ArHi FF! Gravity - Thread 1 - [Completed] - Page 45

Sheetal's blackmailin shyam and anjali? Loved the update

Holy cow! More twists and more suffering! What is going on? I am totally confused but I like the twist as long as Sheetal has nothing to do with Kushi & Arnav. Anxiously anticipating the convo between Kushi and Arnav!

just read you work in a go...and i feel like banging my head🤢🤢🤢..itz soo complicated..well done..plzz continue👏👏👏👏

Whoa that was an awesome curveball you threw at us . sheetal is blackmailing Anjali and shyam using their son as a leverage ... That was so totally unexpected . You are slowly peeling the layers away like an onion 😊 Seriously did not see this twist coming up :) Now would like to know what actually happened with them and how does it involve Khushi . Now the warning Anjali gave Khushi to stay away from Arnav has took a new dimension ... Love the way you are introducing twists and turns . You are making all our assumptions go down the drain 😆

I just started this story and wanted to say I love it. In one of the chapters you talked about going home. it's a strange thing going home after a period of absence when you have a reason to be gone that every one is involved in, when you go with a reason that no one else knows just changes the full dynamic. It's difficult to be gone and be accepted, and I can fully feel Khushi's pain. I definitely had a lump in my throat.

i am gng to jump right in to the middle of the story to leave a comment.. hope that's okay..

Nothing is absolute, is it?

Originally posted by: Japonica

The gulf between theThen and the Now seems like a huge chasm, an almost live creature that has bitten them all, leaving them with festering wounds and bruises that will need them to dredge out the love they had/have to heal one another. But it will never be what it was.

Thats probably the summary of the entire story. Now they just have to heal, forgive or forget and move on.

Chapter 14: Bad traffic and warm hands

It took Khushi several days to adjust to an entirely different life. As the discipline she set for herself started to look like a routine she could follow, she let out a whoosh of relief. She still didn't know what she wanted to do. She had enough savings to get buy but it now stopped about being about money. She had seen too many impoverished people around her to ignore the necessity to rebuild or even clean up the society.

"Come on in," she heard a faint voice floating towards her. Her thoughts were still on her old job when a loud honk made her jump. Lavanya was in car on the other side of the road waving at her. She shook her head to clear it from old cobwebs and walked towards the car.

"You were spacing out there," Lavanya commented as Khushi slid into the car.

"Just...thinking I suppose," Khushi replied and turned to look at Lavanya. And then looked some more. She had always seen Lavanya primly dressed and her attire wasn't something one would find in retail stores. But she was surprised to see her in jeans and a kurta without any embellishments or grandeur. She wore little or no makeup, hair was neatly plaited and she was reading a children's novel.

"I almost cannot recognize you." Khushi blurted looking at her friend.

"I am going to orphanage Khushi, to meet kids today. Had I been out or in a social gathering, you would be able to see all the masks and camouflage gear on," she mused idly. Khushi stared at her friend. Lavanya was a good girl but shallow to the point of being one dimensional.

"You have changed," Khushi noted, leaning back on seat and looking out of the window.

"Or maybe you didn't know me at all," Lavanya whispered and went back to the book on her lap. Khushi turned to look at her sharply wondering if it was an honest confession or an intentional jibe. Whatever it was, it scaled her skin a bit.

"Here we are," Lavanya said making Khushi jump a little from seat. "You are awfully jittery today," Lavanya inquired mildly.

Khushi smiled uncertainly and got down from car. She couldn't tell her friend how everything seemed new and how everyone she knew were only a little above strangers. The family she knew were bound tight but the superficial crevices were so wide making her wonder the reasons for the blatant ignorance. Payal's words were a little short of cruel and she had taken it head on. Pankaj ignored what had happened and was wrapped in his own cocoon of blissful false contentment. Garima took the beating from society and hardened her exterior to the point that she came out as aloof.

"It's not much but..." Lavanya trailed standing in middle of the compound and spread her arms around.

"How do children come here?" Khushi asked. This environment was familiar to her - children who lost their families for more than one reason trying to make a deal with the sick world around them and somehow managing to survive. In these children's presence she felt incredibly lucky for having been adopted by Garima and Pankaj when she was just a baby. If it wasn't for them may be she wouldn't be where she is today. The thought always made her embrace humility more than ever.

"This orphanage concentrates on those children whose parents are serving long term sentences in jail or have died in some altercation. Studies shows that children grown in those environments are susceptible for picking up a weapon or crime at a very young age so these children are brought here. This is not just an orphanage but a care facility, school and undergoes therapy frequently." Lavanya explained as they walked towards her office.

"It's pretty brilliant Lavanya. These children need to be treated as normally as possible and probably with kid gloves too. The pain and the agony which they carry are something us blessed on can never be able to understand. No matter the amount of psychological studies is going to help us understand exactly what they feel; unless of course one goes through the same kind of betrayal and...disregard." A split second later, Khushi felt agonized breath leave her lungs as she herself felt the perpetrator and her family and friends - victim of a heinous crime.

