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Chapter 13
One more hour to go and still Khushi had not decided where she was taking him. Her mind and body were still composed, panic had not hit yet.
Mall? Movies? Archade?
She made a face in the mirror as she french braided her hair. Those were the things she did with her friends and family. She could do it with him as well right?
Yeah they were supposed to 'get to know' each other but hey one can do that while having fun, yeah? yeah? yeah? yes.
Quickly Khushi straightened her bangs, applied her makeup, and stepped back to see herself.
"Perfect" she eyed herself in casual jeans and long sleeved, red gap shirt and in her most comfortable sneakers.
Shyam welcomed himself in his sister's room, noisily crunching on some kurkure.
"Let me guess! hiking?" he grinned.
"Hiking...not a bad idea, maybe next time and No"
"then where?"
"Im not telling you"
"Oh come on, I promise I wont comment"
"Nope"
"Youre such a spoiltsport"
"Get out of my room!"
"Fine fine I will. Just wear something over to cover yourself...its too fitting" he looked at her and left.
~~~
"Khushi I dont understand why we didnt come in a car" Arnav shook his head confused.
Khushi paid the autowala and stepped down from the rikshaw. She smiled brightly at him, "I thought you wanted to spend the day my way. This is how I prefer traveling, no worries of getting hit or hitting someone else or parking or anything!"
"I am a good driver, I wouldnt have hit anyone, I dont know about getting hit and I would have taken care of parking"
"Oh let it go already!"
"What is this place?" Arnav nearly grimaced at the number of people around them, loud noise, a pure public area.
"We are going to the exhibition" she grinned.
Khushi slung her bang over, letting it hang on hip and grabbed Arnav's hand in a strong grip. Then, like a superwoman she dragged him into the ocean of people.They squeezed, pushed and fell through the crowd and reached the ticket booth.
"Two tickets bhaiyya" Khushi spoke through the open circle in the window.
They took their tickets and entered the exhibition.
"Interesting..." Arnav squinted his eyes and looked around the huge vast grounds that had wall to wall small hut like stores.
"Oh yes. All these store owners come from all over India, like Kashmir, Rajasthan, Kerala, to sell their clothing. And then of course from our city, we have these electronics, toys, food, and the rides!" Khushi excitedly explained.
"Rides?" Arnav raised his eyebrows.
"Its someting like a mela...come on lets shop" Khushi started to walk ahead.
Amused, Arnav followed. Not once did he ever imagine he would be in a place like this. I was hot, it was dry, it was loud, and yet so nice. Just her smile and bright face pushed all the other conditions to the back and all that he saw and felt was the woman in front him...arguing...bargaining..."what the! Khushi! its just two hundred rupees" he tried to stop her.
"He is fooling us Arnav. They all increase the rates when they sell, a bunch of rascals" she blew her bang from her eyes.
"Rascals? What...umm Khushi its alright, forget it, I will buy it" he quickly tried to get his wallet out.
"No! Ugh Arnav youre not helping. You cant let them know you are willing to pay their price" Khushi looked at him exasperatedly.
"Listen bhaiyya, I will only pay one fifty, if you are not going to give it to me for that price then you can very well wrap yourself in that shawl. I am not going to pay even a rupee more than that" she told the shopkeeper.
"Whatever you say maaam. Take it, give me the money" the shopkeeper shook his head in defeat.
Khushi gave Arnav a victory smile and took the bag, "thats how its done. they wont reduce the price if they really cant. He did because he could and I got my shawl for the price worth it."
"Yeahhh or you could have just paid him the full price and helped him with that extra money" suggested Arnav, walking by her side with his hands in his pockets.
"Umm no! That just spoils them. Why am I even trying to explain it to you. You wont understand" she sighed.
"Oh no, I do understand...kind of...a little. I am trying to see it your point of view" he went on.
How an hour passed by he had no idea. He stood yet again next to her while she bargained for some tote bag. It was awkward standing with just a bottle of water in hand. Khushi held all her shopping bags and refused to give it to him when he asked to carry them. Lets not mention the other bothers,boyfriends, husbands, fiances or shopkeepers that were giving him looks for not helping the tiny fiesty girl with him.
He was starting to get hungry now. He looked around for any food stalls and found cotton candy being sold.
Arnav made his way to the table surrounded by ten various sized kids. He couldnt help enjoy seeing all those kids get excited and simply have fun. He fetched out some notes from his wallet and signalled the vendor to put everyone's candy on him.
As he turned to walk back to Khushi with two sticks of pink candy in his hands, surprise then anger made him stop in his tracks.
A group of teenagers or maybe college kids stood near by his girl, checking her out, whistlings and yelling inappropiate words.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?!" boomed Arnav's voice as neared them.
Everyone around stopped what they were doing to see who yelled.
"Oh crap is that Arnav Singh Raizada?" stammered one of the boys.
"Run!" yelled another and they took off.
"Arnav they were just kids" Khushi hurried over to him.
"Umm quite matured kids. Its a stupid place to be and you are not dressed correctly for a place like this" he snapped at her rudely.
"I am not the only girl who gets stared at. Its a public place, stupid people are bound to be around. And you ignore such people, I can tell amateur, annoying young boys from real bad men. Thanks for the cotton candy" she snatched her stick and walked off.
"Khushi dont you da-. Do not wander off alone" he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her close.
"Lets go eat. I am hungry" she ignored and switched topics.
"We are eating here?"
"Yes! They have just delicious food. Its all chaat! I love chaat!" she became herself in a second.
