ArShi FF: Something About You Thread#1 *COMPLETED* - Page 65

 

Awesome update..

OMG i m so in love with is m-rude but we know how rude arnav...and definitely khushi IS the life of this FF...i love her personality...the way u describe ur characters and their thinking...amzing...thanks for pm :)

As Arnav came jogging towards the main house from the direction of the Guesthouse, he saw a lanky, sturdy young man sitting on one of the stone benches lining the hedges surrounding the main house. As he came to a halt a few feet away from the man, the man promptly stood up to his feet, & said in a purposeful, clipped voice, "Sir, this is for you." He handed a fat brown Manila envelope to Arnav. Arnav opened the envelope & tipped the contents half way to examine them briefly. Then he trained his annoyed eyes at the man & said in a displeased tone, "An F.I.R. copy, a signed confession & an audio tape? That's all you got for me? & you are the highly competent person, just like one I was looking for according to Mamaji?" Then he looked down at the envelope again & scanned the young man from head to toe once before dismissing him with, "Although you did sound smarter than an envelope on the phone."

 

 

The man nodded perfunctorily, as if saying 'fair enough' with that single nod & then said in an all-business tone, "Mr Karan Kapoor was 19 when this happened. They had called their parents to the Kapoor's Gurgaon farmhouse & one of the servants had secretly called the police. When Param Jaiswal was taken to the hospital by his family, he was declared dead from an overdose of a Cocaine, Ecstasy, Ethanol, & Oxycodone cocktail. The latter two were purchased by Kapoor using his Pediatrician mother's prescription pad. Police caught the other guy, Ahluwaliya, Kapoor & the escort that was with them, hired by Kapoor that night. Kapoor signed a confession, which was also taped, saying he bought & mixed the cocktail. Later Kapoor's lawyer blamed the escort for bringing the drugs along. His maternal uncle was the then attorney general. & plus, Jaiswal's autopsy revealed he was engaged in same sex activities just before his demise. & both Jaiswal & Ahluwaliya families are, as you might know, engaged in central politics. So the whole matter was neatly buried 60 feet under. The escort was released after a 7 years sentence two years back & she was paid off heftily by the Kapoors."

 

 

As Arnav stood in a horrified silence for a shocked couple of moments, he understood what the F.I.R., signed confession & audio tape held. The first thing that left his mouth once he recovered his ability to speak was a strangled sound & then, "How on earth was that guy getting married to Payal??!! How could Rohan & Uncle be so careless??!!!" The young man continued as calmly as he was before, "The gory details were never publicized. Everybody knew just that, they took an escort out to the farmhouse to have a wild night for the first time. & naive as they were, this tragedy happened to them. The Kapoors shut the farmhouse down since then. They stay at the Oberoi Resorts, Gurgaon, now. & Karan Kapoor became the poster boy for drug rehabilitation from that point on. & it's actually true. He never took them again. Now, he just occasionally gets touchy-feely with girls at parties after too many shots, that's it." he finished seriously. Arnav stared at him unblinkingly for some moments & then he queried, "& you got all this hidden facts out in less than 5 hours??" The man nodded cursorily & said, "Sir, if there's nothing else, I'd leave you with them."

 

 

As the man had paced ten feet away, Arnav suddenly looked up from the envelope he was contemplating & called out, "Call me ASR. & stick closely around in case I need you again, & I am warning you, it might be like yesterday night after 2am." The man nodded with a jerk in affirmative. & when he was about to go away, Arnav called out again in an exasperated voice, "& you are..?" The man fully turned & nodded in greeting & said smartly, "Mathur. Aman Mathur, ASR." & this time it was Arnav who curtly nodded his farewell & jogged inside the main house without a backward glance.

