Chapter 69

Batool Imran

@nav_bat

Vivek lay freely on his bed, his arms and legs spread all over the bed, eyes closed trying to enjoy the moment of peace right now. Just when he thought he could go to sleep, his phone began to vibrate in his pocket causing him to make up a screwed up expression, fishing out his phone from pocket, that messed up expression on his face lightening up seeing Khushi's name flash on the smartphone screen.

"Hey. Whats up?" Vivek asked her joyfully, still laying too tired to wake up, and most certainly too withered out to sit up straight right now.

"Hi. You at home right now?" Khushi asked her directly coming to the point her voice slightly shaky, and tensed voice finally causing Vivek to sit up erect on his bed.

"Yeah. Yeah..I am at home. (concerned) Chun you alright? Whats going on?" Vivek asked his voice laced with concern for her, his words met with silence from the other end for a split moment.

"Can I come over?"

"Huh? (trying to re collect his random thoughts) Yeah Sure. (getting up and grabbing his car keys from the side table) I'll pick you up." He said, evidently sensing that whatever it was important, he could easily tell by the urgency her tone was sporting.

"No. No. I'll come." Khushi insisted springing up from bed, and picking up the bag she had brought with her that had her pajama's in it, for the over night stay she was going to have at the Raizada house. Change of plans though, she was going to have it at Vivek's house now, much better than here.

"Don't be stupid. It's raining cats and dogs outside. Look out from the window it's raining again (Khushi looks out sighing to herself) , stay where you are, I am coming. You are at home right?" He asked her quickly, hopping into his car, telling his mother a quick word that he was coming back in a few minutes.

"No. At the Raizada's." She said solemnly masking the surly feeling in her voice.

"Oh. Oh okay. I am coming." He said disconnecting the line, and confused as hell, cursing the rain for good, somehow drove his way to the Raizada house, honking outside their door way, a disintegrated Khushi waving at him from the door, but instead went to the garage, where hearing the bizarre honking Arnav had come out almost bumping into Arnav on her way to meet him.

"What is going on? (trying to make out the person in the car) Is that Vivek?" Arnav asked baffled searching her for answers who instead of answering pulled him towards her, bringing him into the meager shade of the umbrella she was holding.

"I called Vivek. I'll be spending the night at his place. (Arnav is about to argue) I have informed Maa about it, and she's fine with it so you don't need to worry." Khushi said quickly, Arnav missing half her words but ultimately getting the jest of it all.

"Is there a problem staying here for the night?" He asked her the edge in his voice now growing deeper, looking enviously at Vivek who was busy staring at the two of them from the driver seat window.

"No. I just don't want to. Besides Vivek and I have some thing to talk about so.." She said trying to give a convincing excuse to him, to make it all sound less awkward than it all was already.

"Oh okay." He said cutting short whatever he originally intended to say, waving her off, as she sped towards the car, going inside hurriedly just enough wet to have her hair dripping water all over Viveks car seat.

"Hey. I wasn't expecting you to get here this quick, what with the rain doing hazardous wonders." Khushi said mildly cheerful, as he managed to give her a small smile, putting the key into the ignition and took a reverse turn towards his own house.

"So? I am listening you can let the fountain flow." He told her, momentarily looking at her then focusing his sight on the road ahead again.

"Nothing really. I just needed to be with my best friend right now." She told him, letting an awkward silence take place between them.

"Yeah, me too." He said quietly almost to himself, putting his hand momentarily on his heart, then removing it quickly in fear she would notice, placing it back on the steering while, however even though his tone had been un audible she had heard what he said.

"Is there a problem?" she said, studying his face for any answers but all he did was mask the worry of his face and easily plastered a good natured smile on his lips.

"No. Of course not. Is there any harm in wishing to be with my best friend?" He asked her, taking her at off guard for a second until she quickly recovered shaking her head left and right, still looking at him apprehensively.

"Chun. Relax. I am alright. *pause* You still haven't told me why you were at the Raizada's and apparently wont spend the night there." He asked her queasily, now bringing forward the main topic at hand. Quickly she related to him of how, her mother away with his parents, to some function, and that Anjali and Aakash had an overnight stay with their friends, so she and Arnav were alone a home. He patiently waited for her to relate the length of her and Arnav's talk, stopping in between to get lost in her thought, or maybe just pout of common emotion that was over whelming her.