"There's pani puri, samosas, pav bhaji, jalebi, cholay, you name it and its there. Come on hurry up, they are probably waiting for us now" she held his sleeve.
"You like all of them? And who is waiting for us? food?" he was beyond confused now, but followed her anyways into a tent. There were tables arranged at the back and right in front were huge pots and stoves with good being cooked.
"Over here Khushi bha!" yelled a voice from somewhere in the back.
"What the!" Arnav stared at his family astonished.
"Bhaiyya, bhabhi and Dhruv! What are you guys doing here?" Arnav went over to their table.
"Its the exhibition bhai. Bhabhi wanted to shop so bhaiyya and I came along and also...-" Dhruv started to explain but was cut off.
"Yeah I wanted to shop and then Khushi had called in the morning and asked if we could all eat lunch...dinner now, together" finished off Anjali.
"Ah I c. It was planned" Arnav turned to Khushi and smiled tightly.
"We all get to spend time together, its fun and I am safe from being your center of attention" Khushi lowered her tone and muttered the last few words to herself as she took her seat next to Akash.
"Heard that. You will still be the center of my attention" Arnav followed her in the booth and whispered in her ear.
A pretty blush crept up her cheeks, making Arnav sit back and smile smugly.
"Found good deals Khushi?" questioned Akash with a hint of laughter in his tone as looked at the number of bags kept between them.
"Oh yes!" she exclaimed and shared her stories.
Dhruv didnt a give a hoot to who bought the kurti cheaper, bhabhi or bha. He justd popped a gol gappa after another gol gappa till his stomach made a loud noise demanding him to stop the torture.
After Anjali and Khushi were done thoroughly discussing their experience and checking each others items out, they all finally got up to leave.
"By the Dhruv, what did you call me when we came in?" Khushi asked.
"Khushi bha?" he asked innocently.
"Bha?" Akash raised his eyebrows.
"Yeah, she gave my the idea" he shrugged his shoulders.
"For an odd reason I am not surprised" sighed Arnav.
"Oye I did not give you the idea of calling me bha" Khushi narrowed her eyes at Dhruv threateningly.
"Alright you were cut off in the midst of saying bhabhi and I immediately liked it. I shall not change it so dont even bother...bha"
"Of course" Anjali gave him a slight shove.
"Did you all come in one car?" asked Arnav.
"Two. I met them up here" answered Akash.
"Good, I need a car" he put his hand out for the keys.
"Why what happened to yours?" he asked.
"Uhhh we came in an auto?"
"You what?!" all three Raizadas yelled in surprise.
"Please dont tell me none of you have sat in a rickshaw" Khushi asked.
"Not in a very very very long time" Anjali replied.
"Once or twice" Akash and Dhruv answered in unison.
"What about you, it was your first time was it?" she asked Arnav.
"Second" he tried not to smile.
"Okayyy weirdos" Khushi shook her head in amazement.
Did rich people really not use rickshaws? But she loved autos!
"So I will see all at home" Arnav waved his family and quickly took Khushi away without letting her have a proper goodbye.
"Slow down. Whyd you have to rush out like that?"
"I have never seen you so relaxed and yourself before" he looked down at her intently.
Suddenly Khushi became all shy and concious. "Thats cause I was not myself around you...you are again making me unc-comfortable" her breath shortened.
Arnav lightly grazed her cheeks with his knuckles, "uncomfortable in what way, bad or good?"
"D-define bad or good" she stuttered.
"Bad creepy? or good heart racing and hands cold?" he elaborated and took her hands in his.
Pretty blush now turned deep red, racing heart picked up its speed even more, cold hands also became sweaty. "Im glad its not bad uncomfortable. You know I woulf prefer if you not use that word at all" he spoke to her in a low tone.
"I dont want this day to be over just yet. Why dont you hand over some those bags and we will take another round of the grounds. I want to see some more of the Khushi, I havent had it for a long time now" his warm breath washed over face. When did he even get that close?
This was not fair. How did he managed to leave her speechless, breathless and so flustered. His fingers took some of the bags from her hands and then in a matter of second, without any kind of warning or pre step, he kissed her cheek.
It was shocking, sweet and crazy. Khushi gasped after the kiss was over. Her senses were really affected by him. He didnt seem to have moved, instead he stood their and nuzzled her cheek.
Oh god, she needed him to get away from her so she could replay the scene in her head, to feel and absorb the whole thing again and again.
Again.
"Arnav!" she grabbed onto his tshirt tightly.
Mr. Raizada apparently didnt care to show affection in the middle of stores and people. He had quite boldy and stupidly kissed her again, a bit more intimately.
"Oh my god. Was that my first kiss?" Khushi whispered in his neck.
"Uhh I dont think so. It wasnt exactly on your lips, it was on the corner of your mouth to be exact...you have never been kissed?" his soft voice changed into a surprised tone.
"No! Yes! No...ugh you shouldnt be asking that!" she pushed him away.
"Ah! Now we have got something to talk about"
"Oh no we dont! I dont want to know anything about your past" walked past him.
"Why not? It wont make a difference or an affect on you, would it?" he asked casually.
"Of course not! Why would it" she asked annoyed.
"Yeah was just checking. Last I asked you dont want to be with me for long...unless that changed."
"I-it d-didnt."
"Right. Well hope you do remember my decision"
"About what?" she asked sharply.
"Keeping you for long...very long...perhaps forever long"
"I dont think forever and long can be used together" Khushi lamely retorted, trying hard not to let his words affect her.
"Yeah okay. Whatever" he followed right behind her.
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