 

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Khushi woke up as the harsh rays of sun practically pried her eyes open. She rolled on her back & tried to lift her arms to push away the bangs of hair that fell over her eyes, but instantly cried out in pain. She gingerly brought her arms down & slowly pushed up the right sleeve of her nightshirt with her left hand a bit & blanched as she saw the blue bruises & brownish scratches of clotted blood here & there over the small expanse of her arm that she did expose. She sat up with a jerk, ignoring the sore feeling around her shoulders & got out of bed hastily. She ran to the door of the room & yanked it open before she ran to the landing by the stairs that led downstairs. As she tried to listen with utmost attention if she could hear the whereabouts of her family members, she straightened up with a jerk as she undoubtedly heard Anjali's hushed voice & the sound of her Amma's sobs. They knew.

 

 

As Khushi ran inside the room to go into the ensuite bathroom, she felt a bit queasy thinking about what Payal must be going through right now. She hastily splashed cold water on her face & then came out of the bathroom tying her long hair in a messy ponytail bun. As she moved towards her luggage to pull out a dress, she saw Arnav's coat neatly folded & piled on top of her overnight bag & instantly she felt rage building inside her. Him! He must've told Anjali ji or Bhaiya. Bloody meddler. & she was fuming with anger by the time she was pulling on a white cardigan over her bruised arms.

 

 

As Khushi came down the last steps of the stairs, although she didn't make a single sound, all of the heads suddenly turned towards her & Khushi stopped on her tracks. Then as she waited for someone to say something that would indicate to her what her next course of action should be, defense or offense, suddenly Payal stood up from the circle of Anjali's arms & ran to where Khushi stood & engulfed her in bear hug. Then as Khushi kept trying to understand what was happening, Payal kept pressing kisses to her hair & kept blabbering incomprehensible words between uncontrollable sobs.

 

 

But as it was with sisters, Khushi got out the meaning of each & ever one of those half-spoken words. She held Payal in her arms as she accounted how Karan came even before they were up from sleep properly & told her how Khushi had tried to seduce him last night. When Payal had refused to believe that & in a shocked state screamed Rohan & their parents down, how Karan had threatened to break their alliance & asked them to consider how it would sound in the society that, he had broken off his alliance with Payal, because her sister tried to  seduce him. How before Rohan could disentangle himself from his Bauji's restraining arms to smash Karan's face, Arnav had arrived with Anjali & told everyone that he was a witness to Karan's ambush on Khushi. Then when Karan had cooked up some outrageous tale about catching Khushi & Arnav fooling around & thus Khushi trying to seduce him into silence & all, Arnav had talked about some proofs of Karan's past wrongdoings. & how after seeing those papers Karan had become totally quite & after Arnav had threatened to leak the proofs all over Delhi if Karan ever spoke ill of any of the Gupta sister, Karan had just ran away from the house, not looking at anyone else.

 

 

As Khushi heard all of that in bewildered silence, a crying Garima came & hugged both her daughters. Then Garima started kissing both of them in turn, telling them to forget all of this & that everything will be alright. As Bauji also patted Khushi's head, his eyes moist, Khushi's eyes moved to the other occupants of the room. Anjali was trying to calm an extremely agitated Rohan, who was looking at his sisters with pained eyes, by rubbing his back gently. & Arnav was standing far away, by the door, just looking at her with a coffee mug on his hand. Khushi couldn't tell the expression on his face from so much distance, but suddenly he started moving towards her & Khushi felt herself getting detached from all of her family members, all of her surrounding, as her whole being focused on him. She abruptly thought with a panic, will he caress my arms like last night? & then horrified as she was with her own thought, another little voice inside her head chirped on, so what? The bruises are hurting, aren't they?

 

 

But to her disappointment, Arnav came near Anjali, asked her in a hushed tone, will she be alright with Rohan if he went back to the main house now. After Anjali's affirmative nod, he turned to the door, but as he did, his eyes lingered on Khushi for more than a couple of seconds, & then he strolled out of the house sipping his coffee with absolute relaxation.

