Chapter 10 [Editing]

Koeli

@Koeli

Chap 10

Lamhe(moments)

Arnav took her in his arms and rushed towards the bed. After he laid her on the bed he made his way towards the other side of the bed and sat besides her, taking her in his arms.

"DADI!" he screamed' "Khushi!" he patted her cheeks.

"Khushi! This is not funny, open your eyes damn it. KHUSHI!", but there was no movement from her.

"DADI! Come fast please".

Arnav was all numb seeing Khushi turning paler. His every attempt to make her conscious was failing.

In the meantime, dadi  arrived and seeing lifeless Khushi, she started panicking.

"Arnav! What have you done?" dadi said in an accusing tone.

"Dadi! I haven't done anything" Arnav pleaded.

Dadi came and sat on the other side and brushed her hand across khushi's forehead. "I have told you not to hurt her more arnav! What have you done to her? And yeh haldi? Yeh kaise lag gai?"

"DADI I did not say anything to her, trust me".

Dadi without further delaying, called their family physician and he happens to stay near their house and luckily, he was at his house.

Disconnecting the phone, dadi saw Arnav holding khushi's hand, khushi's head resting on arnav's shoulder and Arnav's temple touching her temple.

"Make her lie down on the pillow Arnav", dadi ordered.

"I am fine dadi" came the clear cut reply.

Dadi hopelessly sat on the nearest chair and waited for the doctor to arrive, while Arnav tried to wake her up, by sprinkling some water sometimes and by jerking her sometimes. But nothing seemed to work for him today.

**

Their family doctor was shocked to see Khushi in arnav's arm. Mostly, he never saw Arnav around Khushi whenever she fell sick. He used to meet him near the door to ask what happened to her and keep a tab on her medicines. But today, seeing him besides Khushi, he felt nice. He always knew no matter how tough Arnav was on Khushi, he was the most concerned when it came to her. He always updated the doctor about khushi's progress throughout her ailment.

He came near Arnav and held his shoulder. Arnav was so into Khushi that he failed to notice when the doctor came in.

Arnav turned his head and saw him. He immediately held his hand and said "please check her doctor uncle, she fainted 15 mins back and abhi tak hosh nahi aya hai usko".

"relax Arnav beta, let me check. Can you move a bit?"

Arnav refused to leave her and said, "please doctor.. can you check from the other side?"

The doctor understood arnav's anxiety and quietly, made his way towards the other side.

After examining Khushi, the doctor said, "looks like she did not eat anything since yesterday. When did she last have her food?".

Arnav called hari prakash and enquired.

"Arnav bhaiya, Khushi didi kal subha fruits kahithi aur lunch pe bhi kuch nahi liya tha un hone", hari prakash said.

"aur kal raat ko she boozed a little doctor uncle during the engagement party", Arnav said.

"and after that?" the doctor asked.

"I don't remember her having any food at night uncle".

"Hmm", the doctor opened his briefcase and prescribed some medicine and an injection. "I think we need to give her a bottle of saline".

"Saline?" Arnav asked frowning. "no uncle you know na.. Khushi is scared of needles. She will start panicking if she sees it inside her", Arnav said in a concerned tone.

"Arnav, I know she is scared. I remember it clearly".

~FLASHBACK~

"Dadi! Dadi! Doctor Uncle kyun aye hai? Nannav ko kya ho gaya?" she said hugging dadi after reaching RM from school.

She had to come back from school alone as the sister said they had to leave Arnav early as he was not feeling well. Since then, in the whole journey, she panicked in the car crying bitterly, thinking what had happened to her nannav.

"Baby, usko fever ho gaya hai shona".

Khushi quickly got down from her lap and went towards arnav's room.

She saw her doctor uncle injecting the needle in him.

"NO UNCLE PLEASE DON'T", she screamed.

"NANNAV ke andar sui mat ghusaiye please. Usko'.usko lagega" she said running towards doctor uncle and jumping on the bed right beside Arnav and holding arnav's other hand.

Dadi came and took Khushi in her lap. "beta Arnav ko injection nahi lagayenge to Arnav kaise achha hoga?"

"nahi dadi" sob' "mat lagao"' sob sniff' "pl'.eas'.e" she chocked her words.

"beta, tumhara Arnav ko kuch nahi hoga" the doctor said

Dadi took khushi's hand off from Arnav and hugged her.

Khushi kept her face sideways so that she can see what was doctor doing to her nannav.

