Khushi shifted in her place, her head propped up against her two palms that were supporting her face, her entire body spread across the bed, as she let Aparna escape back into memories of that day.

"Is it only me, or can I see that girl eyeing the two of us from a long time?" Arjun asked Aparna, looking at Anitas's hay wire state at the other end of the room, munching on his salad, as Aparna who seemed similiarly indulgent about the whole thing, nodded her head, her mouth full of delicacies.

"It not you. Its me too. She has been looking here for quite some while. You reckon we should go and ask whats her problem?" Aparna asked him, looking at him straight, munching food from her full mouth, giving Arjun his time to make a decision, but after making an apprehensive face at her she was sure he was in mood to take the first step.

"Alright then. It's not like we are going to meet the duo ever again." Aparna said conversationally, looking one last time longingly at Aryan Gupta, before Arjun nodded at her and the two got up from the table to go find their parents, and rush themselves back home.

"So none of you did anything?" Khushi asked surprised, highly interested now as Aparna nodded and told her, how it was not for another 2 months that they saw Anita and Arjun until it was September and she with Arjun were both joining a new college. She told Khushi, of how it was their first day at colledge and they both seemed really nervous about it, Aparna about her studies, and Arjun about how many good looking girls he could actually sent drooling over his looks. Khushi giggled a bit hearing that, but quickly stopped, as she saw a loan tear move down Aparna's cheek, not saying anything, until Aparna had collected herself, and was ready to go on with the story.

Her blonde hair tied up in a tight pony tail, swayed away in the autumn air of New York, as she walked beside her best friend who was with his girlfriend, the two indulged in some very peppy talk which she had little interest in. Looking ahead of her path, the three entered the reddish brown campus building and walked through the corridor, an erry canniness enveloping them. As if the giddy feeling of being in a new place was not enough, her eyes met with a pair which was walking in the opposite direction too engrossed in their chatter to see her, but her mind had completely frozen seeing them, standing stationary on her point.

"Where do you think you are going? Leave it now. There is no space for sorry now. It's highly unlikely of us to meet them again."

You were wrong. She heard herself saying, and before she knew what was happening, there she was rooted to her place, staring in the baffled, disgusted eyes of the boy who she had annoyed earlier at that wedding. Aryan let go of Rita, his girl friend and told her to go to class, walking towards Anita and acknowledging Aparna and Arjun's presence with as much surprise as Anita had. Arjun glared hard at Aryan, switching his eyes from Aryan to Anita and then rolled his pupils inside his sockets, while Aparna seeing his discreet attitude pinched him from the side.

"I thought you said we were never going to meet them again. Here they are. AGAIN." Arjun said icily to Aparna, still looking at Anita menancingly, as well as Aryan who he still thought was Anita's boy friend.

"Arjun, c'mon, don't get yourself into a mess" Aparna told him, pulling hard at his arm, who she could move barely by inches, much to the verbal assistance Aryan was to provide next.

"Your best friend there, shes right. Listen to her dude, its for your best." Aryan adviced Arjun in a casual manner, however it was enough to instigate the lion within Arjun who had gotten extremely furious on Aryan's bossy demanding tone.

"You don't tell me what I need to do, Mr.Whatever. it would be better if you handle your girl friend and tell her not to mess around with people's relationships when she does not know anything about them" Arjun remarked coldly, his voice still dangerous, as he with his words was successful in bringing forth the fire in Aryan as well. He took a sturdy threatening step towards Arjun, him not moving from his place instead glaring steadily into his eyes.

"Arjun! Let go!" Aparna pulled at him but his hard form, was hard to disintegrate just right now, and giving up she looked one last time at Anita harshly, and walked away mumbling something like, 'Do whatever you like' at Arjun, stomping off to her class. Arjun seeing Aparna had totally lost control of her anger, giving one hard look to both Aryan and Anita went away to catch up to Aparna who was in a no 'nonsense' mood right now.

