Chapter 9

Batool Imran

@nav_bat

Grade X-B was out of their classes, having their physical education period, half of the students loitering around in the huge Stanford campus, where it was very easy to lose your way with every wrong turn. The red bricked campus, was constructed on ancient lines of architecture, however it was perfectly acute in its beauty, and was a sight to wonder, when seen from birds eye view, however once inside, it was nothing but a highly complicated honey comb maze.

Khushi walked causally out of the class with Vivek, walking the corridor, thinking of how she had been happy back at Riverdale, whose campus was much easier to keep trace off, and yes was obviously less polluted with hooligans like Raizada. It was a pity that her father had his transfer in every 4 years, or just that she wasn't really sure of the pattern; it would keep changing when ever the higher authorities were in a mood too.

"So tell me, what happened that day when you went out to Arnav's house", Vivek said, while they were still strolling the corridor, back and forth, breaking the abrupt silence that had prevailed between the two of them.

"Not much," she sighed, "We got into another fight as always, and then," she stopped in between as she realized, what had happened after that. The Lap fall. How she dreaded to think about it anymore, it would give her the shivers that nobody had ever gave her.

"Then what", Vivek asked her curious to know what had happened next. He knew that out of nowhere full stop of hers meant that what ever that happened next was the reason why she had gone so quiet in the past week.

"Nothing", she said trying to brush of the topic but Vivek was adamant to know, and stopped her by holding back her arm, as she continued to move forward. "You have to tell me Khushi" he said almost pleadingly.

"Can we sit?" she asked politely, feeling herself almost lose control of her emotions all over again. Vivek nodded, and they walked some more, as they reached near a wooden bench and took their seats at it. He waited patiently for her to compose herself, and continue with the story.

"Okay, leave it Khushi, if you are this uncomfortable telling me about it, let it go" he told her quietly, however disappointment evident in his eyes, and got up from the seat, making his way towards the door that led to the campus grounds. Khushi held him back by pulling back his arm, and made him forcefully sit next to her, giving him an apologetic look through her eyes.

"That is not what I meant by it all Vivek. I trust you alright, I was going to tell you, but what happened, it is difficult to put into words" she finally concluded, having him keeping his hand lightly on her shoulder.

"Khushi, you aren't appearing for an English Language exam are you? (smiling, to cheer her up), besides you have no idea, I have hidden talent to, interpret senseless talk" he gave her a broad smile, making her smile a bit, and she let go of a bit of her uneasiness.

"It happened like, I was going to say sorry, like you told me too, but that, Raizada he kept hurling insults at me, and he was adamant on not saying sorry, so I decided to just leave. But as I was making my way towards the door, this sick baseball bat came in my way, and I lost balance, falling right into Raizadas lap. For a moment I knew I was in for a verbal lashing, but he didn't say anything, so I opened my eyes to look at him, tenderly staring into mine. For a moment I don't know (despair evident in her voice) I felt lost in their depth, and I didn't even realize that where I was. When I saw that deep wound on his forehead, I touched it with care, and asked him if it hurt, he answered be back in the most unlikely way, softly, without passing any shrewd comments my way." She said trying to find more words to describe the later events, to which Vivek was taking a lot of time to register too. He blinked his eyes several times, rubbed them away furiously, and shook his head, to try getting everything she said into his small head, until it was finally inside him, and utter shock took over him.

"Then you left?" he asked, trying his best to cover up his awkwardness to the situation. She nodded in reply, having made note that it was no use telling what happened later, as it really did not matter all that much.

"So, what is their so weird about it?" he finally said, finding his voice, which seemed to have vanished into thin air, after hearing the unusual turn of events.

"I don't know. I just felt so queer about it. Him acting like that, and today when he came back, he's back to being his horrible self, I mean that boy which I saw that day, couldn't be him" she said, almost to her self, but Vivek had heard her due to the close proximity the two of them were sitting at.

"Khushi, you know what? You will go crazy thinking so much. Just let it go. Whatever happened its not coming back, so why think about it, besides, if you think that much, one day you'll probably make me crazy too, (making a fake whiny expression), then imagine how would I find a girl for myself" he told with a funny expression on his face, making her laugh out loud, and simultaneously giving him light punches on his shoulder declaring him as 'silly' and 'stupid', while he echoed loud 'Ouch's all over the corridor.

