A shrill piercing scream ruptured Ayesha from her slumber. She jolted up from her seat pricking her ears up at the sound that had evaporated into silence and pressed her hand against her chest as if it would suppress her rapidly beating heart.
'Aaasshhii' Ayesha stuttered feeling that familiar sense of dread rising inside her.
Then a dark shadow creeped up slowly hunching over her, making every single of her hairs stand on end. And from nowhere a whisper low, indefinite and cold against her neck passing from one ear to another.
'Joinnn... usss'
Ayesha gasped out and leapt from the table knocking a glass off in the process.
'What the...'
She was perspiring and confused as to how she had ended up here, in a cafe with a dazzling blare of lights that her eyes were just adjusting to. Ashi was sitting across her sipping on her lemonade and had jumped at her sisters sudden movement.
'Ayesha? Kya hua?' she enquired her face drawn in concern
'What...the whisper..darkness' Ayesha grabbed hold of her chair and sat down soaking in the reality of her surroundings.
Ashi rubbed her eyes and looked upon her sister with pity.
'Ayesha I think you still are in shock after what happened yesterday. You need to wash it off.'
'You dont believe me do you? Those messages were real! The person snapped a picture of me in the living room.. Im not going mad!' The police had found her mobile lying on the doormat but there were no trace of any messages sent from any anonymous numbers and they had simply left with minimal reassurance that her life was going to be in any less danger.
'Ayesha I believe you. Which is why I really want you to accompany me tonight. You wont be alone and, it'll be fun.' Ayesha rested her elbow on the table and leaned against her fist with a cynical expression in her eyes. Fun for you she thought quietly to herself.
'Randeep is the one who suggested it not me, he would like you to come.' Ashi said slowly weighing her sisters reaction knowing very well how Ayesha loathed him and wasnt too shy about letting her know about it either.
Ayesha scoffed and said 'So what if I come, you will still be frolicking about with your precious Randeep.'
'He is bringing a close friend so you wont be all by yourself.'
'Wow that doesnt make me feel too pathetic.'
'Come on Ayesha I cant stand to see you like this, you used to go clubbing with your friends. We arent so different from them.. And Ive heard the club has a good range of food and drinks.'
At that Ayesha eyes lit up in a such a way that one would have thought she was reminiscing over a lover.
'You know me too well di'
Ashi and Ayesha left the taxi and stood outside the club. It was just on the outskirts of town also in a remote place beyond the woods.
Ayesha was wearing her favourite short yellow and blue leaf printed dress leaving her long hair loose like her sister who wore a sleeveless peach short dress. It didn't look too busy inside and Ayesha was more than ready to hit the bar straight away but Ashi pulled her back and they walked with interlinked arms toward a cubicle that was occupied already. She saw Randeep with another boy, their heads huddled together in seemingly humorous conversation that they were only privy to. They stopped mid conversation just as the girls approached closer turning their heads round.
'You!' Ayesha exclaimed. Raghav's face brightened as he looked up at Ayesha eyes glinting with intent while mild disbelief registered on her face.
'You. Me. Together, again, how about that?' Raghav remarked cooly reclining back onto the semi circular sofa one arm resting casually against the back of it, not taking his eyes off her even for a second and fighting an urge to let his eyes travel down her body.
'Wait you guys know each other?! Well, well, well, its a small world afterall' Randeep said winking at Raghav while realisation dawned on Ashis face recalling yesterdays events. Ayesha knitted her eyebrows noting the strange looks the boys had exchanged.
'And check you out' Randeep drawled beaming at Ashi standing up to greet her. He held her hand in his and pulled her gently into him, coiling his arms around her waist and bent down slightly meeting her face. Meanwhile Raghav focussed on Ayesha smirking as she grew embarrassed at Randeep and Ashis intensity. Randeep spoke growling in a raspy low whisper close to Ashis ear.
'With no offence to your dress but I would like to rip it off you right here, right now, and kiss every square inch of your body while everyone watches wishing they were us.' Ashi gasped and he eyed her heatedly. She blushed profusedly and cast her eyes away from his intense gaze, trying to compose herself.