"Lunatics!" Aryan grumbled under his breathe angrily, and walked off towards their class followed by Anita who was too fumbily to say anything at all, just having her mind torn to tatters with all the nonsense that had taken place only the first day of college.

Those days. That life changing fight. It had proven so much. Arjun thought to himself, unloading his luggage from the stretcher belt in the airport and walked off to a seat in the rest room, prepared for the wait of another 3 hours at the Los Angeles airport before a connecting flight would drop him off to Stanford. He fidgeted about on the seat, as the tension of going back to memories kept growing on him, over and over again until he was forced to close his eyes in utter exhaustion.

"Appy wait! Wait! Listen me out dude! Please, Apppy!" Arjun kept shouting on her back, as Aparna haughtily walked away and entered the class taking a seat next to a total stranger, until Arjun seeing this, jostled in anger pulled her away from that seat on a desk which had two empty seats, just in time for the Advanced Mathematics teacher to enter.

"Don't give me shit like that, you understand? Don't." Arjun whispered between gritted teeth in her eyes, to which she taking her eyes from the teacher shooted an extremely furious look at him and concentrated back on the lecture.

"You liked that guy don't you? (Aparna looks at him sheepishly) Appy c'mon seriously? Now you are going to do this to me? I know you better than you know yourself, so spare me the drama for heavens sake. (Aparna remains silent) Fine. I won't mess up with him or his girlfriend or whatever she is anymore. Okay now?" he said , his tone going down from non coopearative to a bit calm, and Aparna gave him a queasy look, nodding her head, gesturing him to pay attention on the lecture.

After the class the two walked out together, Aparna's mood still a bit off handed, but Arjun knew she would be fine in a little while, and didn't push her any further, both of them entering the cafeteria, with unknown people staring at them awkwardly, some even murmuring something to eachother most probably about them, but none of the two had brains to bother about these outsiders, its not like they had enough problems on their own. Arjun going off to get some snacks for them, went away to the counter leaving Aparna alone on the desk, subject to many checking out stares from guys, who she was paying no attention too. It was a tap on her shoulder, which made her turn around, seeing the girl who she currently despised to the core, standing over her shoulder, with a shady look on her face. Aparna stood up from her seat, eyeing out for Arjun who was busy waiting for the food, and quickly took hold of Anita's hand and grabbed her out of Arjun's eye view, letting go off her shaky form, glaring at her with a steel look now.

"What do you want?" Aparna asked her raspily even before Anita could say anything, too confused to process anything right that would fit for a good apology.

"I just came to say sorry to you and your friend. I understand what he must be feeling when I taunted him over you being his girlfriend. Honestly there is only a fine silver lining between a boy friend and best friend, and so I just erm got confused. So I am really sorry for that. I would have said sorry to him on my own, but erm (looking in Arjun's direction) he looks like he would throttle my neck if I even went near him so.." Anita trailed off, observing Aparna's hard expression turning a bit sober and soft, and finally the look of understanding was shadowing her features.

"Please. Please don't, go anywhere near him. He hates you and your boy friend, (Anita makes a twitched expression) Did I make the same wrong assumption that you did?" Aparna asked apprehensively, preety sure that that's what Anita's disconcerted expression could possible mean.

"You did actually. Not your fault though. Me and Aryan were both acting like a couple purposely, so well your assumption isn't entirely wrong." Anita explained, her cheeks flushing bright as she went on to tell Aparna how she and Aryan had noticed Arjun looking at her, so they had decided to act like a couple to send him off the trail. Aparna gave her a weird expression at first, but then burst into laughter, making Anita get in the mood herself.

"He must be your best friend for sure then. Only best friends can do such crazy things together." Aparna commented, as Anita looked at her fondly, and when the both were sober an erry kind of silence surfaced them.