 

 

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A few hours later, the Gupta's got ready to leave the farmhouse in a solemn mood, all immersed in their own unhappy thoughts. As Khushi folded the various many clothes she had managed to scatter through the room in a matter of 24 hours, she stole a glance at Payal, who after that first bout of crying had been unnaturally withdrawn. Khushi licked her dry lips & started hesitantly, "Jiji? Is it hurting too much?" Payal came out of her trance with a start & started folding the top she had been holding in her hand for the last 20 minutes. Then she halted & unexpectedly said, "Never blame yourself for any of this, Khushi, samjhi? I should have known. I am your older sister. If I had paid more attention to his straying tendencies, you wouldn't have to go through any of it. Khushi, the sad part is, I knew.. Somewhere. Deep down. Everytime we met, I spent the whole time fending off his advances! & to think I let him pressurize me into kissing him. My first kiss, Khushi! It should've been with anyone else but that leech!" Khushi came running & hugged Payal before she could give into her panic.

 

 

After a few moments of quite sobbing, Payal composed herself & said in an attempt to change the mood of the room, "Is your packing done? The mess you've ma-" she stopped as her eyes fell on something. "Khushi, whose jacket is that?" Khushi looked at it & gasped loudly, "Jiji. Tell Amma I am coming in 15 minutes." She picked up the coat & ran out of the room before Payal could ask any more questions.

 

 

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After asking three servants packing the cars about his whereabouts, Khushi found Arnav in the shades of the same Gulmohar & Peepal trees where they had clashed the day before, looking out towards the small pond lying beside. She hesitantly approached him, & before she could call him, it was as if he sensed her presence & half-turned to look at her. Khushi halted a few feet away from him & held out his coat held in her right arm tentatively, "Thank you.. For this. For last night.. For this morning." Her voice sounded so small that Arnav felt something twitch inside him, which he had thought had been cemented a long time ago. He looked over her once & took in the white cardigan over her usual red & white dress.

 

 

Instead of taking the coat off her hand, Arnav moved forward & tugging at the sleeve of her cardigan gently, asked, "Are you alright? Is it hurting too much?" & maybe because he repeated the exact question she had asked her sister not so long ago, Khushi could only just remember what Payal had told her about her first kiss & how it could have very well happened to Khushi too last night, if Arnav had been a little late. She suddenly jolted as she felt Arnav slowly rolling the sleeve of her cardigan back & then he brushed the faint blue ring around her wrist tenderly, where Karan had grabbed her forcefully last night. & suddenly his proximity became just too much for Khushi & she just let go of herself after withholding to her feelings tightly since last night when it all started.

 

 

She impulsively stepped towards him & blurted out, her words falling over themselves at the rush to get out of her lips, "I am just glad, he didn't get a chance to do more than he did. I wouldn't want him to be my first kiss!" As she closed her eyes to block out the flashes of last night, she saw Payal's regretful face swim before her eyes, & opening them again, she almost shouted out, "That isn't how it's supposed to be, right? A girl's first kiss shouldn't be forced!" & as the words left her lips, she realized what she was saying to whom & gasped aloud.

 

 

Arnav cupped her jaw over her hair, & slowly pulled her close, & it was only when he spoke & Khushi felt his breath fanning her bangs, that she realized how close she had come to his body. Arnav softly caressed her cheek with lazy flicks of his thumb & whispered, "No. A first kiss shouldn't be forced. It should be.. Flawless." & Khushi realized he must've misinterpreted her distress over Payal's ill-fated first kiss to be her self-misery. But as she saw his head lean towards her excruciatingly slowly, she suddenly realized, all misunderstandings weren't necessarily harmful. & she parted her lips unknowingly as she felt his breath breeze over them as he spoke & it took her a moment to actually deduce the meaning of what he was saying, "If you could hear anyone calling your name, now would be the time to run away to answer it." & Khushi saw his words as what they were, a chance from him for her to back out of what was about to happen. & taking in a deep breath, Khushi said in a breathless tone, "No! I have nowhere else to be right now." & before the last word left her trembling lips, his lips swooped down over hers.