SS:The Challenge Final PartA/B pg79/82 18/03 - Page 38

Chapter 12

"Yeh kya hogaya? Rathore ne mujhe dek liya? Ab mein kya karoon," Arjun was thinking when he heard a chuckle.

He turned towards that sound and glared at Riya. But Riya was finding all this too funny, and finally she exploded with laughter.

"Bechara Arjun ab phaas gaya," she thought to herself.

"Baas karo Riya!" Arjun glared at her.

But Riya couldn't control her laughter at all, and ignored him. She didnt know that Arjun was really angry, that his ego had just received a big blow. In her laughter she failed to see the anger and hatred in Arjun's gaze. She had enjoyed it a lot when Rathore had seen Arjun in such a state, she wondered what will happened next day when they resumed work. How will the atmosphere be? She knew that Rathore had received a very big shock remembering his facial expressions when he had seen Arjun singing to Riya.

She continued laughing lost in her own thoughts, while the man in front of her was glaring at her with cold eyes. He went towards Riya and grabbed her arm forcibly and dragged her to their car. He forced her in the passenger's seat and went to take his seat and drove like a maniac not uttering even one word to Riya.

When Arjun had grabbed her, Riya had only then realised that Arjun was very angry with her. She meekly let herself be dragged and entered the SUV. She knew that silence was better in such a case, and she knew that Arjun will scream at her once they reached her place. She prepared herself mentally for his outburst. Soon they reached her home, Riya quickly got down from the SUV and both entered her house. Arjun went to stand next to a window and looked outside trying to control his anger. Riya went to sit silently on a sofa and waited and waited. It had been almost 10 minutes since Arjun had been staring outside, and Riya couldn't take the silence anymore. She preferred to face Arjun's wrath as soon as possible. She got up and went to stand next to him.

She raised her hand to put on his shoulder, but he removed it. Arjun finally turned to face her, she could see that he was still very angry.

She tried to stay something, but Arjun raised his hand to stop her from saying anything.

"Now are you happy? I mean mere piche kyun pare ho? Since i've known you, there had to be some problems. First you put your nose in my personal affairs, then you couldn't even shoot, hence always being a liability to the other team members. You are constantly angering me, disturbing me with your talks. Even i know that Shree, Chotu and you talk about me! You think i'm not aware of that stupid fascination you seem to have taken on me! And now that you got me at a weak point, you are just taking advantage of this!" Arjun screamed at her.

"Sir, mein to bas..." Riya tried to say, but Arjun hadn't finished and continued, "What haven't you made me do in these few hours? Shopping, cooking, dancing and even singing! You think that you love me right, then doesn't your love realise that love also means respect, and till now all the things you made me do was just to insult me! I have been bearing you since so many hours, but now haad kardi tumne! Rathore saw us? Kya soch raha hein woh mere bare mein? You have made me lost all respect in my own and his eyes! How could you do this? You didnt even think about me at all? The only thing on your mind was just revenge and to insult me right?"

Riya now had tears in her eyes at Arjun's accusations, she kept nodding her head in a negative way, "Nahin mera matlab woh nahin tha, mein to bas..."

Again Arjun stopped her, "Mein to bas kya Riya? Khush to bahut hoge ab? Now that you have managed to ridicule me in front of my chief?"

"I didnt know that Rathore Sir was going to be there," Riya said trying to defend herself while tears were falling down her cheeks.

Arjun felt something pierced his heart when he saw her crying, but his ego and his anger were not calmed by these tears. He couldn't believe that Rathore saw them in such a way. This was pricking him a lot.

"Bas hogaya Riya! Just how more will you humiliate me?" Arjun said furiously.

Riya couldn't take more of his words and the hatred in his eyes, she turned so that Arjun couldn't see her crying and said in between sobs, "Believe me! I never meant to insult you. Things just went out control, i..i..." she couldn't continue at all.

"Out of control? You enjoyed humiliating me and making me do things which i hated, right?" Arjun balked at her. "Dont you have any respect for me Riya!"

Riya didnt have anything to say in her defense now, she had thought that maybe during these 24 hours, she'd be able to make Arjun smile, laugh and enjoy his life after Roshni's death, but everything turned against her.

"Go! Just go from here. I liberate you from your promise, from your challenge. Please aap jaahiye yahan se! Ap ko nafrat hein na mujhse! So please you dont have to bear my presence and sight for any longer!" Riya shouted back with anguish.

Arjun was shocked at her words, but finally he had gotten what he wanted, he was free. He started for the door when he heard Riya telling him between sobs, "Mein to bas aap ki khushi chaheti thi! Kitne din hogaye aap ko hastein houwe! I thought maybe i'd be able to make you have fun and enjoy today. I thought that maybe you'd realise that life is worth living, not living like a corpse as you have been doing since Roshni's death! I just wanted to make you smile, and in that attempt maybe i forgot my limits."

Precap:

Arjun driving away in his SUV, each moment passed with Riya flashed in front of his eyes...

He suddenly stopped the car, and hit the steering wheel. "yeh maine kya kar diya!"