11. Separation
I cut up words from blotted aged newspaper with yellowed edges and coffee stains, and stick them on my bedroom window, echoing all the bad decisions I have made in my life and decorated on the walls for the world to see.*****
Things just goes downhill from that moment on.
If Arnav looked irritated and annoyed at her before, now he looks positively seething. He makes sure he isn't in same room as Khushi as if her very presence offends him. And when they are forced to be in the same room with enough adult supervision, Arnav plays it cool and adds copious amount of indifference to the mix. She doesn't know what hurts her the most - the anger or the indifference. She secretly knows it was the later.
"You are in my way," he bit out seeing Khushi with armful of flowers standing right in front of him.
"And I guess its not possible for you to step aside for a moment to let me pass or just walk around me, yeah?" Khushi's entire stance looks tired and it shows in her voice.
Arnav licks his lips and takes a moment to gather the right words to hit home. He ignores the fact that it doesn't take him too long to find the right words. Or were they wrong words? He doesn't know anymore.
"Merely maintaining employer-employee relationship here. So. Get out of my way." He swallowed words that were more bitter and harsh. He tried and failed to be more hurtful than he wanted to be.
But is met with...silence.
The silence was profound like hovering at the edge of his consciousness and tugged his mind. Khushi looked at him blankly, wordlessly. She steps aside without the usual chatter sprouting thousand inane things that were a shield against moments like these. When she is yelling, shouting and throwing words at him, he grasps them in his shaky hands and holds on to them.
She doesn't look helpless but merely defeated.
She steps aside and allows him to pass. He smirks in response, the malice never reaching his eyes. His eyes cloud when a slow smile spreads across her face and for a moment he is confused. This isn't how they work. This isn't even their
thing. He falters when he realizes she is looking beyond his shoulder. He gives into his damned curiosity and whips around to see his cousin, NK, baring pearly whites at her.
A snarl leaves his ribcage but he swallows it painfully. When he turns to look at her, he sees that she isn't even looking at him anymore.
The sibilant shrieks she reserved for him had finally run out.
When he walks past her he muses idly if they are finally at a point where they can never talk to each other without hurting one another in the process.
He looks back when he turns towards staircase and catches the waft of laughter carried by the breeze.
"
My heart cant beat properly if I cannot feel you in my veins," he says mostly to himself.
She turns around at that very moment as if she heard what he said. Without giving her a beat of recognition, he walks away in opposite direction.
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