Chapter 85
Previously on Teenage Love:
Khushi and Arnav deal with their tumultuous relationship and reach a truce in an effort to calm the tide of hostility and confusion between them. Vivek struggles with his disease and acquires a soft spot for a girl Casey, though unaware Casey suspects Vivek's disease and wants to look out for him without telling him so, hence they agree to work together at Casey's place for the upcoming play. Nikhil is confronted with another barrier placed by his uncle, and in an attempt to make things manageable if not worse tells Arnav of his deepest secret.
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" An hour..One hour can change everything forever. An hour can change your mind. An hour can save your life. Sometimes an hour is just a gift we give ourselves. For some an hour can mean almost nothing. For others, an hour makes all the difference in the world. But in the end it's still just an hour. One of many. Many more to come. 60 mins. 3600 seconds. That's it. And it starts all over again. And who knows what the next hour might hold?"
-Meredith Grey (The Golden Hour- Season 7)
"Aryan."
Nikhil replied back immediately, much to his utter bafflement Arnav's features becoming more withdrawn than they had been before, his silence stretching out wide between them, engulfing them both in its eeriness making Nikhil take a temporary leave from his depressed hap hazard state, and act more like his curious self.
Arnav seemed to be wrapped up in a dense internal battle, conflicting emotions inside him waging a war against each other none of the sides any near to victory. The fact that Khushi's father was spying on her instead of some stranger maniac should have offered him an exemplary amount of relief yet relief was the last emotion Arnav could conjure within him self to feel at the moment. The direness of this situation, and the urgency for Khushi to be let on this secret had multiplied in magnitude with every passing second of rational thought that he devoted to it. He already had the burden of harboring Vivek's secret from her, another secret that too related to her father would be plain foolishness to keep from her, not to mention the unexplainable harm it would do to his relationship with her. No, he decided firmly, he couldn't hide, and looking up at a curious Nikhils sight zeroed on him he reached his decision conclusively. Khushi will know and Nikhil shall tell her.
"C'mon, you are coming with me to Gupta's place" he announced, breaking into the erry quiet and got up from the bed he was sitting on walking towards the door, turning around only when he heard no sound of feet following him, instead being met by the sight of a gaping Nikhil looking at him incredulously.
"What? (Arnav arches a stern eyebrow at him) Weren't you paying attention? The whole point of telling you first was because I cant tell her!" Nikhil exclaimed horrified, stunned beyond his wits at Arnav's stupidity. How thick did someone have to be to get the main crux of an intimidating, intense conversation not through their head?
"You are going to tell her Nikhil. (Nikhil is about to argue back) Shut up! You are telling her, and you are telling her right now! This is the only way out of this mess. Quit your whiny play and get going!" Arnav told him in a highly controlled voice that bore no argument, keeping his anger in check, and after what were several long moments of hesitation in which Arnav's impatience was just about to reach its optimum, Nikhil finally got up from his seat and reluctantly followed Arnav out of his room.
The two boys made their way out of the house, not before Nikhil had informed his parents that he was going to Khushi's, them looking at Arnav suspiciously having heard his voice booming from the room above but nodded nevertheless, and the two of them grabbing their coats headed out walking the desolate path to Khushi's house next door.
"You still haven't told me what's the connection between her and Purab's father." Nikhil asked once they had stepped out of the boundary of his house, Arnav deftly ignoring his question for a few seconds before finally deciding that it was only for the best that Nikhil should be let on to the full extent of the mess he had gotten himself into and dragged him and Khushi in it undoubtedly.
"Father. Aryan Gupta is Khushi's father." He answered in voice that was tinged with disgust and overwhelmed by the vehemence he felt for the man in question. If it was possible to supersede his astonishment he felt when Arnav had announced that Nikhil was coming with him to tell Khushi the truth, his expression now at this news had clearly won the battle of surprise by a huge margin. He had wondered for days every single day for the last three months about the secret connection of his uncle with Khushi but not even in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that he would be Khushi's father. True he knew Aryan already had a wife and daughter from a previous marriage, and was in a live-in relationship with Purab's mother Rita, but Khushi being that daughter was like the a sick joke.