"Can we be friends? It would be a good beginning to get things better between us. I never expected that my first day at colledge would be like this. (Aparna nods and extends her hand towards Anita) Aryan hes my bestie my all time companion but that wretched girl friend of his, I swear I hate her so much, I feel like throwing a brick at that baboon head whenever I see her, but she's Aryan's na. I cant harm anything of his." Anita said making a bad face at the thought of Rita, who she knew would be with Aryan right now, up to her no good tricks with him.

"Arjun's a casonova. (Anita flinches a bit now knowing his name) Yes his name is Arjun, and me I am Aparna. So dumb of me to not tell you my name. *pause* So where was I? Yeah, Arjun. Sometimes he brings such low graded junk I feel like vomiting on his choice, other times he brings girls who are players so when they ditch him, he ends up being a retar..d..e..(her eyes popping out of her sockets) Arjun?" Aparna stammered, looking straight into the gloating eyes of Arjun, swallowing a tight lump of guilt in her throat, as Anita spinned around, stumbling back due to Arjuns strong demanding persona.

"I..just erm.." Anita stammered aimlessly trying to make a good excuse and get out of the way, but Arjun turned his rigid look at Anita, blood dropping in to his eyeballs.

"Stay quiet. Nobody's talking to you. (Aparna comes to Anita's defence and looks at Arjun with a rowdy look) God please Aparna. What the hell? Now you are defending her? Who is she? Her?" Arjun taunted in an overly venomous tone, his eyes still scurtinzing both the girls with intense anger, Anita more.

"Get over it Arjun. She came to me to say sorry for whatever happened earlier. So now stop over reacting." Aparna told him in a harsh tone, briefing him over the earlier events that had gone past between her and Anita. She also explained how Aryan and Anita had faked the whole couple thing, to keep him off trail. At this instance Anita started going red again with embarrassment while Arjun shedding off all his anger, smiled cheekily at her, poking his elbow into her side.

"Now that I know this, I'll never be off your trail missy." He told her winking at her, and she started going a red crimson, Aparna giving a hard punch on Arjuns' shoulder and sending him off howling and making rude, dorky faces at her. Anita looked at the two of them in admiration impressed with the easy going purity in their friendship.

"And Mr.Gupta? What happened of him?" Khushi asked curiously, a bitter taste in her mouth regarding her father but she just coudnt help it, her father was a plain disgusting thought to her.

"Anita told him everything, but that didn't really solve problems between Aryan and Arjun. They both kept aloofed form eachother, and until the end, when we all broke apart, Arjun and Aryan were never really good with eachother. Honestly speaking, if there was anything that kept him and Arjun resisting eachother was our interwined attractions." Aparna explained to her, who was looking outside the window, her eyes a bit drowsy now and heavy with sleep.

"Khushi, you should go to sleep, you have school tomorrow too. You can hear the rest of it later sometime." Aparna told her, but she hesitated a bit, insisting that she was not at all sleepy, rather really full wide awake, but Aparna did not give even a little heed to Khushi's pleads, sending her off to her own room, and after taking her medicines too she was off to sleep.

Khushi entered her own room heavy with sleep, however her mother's story was running in her mind in full speed, and eyeing one look on her phone, she dialed off Arnav's number and kept it on her ear, waiting for him to attend the call.

"Gupta? Are you nuts? Do you even have a clock or did you throw that pooh clock in the dustbin? Its 00:30 at night for God sakes!" Arnav grumbled on the other end of the phone, his voice heavy with condensation but Khushi just making a face for a split second, paid no heed to his words and prepared herself for what she was going to say.

"Raizada, I want you to come to that field trip." Khushi told him in an ordering voice, only to be subjected from a loud shout from the other side, and more of his aimless ranting.

"Stop shouting dude! I want you to come, please for me please, please?" Khushi said, in a soft, almost shattered voice, acting the whole thing out much to Arnav's surprise, who was calming down and seemed prefetcly alarmed sensing her pleading broken voice.

