Chapter 6
"Don't you want to ring home?" Armaan asked
"Huh?" They were on the way to the library, everyone had gone home so it was only them in school. Since it was early December time, it got dark very quickly. They walked in silence through the wide, empty corridors, Riddhima was muttering to herself in anger which Armaan knew was just swear words about him. He had realised he hadn't called home to tell them he would be late, he knew they wouldn't care but then he remembered he wasn't the only one going to be late.
"I said, don't you want to call home?"
"Why would I do that?" Riddhima asked.
"Aren't they going to be worried when they don't see you there?"
"No. They are used to it." Riddhima replied simply. Armaan decided to ask no further.
They reached the library and went inside. It was all dark with just the table lamps on to give it light. The place was huge with rows of tables in there and huge books shelves full of books that reached the back of the room, there was also an area with bean bags so students could relax and sit comfortably whilst reading and some vending machines so the students wouldn't get thirsty. An old woman was standing behind the main desk looking through some books and stamping them. She had grey hair and was quite small, but only had a few wrinkles, she was around 50-60 years old. She looked up when she heard the door screak open and saw them walk in, a huge smile appeared on her face.
"Ammy? Is that you?" She croaked, stepping in front of desk to take a closer look at them.
Armaan grinned and went towards her leaving a stunned Riddhima at the door.
"Hey Martha. How are you?" He hugged for a moment before giving her a light kiss on the cheek.
"I'm good Ammy. What are you doing here at this time?" She asked.
"Well I was missing you so thought to pay a private visit." Armaan winked at her cheekily.
Martha chuckled at his flirty comment, "Well that's very kind of you but next time do come alone." She pointed to Riddhima through her eyes and winked at him playfully.
"Okay fine, you caught me. I came here to do some work. But also to meet you too. I missed you a lot."
"Aw Ammy you are so sweet." Martha smiled at him lovingly, "So are you going to introduce me to your friend?"
Riddhima, who was silently watching the show, stepped forward towards them. Armaan realised he had forgotten about her.
"Oh yeah, Martha this is my partner in this project Riddhima. Riddhima this is Martha." He introduced both of them to each other.
Martha finally saw Riddhima close-up and almost had a heart attack seeing her attire and her ghostly make-up.
"Hello dear, it's nice to meet you." Martha said cautiously, Riddhima look was scaring her.
"Yeah, whatever, you too." Riddhima spoke uninterestingly, and walked off in to the library.
Both of them were bewildered by Riddhima's rudeness. Armaan was furious at how low she could stoop, Martha was only being polite to her. Martha gave him a weak smile but he could see through it and knew she was hurt.
"Well Ammy, I need to go home but don't spend too long here okay?" she said, trying to change the topic.
"Martha I'm sorry about-" His apology was cute off by her.
"It's okay, I don't mind. She's just a child." She ruffled his hair slightly, "Take care Ammy. Bye."
"Bye Martha." Armaan smiled.
Martha was about to leave when she remembered something, "Oh and Ammy, don't shut this door, okay?"
Armaan was confused by her request, "Why?"
"Because if the door shut, the lock automatically closes so then you won't be able to get out until someone from the outside opens it. And I don't think you want to be stuck in here all night do you?" She spoke glancing once at Riddhima, who was looking through some books at the far end of the library.
Armaan chuckled listening to her, he knew exactly what she was implying in that last bit of her reply, or more like who she was implying.
"Of course not. See you tomorrow Martha." He went forward to give her a hug, and she hugged him back delightfully. She waved him bye and left both Armaan and Riddhima alone. He turned to see Riddhima with a blank look on her face, searching through the shelves. This angered him knowing that she didn't feel guilty at all for the way she had behaved earlier with Martha.
He walked up to her and grabbed her arm making her face him.
"Hey, what the hell? Let go of me!" She grabbed her arm back from him.
"What the hell was that?!" He spoke, anger clearly shown in his tone of voice.
"What was what?" She asked annoyed.
"Before. When Martha greeted you. She was being polite and you were so rude to her. Don't you have any respect at all?" he asked outraged.