"You are kidding right? No ways!" Nikhil voiced out his surprise clearly bowled over by this piece of news, the impatient expression on Arnav's face only darkening, him clenching his fists tightly in an outstanding show of control of the rage that was actually building up inside him at an astonishingly alarming pace.
"Keep your over the top reaction to yourself in front of Gupta. (Nikhil marginally calms down) You have already given her enough to deal with." Arnav hissed at him sharply, Nikhils surprised reaction flying swiftly right out of the window at his dangerous tone, and he smoothed his expression saying no more until they were standing at Khushi's front door.
Inside the house Khushi, was struggling to fully understand the threesome meeting with Arnav and Nikhil who she had just seen walking out of Nikhil's house and to her surprise heading straight towards her giving her merrily seconds to prepare herself and erase the confusion from her face that seemed to find its way back to her no matter what. At the sound of the door bell ringing she took her time to open it as to not appear overly enthusiastic and opened to find Arnav and Nikhil together both wearing identical grim expressions on their face, though Arnav's was obviously accompanied with his signature scowl that was always there whenever he was forced to be in the same vicinity as Nikhil.
"Hey" She greeted them uncertainly, side stepping to let them enter and closing the door behind them once they had entered, Nikhil who had greeted her back with a strained smile while Arnav had only nodded his grim expression not wavering.
"Umm Sup?" Khushi asked them confused, her eyes flitting from one face to another once they were seated on the couches in her living room, Arnav purposely sitting away from Nikhil and next to Khushi who seemed to be silently questioning him with her eyes but only got a blank unresponsive look from him.
"I need to tell you something Khushi." Nikhil said finally, after what was the longest time for Khushi probably a millennia, Arnav's posture becoming more rigid if that was possible only increasing her puzzlement, Nikhil having some silent talk with Arnav hitting the same wall of non-emotion as she had, and finally taking a huge breathe and collecting himself, he began.
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Seated comfortably on the mint green couches Vivek and Casey gorged themselves on the mac and cheese they had prepared and on the pepperoni pizza Casey had ordered before hand. Seeing Vivek at ease, that troubled look on his face momentarily wiped made Casey happy, for the lack of a better word, there were words that did more justice to the overwhelming emotion she felt right now, but the base level word happy' made it feel as realistic as the feeling could possibly get.
"I had completely forgotten how delicious this actually tastes." Vivek remarked happily, licking his spoon clean as he stood up to deposit the dirty dishes back to the sink in the kitchen all the while acutely aware of how Casey's eyes followed every single movement he made, no matter how basic. She looked at him, in fascination as if there was nothing like him that she had seen before, and while that feeling of being viewed like that wrapped him in a blanket of warmth, he also felt guilty for not being able to give it any more serious consideration no matter how much he wished he could. Given he had earlier decided that if he really had to move on, Casey would make a good fit, but now seeing the raw emotions reflected on her face he wasn't so sure if he would ever be able to return the magnitude of her emotions. No matter how dull his own chances of scoring a real partner were, given his secret heart condition and then his overwhelming affection for Khushi which disconcerted more girls, he wouldn't spoil Casey's chances in the dating arena. Suddenly he felt silly for even coming here, for the secret happiness he had let himself feel earlier by being that close to her at the expense of letting her feelings grow something he knew he wasn't capable of reciprocating. He had been so selfish, he was so selfish, he autocorrected himself, as his eyes fell upon Casey who was know piling her share of dirty dishes on the sink, while he had walked back to his place on the couch, her expression was so star struck he couldn't help but feel a rush of raw hatred for himself.
Averting his gaze from her and the narrowing of twinkling blue eyes on her, he picked up one of the folders resting ideally on the table and starting rummaging through it, none of his non existent creative talent rising inside him much to his utter dismay, but atleast this was one step away from leading on Casey, he comforted himself feebly.