"Why is it so important?" he asked her skeptically, his voice overshadowed with skepticism as she hesitated a bit to answer at first, but then seeing no viable option left with her went over to what she knew how to do best, her saving factor-drama.

Raabta

Kehte hain,Khuda ne iss jahaan mein
Sabhi ke liye kisi na kisi ko hai banaaya, Har kisi ke liye

(It is said, that in this world

God has made someone, for everyone of us)

"Arnav? Please? Please? Please?" she said in an overly dramatic voice, sobbing away on the other end of the phone, making him go all hap hazard, and even though he knew she was being overly dramatic, and was faking it all, he only needed one thing to let the decision which was hanging on a thread to fall clear in front of him, and this had done it.

"Okay fine! I'll come, alright? Gupta stop crying! You stop crying." He told her in an exasperated tone as she cut off her drama, wiping away the real tears that she had forced out of her eyes for no reason at all.

Tera milna hai uss rab ka ishaara
Maano mujhko banaya tere jaise hi kisi ke liye

( You and me meeting is like a sign

As if you were made for someone like me only)

"Thankyou so much Raizada! Thankyou so much Raizada! I love you for this!" she skipped about in excitement, disconnecting the call, not even waiting for his reply, and jumped into bed drowsing off to sleep, unlike him who was too dazed to reply, and kept shaking his head thinking of her crazy yet lovable form.

*****************************************

Khushi walked inside the school campus the next morning, asking a few of her friends, about Ms.Anita's whereabouts and moved around aimlessly, finding the real location, entering the auditorium which was crowded with students, getting their names enlisted for the field trip. Stepping in, she had barely taken a step forward when a rough tug on her hand caused her to turn around awkwardly and before she could even comprehend anything she was pulled roughly to a dark shady corner of the auditorium , a firm hand on her mouth muffling her scared cries.

"Gupta stop making these noises. You are no better than a caged animal." Arnav remarked rudely at her as with a tight move she removed his hand from her mouth looking at him icily.

"What the hell are you doing pinning me up like this? No, why are we talking like this in the first place? Did someone mess up your internal system again?" she questioned him back an air of annoyance in her tone, with him letting go of her hand, yet still maintaining the close proximity that they were at before.

"My internal system is messed up? I am pretty sure it's the other way around. (Khushi glares at him) So, now will you tell me why me making this field trip is so important for you?" he asked her straight, tapping his fingers over his thigh, and waiting for his answer which she hesistated in giving.

"Do I really need to give an explanation for that to you? I thought you were smart enough to understand." She said in a hopeless to try to bluff him by indirectly commenting on his thinking skills, but this time there was no running away; Arnav Singh Raizada was in full form.

"Quit it. It wont work now. Look I know this for a fact that you know things that I am sure I should be knowing too. For some reason you are not telling me, and I am not asking you to tell me, I am demanding you. Tell me Khushi." He said his voice not providing any space for breathes space for Khushi, but she knew he meant well, and well using her first name, was something he never did, since she had told him not to unlike her.

"Don't call me Khushi." She said quietly, her eyes cutting off any eye contact with his, in fear that he would read her eyes, like he said he could.

Kuch toh hai tujh se raabta , Kuch toh hai tujh se raabta
Kaise hum jaane, hume kya pata , Kuch toh hai tujh se raabta

(There is some connection with you, There is some connection with you

I don't know how it is, why it is, just there is some connection with you)

"I'll call you whatever I feel like calling you. Khushi, Gupta, whatever. That's none of your business. If you can show no respect for what I want, and when I specifically told you not to call me from my first name, you fail to register to it, and call me Arnav whenever you want to get your way with me, or at other times feel like doing so. When everything is about you, now for a change can I let everything be about me?" he asked her, and everything for a moment went stand still, because in an ever conscious state Khushi knew Arnav failed to express anything he felt, and right now he was doing just that, in a normal circumstance with no one undergoing anything special.