As the two of them were having their light moment, Priyanka came up to them running, and just stopped at Khushi's feet, finding her breathe before she began to speak up. Pulling Khushi and Vivek's hand, "Come one you two! I have been finding you every where! We are playing hide and seek come on!" she told them hurriedly, dragging the two of them with her their hands, out of the corridor, and let go of it only, when they were in the ground, standing in between the crowd of 19 other students of that class.

Both of them stood their as the 'eenie mennie mino mo' started to finally choose the person who would be the one giving the 'daam'.

Karan stood away from the crowd, looking helplessly at Arnav who had his head buried inside another one of favorite novels,his fingers, half hiding the embossed golden title on the book. Karan walked up to him, and tapped the cover of the title, to gain Arnav's attention who looked up at him, with a questioning look on his face.

"Let's play Arnav, stop reading the book, you have all the time in the world to do that", Karan told him earnestly, to which Arnav just moved his back and forth, indicating a 'No'.

"Okay fine, but just one game", Arnav told him back moodily, and closed his book, keeping it on the bench, and walking to the rest of the crowd who had already chosen the person who would find them all.

Karan tapped on Vivian's shoulder, who was the initial one to be chosen as the one who would find the others. "Can me and Arnav play too?" he asked politely, to which Vivian happily nodded, and told them that the too would have to enter the contest of 'ennie Minnie mini mo' to get the final person out. Having ended, another round of enni meennie mino mo, took place, and finally Karan was declared the one who would give the 'daam'.

Khushi seeing Arnav playing too, inwardly sulked to herself, but subsided his thought quickly, and walked away with Priyanka and Vivek to find a suitable place to hide. Vivek having found his hiding place, bid a temporary adieu to her, and told Priyanka, to help Khushi find a suitable place to hide in. Priyanka in the wave of impulse grabbed Khushi's hand and dragged her to the class room, to which Khushi just stood startled that she had brought her back to their classroom.

"Where am I going to hide here?" Khushi asked baffled at Priyanka's odd choice of hiding locations.

"Inside the cupboard!" she said excitedly, and once again pulled Khushi by her hand, opened the door of the large cupboards and pushed Khushi inside, before Khushi could protest of her claustrophobic disease or her fear for dark enclosed spaces. Priyanka ran away from the place, with Khushi banging at the door, and putting her entire weight for the door to open, which did not seem to budge at all. She looked around herself, at the queer intense darkness around her, and feeling of fear crept over her quickly, causing her mood to darken just like her surroundings. Trying her best to get over her childhood feeling, she crouched herself at the far end of the cupboard, sat down on the wooden base of the cupboard,her back leaning against the vertically lined plank of the cupboard, and keeping her legs bowed inwards, crossed her arms, closed her eyes and kept her head in between the cross formed by her arms.

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Arnav moved around aimlessly, finding for a place to hide, just for the sake of his best friend. Hadn't it been for his insistence, he hardly cared much for such a silly odd game, and would have been busy enjoying reading 'Digital Fortress'. He walked around, and entered their own class room, and was about to walk out of it, thinking of it as the worst place to hide, when his eyes caught sight of the large cupboards, that he had a number of times hid into in previous years, while they had played this game. A faint smile creeping up his face, he opened the door of the second cupboards, which was the widest one of the three aligned cupboards and entered inside closing the door behind him, in the loud bang of the door, unable to hear the sheer muffling noises behind him.

Once the sound was over he turned around only to feel someone touching his body, and punching him hard on his chest. By assumption, he stopped those hand in mid way, and spinned whoever's body it was to the end of the cupboard, successfully pinning whoever was this mystery attacker.

"Leave me alone, who are you?" Khushi cried out in a muffled tone, finding hard to get over her fear and at the same time find a bold voice to face this unknown intruder.

"Gupta is that you?" He asked annoyed, at the resemblance of the voices of that one girl who had disrupted his life, and of this merry victim of his show of power.

"Raizada! What the hell are you doing here?" she asked back in horror, rising up her pitch, so that now it was echoing in that enclosed space they were trapped in, causing Arnav's ear to ring, and his hand immediately from her shoulder, clasped over her struggling mouth.

"And what if I ask you the same question? What are you doing here?" he asked back equally annoyed at the co incidence, of having to land up in this closed cupboard with his worst enemy.

"Hiding of course" she said trying to catch her breathe, as she forcefully removed his hand away from her mouth.

"So be quiet then, they are going to find us!" he said a bit scared of defeat, and hastily put his hand back on her mouth, this time softly to which she resisted again, and shoved it away.

"Then let them! I want to get out of here!" she said struggling hard under his tight grip on her wrists, almost choking due to tears that threatened to fall from her eyes any moment.

