Sooo... I'm super sorry for the super late update. But as I've said before, senior year is harder than people think and I have been under stress for the past couple weeks. Felt like I was dying. But thank god, my major projects r done for now u til end of the term exams.
Anyways, here's my next update. Now, before you read it, there is a new character. His story is the first 1/4 of the update. The rest is back in the present and with Arshi and this new character. Hope you enjoy! :)
Part 7
****BACK STORY****
Aditya Chopra, also known as Adi, moved in the same year Khushi came to live with Garima, Sashi and Payal. He brought happiness back to the Guptas, after what had happened. He was Khushi and Payal's neighbor. He became their protector, their leader, their role model, their brother. They always played together. They always played pranks on each other and others. They were Lucknow's troublesome three musketeers. He would always get them in trouble in some way, but he always get them out of it.
Once, the three muskeeters were playing tag in the marketplace when suddenly, Khushi, who was running away from Adi, bumped into a table, causing a particular vase to fall, crashing to the ground. The store owner turned around and saw the girl stand frozen in front of the broken glass. A second later, Adi stood behind her.
Adi was panicking inside, but tried to keep a straight face. He was the one that decided to play in the marketplace, it was his job to get Khushi, and himself, out of this problem. "Mama, I'm sorry. I will work enough hours to pay it off." Adi knew he couldn't pay for it since he had no job. The next best thing he had to offer was his time and skill. "I'm a very good worker, I am also fast and a good learner. Please, I don't have any money to pay for it and Im sorry we broke it," Adi replied, trying to deal with the man who still hasn't uttered a word. After a couple more seconds, the man nodded in approval. "Be here tomorrow morning," the old man replied. Adi thanked him and went to find Payal before the three of them went home.
They always teased each other, making fun of the other, mocking each other, ganging up on one person. But they would stand up for the other person when needed. They were the definition of loyalty, the definition of friendship. No matter how much Adi teased Khushi, since she was the youngest, he always consoled her afterwards and was quickly forgiven.
That same year that he moved in, he started his trips to Delhi every summer. He would go every year to visit his family and cousins who loved there. There, he met a young boy. The boy was the same age as him and introduced himself as Aakash Singh Raizada. They started playing and hanging out together. Sometimes Adi would go over to Aakash's house and sometimes Aakash would come over to Adi's house. They were the best of friends and would always play ever summer.
The following summer, Aakash introduced him to his older cousins: Arnav and Anjali Singh Raizada. He had mentioned that they had come to live with him and his parents and grandma, but didn't say why.
Anjali would come out and play with Aakash and Adi. She was very sweet and always in a good mood. But as time went on, Adi noticed that there would be times that Anjali would sit and cry when she thought no one was watching. Then as someone approached her, she would wipe her tears and act like nothing had happened. Then one day, Adi walked to her and she didn't realize. He asked if everything was alright and she replied yes, not wanting to burden her worries, nightmares on to this small child. After that day, Adi tried his hardest to try to keep Anjali happy, after all she had become sort of an older sister to him.
Arnav, however, was a different story for Adi. Arnav locked himself in his room, reading, preparing for school when it started in the fall or drawing, what he was drawing, no one new. Adi tried to get him to come down, but his efforts went fruitless. He stayed in his room. One day, when Adi came over, he saw a book on the table besides the couch. When he took a closer look, he saw it was the book 1984. He had read the book in school the past year and had really loved discussing it. Adi turned around and saw Arnav coming down the stairs, looking for his book. When Arnav approached him, Adi handed him the book and made a comment about him reading it and loved discussing it. After that, Arnav started hanging around with them. Arnav and Adi always had discussions about books they had read and their movie versions or which book was better. As usual, Adi became fast friends with all three siblings.
Then, as each person entered college, they slowly lost touch. They got so busy with school that they barely had time to contact each other. They all wanted their friendship back, but weren't able to. But they never forgot those times, or those friends.
****PRESENT****
Arnav saw Khushi standing at the top of the stairs, her back to him, talking to a good-looking man. He then saw the man put his hand on her shoulder and nod, while Khushi gave him a hug. Instantly, he felt a fire start within deep inside his chest, wanting to erupt. That was HIS wife! No one else had any right to touch her, let alone look at her. And this man dared to hug her! And how could Khushi do this to him? He needed answers! And NOW!
Arnav, his face set in ASR mode, strode up the steps purposefully towards his wife and her "friend". That moment, when he was climbing, felt like a thousand years, like he was climbing a never-ending staircase. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally reached the finally step. He strode towards the two hugging figures and suddenly pulled Khushi out of the man's grasp.
"What the f*** is this, Khushi? Who the hell is this man? You think you can have an affair with another man? You think you can cheat on me? Well..,"
"You are wrong" Khushi said, interrupting his passion driven rant.
Arnav stopped hearing her words. 'You are wrong' they kept replaying in his mind. He loosened his grip on her arm, revealing nasty red marks where his fingers had been. That was when the man, who had been standing silently thus far spoke up.
"What the hell is this? Who the hell do you think you are, grabbing and yelling at her like that?" the man was going to say more, but right there, Arnav grabbed him by his collar and said in a deadly voice, "I'm Arnav Singh Raizada, and she's my wife, Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Raizada. Who the hell are you?" he said.
Khushi ran and tried to free the man from Arnav's grip, holding on to his arm. "Arnavji! Let him go. You will kill him. Please let him go." she pleaded with him to let the man go.
"No! I will kill anyone that dared to come between us. I will kill anyone that dares to take you away from me. You are mine and will stay mine." Arnav growled, keeping his hold on the man.