Riddhima rolled her eyes, and snapped back at him " oh please! Polite? Yeah right. I saw the way she analysed me with her eyes, if she thinks rudely about me why should I be polite back?"
"When did she do anything rude to you?"
"You didn't see the way she looked at me!" Both stood in silence staring at each other, rage visible in their expressions and eyes, all that could be heard was their heavy breathing. After a few moments, Armaan looked away and walked towards the shelves looking through some books.
"We have an essay to do, remember? Make yourself useful and find some books on the bipolar disorder, there's one on the E section that's called Emotion and Psychopathology: Bridging Affective and Clinical Science, go find that." He said dryly to her, he turned towards her and spoke sarcastically, "Is that polite enough for you?"
She glared at him once, and walked off to the E section leaving him to find the rest of the books. She started mumbling to herself angrily, "Who the hell does he think he is speaking to me like that? Ass." Instead of walking straight towards it, she started walking slowly through each section in a wave shape, cursing Armaan along the way. When she finally reached the E section, she started searching for the book through each shelf, but suddenly realised she couldn't remember the name of the book. Angry at herself, she knew she would have to ask him again what the name was, and she knew he wouldn't be too happy about it.
Walking all the way back to Armaan, she saw him sitting at a table with a few books open taking a few notes. He looked seeing Riddhima standing at the edge of the table biting her lip, he raised his eyebrow in question.
"What do you want Riddhima?" he asked.
"Er nothing just came to see you." She smiled sweetly.
Armaan nearly choked on his own saliva, "Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"Just wanted to ask you some questions." She said casually shrugging her shoulders. She sat in the seat beside him, turning to face to him.
Armaan narrowed his eyes at her, "Well you can ask your questions later, can you just get that book first?" He was about to start his work again, when she interrupted him.
"Yeah I will get that in a minute, I just wanted to ask you a few questions." He sighed and looked up at her expectantly, "About the book." She said hoping it would make him less irritated.
"What about it?"
"Erm well considering its topic do you think the book tells enough about what's it about? I mean like is it detailed enough?" she said fumbling.
Armaan was more confused by her question, "Why do you want to know?"
She just shrugged her shoulders, "Just wanted to know your opinion."
"Well erm yeah I think it does, because it tells us what we need to know and even give us tips to understand it." He said cautiously watching her reaction.
"Okay." She replied simply, just when he was about to pick up the pen she started again "But do you think it matches the name?"
"Huh?" He was annoyed now.
"The name. Of the book. Do you think it fits with the information?"
"Well yeah Riddhima, that's why they named it that, so we know what it's inside the book." He said, stating the obvious.
She rolled her eyes frustrated, "Yes, but what specific words in the title do you think stand out to you, that want to make you read it?"
"What? What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing, I just want to know what words stood out for you that made you want to want to read it." She said innocently.
"For crying out loud, I don't know! Okay? I do not know! I don't even want to read it, but I have to because of this project! Jesus, you happy now?" She nodded quietly, letting him calm down, he huffed and started to continue with his work. But then he heard her again,
"But what do you think the words mean?" He looked up to her, slowly raising his head, shooting bullets at her through his eyes. She chuckled sheepishly seeing the annoyance on his face.
"Riddhima, I am warning you now, buzz off!" He spoke threateningly.
"But what-"
"For the love of God! Riddhima, I am this close to strangling you! Shut up!" He said exasperated, slamming his hands on the desk whilst standing up.
"But I just want to know-" she said standing up as well, but was cut off by him.
"Why?!!" He pleaded.
"Because. I wanted to know what you thought about the book." She replied simply.
"Are you feeling okay? You have been acting so weird today. Stop bugging me! Please!"
"Just answer my question."
Armaan swore under his breath, "Fine, what do you want to know?" He had given up, he just thought to get it over and done with.
"You know the name of the book, what do you think of it?"
He just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. It just explains the contents of the books."
"Yes but what about the words?"
"What do you mean, what about the words?"
"I mean, like the meaning of them."
