Okay People, first of all my heart felt apologies for my disappearance act since the last two months. Below is only a fragment of Chapter 29 (I havent written the rest dont know when I will), I just felt like posting this. Still better than nothing.

Anyways, REALLY SORRY ALL OF YOU! for this disappointment from my side. My life is way too busy, and I know, I know that that is no reason to not update, but I just cant find the heart of time to write. 😭 Recently my grand mother passed away and I have been terribly caught up with that, so even all plans that I made to put up this chapter went down the drain.

Thank you for your cooperation. All of you.

Pleasant Reading.

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Chapter 29

Driven. The oxford dictionary that rested untouched on the left hand corner against the black railing of his book shelf, said in clear words its literal meaning and he recalled motivated or determined by a specified factor or feeling' or in an alternative meaning relentlessly compelled by the need to accomplish a goal'. In his case, he was pretty sure there wasn't any clear distinction as to which category was his driven' categorized as, but the idea behind it was however as clear as could be; right now at this moment, he was driven a thousand times more than he was 3 weeks ago, in fact if he knew best this was the best driven' he had ever been subjected to.

Right now, as the Physics class boringly dragged on, and his sight after every miniscule second lingered on to the immobile wall clock above the white board, he let out a silent curse towards the incompetent management of the school that had been bringing out the worse in him lately. Talking about lately, nothing had been right, more precisely everything was the way he had never really expected. But then, that was not something he was foreign to; atleast not now. Not after a half a year and probably more of this repeated situation he was surprisingly assumed to gel in well, well that was just an assumption as far as he was concerned, he was far from anything but gelling in'.

If he was to play the blame game at this moment, he certainly knew the most logical victim to target.

Khushi Kumari Gupta.

Maybe this was merrily co incidence or a supposed play of destiny' which he failed to believe rationally correct, but the moment he murmured the name to himself, from somewhere in a voice that was not his own, the name was said a lot more loudly and clearly, the whole class turned towards her seat, while next to him his best friend turned his head in his direction looking at him with an astutely concerned expression.

"Are you alright?" Karan asked him his tone somewhat farther away in a world more deeper than he was physically present in, causing Arnav to raise a questioning eyebrow at him, both out of annoyance and curiosity.

"I don't see why I shouldn't be." He replied back in curt, however distantly vague tone, trying to feign an expression of complete ignorance, but the way Karan's gaze seem to be boring into him, all his attempts were appearing so futile, he was beginning to doubt his very role as the main lead actor of the schools most important play.

"WHAT?" Arnav craned his neck at such an immeasurable speed, Karan was momentarily stunned for a second before stepping back into reality, his gaze not flinching still appearing as dead beat as ever.

"Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?" Karan asked in mechanical tone, drawing the worst taken aback expression Arnav could manage, and looked at him narrowly with eyes that were no more than slits his nose flaring into what gave his face a Voldemort' look.

"I assume combing my hair and dressing up is a feat I can't really accomplish without a mirror." He said in mock sarcasm, much to his surprise receiving no real expression from Karan who was still looking at him robotically. There were sharp moments of silence between them just now, which he had utilized in trying to know why Khushi's name had been called, apparently as he found out, for sleeping in the middle of the lecture, which did not surprise him at the very least it only left him with the urge to laugh and more overpowering feeling like worry to dwell upon. She looked like she had had a fresh beating up before coming to school, a state she seemed to sport every single day now, her eyes seemed to be half dead most of the times, and as he recalled while dancing, probably it was the only time he felt like she was alive, other times, accurately she was a living dead.

"You are much paler these days than I have ever seen you, and it just gets worse every day. Your body seems to have slackened, and you have lost a bit too much weight than a healthy guy would really want to have. (Arnav diverted his attention how to Karan that was looking at him with a dead serious expression) Arnav do you realize the direct implications of all this?" Karan asked now, his tone now wavering slightly as if he was about to reveal something that he had sworn not to ever spill. Arnav studied the expression on his face carefully, his eyes brows now thoroughly raised at Karan who had, he had noticed, caught a quick glance of Khushi, who was half alert in the class, her head toppling on Viveks shoulder over and over again, the poor guy trying to put her up straight.

