's promiscuity had been the favorite talk of Chanakyapuri party scenes. Everyone knew all this. But to see Arnav up close & personal & to hear these tales, did put everything in a different light. Now she had a clear sense of what to imagine when she tried to picture him fooling around with numerous hot models. "Hai Devi Maiyya!" Khushi's hand went to press against her cheek, as she tried to match what they all have heard about Arnav's notorious life when he was absent from here, to the brooding, too-mature-for-his-own-age-kid, who used to glare at her behind her brother's back, to the man who had been up to her bedroom not 30 minutes ago! What was he? A chameleon?!

Khushi was brought out of her reverie by Payal's sharp slap on her shoulder & she looked over at her Jiji with confused eyes. Then when Payal just continued staring at her with an expectant look, she yelled, "What, Jiji? First you slap my shoulder like that & now you're just gawking at me like that?" Payal shook her head exasperatedly, realizing Khushi hadn't heard a word she had been saying to her, so she repeated herself, "It's good that Arnavji is back, na? But, I was actually laughing remembering the huge crush you had on him when you were 13, remember? You went over to their home with us, saw a snap of him in his campus from Anjali ji & then after we came home, you marched in my room & announced you were gonna marry him once you had conquered the world & were done with your world tour, because, as of then, you wanted to be a pop star just like Brittany Spears!" & even before Payal could finish her teasing spree, she was rolling all over the couch in spurts of giggling laughter.

Khushi glared at Payal & wondered how cruel her usually very kind sister could become when she was hell bent on teasing her younger sister. Then she shifted on the couch slightly to present Payal with her back & said in a stern voice, "Well, am I a pop star now? Like Brittany? Or am I anything like her?" When Payal didn't say anything, but just continued trying, in vain, to control her spurts of giggles, Khushi turned towards her & said, "& marrying Arnav Singh Raizada was the most ridiculous part of that 'joke of the century' resolution. So could you just forget all about that? It's really frustrating, Jiji, that whenever you have to tease me, that's the only story you can come up with it, whereas I can count at least 10 embarrassing stories about you just off the top of my head!" She narrowed her eyes at Payal warningly.

Payal immediately sobered up & said in a mock hurt voice, "That's because, you're mean & keep scores & I am not like you!" then she said with an irritated sigh, "Waise bhi, what exactly is wrong with Arnav ji? Why would marrying him be ridiculous? Khushi, do you know the hullaballoo he has created amongst the Aunties of the society in just the two days that he had been back? Your La's Mom is right now on the phone with Amma, asking Amma to use her Lucknowi influence, & the fact that bhaiya & Arnavji are friends, to see if she could do something about setting up Lavanya & Arnavji!" Payal, in her attempt to animate the amusing antics of Delhi high society Moms, didn't notice the way Khushi's eyes rounded at her last sentence & before she could notice, Khushi schooled her features to portray calm indifference, simmering inside with barely suppressed anger.

Then she slung her head towards Payal, her hair flying around her head in angry motion & said shrewdly, "Good for La. At the rate she has been going for the past couple of years, she totally deserves Arnavji! But maybe, just out of my friendly duties, I should advise her to ask Arnavji for an HIV test before furthering anymore in her advances." & before Payal could admonish her for her callous remark, a deep, mellow voice from the main door called, "Bachchi! That's really below the belt. & that actually gives away the impression that you're a mean shrew, which I know for a fact that our Khushi is not!"

Khushi & Payal both twisted around in their seat with wide smiles on their faces at the sound of their brother's voice. & then Khushi said with a happy shriek, trying to distract both of her siblings from the regrettable thing she had said just moments before, "You're early, bhaiya! What, you took half-day or something?" & then she literally squirmed with happiness as Rohan came & affectionately ruffled both the sisters hairs as a form of 'hello', & then he hooked his arm around Khushi's neck as if giving her a noogy & said with a grin, "I was out doors for an assignment & as it was almost time for the bank to close up, I called Abigail up & told her I was coming home." & he saw Khushi was about to open her mouth to ask about his 'outdoor assignment', so he shook his head to let his baby sister know that he hadn't forgotten about her comment so soon, & said firmly, but in an amused tone, "It's good that you know so much about HIV tests & I'd reasonably be supporting both Payal & you, if you guys wanted your grooms to have the test.. Well, on second thoughts, I would really like to see you guys marrying boys you knew beforehand & trusted them as much as to not want the actual test. But the point is, you should know better than to use it as a joke or offence against someone. & especially against Arnav. He is my friend & our families are also very close?" he prompted for Khushi to get his point as if she was a child of 3.