"Who the hell told you to hide here in the first place, you idiot!" he called out angrily, tightening his voice a bit to control the frequency of his tone.

"Priyanka shoved me in! Didn't you see I was here! Why did you have to walk in?"

"I didn't! Or else I never would have walked in with a torture like you!" he said back rudely, removing his hands away from her now, and stepping back only to collide with the front of the door, oddly he moved forward again, close to her like before.

"Whatever Raizada!" she retorted, and tried to move past him to get to try another attempt at opening the door, but he pulled her back, colliding her with his own body.

"Shutup will you! I won't let you spoil this game for me! I can't lose, keep put and quiet here, do you understand!"

"I don't." she said point blankly, "Fine if that makes you lose this game, I wont resist to not going now!" she almost shouted in his ears, showing her open enmity for him.

"Well, you'll lose it too if I lose it", he said inwardly frustrated, but calmly, having had understood a little bit, that she like him did not like loosing at all. Slowly she stopped resisting him and calmed down standing next to each other, their shoulders rubbing, and one side of either body almost sticking with the other.

Time passed with them moving their hands around, intentionally as well as unintentionally hitting each other, trying to find sufficient space in that small box like cupboard. If his hands would brush against her belly, her hands would move up colliding with his nose. At time his shoes were on hers, and hers on his, altogether, to get pretty space, they were fighting each other, like hooligans, creating silent racket in the small enclosed hell of there's.

"Gupta! You idiot! Stop hitting me on my nose!" he growled angrily at her, while rubbing his mose smoothly with his fingers.

"You stop putting your shoes on mine Raizada, it is scratching my legs!", she cried out irritatingly, bending a bit, to sooth the rush of pain on the lower side of her legs.

Another contest of, 'Hit me, hit me not' was followed, after which tired, she held his hands tightly, kicked his feet away, and told him to quiten down. Surprised, he prepared for another argument with her, but she placed her delicate fingers on his lips, and shut him up for a temporary period of time.

"Quiet Raizada. Quiet." She hushed him down, and he freezed hearing her soft yet threatening tone. "Let me make space for us to stand", informing him boldly, and trying her best to overcome her feelings of fright, which had lightly faded away, as she hardly got time to think about it, and let the feeling take the better of her, with him around, busy arguing with her over utter nonsense.

She inhaled in air, and pushed her self directly back to the vertical end of the cupboard; so that her back was know almost sticking to the hard wooden plank. Applying little pressure as possible, he pulled his hand, and shoved him to stand directly in front of her, him sticking to the cupboard like she was, but towards the opposite side, and not the same compactly wide enough side they were both sharing.

"Now don't grumble anymore, there is no more space to accommodate both us", she said a bit fiercely, but could sense that he had clamed down, and tired to brush off her own despair and anger aside, which was pretty close to losing control.

They didn't know how long they stood like that stealing glances at each other, and then looking away, however none could make a proper picture of the other, due to the pitch black darkness that surfaced them, with little streaks of light entering from the gap in the cupboard door. Their breathing was hitched, and the close proximity they were at could be measured easily, as the air they exhaled, caused pressure on the face of the other, arousing unavoidable sensations in the two teenagers.

Khushi felt uneasy, as her claustrophobic disease crept over her once again, making her feel uneasy, and a nostalgic ugly feeling raised in her, eventually causing her hands which were by now resting by her sides, to make their way towards her stomach holding it tight in pain and sickness. She was frightened, of collapsing suddenly and landing on the wooden base with a thud, she reached out for a totally dismantled Arnav, and held his free hand tightly into hers, keeping the other one on his shoulder in case she lost support.

Her touch on him, evoked sensations in him, and caused him instantly to put his free hand around her to stabilize her position, feeling her rising hot temperature.

"Gupta,..why are you so hot?" he asked a bit worried, and as soon as he uttered the words, he realized how weird they must have sounded like.

"What?", she demanded, almost losing her state of mind, as the nostalgic feeling only grew by every seconds that they were sitting in together.

"Nothing," he mumbled in embarrassment to himself, but still concerned about her rising temperature asked her why was her body temperature rising, this time choosing his words carefully before he uttered them.

"Do you have fever?" he asked, deriving that to be the only explanation for her fluctuating body temperature. To where he estimated her forehead to be, being unable to see in the dark, he kept the back of his hand on her forehead to check her temperature, and as he had intercepted she was indeed having fever. As he retreated his hand back consciously accepting the proximity they were at, he tried hard to staring his eyes to look at her, but the darkness failed to offer him any light to see her worsening condition. It was evident from the way she had put her head on his shoulder in utter dizziness, he could feel her knees buckling too unable to stand anymore, even though he was supporting half her weight.