"You should know that yourself, it's simple." His face was blank but showed a tad of disappointment because of her lack of knowledge on this subject.
"But what do You think it means?" Pointing to him.
"The same thing as you." He replied, pointing to her.
"Yes but maybe you think differently, tell me what you think of each word."
"What?! Riddhima you have lost it! It would take all night explaining the words."
"Aha! So it includes complicated words then." She looked happy with the new information she was gaining.
"Of course it would, its Psychology! What's uncomplicated about it?!" He said infuriated by her dumbness.
"Nothing, that's what im saying, so tell me."
"Tell you what?!"
"Your thoughts on the words."
"What words?"
"Oh God, the title words!"
"Who's?" he was so confused, he had never had been that confused, not even in his Psychology exam in first year when he had to answer that question about human behaviour and how it led to suicide of that person and the people around them who had to suffer them as well.
"The book's!" She was getting annoyed by HIS slowness now.
"What about them?!"
"Say them!"
"What? Why?!"
"Because I said. Now say them!"
"No, I don't want to, you say them."
"No, why should i? Just say them!"
"You are the one who's desperate to hear it, you say it." He pointed to her.
"No you." She pointed right back him narrowing her eyes.
"Why?!"
"Because I said so!"
"Then no."
"Yes."
"No!"
"Armaan just say them."
"For the last time, why?!"
"Because I want to hear them from you."
"Just say them yourself, I can promise they will be the same words."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because, I just can't."
"Well that's your problem then."
"Armaan just say the name of the book for God's sake."
"No! First tell me why?"
"Urghh fine! I forgot it okay? You happy now? I forgot the name of the book, that's why I haven't gone to get it, so I thought to ask you the name without actually asking you it, but I regret it totally. You are THE most annoying person ever, why can't you just answer the bloody question? It's not hard, if you did, we wouldn't be here right now yelling at each other, just inches away with our fingers pointed to each other's chest! And even worse, when I do actually ask you the name, you still don't tell me! You have issues my friend!" She finished slumping down on to her chair with a huff.
She sighed, looking up with seeing him looking blankly right back at her. He reached to pick up a book hidden underneath his text book and threw it in front of her. Confused, she looked at it and it read: Emotion and Psychopathology: Bridging Affective and Clinical Science. She still didn't understand but then read the words a few times, and it hit her. He didn't. But he did. She looked up to see him with that grim smile but it turned to a sly one seeing her expressions.
"You didn't. You had this the whole time?"
"Yep." He said making a popping sound on the 'p'. He sat back down and carried on with his note taking that she had disturbed.
"Why? Wasn't I supposed to get it?"
"Yes but sadly you were taking your time getting there so I thought I would get it because you were wasting time." He looked up at her, "Plus I didn't want to disturb you whilst you were having a delightful conversation with yourself about words to describe me. What were they again? A*s, fag**t, etc. Do I need to continue?" he spoke icily.
She was embarrassed on getting caught in the act, so decided to move on from that "Erm, why didn't you tell me you had it?" She demanded.
"I thought to have some fun and see how you would admit you couldn't find it. But trust me, if I knew all this would've happened I would've never have done it. That was not worth it at all, jeez Riddhima you seriously know how to drive someone crazy."
Riddhima was shocked, "Well if you would've told me in the first place this wouldn't have happened, would it?"
Well if you had remembered the name of the book and had got it faster, this wouldn't have happened would it?" he snapped back smartly.
"Whatever." She took the seat across him and started taking notes to write the essay. Few minutes passed in silence, none had said a word but just carried on with their side of the essay.
Riddhima was stuck on the last bit of it, but didn't want to ask him. She read through some text books but couldn't find the right answer. She sat back in her seat, chewing the end on her pen, trying to figure it out. Armaan looked up seeing her with a focused, confused expression and knew she was stuck on one part. But he wanted her to ask him, so he could annoy her. She saw him look at her with a teasing smile and understood he wanted her to ask him. Mumbling to herself, she rolled her eyes and went towards him.
"Can you help me?" Armaan looked up from his sheet to see her next to him.
"I'm sorry?" he asked innocently.