"Any bright ideas yet?" Casey asked him in her usual soft considerate voice, which was by a huge margin more cheerful and less nervous in comparison to her tone pre-mac and cheese deal.
"None at all." He replied back dully, much to her confusion who couldn't understand his sudden descent in mood from the easy going Vivek minutes later. Yet she did not voice out her concerns and only nodded, seeing his forehead twisted in concentration like he was trying to figure something out, meanwhile she seeing he was making no real talk with her fished out her laptop from her bag lying nearby on the couch and booted it to access the folder on creative management' she had collected data in for the making of the poster. She wasn't sure how editing the script had out of nowhere lead her to being the head of the creative department after the unceremonious departure of the previous head due to malaria.
"Love is but the greatest war." Vivek said after some time, effectively calling an end to the suffocating silence that had prevailed between the two of them. Casey looked up from her laptop, eyeing him puzzled, momentarily lost about what he was talking about. Finally back tracking her thoughts to the problem at present she shook her head in mild disapproval.
"Too clich. (Viveks face goes down) You are on the right track though." Casey said encouragingly, Vivek giving her a withdrawn smile, went back to his thinking mode, her sight lingering on his tired profile for a while but she went back to doing her work again ignoring the urge to say something to him about it.
"We can take suggestions from other people right?" Vivek asked her what was like 20 minutes later, and though perplexed she nodded, holding back on giving him caution warnings since she was sure he was pretty well drilled on it already. Vivek fished out his cellphone, sifting through his contact list, and finally locating the number of his person of interest he dialed keeping his phone to his ear.
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"I need to tell you something Khushi." Nikhil said finally, after what was the longest time for Khushi probably a millennia, Arnav's posture becoming more rigid if that was possible only increasing her puzzlement, Nikhil having some silent talk with Arnav hitting the same wall of non-emotion as she had, and finally taking a huge breathe and collecting himself, he began.
"Khushi please just..before I say anything I just want to say how terribly sorry I am and how inexcusable my crime is..(Khushi looks at him confused)..and that I never wanted to do something like this..you are a genuinely good friend of mine and I don't want to lose that..(Arnav glares at him, Khushi is all the more baffled) but..anyways..so the thing is that I..I was spying on you." Nikhil said finally his face turning from crimson to beetroot red from intense shame, Arnav sitting stiff clenched fists next to Khushi his head turned towards her to gauge her reaction however Khushi seemed in a daze like from the shock of being the main protagonist in a third grade thriller movie she never signed.
"Spy? On me? Why? What for? Who Why..What the hell Nikhil?" Khushi sputtered out between irregular pauses her features pulled up in a completely hap hazard expression much like the disarray of emotions and thoughts that was consuming her internally. Upon Khushi's quite-so-expected reaction Nikhil averted his gaze from hers which was boring straight into him, searching his soul, him busying him self with knotting and unknotting his hands.
"I..struck up a deal with my uncle..(looking at Arnav for confirmation who gives a rigid nod) your father..(Khushi pales)..to spy on you..to give reports on you every single day in exchange for the financial aid he would provide for my girlfriend in Bulgaria" Nikhil explained his frantic expression going deeper and deeper into a depressive state thinking of her, the girlfriend in question. Why was loving so costly?
Khushi sat next to Arnav motionless, trying effortlessly to wrap her mind around Nikhil's bizzard confession. There was the sincere confessions that she had witnessed and then there were crazy confessions like these which made no sense what so ever. Her dad told Nikhil to spy on her? Her dad was his uncle? What even was the connection, what in the name of God was she plunged into now? In a fruitless attempt to make sense of her situation her gaze flitted to Arnav's who was still busy carving laser holes into Nikhil's slouched form with his fixated glare. Sensing her barely coordinating with her muscles he turned his eyes to her who were searching him begging him for any assistance, but before he could explain, he saw the accusatory look in her eyes this being the cue for him to talk.