Not protesting anymore to his movements, she did as he directed her to, and made her sit on the ground right next to him, tightening his grip around her, as she was only on the verge of fainting now. Her heavy eyelids, were giving in to the pressure, and losing her conscious and state of mind, was something she realized her body would soon give up into. A part of her shouted to get up, regain the strength and overcome this feeling like she fought through everything, she forced her eyes open once again, and slightly straightened her back, lifting up her head from his shoulder, causing him to react a bit as his grip on her flinched, due to the loss of contact.

Upon realizing where she was and who she was with, she was compelled to make distances, but she knew, somewhere, that the person right next to her was not that hooligan she hated, or that vicious enemy of her who she had tripped, it was the same boy whose lap she had fallen into. For holding, and not losing his own calm over her disheveled state, she knew she owed him a thank you, and somewhere she was ready to accept, that hadn't it been for him here, she would have by now been lieing flat on the plank, unconscious.

"Thank you", she said gratefully, in a low pitch voice, to which he just nodded knowing of no other reaction to react in such a situation. For one, he had never been in such a difficult situation, not at least with a girl, besides he had noted it down from day one that she had come effect on him that he had subconsciously accepted but failed to accept consciously.

"I am scared" she murmured to herself, which was obviously only for her to hear, but him having the advantage of sharp ears, plus enclosed echoing spaces, heard her.

"Of what?" he asked a bit curious, and just a part of him worried to see her in such a vulnerable condition.

"Nothing", she said back moodily, her voice shaking now, almost on the brim of breaking apart now.

"You can tell me alright? You do realize that I am the only one who can help you right now?" he reasoned back, fairly annoyed at her resistance to his kind concern.

"I can handle myself" she replied stubbornly, not willing to accept him as right, and giving into his demands. Irritated, by her unsocial attitude, he withdrew his hands away from her shoulder, her head hanging in mid way, as he tried to shrug of her head from his shoulder. On the loss of important support she whimpered away, her body acting as if a ping pong ball swinging away here and there aimlessly. Losing his touch on her she fell to the extreme side of the cupboard, and hit her head on the wooden plank, letting out a painful 'Ouch', and busily rubbed away the bump that had formed on her head.

Hearing her yelp in pain, he pulled her arm back towards him, her head directly landing onto his thigh. "See you nutcase, I told you I was just trying to help, you don't have to resist all the time", he told her angrily, and although she knew he made sense, she again tried to pull away from him, maintaining her stubborn attitude even in her feeble condition. This time being hardcore like he was, he pulled her back, and moved his arm around her, tightening his grip so she wouldn't move away.

"For God sake Gupta, stop with this resisting act of yours! And just sit down you are too weak to move"

"You don't have to care about me, I am fine."

"I can see how I fine you are", he retorted back seeing her stupid attempts to have him away from him, when she did realize that she could hardly stand on her own will right now.

"Do you have lithium in your eyes? I can hardly see anything" she said in an innocent complaining tone, causing him to lightly hit his head in a manner of banging his head on the wall next to him. God! She is crazy. He thought to himself.

They both sat in silence, with him mentally cursing Karan for not finding them here, what kind of a dumb fool was he not know that he was hiding here?. While Khushi was lost in her own thoughts busy trying to get over the feeling of nostalgic that was creeping over her at some immeasurable state.

"Can we go out?" she asked, not being able to take the feeling anymore. She needed, to get out of here, before she lost conscious, her lungs were seriously devoid of oxygen, and as per Biology terms, she was suffering a oxygen debt.

"Alright", he said finally losing his urge to win, seeing her in such a feeble condition, and got up not before helping her lean against the plank of wood of the cupboard, he got up from his uncomfortable position, the sudden rush of adrenaline in his legs causing him to lose slight balance, ad his legs with the long period of rest had gone numb. Having completely composed himself, he went towards the door, and applied his force on it but it did not budge.

"Oh crap!" he shouted angrily, however in a controlled tone, causing Khushi to ask him back in a weak tone, what was the problem now.

"This danm cupboard doesn't open easily from the inside. It's got its stupid technicalities", he informed in her hasty tone, to which she only half wilting replied, to do whatever he wanted to, but get her out of her quick.