He slowly injected the medicine and unconsciously, Arnav frowned a little, feeling the bitterness of the medicine in his veins, "ma!" escape from his mouth.

Khushi untangled herself from dadi's arms and threw herself on arnav's chest crying.

She rubbed the portion, where the doctor injected Arnav and kissed him with her soft lips'

The whole day she spent sometime lying on arnav's chest, sometimes hugging him securely in her arms and sometimes pressing his temples to ease the pain. She used to spend sleepless night in dadi's arms in arnav's room, just lying beside him and seeing his face whole night. Sometimes, checking his temperature with her tiny fingers, sometimes helping dadi in giving wet cloth on his forehead to bring down his body temperature. Arnav ka lakh mana karne par bhi, she used to feed him fruits with her hands.

~FLASHBACK ENDS~

The doctor slowly injected the channel and then hung the saline. Arnav flinched in pain, when he saw khushi's face twitch in pain, just when the doctor inserted the channel.

"We will give two bottles of saline and I think she will be fine".

"I will change it doctor" Arnav said.

"Ok Arnav. And don't worry she will be fine".

Arnav tucked his lips and nodded, still staying rooted in his place beside his Khushi.

**

Few minutes back, Arnav had a fight with dadi over khushi's haldi. Dadi wanted to at least put a tilak on khushi's forehead with the haldi which came from Samrat's house, but Arnav being Arnav did not let her put it, giving khushi's state an excuse. He just blasted dadi few minutes backcalling her insensitive, which annoyed dadi a lot and she left her room leaving behind Khushi and Arnav in her room. Little did he know, even dadi had no intention to put the haldi on Khushi as Arnav already did her haldi. If it was not Arnav, dadi was detemined to put arnav's haldi on Khushi by hook or crook, but their devi maiya has done the job already. She folded her arms and thanked their devi maiya and closed the door before going down stairs.

**

Khushi was still in his arms and Arnav was staring at her pale face blankly. Slowly his fingers touched her cheeks and a tear slipped.

Khushi shifted when she felt his finger but she was still too weak to open her eyes.

Arnav's eye went to the saline channel. He unfolded her finger and entangled them with him. Carefully picking it up, he kissed her knuckles. Khushi turned in her sleep and held his collar with the same hand, where her channel was done.

Arnav initially got scared thinking she might hurt herself but seeing her calm and composed face, he relaxed.

Khushi was now facing him, their face were really close to each other. He saw her eyes and noted a little dark circle. He got a sadistic pleasure thinking that he was the reason behind it. After all, last night he did not spare her for even one second. "It was magical" he noted mentally.

Then his face fell on her cheek, which adored his haldi. He smiled thinking khushi's another wish came true.

~FLASHBACK~

Khushi took some gulal (colour) in her fist and tiptoed towards the staircase. Slowly and carefully, she climbed towards arnav's room.

It was Holi and just like every year Arnav locked himself in his room. He hated to play holi because he enjoyed this occasion the most when his parents were alive. And after their death he had no interest in playing holi.

But Khushi on the other hand loved colours.. every year she wanted to put colour on Arnav, but she failed as he used to lock the room before she could reach him.

But that year was an exception.

Khushi specially woke up early in the morning just to get into arnav's room.

Putting gulal(powder colour) on devi maiya's charan (foot) she made her way towards his room.

Correctly anticipating, she found his room door open but he was not inside the room.

She wondered where can he be. Seeing his white shirt she walked towards the toilet.

She quickly hid herself behind his cupboard, sensing that he can come out any moment.

Just when she hid herself, the bathroom door opened and he came out in his trouser and drying his hair with the towel.

Khushi felt a pang in her heart . dozens of butterflies started fluttering in her stomach.

She looked at his bare back and for the first time, she felt a different pull towards her arnu'umm Arnav! His muscular movement was not making her think properly. Before she could  recover from her state, Arnav turned towards the cupboard now exposing his broad shaved chest, his perfectly V shaped body and his solid chest muscles clearly indicating his strength. For the first time, Khushi kumari gupta was dumb-folded, since every time it is the other way round.

Her eyes slowly moved from his chest and went towards his abdomen pack. His perfect toned abs giving view of his hip bone making him look more and more tempting.

Khushi gulped hard at the sight. Her hands itched to touch him once like this. Wanted to know how it feels to touch a man, the man whom she was head over heels. His perfect face looked more than perfect with his perfectly tone body.

