Hi guys. I know you all have been waiting for the present but that'll take another chapter to get to. So by chapter 12, we should be back to the present.
Part 10"Have you seen Arnav's father anywhere, Khushi?"
She had swirled around to find Vinita Raizada freshly back from her doctor's visit looking frail and weak like she usually looked those days, but with determined eyes.
"I - no. But he must have gone for some meeting or something - "
"And where's your sister, you'd say?" She had asked suspiciously.
"She...she has gone out too. With him. Did you know he offered her a position a week back. Ma and papa are so happy. They must be...working together." Khushi feared this little woman at that moment. She'd looked frail, broken and damaged all at once. She'd been in the hospital for a week and her husband had shown up precisely twice to check on her.
Sighing she'd turned to head not towards their bedroom but the library, Payal's and Mr. Raizada's usual meeting point. Khushi had jumped to her side to stop her, "Aunty, you should rest! Did Arnav call you? He said he would in ten minutes? Don't you want to look good for him?"
But she'd already started knocking on the locked library door. When it opened, a few minutes of frantic knocking later, Arnav's father stood looking poised.
"Vinita, you're back! I was just going to come to the hospital to pick you up but I see it's not - "
"Where is she?"
"Where's who?" He'd said looking uncertainly at his wife and then at Khushi. He'd not been happy to see her standing there.
But Vinita Raizada had already pushed her way past him and into the the library. And there she'd been. Payal. Trying to hide behind the couch.
Things went quite sour after that incidence. Within the next few weeks, Arnav's mother fell even more sick. She had cancer they'd said, which could be cured but somehow she hadn't wanted it to.
Khushi remembered that summer clearly. The summer that changed everything. The summer of her twentieth birthday.
Arnav had came home for an early break hearing about his mother's ill health.
By that time, Khushi had graduated from school and had gotten into the state university she'd been trying for where she was more at home than she was ever at school. There, she was not just surrounded by the rich but students from all backgrounds and for that she'd been glad.
Aman, for some reason, had ditched his U.S. college plans and had followed her into the state university instead where he even had to hand over some large sum of money to get admitted into for his scores were not up to the requirement.
Khushi had tried to discourage him but Aman had made up his mind. Soon they'd found a little circle of their own. Khushi, Aman and a few other guys and girls. This was new. They never had so many friends before.
Before they knew they'd made perfect world of their where they both misfits perfectly fit in. College was where Khushi had wanted to be, a place where she wouldn't be judged, a place where she was an equal.
In all this Khushi and Arnav had grown apart. He was still her boyfriend but somehow, they would fight more than they'd talk. Arnav never understood why Aman joined the same college as Khushi's, and he never quite understood why must he always shadow her.
It had started getting harder and harder for Khushi to explain it to Arnav, for she herself didn't understand it. All her attempts to dissuade Aman had gone to waste for each time she's tried, aman's mother had reminded her that he was still fragile. "Please take care of him, beta. What if he tried to kill himself again? Only you can handle him," his mother had say.
But how could only she have handled him? It had scared her, to be given a responsibility of another human. She cared for Aman, but being with Aman also meant hurting Arnav. She was helpless, she still is.
Khushi and Arnav wouldn't talk to each other as often as they'd before and when they would the call or emails would usually end up in a fight. Their simple little dream had started seeming distant and it was breaking Khushi's heart for Arnav had started appearing even more distant.
No wonder that when he'd come back home learning of his mother's bad health, she had to hear of it from the other servants.
She remembered how hard she's tried not to feel hurt and had run to see him the moment she's heard that he was back and then to have her heart broken to see that he'd brought friends with him, two guys and a girl, the blonde one from his pictures.
She'd seen them from afar at first, looking rich and well dressed fitting to the environment. She'd almost hesitated to walk up to Arnav but it had been almost a year. She had had to see him, to hold him.
"Arnav.." She'd called out softly.
Everyone had turned to look at her. She hadn't been dressed too well, still in her night clothes.
"Ohh, hi," Arnav had finally said after staring at her for a few seconds.
"Guys this is my...friend," he'd said, "Khushi." He hadn't quite looked at her while he's said that, averting his eyes.
"And Khushi they're are my university friends. Rohan, Keith and... Hailie."
Pailful and awkward greetings were exchanged. Khushi was sure they'd been curious about the presence of a girl in their friend's house in her night clothes.
"So, umm, where's Aman?" Arnav had suddenly asked.
"Aman? I don't know...must be at home."
"Oh, I thought you guys hung around with other all the time these days."