"Ar..(Arnav gives her a shrewed look) Raizada? If you had troubles with me calling you that you should have told me before. I didn't know you were that serious about this thing, so I never paid attention. But I am sorry, I am really am, if this hurt you anyway I had no such intention." She said apologetically, extending her hand to keep on his shoulder cap, but he moved away the moment she tried to touch him, making her drown into an erry silence.

"Hurt? I am not hurt. I have a lot of problems, with a lot of things, and even more than that I need you to tell me a lot of things, but apparently, you are disinterested, and ofcourse I understand the reason behind it too, so..just forget it. Lett..Let..it be..you are after all just a girl." He remarked in a distantly hurt, and non expectant tone, backing away from her and then totally disappearing out of that dark corner, leaving her behind to collect and think over what had gone past between them.

She stepped out of the darkness, her own mind somewhere lost in that darkness itself, as she noticed the crowd thinning away, and even though against all will, she enlisted her name, and was about to go, when a name on the list caught her attention. Looking around she found it, that it was not only her who had seen the name there, several others had, which explained the hushed up tones of the people busy gossiping about it. He was coming. Despite everything he was coming. And it was clear, she knew why, for her. She had not given him the reason that he ought to know but she knew it could wait, just one more day, until their dad was there.

******************************************************

Next morning, Thursday, was a typical school morning in the Raizada household. Anjali hustled about searching for her lost pony everywhere in the house, holding her hair up so that the style which she had achieved after such hard work would not get lost, while Aakash turned the whole living room upside down looking for his misplaced cellphone. Arnav seemed too rowdy just right now, and kept stomping about grabbing his sardine sandwich from the table, which he was eating just for the sake of it, or otherwise hadn't it been for his mother he would have gone without it. Anita Raizada on the other hand, organized like she was, was busy getting her hair in place, and look at the other arrangements of the house.

The door bell at this time of the day was a very unlikely call, and when it came today, everybody in startlement stared at the door. For the first ring nobody went, for the second ring, when the surprise of it had gotten over and Anjali figured out that nobody was keen enough to open the door, grumbling something nonsensical in a hight pitch voice, she made quick strides towards the door one of her hands holding up her pony high, the other free, which she used to open the door.

What stood before her knocked the living daylights out of her right at the moment, when she had set her eyes on the person standing right in front of her. Every part of her was shaking trying to register what was going on with her, as she with one swift move let go off her hair, they spreading all over back, and rubbed her eyes over and over again to make sure she was not victim to any illusions. Pinching herself to see if its real, let out a loud howl, that confirming that everything that was happening was very much real.

Tu humsafar hai, phir kya fikar hai
Jeene ki wajah hi yehi marna issi ke liye

(You are my soul mate, then what worry do I have

This is the reason to live, the reason for which I shall die)

"Anji, who is it?" Aakash shouted from under the sofa, but upon getting no response, he poked his head from under the couch, to see Anjali standing rigidly in front of the door, not at all moving, successful in hiding whoever or whatever it is on the door that had startled her from everyone inside. Walking towards the door, grumbling about Anjali he stood, there just in time to catch Anjali's dis balanced figure that he was supporting, that eventual emotional breakdown on its way. Aakash stood as rooted to his spot, as Anjali was, and it was not until Arnav who had stepped out of his room, moved the door a bit to get a better view, that the two came back to their senses, sharing knowing looks of feelings with eachother.

"OMG! It's Paa! It's Paa" Anjali shouted on the top of her voice, that rush of emotions getting over her as she threw her arms around her father, Arjun Singh Raizada, letting tears of joy cascade down her cheeks, and over her his royal blue standard coat. It was like Anita had heard Anjali's loud welcome, that like a rocket she sped out of her room and on to the front door, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks upon seeing her husband standing on the front door, after what was a whole good 3 months.

nav_bat2012-12-16 08:33:12