Her trance broke with the slamming of the cupboard door and she flinched a bit.

Immediately, she masked her desire and tiptoed towards Arnav, moving out of the curtain. Arnav was sitting on his bed, when he was arranging his clothes, she just pounced on him and applied yellow coloured gulal on his cheeks.

In swift motion, Arnav grabbed her hand and pulled her towards his front making her fall on his lap.

Khushi's eyes widened immediately as soon as she saw him from such a close distance and to worsen the situation, she was practically lying on his lap. Her hand slipped from his back towards his chest when Arnav pulled her.

She gazed her finger, which rested just above his dark nipples, which was peeping in between her fingers. She immediately pulled back feeling shy and started wiggling on his lap.

"WHAT THE f**k did you do?" Arnav gritted his teeth boring his eyes on hers.

"main'..woh'.i mean'.arnu'." she fumbled.

"HOW DARE YOU PUT GULAL ON ME?" Arnav grabbed her shoulder and jerked her.

"So what? Aaj holi hai arnu and it was my dream to put colours on you".

'Shut up". Arnav just grabbed her and almost threw her on her bed and got up.

He walked towards the bathroom to wash his face.

And when he was almost done washing, she purposely applied some more gulal, which was sticking to her palm on his cheeks.

"WHAT THE'." He grabbed her from nape and pulled her towards him.

Khushi was initially horrified with the action but this time, she rubbed her cheeks against his and applied some more.

There was only one person in arnav's world, who was not scared of him unlike all the other people and that was none other than Khushi. She just never cared about anything. She did what she wanted to do with Arnav, always assuming him to be her property with whom she can do anything.

Arnav pushed her and went out of the bathroom.

"mujhe bhi thoda laga do arnu" she shouted with a evil grin.

"KABHI NAHI".

"Please arnu" she faked a pout.

"NEVER. TUMHE MEIN KABHI NAHI LAGAUNGA. You are the last person to whom I would apply colour".

"Lagi shart?" Khushi asked crossing her hand.

"DEAL".

Khushi slowly walked towards him and snaked her arms around him, "Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada, you yourself will put haldi on me on OUR wedding day, if not, then you can change my name".

Arnav waved off her hand and wondered, from where she got this much guts? She knows I hate her to the core, still, she dreams to get married to me?".

"Iss janam mein to kya koi bhi jaman mein, I am not going to get married to you".

Khushi pulled him towards her and whispered near his ears, "don't say something, which you will regret later Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada. Aisa na ho ki kabhi yeh din ayee jin din tum hamse saadi karna chaho aur mein bohot door chali jayun ki lautna muskil hi nahi na mumkin ho". (I hope that day wont come when you will be the one who would want to marry me and I will be gone so far that it will be difficult for you to get me back).

Arnav held her waist and pushed her off.

"Likh lena Khushi Kumari gupta, I will be the one, who will make you marry someone else".

"Likh lena Arnav Singh Raizada, you will be the one who will cry one day and beg in front of this girl to get married to you".

~FLASHBACK ENDS~

A lone tear dropped on khushi's eyelid, making her flinch and slowly, he flattened her on the bed.

Arnav immediately placed her on the pillow and moved aside.

She murmured something in her sleep and again passed out.

"I have hurt you a lot, Khushi. I don't deserve you at all. No matter how much I am suffering now, I want you to be happy. And with me, you can never be happy. Every time, you see me in front of you, my behaviour will haunt you. It is better you start a new life with a new person, who will keep you happy and take away all your pain. The pain, which I have given you, despite knowing about, what I meant to you. but today, just for my sake I cannot ruin your life. No matter how much I want you to stay with me forever, I can not be selfish any more. A new life is waiting for you and shayad mere liye yehi sabse bari saza hogi to give your hand to another man. I will die each day without you and I choose this as my prayashchit (redemption) kyunki mein iss pyaar ka haqdaar nahi hoon (because i dont deserve to be loved by you).

He slowly held her hand and touched his mumma's ring. he couldn't stop his tears further. the ring came out without any effort on his hand. he clutched the ring and then looked at khushi's face. cupping her face he said "jao khushi jee lo apni zindegi" (live your life). he kissed her forehead slowly lingering his lips for sometime and was about to get up when he saw her hand clutching his collar.

slowly, he released her grip from his collar and rested it on her stomach.

Glancing her for the last time, he made his way towards the darkest phase of his life, leaving behind the source of light forever on the bed.