Raghav coughed to nudge Randeep from embarking into anything innappropriate too early. He stood up to make space for Ayesha who hesitatingly sat down in between him and Ashi, cursing silently at how cramped the cubicle was. Ayesha regarded Raghav with slight disgust as he quaffed down a good portion of a bottle of vodka down his throat and offered her some but she turned her head the other way.
The night stretched on and Ayesha found she was in no mood to socialise not with him there. Something about him rubbed her the wrong way. Moreover she wasnt all too pleased about the arranged date that her sister and boyfriend had made and of all people it had to be him. Her shining luck. She looked at the them now, Randeep was getting cosy with Ashi, whispering things into her ear before he began smothering her throat and neck in kisses. His hand disappeared beneath the table finding the rim of her dress that he slowly pulled upwards while Ashi was succumbing to Randeeps every move becoming breathless with every persistance of his passion.
'Gross. Spare me please.' said Ayesha monotonously breaking off their romance in an instant.
'Get a room' added Raghav quite nonchalantly.
Ashi looked at Ayesha who was watching them judgmentally, scrunching up her nose in sheer disgust. She had forgotten Ayesha and Raghav were there having been lost in the moment and blushed furiously pushing Randeep away while he rolled off her reluctantly and grit his teeth in exasperation glaring at Ashis sister.
'Do you mind?' he glowered.
'Yeh, get out from my line of vision' she answered contemptuously while Raghav looked at her with a mixture of fascination and amusement.
Ashi stood up promptly on the pretext of buying a drink asking if Ayesha would like to accompany but she declined with exaggerated politeness. When she was out of sight Randeep pulled a face at her and followed Ashi to the bar while Ayesha stuck her tongue at him.
Even though the club was flooded in dim lightning she had been having a hard time trying to block them out of her awareness desperately looking for any distraction on the dance floor and sat as much forward as possible on the sofa with her elbow on the table and chin propped up against her palm watching other people with boredom.
Ayesha checked on Ashi from the corner of her eye. They had now taken to the dance floor and Randeep was circling his arms around her and swerving his body closer to her while she responded with equal sensuality.
Ayeshas face contorted into one of displeasure.
'This is sooo nauseating' she said grumpily forgetting Raghav who was sat behind her to the side sniggering at her reaction.
'What are you laughing at?' She demanded irritably turning her head to him.
'D'you know what I think?
'I dont want to know what you think.' She said turning her head back to the dancefloor again.
Raghav ignored her and continued. "I think that you're jealous. Ashi is your sister and she has no time for you anymore. She spends what little time she has with her boyfriend leaving you rather alone in your daddy's big mansion.'
Ayesha scowled at him. 'What are you my psychoanalyst?'
'No just interested in you...really interested.' He added vaguely.
She shrugged off his comment and looked straight in front of her.
'Well you are wrong. They annoy me because well, I think love, romance, dating etc is all so overrated and pointless.
'Or..maybe you fear it'
Ayesha glared at him.
'Why would I be scared?'
'You should be scared.'
'How would you know about it?'
'I dont. Havent lived long enough to see what it looks like. I guess thats what it looks like.' He said indicating towards Randeep and Ashi who were wrapped in each other swaying with the music. Ayesha followed his gaze.
'Right, yeh, love is a scary. It changes people into monsters till they are barely recognisable..' Ayesha sighed, arching her neck and tugging on a strand of her hair while looking into the crowd.
His mouth curled into a sneer as he watched her closely drifting his eyes down her back from a raw male instinct.
'You know what?' Raghav said leaning forward and resting his arms on the table next to her.
'What?' Ayesha said twisting her body to him, wary he was a bit too close as his arm brushed against hers.
He picked a bar of chocolate from the table, tore it open and ate a chunk.
'Love is chocolate. Here now and gone in the next. Yet you enjoy it till it lasts'
'Hence overrated.' Ayesha concluded eying the chocolate hungrily.
'Give me that' She said snatching it from his hand just as he was about to take another bite.
'Hey!' Raghav said trying to grab it from her as she hid it behind her back. He reached around her waist aiming to grab her hand but she raised her arm above her and tried to shuffle away before he wrestled her to the sofa, she writhed and struggled under his grip surprised he had such strength in him while he pinned her wrists down either side of her till she slackened her hold on the chocolate bar though refusing to entirely let go.