"Arnavji, please let him go. Please." She begged him. "He's just a friend. Nothing else, just a friend." she said with a sigh.
Arnav lessened his grip on the man. He looked at him and than at Khushi. 'Just a friend.' That's all he heard, the words playing over and over in his head. What was wrong with him? Why did he always have to think that she was doing something wrong and why did he always have to overreact?
"Arnavji, he's just a childhood friend. Adi and his family lived next to us. Our fathers were friends. Me, Jiji and Adi always played together. He was like a son to my parents and we were like daughters to his. He was our big brother." Khushi answered.
Arnav let go of Adi and turned to Khushi, who was watching him. Khushi lifted her hand towards him, but he took a step back, turned around and hurried down the steps.
"Arnavji!" she called after him, but he didn't turn around. She turned around to Adi, afraid of what he would say. Like she had told Arnavji, he was their big brother. And whenever he felt that his little sisters were in trouble, he would come to their rescue. And that was what Khushi was afraid of doing. She knew she couldn't tell Adi about her marital problem with Arnavji. She had to make something up. And quick or else she would just blurt the truth out to him.
While she thought, Adi stared at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something. And she knew he wouldn't say anything until she talked first. It was an annoying habit he had since they were little. Khushi opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. Adi raised an eyebrow, and waited.
"Uh, bhaiyya. He..." She started.
"Yes, Khushi. He..what? Are you going to explain why this man, your husband, grabbed you like that?" he asked her.
"Actually bhaiyya, he has...jealousy issues?" she replied. She decided to tell him the truth, cause first, she couldn't think of a good story and second he always knew when she was lying.
"Jealousy issues? Come on Khushi, that was more than just jealousy. If he was jealous he would have asked you at home. Not create a scene in the middle of the mandir. There is more than jealousy issues going on." Adi replied.
Khushi sighed, she knew she couldn't lie to him. But she always tried. She pulled him to a bench and both sat down. "Our marriage wasn't a love marriage. He married me because he thought I was having an affair with his sister's husband. In reality, his brother-in-law was a cheater, he was always making moves on me. I didn't know the reason of him marrying me until recently. When he found out the truth, he threw his brother-in-law in jail for many reasons. When he found out, he expressed his love to me and asked forgiveness. He made me enter a contact marriage for six months. Now that the six months are almost up, he's trying to stop me from leaving. He doesn't want me to leave. So when I do something like this, he gets afraid that maybe I'm trying to leave early, or spend less and less time with him." she said defeatedly.
Adi listened carefully to her story, and tried not to let his anger show. He could sense anger, hurt and something else in her voice. "Do you love him?"
Khushi looked up sharply at the man that sat next to her. He had known her her whole life and after all these years, he still knew her. "Yes. I mean no! I don't know anymore. I did at first. I had fallen in love with him. I loved being in his company, even if he was yelling. All the moments we spent together, they were amazing. He broke my fast on Teej, he came looking for me when me and Nanneji went to get ghee and we came late. When he bought me bangles, when he danced with me at Jiji's sangeet to Teri Meri. All these things, these things made me fall in love with him. No matter how hard I tried to avoid him, we always met. We were opposites, complete opposites, how could anything between us ever work? He doesn't believe in God or religion, not in any rasms, he has trust issues, he is very strict. I have my complete trust in Devi Mayya, I trust everyone, I love to joke and play and laugh. How can two people who are poles apart fall in love with each other? I stayed with him these 5 months. I kept my promise of the 6 month contract. No more. Once it's done, I'm king to live MY life MY way. I'm leaving him. I'm leaving Delhi after this ends. I don't want to stay in this city, I don't want to risk running into him!" she said as a lone tear escaped her eye.
Adi wiped the tear, like he always had. His heart broke seeing his sister like this. If it had been anyone, he would have killed anyone that laid his fingers on her. But this was her love, he couldn't do that. But one think he would do was fix it, he would bring the love back to her.
"Khushi, is that going to make you happy?" he asked after a long silence.
"Of course it is! I don't want to be in a loveless marriage," she replied quickly, not wanting to acknowledge his real question. It was too hard to think of her feelings. She knew this was going to kill her to move away. But she knew this was for the best. Arnav and Di would both be happy. The family would finally get their happiness. But she would give up hers. She would die each day she was away from Arnav, but to her it didn't matter, as long as he was happy.
Adi watched her expression change from a smile to one with tears forming in her eyes. He knew he had to do something, he had to bring the Khushi he knew back.
"Ok, come on Khushi, lets go home. I will help you with this. Let us not worry the family about this," he said as he thought of what to do and got up.
Khushi nodded and got up. They walked to the car silently, both thinking what had happened to in the past couple months. Adi drove to Shantivan, like old times, and this confused Khushi. How did he know where her house was. She shook the feeling off, remembering that that he would visit his maternal family every summer in Delhi.
When he saw Arnav coming up the stairs he was surprised. He had recognized him instantly thanks to the picture Aakash had sent him. But Arnav hasn't recognized him. And he was fine with that, because if he had recognized Adi, it would have ruined everything. He would tell him everything now. And help him get his Khushi back.
So how was it? Good? Bad? Ok? Please leave comments and press the like button. Criticism of any kind is welcome. Please leave comments so I kno wht people think of my writing. Only way I can get better. Thanks!
This is purely my imagination, except for the characters, aside from Adi, and the original storyline. My work may not be reproduced or copied in any way without my permission or knowledge. I reserve the right for this story and all my stories.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
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