"Children also come here to understand the reasons for the parents' actions Khushi. It's useful for them to attain closure." Lavanya said, keeping her eyes on the ground. It didn't escape her how everyone felt victimized by Khushi's actions but at the same time Khushi was a victim of her bad judgment. "Let's go in," Lavanya said regaining her normal attentiveness and the cheery disposition which the children looked forward to.

"Khushi, can you come here this week and teach these children mathematics?" Lavanya said motioning Khushi to take a chair opposite to her table. Khushi looked at her questioningly. "Our mathematics teacher isn't available this week and she had to leave the city - some family emergency. So I was wondering-"

"Certainly Lavanya. I would love to," Khushi said pleasingly. Lavanya was momentarily taken aback at her immediate acceptance but seeing what Khushi had been doing for several years, her surprise abated.

"I hope you don't mind staying for evening tuition too. Since there are exams coming up we coach the older teens in this orphanage have crossed the age limit to live here. These kids live in their homes or with some relatives and work during the day. They come here in evening to learn," Lavanya said, an odd sense of satisfaction and responsibility housing in her voice. Khushi nodded.

"It would be me, you and Payal in evenings. Payal is quite well known around here and the kids love her." Lavanya said gathering books. "I hope that's...okay?" She asked seeing how Khushi had surrendered to silence. "Khushi?" She called out.

"Yeah, it's fine Lavanya." She said recovering. "When do I start?" She asked before Lavanya could read much into it.

"Are you free tomorrow?" Lavanya asked. Khushi nodded. "Let's start from tomorrow."

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Khushi said and waved a good-bye to her friend.

"Khushi!" Lavanya called her when she was ten feet away. Khushi turned around and looked at questioningly.

"Why do call me Lavanya and not La anymore?" Lavanya asked shuffling with the books in her hand and studiously ignoring Khushi.

Something condescendingly aching stuck in her throat as Khushi grasped unfamiliar threads of vital memories which were slippery and refused to be clutched around her fingers. "I..." She couldn't complete. The hoarseness of her voice made her sound raspy and an inexplicable migraine suddenly descended on her temple. It could have been the winter-summer cusp Sun or the fragile friendship put to test.

"Call me La. I like my friends call me that," Lavanya said and walked towards classrooms.

She wanted to cry then. Cry out the self-loathing and despicable bit of me which shredded every bit of friendship she once shared with Lavanya but Lavanya had come through and given her an emergency CPR.

Maybe there was redemption available on the surface of it all.

*****

She felt like a high grade imbecile who couldn't get to cross the damn street. She had been standing like a moron for twenty minutes getting scared by the vehicles which didn't care two hoots about the rules of traffic or human beings. She could hear the snickering and taunting remarks from street vendors looking at her blithely.

She just wanted to cross the damn road so that she could get into the restaurant and eat some food. It was lunch time and she was tired of walking around the places she once frequented. The place had changed considerably given how things had changed in the world in past seven years. The restaurant was her favorite joint which she visited with Arnav as often as possible. She was a vegetarian but Arnav preferred meat over greens. She preached him at every possible occasion in hopes of converting him to a vegetarian and he came more and more equipped with counter arguments. The restaurant was an only-vegetarian joint making Arnav dislike the place even more.

She could see the restaurant only fifteen feet away from her but the bloody traffic made it impossible for her to cross the road. She wanted to give up and just take an auto back home and then she felt it.

A warm hand clasped her sweaty clammy ones and squeezed it gently. The scream that started from her lower abdomen filled with fear stuck in her throat when she saw Arnav standing next to her and inspecting traffic. He pulled her and she let him. He weaved them through onslaught of vehicles, smoke and yelling people making her run in the process to keep up with his long and quick strides. The world around her had dissolved into blurry figures, greying colours, obscure noises and his warm hand in hers. Her feet obeyed his silent orders as if they were attuned to his mind rather than hers. Her veil fluttered behind her as she jogged behind him and a thriller ran into her spine when she successfully made to the other side.

She took several deep breaths to slow down her hammering heart which was beating so loudly that she couldn't hear what he was saying she clutched her chest in protest and heat flooded her cheeks. He hadn't let go of her hands yet and the touch had ignited so many memories that she whirled on her feet at its steady barrage.

"I saw you waiting for quite some time," he said, amusement easily flowed in his voice. "Scared?" He asked kindly when she wiped her throat and tried to physically loosen its constriction. Arnav's presence left her with a heady feeling of being drugged with psychedelics and adrenaline at the same time. Not trusting her voice, she simply nodded.

"Let's get some lunch," he said gently pulling her towards restaurant.

He still hadn't let go of her hand. That was the only thought running in her mind like a continuous mantra.

Next Chapter: Chapter 15, Weight of Reality

Thanks everyone for reviewing and liking this. Have you ever had this moment when you are standing next to a super busy road when you just want to walk in and disrupt the traffic or simply glide through it? Comment and let me know!

>Mine<