"Gupta no! What you are thinking..its not like that! I didn't know any of this until now. Until half an hour ago, when this sleaze ball (glaring at Nikhil again) confided in me. (Khushi looks at him questioningly) your father, told him to eliminate me from your life." Arnav explained trying his best to keep his calm and not break Nikhil's neck right there and then, allowing Khushi to clear her head if only momentarily.
"Ofcourse he said that. That's like his mission ever since he saw you that day at the hospital with me." She said sourly, her tone getting automatically bitter thinking of her by gone dad. However there were more pressing questions on her brain that needed to be answered instead of judging her dads already clearly psychopathic thought processes.
"How do you know my father Nikhil? What do you mean hes your Uncle?" She asked Nikhil, her voice clinical and devoid of any personal expression, all business Nikhil looking at Arnav for much needed assistance which Arnav grudgingly offered.
"I didn't know hes your father Khushi..I..hes my uncle..I mean he's Purabs step dad (Khushi's mouth falls open)..Arnav here says hes your dad from the description I gave about him." Nikhil told her in his most composed voice, trying to figure out her mental processes which at the moment seemed to be explained by one single word SHOCK.
"Are you sure Raizada?" Khushi asked him in a slow deadened tone, hoping against all hope that he would not answer in the affirmative however as he gave a small nod to her, all lingering hopes died instantly, she holding her head in her hands trying to get a grip on the sinister hammering inside her head. Passing another tight lipped murderous look at Nikhil who at this point had gotten fairly immune to Arnav' death glares looked at Khushi with a mixed emotion of concern and remorse on his face. Arnav on the other hand scooted closer to her keeping a tentative hand on her shoulder.
"Gupta?" He said her name out softly, causing a minute relaxing in her posture which for the most part was slumped and defeated.
"Why does the universe have to play all these sick jokes on me?" She said out loud miserably digging her finger tips into her temples burying her face completely in her hands so as to not see the pitiful looks on Arnav and Nikhil'faces. Atleast she assumed they were pitiful considering her life seemed to have more melodrama than a bad Indian soap opera.
The three of them sat in the uncomfortable silence that engulfed them each fighting their own internal battles until Khushi rather reluctantly let go off her head from her hands facing the two males that were hanging on her every movement, making her groan inwardly. So much for escaping the limelight, she thought.
"Do you have a picture of him? Your..that man" She said finally backtracking from her original identification term for the her father/purabs step father/nikhils uncle going with the term that man'. It was easier to act detached merely by forgetting their relationship like it was a stranger she was talking about and not her father. At her question Nikhil merrily nodded and after a few quite seconds handed over the phone to her with a guilty expression which was sort of irritating Khushi at this point but she chose to ignore it and silently took the phone seeing their assumptions hitting home with the proof that she now held in her hands. Sure as hell it was her 6 foot three inch, well built, hulk of a father standing next to the boy that she despised from the deepest nerves in her body and then there was Nikhil who to her own surprise she seemed to be holding no evident grudge against. How odd.
"Yeah it is him. (fixing her gaze on Nikhil) Nikhil? (Nikhil looks up at her so does an incredulous Arnav by her side) Don't feel sorry for me. Or guilty for that matter. I...am surprised..but not as such..my father resorting to such a degree of stalkerish antics is not well..totally unexpected..I am sure you know he likes control and being an insufferable know-it-all. (Nikhil nods after a beat, too shock to process her words coherently) Oh and..I..wont confront him..not yet..until we figure out this situation with this girlfriend of yours (Nikhil is stunned beyond comprehension) so uhh yeah its fine Nikhil" Khushi ended her speech abruptly, her eyes turning briefly in Arnavs direction who just seem to shake his head in utter disbelief while Nikhil sitting right in front of her had a 180 degree flip in expression looking at her with utter gratitude worshipfully making her slightly uncomfortable.