"They have backups for you guys. (Arnav stills thoroughly) If you and Khushi continue to look like this, they will have to consider sacking you two. In fact, (Unsurity marked in Karans voice) They would definitely give you away, if this goes on any longer. Atleast Khushi's dancing up to the standards." Karan told him plainly, a distant dread and concern etched up in his voice, which Arnav had recognized, showing signs of rage erupting within him.

"Since when do they have back up's? Who are the back up's?" Arnav asked in a tone higher than he would have liked, diverting the attention of the few people that were sitting around him, Karan shooting him a vexed look, as he shot a murderous look at every one who had seen all of them getting back to what they were doing, his eyes now all on Karan, who seemed to be working on whether to divulge the names or not.

"Roger Lewis and Eve Davis." Karan said finally, and Arnav's eyes seem to dilate for a second but then went back to looking like it was all normal, like nothing of this matters.

"This is absurd. Gupta and me have been working our butts off for this play and they can just sack us because we look tired? That's like telling Robert Downey. Jr that he can't be iron man because he has circles under his eyes! Its them bloody idiots, who have made us look like that how is it our fault?" Arnav shouted out in a low whisper ironically enough managing the state perfectly, his hands shaking with the tremor his fury gave him.

"Arnav. (Coming closer to Arnav) It is not that. You and Khushi are a pair because of the chemistry you two have. And if you guys lose that, this play is a bummer. (Karan's gaze more stoned) And guys are losing it. They way you look, the way she looks, the way you seem disintegrated, is not because of the dance and the physical strain on your body, it is the mental strain. You are working yourself up over it man. And you know it. (Arnav is about to retort) Like hell you do. You have done much worse Arnav. This is about you and her. *pause* Save it before it's too late. TALK." Karan said intensely, his jaw set, and eyes firmly trained on Arnav who was just about getting the idea of the seriousness of the situation. His face lingered away from Karan to Khushi, who was just leaving the class with Vivek, in fact everybody except him and Karan who were intact in their seats, were rushing out of the class boringly gossiping to themselves.

"What about? I have already tried. Tried to make her see sense, into wearing that dress but she wont budge, she has just resorted to ignoring me. Even Vivek has tried, but she's stubborn as anything, and if she isn't listening to him I don't see what I can to about this now." He said in reproachful tone, in his mind remembering the countless times he had tried convincing Khushi to wear the dress, all these three weeks, but she was adamant on not wearing it, and whatever he had said or did somehow made it much more worse, until they were at the point as Karan said, of losing it.

"First of all, just get over it! If she doesn't want to wear it, then don't force her to. She probably has a good reason for not doing so, (Arnav is about to argue) We aren't getting into discussing that no Arnav, you already agreed that you were wrong about it and everything. Just get past it now. Both of you." Karan told him what was a strong headed, visually clear thought, and though Arnav had already pondered over this last week, what Karan did not know, and he couldn't tell was of Vivek's heart problem that had been continuously getting in the way. Only last week he had slipped out a dire comment that had cost him almost everything with her, getting into a savagely dirty argument with him.

Her chest heaved up and down, beads of sweat trickling down her forehead as she saw sat on the bench, him, mopping the sweat of her neck, now proceeding towards the sweat on her forehead, and after she was done keeping the towel next to her, she leaned back into the wall behind her and rested the back of her against it, closing her eyes in brief silence, unaware that Arnav was observing every movement of her's very carefully.