He scowled to himself, seeing her non encouraging response, and shifted applied a little pressure at the left hinge, then at the middle one, and finally the top most one, until he could hear the door creak noisily, and light entered in, having him caught sight of Khushi, in the last 20 minutes that they had been trapped inside this cupboard. To his utmost horror, her skin had turned faintly blue, her eyes almost dropping low. Quickly he went up to her, and helped her stand up, but due to rapid loss of conscious she was unable to, and finally having no other options. He picked her up in his arms, and walked out of the cupboard, for a few instances adjusting himself to the sudden rush of light in his pupil. Once the blurriness was over, he kept her down, making her sit on a chair, and rushed over to his desk to get his water bottle, while her head hanged loosely towards the left, her body freely hanging like he had left it to sit like.

Finding his bottle, he rushed over to her, bend on his knee sitting next to her on the chair, and sprinkled some water on her, causing her to slowly flutter her eyes open, her head spinning trying to adjust herself to the outburst of light, after her pitch black stay in the dark cupboard.

"Found you!" they both heard a loud voice behind them, causing both of them to turn around, at an excited Karan, with another 19 students standing there, looking at them excitedly on having found them.

"What the hell", Arnav almost uttered to himself, receiving a slow punch from Khushi, her being subject to his famous 'what the' glares.

"Ahan yes, so we seem to be the last ones to be caught, right?" she asked smiling, trying to hide the awkwardness of the situation she and Arnav were in, faking in a way that nobody could even realize that what had happened a few minutes earlier.

"Arnav what are you doing with her?" Priyanka asked suspiciously, on the presence of Arnav, and of course the weird position he was sitting in, leaning onto a almost dismantled Khushi.

"Nothing. Why does it have to matter to you" he replied back rudely, keeping his water bottle next to Khushi just in case that she needed it, and got up from where he sat, walking over to a mildly taken aback Karan, without giving another look back at Khushi, who only silently saw him walk away after having showered all his assistance on her.

Vivek walked over to Khushi, as the crowd dispersed, and slowly inquired her if everything was alright to which she just nodded, however not successful in hiding the truth from Vivek, which he did not choose to pressurize upon just now, as he did realize that she was looking weak since the last time he saw her, and just sat next to her to keep her company for the rest of the period.

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Regarding the Title

Enclosed Spaces- Okay the first title of this FF, which turns out to be self explanatory. Ofcourse, since Arnav-Khushi had their moment in the closed boundaries of that wooden cupboard, therefore its clear why this chapter has been named what it has been named. One more thing, 'enclosed spaces' also represents their hidden attitude towards each other, how they are silently beginning to accept the goodness in each other, but fail to appreciate it openly. This is meant mainly for Khushi, who has got a brief idea, that how this boy is not all that cruel as she intercepts him to be and it is only a matter of time when he opens up to her. But she continues to remains stubborn and pulls up a faade, blocking all positive feelings for him in her heart, and him doing the same with her. They are still locked up, unable to give each other a chance to explain themselves, always thinking what they like, since for them at the end of the day they are always the right one. You should notice how the 'enclosed space' of Khushi's heart is slowly beginning to unlock causing her to react differently in the beginning of that chapter, her brain polluted with all kinds of weird thoughts.

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Events in the Chapter

I have a good feeling that this chapter will be liked by majority of the readers since, it gives the starting grounds for the start of two new stories, that is Aakash- Payal and Arnav-Khushi. I wanted to put Anjali- Shyam stories start too, but this update is already way too long then was intended, so probably the next will have them sharing their space. This chapter, is typical teenage life, the complications, those feelings, those games we play, the lessons we have, the scowls we gave, I love high school, I have no idea what I will be doing without it. *sigh*.

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Precap

He immediately got up from his seat, in utter annoyment, only to give a deep glare to a already pretty much frustrated Khushi.

"No mam! I cannot work with him at all" she protested helplessly, to the Biology teacher, who was in no mood for concessions, forget that, she wasn't even all that much wanting to listen to any arguments.

"Surely Mam! I cannot work with her at any cost!" he raised up his voice, which was particularly very unlikely of him to do since he hardly ever talked.

"No arguments. And I mean no arguments, you two. Either you do it together, or accept the boiled I give you in the assignment", Ms Anita said seriously, however leaving the hint of a joke, to which she expected everyone to laugh on, well at least they would if they knew how her lame joke was supposed to make them laugh.

Getting the blank response from the class, to her enthusiastic views, she frowned, and crossly told both of Arnav and Khushi to take their seats, without any room for more arguments. Okay fine. Another one of Raizada's face my torture lessons. When was this misery ever going to end Devi Maiyan?

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