"Will you really do that for me Khushi?" He asked her utterly flabbergasted and no where near into coming to terms with this goodness in her. He was aware of the fact that she was a good person, but to such an extended degree? No he had absolutely never imagined that.
"I would do that for anyone Nikhil. You are as much a victim as I am." She said dismissively earning another grunt from Arnav by her side who she for the moment chose to ignore focusing back on Nikhils trying to keep every ounce of her will power intact. What she had not seen coming was Nikhil with lightening speed coming down on his knees and holding her hands in his, his features going totally worshipful, taking her by surprise and rendering her incoherent.
"Khushi..Thankyou..like thankyou so much..I..just thankyou so much Khushi..I don't know how to thankyou or how to say sorry to you I just really thankyou Khushi. This means the world to me..thankyou so much" he said squeezing her hands not realizing that it was possibly cutting off her blood circulation but she just gave him a watery hesitant smile not sure how to react. By her side Arnav seemed to be so rigid with tension it was only a pleading look from her that he didn't act on the anger inside him and instead chose to flex his fingers for no apparent reason.
"Nikhil its..its fine..you should go home." She stammered due to the pain of dealing with the circulation Nikhil was cutting off but much to her relief he let go off her hands and instantly stood up reclaiming some of his usual confident demeanor though the worshipping expression on his face with respect to Khushi was far from vanishing.
"Yeah I should go. Thanks a lot once again Khushi (looking at Arnav) You too Arnav..for listening to me and bringing me here. I am glad you brought me here." Nikhil told them both bringing his hand forward to pat Arnav on the shoulder but thought better of it and quickly retreated his hand not before seeing Arnav's clenched jaw loosening and him rolling his eyes at him, which Nikhil studiously ignored, giving a last smile to both of them, he exited.
Nikhils departure only intensified the tension between Arnav and Khushi who sat glumly on the couch next to eachother but worlds apart from eachother trying to cope up with their demented situation. Not so surprisingly Khushi broke up away from the reverie of it first. Slowly she kept her hands on Arnav's thigh and trained her eyes on him wordlessly forcing him to look at her which he swallowing the frustration inside him did.
"Thankyou for not keeping it a secret Raizada." She told him softly, a determined tortured expression crossing his handsome features but was gone away in a flash, making Khushi wonder if it was even there in the first place.
"I don't want to keep any secrets from you, if I can help it Gupta, you should know that." Arnav told her sincerely with a set jaw, his eyes locked on hers which seemed to have a hundred emotions pass through them but finally one of them clearly triumphed.
"I know now." She confirmed squeezing his knee, all the tension in his body instantly ebbing away at her declaration awarding her with a small smile. Too quickly though she wretched her eyes away from him and scooted to the far end of the couch staring into space biting on her nails with that glazed looked in her eyes that was a clear indication that her brain cells were on a vacation and would temporarily be unavailable.
Despite himself and the deep seated hostility that was still breeding luxuriously inside him Arnav felt his mood lighten, a faint smile playing on his lips at the comical concentrated expression on her face. Much to his horror she had chewed up her nails to stubs, or perhaps had gone way past nibbling the skin on the sketchy line of biting into them and bleeding but before that could happen he had deftly gotten up fro the couch and made his way towards the fridge holding out a large tub of chocolate ice cream to an unsuspecting Khushi. She looked at him once, more so in a daze and gratefully took the tub of ice cream and spoon from his hand immediately digging into it at top speed, a highly amused expression painted on Arnav's face who fell back on the couch letting this comic show unveil before him.
"You seemed more like the baking the entire house rations type to me" He commented after somewhile, being graced with no response immediately, probably because her hearing senses had dulled to zero. When she did finally realize he had said something she looked at him with such incomprehension he was beginning to doubt if he had actually been speaking troll all along.
"Huh?" Khushi asked him between a mouthful of ice cream, trying to still wrap her head around the idea that he was still there, or more specifically trying to exactly remember why exactly was he still her, apart from her damsel in distress routine knight saving.