Khushi's expression shifted into one of relieving the bodily tension from her muscles, but after sometime they were the usual expression that it would get contorted into like a bad memory had just hit her. Her features would draw themselves in giving her a zombie look, the red color from her cheeks vanishing, leaving only a thin trace of their existence. Arnav had been wondering to ask her about it, to have her talk to him, but somehow he never really managed to talk to her, today however he had the sudden urge to ask her about it, which had basically compelled him now to take long swift strides towards her and throwing the towel off the bench on the floor, he took his seat next to her, her eyes fluttering open as if she had already felt his presence next to her, the very next moment his hand was resting on her bare shoulder.

"Just a few more minutes Arnav, then we can start again." Khushi told him, straightening herself a bit, but he pressed on his hand on her shoulder stilling her movements, causing her to look at him bewildered.

"I thought you might want to talk about it." Arnav said in a calm soothing voice, his gaze locked with hers that seemed to flutter a bit as if unsure of what he was talking about, but having had caught the inclination in his words she threw of the guard she had up, revealing the distraught look that she had been masking since forever. He sat their patiently waiting for her to make up her mind, which well for him looked like a million years now.

"I..I..am just worried. (looking at him directly) About Vivek." She said finally, inching towards him now as if she didnt that she might collapse because of the internal strain on her mind, which was correctly reflecting on her body well.

"Why?" He asked her in imitated curiosity, though he knew just better to test his acting skills in a situation like this. But for what was worth he really couldn't see how he was supposed to avoid this situation now that he had pleasantly walked into it himself.

"I feel you would know better than to act." Khushi objected vaguely, taking him off guard, not at all having been prepared for this statement. So she really wasn't kidding when she said she could read his mind and see through him. How convenient. Knowing nothing to give as a reply he kept silent, looking away from her, retreating his hands from her shoulder but she had already caught it before he kept it on his thigh and was enclosing it with her own. Moving more closer, tired she kept her head on his shoulder, briefly closing her eyes then opened them again, her tone depressed and feverish.

"He should tell me what is wrong with him. Its been two weeks now. I don't understand what is so critical that I cannot be trusted with it. (looking up at Arnav who is burning red) You have seen him too Arnav. You have talked to him Arnav. Do you know anything? (lifting her head off and enclosing both of his hands into hers) Please Arnav. Please." Khushi said in a down right pleading tone, her entire form looked like it would be a mess moments from now, but Arnav knew he would be subjected to this situation somehow or the other. This was more dreadful than he had intercepted, he had dared not to look up into her eyes in fear of giving the secret away that he had been safeguarding for over a month now.

"I don't know Khushi. (Khushi does not remove her expression, still looking at him hopefully) I swear to my life I don't know anything." He said finally, not sure how he had gotten to the point of swearing now, that was typically main stream of stupid guys to do so, but then he knew Khushi was under the impression that he loved nobody more than himself, and until a few months ago he had the same idea, but now things had changed, he no more cared about himself. The radical change in Khushi's expression told him she had believed him, for the first time he was thankful to the swearing traditions, maybe next time he wondered he would have to try the pinky promise' skill as well.

"I just thought you did. (her voice far away) The way you two have been getting along together..is just quiet honestly weird. (Arnav looks at her oddly) I am not complaining..I have always wanted that to happen..but I can't help feeling awkward about it." She countered back in a highly troubled tone, but after a few minutes kept her head back on his shoulder, looking far off and away.

"Gupta, (moving her head away from him, cupping her face in his hands) He's going to be fine. Maybe he needs his space, and time to confide in you. (Khushi is about to argue) I know it sounds senseless, but you shouldn't rule out any possibility. Take my word for this, if there was anything wrong with him he would tell you before any one else, (in a tone only audible to him) at least if the situation was under control." Arnav managed to tell her in the most convincing voice that he believed was his own inner talent, and after a few moment of blanketing his thoughts and looking at her with shady eyes she rigidly nodded, speaking no more. There were considerable silent moments between them, which subsided when he suggested they resume their practice.

nav_bat2013-10-21 11:21:09