Since you guys are awesome and leave me so many comments! Here is a short chapter as my heartfelt gratitude. Thank you...
Chapter 5: Three coins in the fountain
"You have tanned a lot," Payal said the moment Khushi was near earshot. Khushi smiled a little. "Too much of exposure under hot Sun and there is only so much moisturizer could do," Khushi replied. Payal hummed and took a step further.
Khushi smiled and walked towards Payal and spread her arms to hug her sister but Payal took several steps back. Khushi physically felt a blow to her stomach and staggered several steps back, her arms suddenly feeling useless and unwanted. She heaved couple of breaths loudly to accustom to that gnawing, clutching, wrenching and hammering feeling that went through her body as the ache of rejection pierced through her flesh and jilted her bone. Maybe she deserved words filled with malice, anguish, and despairs and probably even...hate but she hadn't anticipated anything remotely like this.
Payal just walked past her with a small smile and entered home without a backward glance. Khushi leaned on the pillar on patio and willed her heart not to scream. Her legs felt like jelly and she felt a little faint. She slid down when her legs couldn't handle the weight of despondency anymore and simply sat on the steps.
There was a sudden burst of conversation inside where her parents started with "Why are you late?" and "You look winded out." And the following answers of her sister "Paperwork is taking revenge ma, for ignoring it last week" and "I ate salad for lunch papa now I am starving."
The world that was unfolding inside was now alien to her. It felt a long time ago when she would be part of the conversation and there would be some joke inserted here and there. There would be laughter, arguments and daily life in general. For seven years she had gone to an empty house, whenever she got the chance to go home that is. They were in her thoughts every waking moment of her day but she couldn't call them as often she wanted to. And when she got around to making calls, Payal was never around to speak.
She shivered a little when wind picked up. She jumped when a shawl was draped on her shoulders. "It's a little cold out here," her father said sitting next to her. Khushi nodded wordlessly. "Payal didn't exactly give you a warm welcome now, did she?" He asked as he had previously anticipated.
Khushi shook her head.
"She has been through...a lot after...everything happened. Give her some time and...some space," he added for good measure.
They sat in silence for several minutes before Khushi spoke up. "Didn't Payal get married?" Pankaj turned to look at her and stared at her for a long moment.
"Things got complicated after you left Khushi. Maybe you should hear it from her," he said and pulled her along the way. Arm in arm father-daughter duo walked inside.
Payal was polite through the entire meal and met Khushi's stares with poignancy. The meal was a regular affair but the conversation was lull. Payal stood up first under the notion of getting some work done before she hit sack and Khushi followed next. She wanted to talk to Payal preferably alone and this was probably the best time to do so.
She found Payal sitting on bed with laptop and a stack of paper next to her, typing at a constant pace.
"How is Dev?" Khushi asked standing at the foot of bed looking at the photo of a handsome man on the side table. Payal stopped typing and looked up from laptop.
"Dev is dead." Payal replied her voice tight and went back to typing. Khushi felt her mouth dry.
"How did it happen?" Khushi rasped.
"Did you already forget?" There were no emotions in Payal's voice. "We both were to be married on the same day. You ran away and both marriages were called off," Payal said looking at her sister. Khushi's eyes were downcast and filled with tears.
"Payal...I didn't..."
"Dev didn't understand why his parents were so upset with the whole situation so the two of us decided to go meet them at their farm house. We got into an accident on the way." Payal said holding her sister's gaze. There was pain her voice but she held her head high. She had learned to live with the loss of the love of her life.
"I lived and he didn't." She said gulping down the sorrow that had risen yet again. "All thanks to the choice you made that day," she said bitterly. No matter how many times she had cried and accused Khushi for what happened with her, she had never felt this bitter anytime. Confronting Khushi face to face had come as a blow and the ministration of the drastic nose dive her life had taken.
Khushi felt the burden on her shoulder grow heavier then.
Music companion: Three coins in the fountain by Four Aces
Next Chapter: Chapter 6, Don't be cruel
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