"Why are you still here?" She asked abruptly, rather harshly for that matter, playing on her damsel-in-distress theory at which he looked at her skeptically, his tone and expression becoming extremely cautious.
"Because I am waiting for you to uhh tell me where the CD's I sent earlier are so I can review our dance practices?" He said deliberately slow not sure if she was even processing any of his words but then seeing the look of harshness turn to extreme confusion to deep rooted embarrassment she kept the ice cream bowl in her lap with a loud bang on the table immediately burying her face in her hands much to his intense amusement, after a few seconds peeking out from the gap in her hands to look at his expression which much to her complete bewilderment was far from being livid as she had expected.
"You aren't angry?" She asked incredulously, still struggling heavily with her deteriorated mental state, getting no meaning what so ever of his casual stance and well vaguely baffled look on his face that had surfaced 3 seconds ago.
"Angry about what Gupta?" He questioned back in a cautious tone, not sure what in the world she was referring to. The fact that he was still angry at Nikhil was long established but he was pretty damn sure after one hour of her indulging in ice cream and him doing absolutely nothing, her question had nothing to do with their earlier predicament.
"I wasted so much of your time Raizada! Arent you angry? (Arnav shakes his head in casual hilarity) Oh God that must be a first for you! (Arnav rolls his eyes) Regardless I am not going to push my luck..I think..and well we should get to work." Khushi said rather apprehensively still trying to gauge Arnav's serenely calm reaction to a well for the lack of a better word not so calm situation.
"Its not WE. It's I. I am going to review our dancing videos and you Gupta are going to sleep." Arnav said in a tone that bore no argument, sitting up straight on the sofa now, as to appear dominating though his sorry attempts had never really worked on Khushi and today was no exception.
"Excuse me what? Why the hell am I going to sleep while you work?" She raised her voice at him in astonishment, figuring out two and two but in any case seeing his unfazed expression at her outburst she reached the conclusion that two and two was possibly zero.
"Well because you look like shit Gupta and we have a photo shoot tomorrow! For which I should mention you are supposed to look good." He blurted out impassively, his eyes trained on her amazed at the quick switch in expression from incredulity to rage and now something that lied fairly in between the two.
"Gee thanks for the ego boost Raizada." She replied back dryly, rolling his eyes at him, and at that he almost, mind you almost laughed, except well he didn't.
"I wasn't saying anything about your damn looks in general Gupta! You are a fine specimen. (Khushi's eyes pop out of her sockets looking at him unblinkingly) But you could probably do without those purples shades under your eyes." He insisted subtly, restraining himself from going cute on her not that it was an art that came to him naturally.
For a few unblinking seconds, she adjusted her self to the fact that Arnav had complimented her however crudely, not that this was a first time but compliments from him never went down well with her. But having had bypassed that aspect, she knew that he was right. She did feel horrible and an early night could possibly take her looks a long way tomorrow at the photoshoot.
"Fine. I'll sleep. (Arnav has a triumphant expression on his face) Hey back off! (punches his shoulder) I will be pestering you about the whole task tomorrow. EARLY TOMORROW." She said emphasizing her words haughtily, crossing her arms around her chest to give an impression that he indeed did not have the last word in this whole ordeal.
"You aced the art of pestering me a long time ago, no doubt" He commented lightly, laughing, a rare sound from him as he did so swiftly getting up from the sofa and successfully ducking a full blown kick in the shins by her. He trooped into Khushi's room, her close on his heels with a slightly irate but mostly cheerful expression on her face ever so grateful for his company. She wasn't sure if she would have lapsed back to normalcy after the highly alarming news revealed by Nikhil, and she felt all the gratitude in the world for Arnav for not dissecting the whole issue with her just yet.
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Vivek sat propped up legs stretching off on Casey's couch, lieing his back against the head rest as he went through the dress samples file that was in his hand flipping through it uninterested sneaking a peek now and then at Casey's who was busy making last minute edits on the already designed sample posters. He had come up blank with the one liner idea what with Arnav not picking up his calls at all, so Casey had handed him this, which was definitely a stab at his intellect as he saw it.