Riddhima glared at him, "I said can you help me?"
"Please?" he challenged grinning at her state.
She gritted her teeth, "please."
"Sure why not?" He explained to her what to do for that certain part, and helped her write some of it.
"Thank you" she headed back to her seat.
"I'm sorry what? Did you just say thank you?" he said in mock surprise.
"Shut up." She grumbled, carrying on with her essay.
Armaan chuckled at her lightly and quickly finished off his work. He looked up to notice she still hadn't finished, so he thought to doodle a little to pass the time whilst waiting for her.
Done! She put the pen down and grinned down at her work. She had finally finished it, she looked up at Armaan to notice him writing something. Must be still working, she thought. She looked around the library noticing it all dark and quiet, she felt a slight cold breeze pass by her and realised the door to the library was still open. She shivered feeling cold and got up to close it. Armaan was too busy with his doodling to notice her getting up heading towards the door. He jumped when he heard a slam and saw Riddhima near the door with a satisfied smile on her face, but the main thing he noticed was that it was shut. Uh-oh. He ran towards it, pushing her out of the way, and tried to pull it open.
"Hey what are you doing?" she asked confused.
"You idiot! Why did you shut the door?" he carried on pulling at the handle but it wouldn't budge at all.
"Because I was cold, and you were still doing your work so I thought I should shut it because I didn't want to stay cold waiting for you to finish."
He gave up and faced her, "I finished my work you idiot. I was waiting for you."
"But when I finished you were still writing."
"I was doodling."
"You were what?" she had a sceptic look on her face.
"I was bored." He shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what else to say.
"Childish." She mumbled under her breath. "Well now that we are both finished we can go home now. So come on, let's get our stuff." She turned to head back to the table but was stopped. He was in front of her blocking her way with a grim expression.
"Why do you think I was so angry at you closing the door?" she looked at him confused, "The door is shut. We can't get out until someone from the outside opens it for us. Well done genius."
It took a few seconds before Armaan words settled in to her mind, her eyes went wide and a gasp came out of her mouth. She ran towards the door and repeated the same action Armaan was doing a few minutes ago, with the same result, nothing. After a few tries she gave up and looked back at him who had a blank expression upon his face.
"Oh my God! I can't believe I'm stuck in here with you!" Riddhima screamed in anger whilst trying to kick open the door.
"Oye it's not like I wanna be here with you either! I'm supposed to be on a date with a really hot chick in an hour and instead I'm stuck in here with Countess Dracula!" Armaan screamed in her face. Riddhima gasped in horror.
"This is all your fault!" He was expecting this.
"Excuse me? What do you mean MY fault? You were the one who shut the door!" he yelled back.
"But you didn't tell me it was broken. So it's your fault."
"It's yours." He starting charging up to her and she did the same.
"It's yours." She said poking him in the chest.
"Look, this is getting nowhere so let's just look for a way out okay?"
"Fine, but it's still your fault." He rolled his eyes, and went towards one of the windows trying to open them. They were all locked, and could only be open with a key. Riddhima went searching around the library hoping to find another door that would them outside.
"Did you find anything?" Armaan shouted across the library.
"No. There are only doors that lead to other rooms inside the library." She replied walking back to him. "What about you?"
"No luck." He sighed.
"Well, what do we do now?"
"I guess we just wait for someone to find us." Riddhima nodded and started piling up all their work. She put the books in a pile and picked them up heading towards the shelves when Armaan stopped her and took them from her.
"I will take them," Riddhima raised her eyebrows in surprise and suspicion, "You will probably put them in the wrong place." Her eyebrows dropped and a frown came upon her face. She slammed the books in his chest, making him tumble back and give her a dirty look. He went off to the shelves leaving a bored Riddhima behind.
She started putting her notes back in to her bag when she noticed a cigarette packet in there. She beamed and quickly opened the packet to see one cigarette left. She started rummaging through her bag again, hoping to find her lighter. She found it and popped the cigarette in to her mouth, she was about to light it when Armaan came huffing back. He looked at her and was stunned to see what she was trying to do. He ran towards her and took the cigarette out of her mouth.