"Look Chun, you got to take the risk to trust him again, to give him a second chance, or atleast you have to take the risk to move on from him and then promise yourself to never look back. You can choose. Its either one of them, because there is no way that exists in between or like nothing can happen. Either way it's a risk you are taking. And I know you are afraid to do it, but you have to do it, no matter what. (his ton becoming more emphasizing) You get that? You have to do it. Because that's you. And you are going to do it. (He keeps his hand on Khushi's shoulder, giving her a determined smile) And no matter what, don't worry, I will always have your back." He told her firmly, taking the turn into the lane, the last one before they drove towards his house.

"Stop the car. (Vivek looks at her confused) Just stop the car Vivek." She said again, this time more gravely, and he stopped the car, in a corner, just having enough time to hug her back, as she leapt on to him, holding him for dear life.

"I know you said that people keep living even if they think they cant when someone goes, but I swear to my life, I don't know what I would do without you. For the first time I am not sure, if I wouldn't consider the option of suicide if you left." She said, in a somehow calmer tone, hugging him tightly for what it was worth, a rush of deadly emotions consuming up Vivek, who pulled her softly from him, seeing her eyes dilate with surprise.

"Shutup. Don't say about things that you don't know. You don't know what life's got in store for you." He told her in a more stern and angry way then he intended causing her to instead of backing away having her looks more closely at him, her gaze fixed into him steadily.

"Vivek. You know I am your best friend right? (Vivek nods) And you know you are my pocession don't you? (Vivek nods) And that a major part of my world consist of you? (Vivek sheepishly nods again) Then you would also know that we are a part of each other, and you can't hide stuff from me. (Vivek nods slowly again, Khushi holds his face in her palms tightly) Don't keep nodding you idiot! Tell me what's going on. And tell me the truth this time." Khushi said aggressively, holding his face so tightly, that her fingers were almost making marks on his face, but he remained, unable to meet his eyes, but then finally looked up with them, his eyes welled up with emotion.

"I'll tell you I promise. Just not right now Chun. Do me a favor, just hug me as tightly as you can, and don't leave my side. Ever. I need you." He said weakly, as she brought him closer to herself and hugged him with all her might, her mind producing ever radical, horrible thoughts in her mind but she forced herself to put them at bay, and concentrate on holding him together, instead of breaking apart on something she didn't know about and probably was never going to know, considering what the emotions he had delivered at the moment.

They stayed in that position for a considerable amount of time then broke free, their faces dry, while the word was wet, their thoughts polluted with a number of horrifying possibilities running wild, but they decided to keep them at bay, and live in the moment for now, because the truth was, this moment was the moment they were in right now, and when it was gone it was just gone, time never waited for anybody and it wouldn't for them either.

"So, you heard about the drama competition our schools participating in?" Vivek asked breaking the vexatious silence between them, gaining Khushi's attention who was lost in thought before.

"No. What competition?" Khushi asked, as he quickly told her of how busy he has been during the vacations working on the script of the drama, and that they were in the last stages so they were going to have actor auditions by day after tomorrow probably.

"Wait. Urdu song? Why? Who of us knows Urdu here?" Khushi asked perplexed as he went on to explain how they were given a specific language for which the song should belong to, and since it was musical theatre, so basically the song lyrics were actually used as the dialogues in the play, along with background narration.

"Oh so what are you doing there?"

"I am in the team of script writers, and the male narrator of the story." Vivek told her pleased with himself to get the job for himself.

"Wow. That's really cool. Who is the female narrator? And how many characters are up for auditions?"

"The female narrator hasn't been finalized as yet. And there aren't really so many characters. Just the male and the female protagonist, a few other non speaking characters, that's about it I think."

"What are the requirements for the role?"