"They all look the same to me! How am I suppose to choose one for Chun?" Vivek whined, earning a light hearted chuckle from Casey who scooted towards him from the adjacent couch peeking up at the samples from her shoulder.
"Do you think Khushi would have a preference? (Vivek shrugs) C'mon Vivek! You must know something. You are her best friend. (Vivek is about to say something in protest) Fine. If you choose one for Khushi, I'll do the one for Arnav. Now please Vivek decide on one, I need to book that dress." Casey urged him on returning back to her work on the laptop definitely moved by the close proximity with Vivek she was at, and the havoc that created with her nerves, but she was keeping it in control, and as long as she could do that, she hoped everything would be fine.
Vivek continued to flip through the wretched file, not sure how he had ended up choosing clothes for his best friend. Really, he was convinced that was not in his job description by a long shot. He thought back to what Casey had just told him running in his mind endless conversation with Chun about clothes which he had mostly tuned out, not that there were a lot of them to begin with. Chun seemed to be as detached about the whole task of dressing up as well as males were, he was surprised she even had a roughly girlish wardrobe stocked up courtesy to her mother obviously. He had a vague idea that she might start caring if Arnav decided to propose him, but knowing how dull Arnav was he could only hope for something like that to happen. At the mention of Arnav something clicked inside his mind, a long memory, something he wanted to pack away in a desolate compartment of his brain and never think about, the tormented pained look on her face still haunted him sometimes, the look hit too close to home, seeing as it had recently surfaced back, because of him. His mouth twisted unpleasantly like he had swallowed a particularly bitter medicine, and he worked on clearing his mind to think about the task on hand revisiting that memory of the cold winters.
"The dream. Well, it was a dream one of a kind, and it is always going to be a dream only. A fragment of my imagination. A dream. (her voice seemed to break). I was in a blue gown. It was a royal blue, his favorite kind of blue, but I prefer sky blue more than it, but that's fine it was atleast blue, and I love blue. We were in the campsite, nobody else was there, in fact I was alone, and then suddenly I felt him creeping up from behind, holding me from the waist. That was the closest proximity we have ever been, or I consciously remember. I touched his cheek, my hands were cold, he seemed to know that, but he didn't say anything, he was just staring at me, smiling that lop sided smile of his that I love. I didn't know when he had hoisted me off the ground, and I looked down at him still smiling, my nose touching his, it was like a fairytale I think, the kind of fairytales that you can only hear about but never see. I could cry with the love I saw emitting from his eyes, and I did actually cry you know, atleast there was a single tear that fell from my eyes, which landed on his palm. He extended his hand towards the stars that were shining upwards, and blew the tear in that direction making it a star as well. Wonderful isn't it?" Khushi quieted down again,and for a single moment Vivek felt that he didn't want to listen anymore because it was too much of a torture on her, he had undoubtedly seen a flicker of happiness on her face when she was relating the dream sequence, and he yearned for her that someday it would be true, he believed with all his heart that it would be. He wasn't fond of Arnav was a fact, but the guy was worth his Chun's trust and love was another fact that he was not going to deny.
As the bitter memory came to a halt, he restored back activity into his numb fingers, sitting up straight, and with more determination this time scanned through the file in his hand finally stopping on one a thrilled pleased smile spreading on his face. None of this internal drama went unnoticed by an attentive Casey, but she chose to not interrupt his reverie knowing he would confide in her if he wanted to. She hoped against all hope that he would. If he didn't how would she tell her that she knew? Breaking unceremoniously into Casey's troubled thought processes, Vivek looked at her with a triumphant expression highly pleased with himself.
"I found the perfect dress for Chun!" He announced joyfully, grinning from ear to ear, causing a small smile to split on Casey's face too involuntarily as she sat next to him on the couch looking at the dress he had finally decided on.
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