"Hey! Give that back, it's the only one I have left." Riddhima tried to grab it out of his hand but he was too fast and moved it away from her.
"What do you think you are doing?" he asked.
"What does it look like? I'm trying to a have a smoke of course." She moved forward to try and take it from him again but he was too fast. He dropped it to the floor and crushed it with his foot.
"Hey! What did you do that for?" Riddhima was shocked by his action.
"You can't smoke in here." He glared at her.
"Why not? Why do you care anyway?" she questioned.
"Well erm, of course I care. I'm the one who has to suffer smelling that shit."
"So you did it for yourself? Let me tell you something mister. One, you owe me a packet of cigarettes, and two, it's my life, my cigarettes! So don't poke your nose in it okay? You could've moved away so you didn't need to smell it. I was craving for one for so long and you had to do that didn't you?" she said annoyed. She looked at Armaan to see him staring at her intently, she grew uncomfortable under his gaze, thinking about what he was thinking.
Armaan was shocked by how angry she had got over a cigarette. He never thought this would happen, she would've never been angry over it before, heck she used to be against smoking! He couldn't help but comment on Riddhima's character. Obviously in his mind. He never thought she would become like this. She seemed pretty happy before, so he couldn't help but think what could have lead her in to becoming like this?
"What?" Armaan was brought out of his thoughts by hearing her voice. "What are you looking at?" she asked.
"Nothing. Do you have any more of them?"
"What? Cigarettes? No sadly, you stamped on the last one I had." She said irritated.
"Good." He took his phone out and started moving it in the air.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to get a signal inhere." He said continuing his task.
"Do you really think they would let people take phones out in here? It's a library, a place to study, they probably made sure there is no signal so students actually focus." She moved towards the door and sat down on the floor with her back faced against it.
"Well, at least I'm trying to find a way out of here." He snapped at her.
"Excuse me, I did try too. It's not my fault we are stuck in here. Just get used to the fact that we are stuck here until someone gets us, which won't be till morning." She answered back to him. She started muttering foul words about him underneath her breath in a way to get out her anger.
"Do you like being like this?"
Riddhima was caught off guard by his question, also by the soft tone he used, no one had ever asked her that, well not so straight forward like him. She looked up at him and saw him sitting across her, against one of the book shelves, gesturing to her attire with his eyes and she glanced down at herself. To her it seemed pretty normal, she was comfortable in it and she liked it wearing all black and having lots of piercings and of course, the scary make up, it made her feel different, exciting.
"Sure, why wouldn't I? I have the perfect life now. I love being like this, it's the real me, I'm glad I can be just plain, old, simple me without people butting in and it's a lot more fun." She said looking anywhere but at him, making sure he couldn't read her expression.
Lie. She had become an expert at telling them, she been telling them to people for most of her life now. And they believed it each time. But she wished someone would be able to see through her, see that this isn't the life she wanted. Heck, she couldn't even see through herself to convince herself that. Her life wasn't perfect, her life was perfect before. With her perfect family, with her parents...With him.
She quickly blinked back her tears before they even appeared in her eyes. She could not go back there again. She looked up at him and noticed he was staring at her again, intently. She looked away once again, hoping he wouldn't ask anymore further questions about her.
Armaan knew she was lying, he knew she was going to lie before the words came out of her mouth. But the one thing he didn't know was why she was lying, however he was not going to give up on finding out.
"Don't you miss the old you?"
"Old me? There is no old me Armaan, there's just me." She said coldly.
"You know what I mean. We both know you never used to be like this, so why change?" he inquired.
"I don't know what you are talking about, but I don't plan to answer any of your useless questions. There is no used-to-be me, or old me, there is just me. But if you want to know what happened to your so-called old Riddhima," she looked at him straight in the eye. " she's dead."
...
I know, i suck at comedy :| But oh well, i gave it my best shot :P This has to be the longest part yet, Medzi i hope you are happy now!
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Love Zarqaa
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Edited by zARqaa_X - 12 years ago
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