& Khushi didn't really mind. Rohan was the only person in the world whom she had given the unspoken permission of patronizing or humoring her. She looked at him with a bashful expression & said in a flat voice, "I know it was wrong. I was angry." & both Rohan & Payal said in unison, "& when Khushi Kumari Gupta gets angry, her brain goes on to take a hike." & all three of them laughed out loud & at the sound of the commotion, Garima also came out to join them. Then after relaying to Garima why they were laughing & after she had admonished Khushi suitably for her snide remark, Rohan put his hands up to quiet them all down & raised his voice to say, "Ok everyone, now calm down. Ok, Arnav called me up just before I came home.. " & at the curious question in Khushi's eyes, he said  briefly, "He has been back for three days, do you really think after reaching home, I was not the first person he called up? Anyways, Anjali & Arnav are throwing a birthday party for Nani ji on their farmhouse in Gurgaon & Arnav called me up to invite us all. Amma, we will go, right? Bauji or you don't have any other plans for the 21st of this month, right? They'll also be inviting Karan & his family too, I guess. Since Karan's Mom is such good friends with Naniji?" he said hopefully, doing his best to extract an affirmative answer form his mother.

But before Garima could let them know about her consent, Khushi spoke up in a steel voice, "I won't go! The moment that Arnav Singh Raizada comes waltzing back & throws a Goddamned party just to flaunt how much money he has got, I will.. I mean, we will have to march up to him like we are his obedient subjects & he is our.. Our.. Our Laad Governor!" By the end of her outburst, Khushi really worked herself up to a state. Garima & Payal both stared at her for a couple of seconds with blank expressions, then they both turned towards each other & shrugged their shoulders in an 'anyways, moving on' gesture, & then Garima simply told Rohan that she'll let them know they would be coming, when Anjali or Manorama would call with the formal invitations & then she left from there.

As Khushi saw Garima leaving & Payal flipping through a bridal magazine, without any interest in her dramas, she turned to the person she knew for sure wasn't immune to her antics. She pouted her pout & whined, "Bhaiya! I don't-" Rohan gripped her shoulders in his fists in a calming hold, & whispered in her ears, "Bachchi, I can't believe you let him rattle you up like this at the very first opportunity he got! So what if he irritates the hell out of you? Can't you just ignore him? Why did you always have to go out your way to pull one on him? & wait, you sure, you don't wanna go there? It's a party, Khushi! You get to play dress up & you get to do it with Lavanya!" As he noticed the way Khushi's expression brightened considerably at his last couple of sentences, he continued, "Not only she, the whole of Chanakyapuri & half the Delhi are coming. Arnav wants to take the chance to get himself acquainted with as many people as he could at once, as the party was being thrown in any case. Are you really sure you wanna miss the party of this season, hmm? Should I lock 'no' as your answer?" Rohan asked as his eyes twinkled with amusement at the evident excitement on his sister's face. Khushi narrowed her eyes at his smile, letting him know she was onto him & then she got up to leave for the room, & threw over her shoulder, "Gotta call La. & I want a new dress for the party, bhaiya!!"

Khushi flopped down on the bed with a happy disposition. Now this was her zone. Uttering nonsensical crap out of her outrageous, capable-of-building-whole-cities-in-the-air, brain & confusing the person listening to it thoroughly & completely. She started to initiate a very long lecture, "Presumption, you know?  A presumption is a particular fact that can be made without the aid of proof in some situations, based on prior experiences. & that's what my dearest brother must have done. He must have drawn on our history of being mildly hostile to each other & very thoughtfully warned your sister about your sole contribution in starting it! That's actually-" This time the anger in Arnav voice was clearly discernible as it boomed down the line, "What the-? Mildly hostile?! My sole contribution in starting it?!!" Khushi almost shoved her blanket down her throat in an attempt to muffle the sounds of her giggles, & quickly recovered to say, "Yes, mildly. It's a state of lukewarm-"