He cocked his eyebrows and eyed her through narrow slits.
'Surrender' he said malicious undertone in his voice.
'Never' she hissed.
But it was no longer about the chocolate bar anymore. Feelings of frustration gave way to new feelings, strange and alien.
They paused still as he lay on top of her inches away from her face, their breaths intermingled. Her scent filled his senses and he became hyper sensitive to the curve of her body pressed up against his. Her breath stilled at their proximity while he looked at her with predatory eyes. Her eyes roved down to his mouth, feeling his body heat and deepening breath warm on her lips and she felt herself involuntarily arching back her head to close the gap but at that moment Raghav let go of her and sat up brushing his hair back with one hand while looking away.
Ayesha followed him and smoothed down her dress looking at him from the corner of her eye. Tension increasing between them as they both grew conscious from each others presence.
Ayesha shuffled her feet ackwardly and looked in the distance at nothing in particular.
'Where's Randeep and your sister?' Raghav asked as a way of slicing the brewing tension in the air. As if nothing had passed between them.
'God knows..' Ayesha said still reeling from her and Raghavs intimate encounter. She scanned the room and her eyes fell them moving to a dark corner of the room. Ashi allowed Randeeps hand to trail up her leg as he pulled her into a deep kiss.
Familiar feelings of repulsion surfaced again seeing the scene. Raghav checked her reaction as she took the scene in and edged closer to her.
'Want to have some fun of our own' he whispered in ear making her flinch in surprise. His breath lingered on her making her shiver slightly even though he had dropped back to his original sitting position.
'What?'
He relaxed back against the sofa.
'Betting. A reward of chocolate for every win.'
'Hmmm..I'm tempted.'
He smiled at her and Ayesha couldn't help but notice how endearing it was.
'I bet that in the next minute Randeep will take your sister outside'
'Why would he do that?'
'Privacy'.
'Alright game on. She wont want to though' Ayesha said. He smiled victoriously at her and pointed to them. Ayesha pouted as she watched Ashi follow Randeep outside while Raghav gestured with his hand to give her a chocolate while she reluctantly passed it.
'Ok my turn, I bet..that guy over there is going to get a slap from that girl in 3, 2, 1'. Slap. Ayesha clapped her hands in delight and made the same gesture to Raghav. He furrowed his eyes and gave her another chocolate.
'Ok..I bet that girl over there, the one surrounded by those guys, I bet she cries every night, slashing her wrists in depression at the loneliness eating her day in day out'. Ayesha looked at him in bafflement not quite expecting him to have said this.
'How morbid and assumptive. She doesnt seem that type to me, look at what shes wearing'
'Lets find out. Come with me.' Ayesha followed him and as they neared Raghav held the girls wrist and twirled her around, she was evidently enjoying the attention. He nodded to Ayesha and she shook her head seeing the red lines scratched across that girls wrists as Raghav waved them before her.
Raghav let her go and joined Ayesha as they walked back to their cubicle.
'That is disturbing. I feel we should tell someone.'
'She is the one who needs to seek help. Its not up to us. Until she does no one will help her.' Raghav said looking at Ayesha with odd tenderness.
'But what shes doing, its wrong-'
'It would be the right thing to do in her case for someone like her. Things that really really hurt are the right thing to do otherwise nothing is gained if there's no suffering..'
'Wow...you have a dark mind.'
Raghav approached her slowly.
'You have no idea' he said in a low voice unsmiling. Ayesha gazed at him hypnotized by his gaze.
'I bet by the end of this night you will want to see me again.' He whispered a hint of a smile on his lips.
'I'm willing to take you up on that'. She said biting her lip. He inched closer to her.
'My last bet..I bet I can kiss you without touching you.'
'What?'
His eyes darkened soaking in her expression. She looked back at him waiting, mystified and curious, daring not to say a word and not knowing why she didnt retort her disapproval like she normally would.
Raghav leaned forward and kissed her cheek.
'Oops, guess I loose the bet.' He said charmingly and tossed her a chocolate leaving her standing stunned while he vanished round the corner to buy more drinks.
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