"I am telling you, you will fit in perfectly, if you pass the auditions. The girl should be good looking, a graceful dancer, preferably a good singer, and obviously a good actor. You are an ace in all of them Khushi, you should really try for that role." Vivek told her optimistically, and after a little pondering smiled and nodded, informing him that she would accompany him to the auditions day after tomorrow then. As soon as she had said the car stopped and they hopped out of the car into the house, she giving her greetings to the homely Mr and Mrs Mandvi who were just about to tuck themselves to bed, Vivek rushing into his room and clearing off the mess in it, being done just as she entered.

"Whoa. Your beds big. You can sleep on one side, and I can sleep on the other, if you don't have a problem with it?" Khushi asked, placing her bag on the corner of the room, as Vivek nodded, her going into the washroom to get changed into her pajamas while Vivek went in the washroom outside to change into his night suit, thoughts in his mind wading back to surface. He was worried about how long he could hide it from her and others, it would be out some day, he just dreaded the day when it did come out though, his life was going to end even before it was supposed to.

"I am kind of worn out. You don't mind if I doze off do you?" She told him when he entered the room, and with a shake of his hand he told her it was perfectly fine, stating he was tired too, and she switched the lamp on her side off, turning about on one side, pretending to close her eyes and go to sleep but the harder she tried the more she failed, sleeping was truthfully the last thing on her mind.

"Hey, Good night." Vivek told her, capturing her out of her reverie, causing to roll back to his side to look at him face to face.

"Yeah. You too. Good night." Khushi told him, keeping her hand on the hand that rested ideally by his side, him rewarding her with a small smile.

"It's all going to be okay Vivek. Soon. Good things come to good people." She told him positively, giving him a good big smile, her eyes twinkling with re found hope.

"I hope it is as true as it sounds." He said dolefully, rolling over to the other side so his back was to her now as she sighed rolling over to the other side, so their backs faced eachother both lost in the thoughts, forcing themselves to succumb to sleep.

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Regarding The Title

First Cut Is The Deepest- As most of you ust have figured it out already this is a song featured title, with the same title as the song of the update. And it fitted aptly with the story covered in this chapter. Starting from the Vivek-Arnav missed banter that hadnt been revealed in the previous chapters, sheds light on the missing pieces of the puzzle, and shows how conflicted Arnav is and what the first wound does to a person. The Khushi-Vivek and Khushi-Nikhil scene speaks a lot in terms of repairing hearts broken for the first times, they are wounds that have been inflicted for a life time now. And the deep Khushi-Arnav conversation spoke for itself in all regard with the title. Vivek-Khushi conversation was an heart to heart connection of shattered, seeking or shelter hearts.

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Events In The Chapter

As a writers point of view this was a very critical chapter that shed light on a lot of matters and mostly laid the foundations for the journey ahead. Everything starts from here right now, every word in this chapter has meaning behind it, took me a lot of thought to write this down, I have been waiting for this phase to start since forever now.

Honestly confessing, this is also the only chapter in which Arnav-Khushi and Khuchi-Vivek conversations are something that I am completely satisfied with and have confidence that it cant get any better than this. This is in relevance, a very rare occurrence, so just wanted to share it with you guys.

Special Update is only 2-3 chapters away now, so keep following the story people. :D We all know what this Special Update is going to hold for us. ;)

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Precap

His systems seemed to shut down within him as he under the crouched hidden position he was looking from, saw inside the two people who he least expected to be seen at the same time in a place like this. Staring awkwardly like this was embarrassing for him, he knew he was not capable of doing something like that, but something inside him told him, that walking right through in could lead into a moment of mass destruction.

"You should let your parents know Vivek. (her tone growing stern) Or I will." from outside Arnav heard his mother speak to Vivek in a considerate yet a distantly cold manner, Viveks back to him, but from his tensed posture he could certainly fathom that something was terribly wrong.

"I will. Just not right now Dr. Anita. Don't worry I'll take care of myself." Vivek assured her smiling at her and walked out of her cabin, Arnav inching away from the door now standing straight as Vivek turned into the corner where Arnav was positioned his eyes bulging out of his sockets.

"Wh..at..are you.doing here?" Vivek asked him troubled, stammering so hard, it was almost a miracle that he was even able to string up a complete sentence.

"Everything else later. Follow me."

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