"Well, not exactly - "
"Oh, Khushi! I'm dying for some coffee, dude!" It was Anjali, of course, always coming in at the right time and reminding Khushi of her place.
"Oh, good morning, Anjali di," she'd said smiling.
"Guys, Khushi makes the best coffee. You guys gotta have it."
The American friends had thrown her some more curious looks at that. Arnav had said nothing.
"She's not the cook of the house though. She's the daughter of the cook. But they both are badasses at making the perfect coffee. Khushi?"
"Oh... I. Okay. Everyone wants coffee then? Five cups it is?" Khushi'd replied, her stomach churning and heart breaking. Not once Arnav had stopped her, not once he's said, "guys, she's actually my girlfriend," or, "Anjali, it's not her job to make coffee for you,", nor he'd followed her to the kitchen like she'd expected him to. All he'd done was to stand their looking at her silently.
----------
That evening after college, the only reason she remembered why she'd gotten Aman home was to make Arnav jealous.
If he already thought she was with him, the why prove him right? And therefore, precisely for that reason, she'd asked Aman to come home and they'd sat side by side on the grass, very much visible through Arnav's window, and played uno.
And sure enough a few minutes later, there he'd been stretching his body on his balcony. He hadn't said anything just looked at them and made his way back inside.
Later that night, as she'd been picking up dried clothes before it started to rain, she'd heard him say,
"Hope you had a lovely evening."
"I did. Thank you. Hope you did as well." She'd replied, gathering all the clothes and making her way to back of the outhouse to keep them. He'd followed her, to her surprise.
"Mom was saying you didn't visit her today after today morning?"
"I didn't want to embarrass you in front of your friends. They were already throwing me very curious looks. And honestly, I'm even sorry I came like that in the morning. It wasn't my place to do that. I hope your friends liked the coffee though."
"Come on, don't say that." He'd said from somewhere behind her back. "I'm just mad at you 'cause you never talk to me on the phone anymore."
"We don't talk. We just fight. And I'm sick of you doubting Aman. He's just a friend!" Khushi had replies as she'd began to fold the clothes. Thankfully no one had been at home at that moment.
"I'm sorry...I just..."
"You didn't even tell me you were coming back," she'd turned around and said. Of course, she'd been crying, "imagine finding that out from others. Could you not have told me yourself "
"I wanted you to be surprised...jealous.."
"Well, congratulations. I am. And I feel extremely shitty. You succeeded."
"Khushi, don't be like that," he'd said walking towards her and then taking her into his arms. She sighed into his chest all the while struggling to get out and then the struggle fading out just as she'd felt his lips on her hair. How long it had been she'd felt him so close, since she'd sniffed his uniquely Arnav scent, since she'd kissed his smooth neck. All she had to do was to crane her neck slightly to reach it, a few inches away.
"I hate you," she'd said.
"I know," he'd whispered, "sometimes I hate myself too."
"I brought Aman today evening to make you jealous."
"I know."
"Why did you bring your friends, Arnav? Your mother is sick. You shouldn't have, although I think she's really happy to see that you've got friends along."
"I don't know why... I thought you'd be busy with Aman and it'd break my heart to see you with him. And I can't... I just can't deal with this family alone anymore."
She snuggled in closer to him, "the doctors said she's just not been trying. Talk to her Arnav. You know she really does listen to you."
"I'm trying to. It's just so hard to see her like this."
"She'll get better."
"Keep praying for her," he'd replied kissing her forehead.
She'd sighed as her lips had reached his neck to feel and to drop kisses and she'd continued satisfactorily as he'd moaned under her touched. What had followed was a heated make out session for the next few minutes. When he'd pulled away, his hair messed and lips swollen, he'd asked, "do you want to go out? This house makes me sick."
She'd leaned up to drop a quick kiss as she'd said, "please. You don't know how much I want to get away."
---------
"Khushi! Come here, come here. What are you doing by the door?" Vinita Raizada had said. For some reasons Khushi had found herself standing by the door. She couldn't get herself to go in. The smell of the hospital, the frail form a woman she'd always seen so bright and cheerful and whole grey-blueness of the room hadn't made her want to enter.
"Aunty, I brought some kheer for you. Papa made... How are you?"
"How would I be? Just counting days before..."
"Please do not say all these things, Aunty. I pray for you every day. I've full faith that you'll get better."
But she'd simply chuckled. She really hadn't wanted to live. "Come here and sit by me." She'd patted on the space next to her on the bed.
Khushi hadn't been able to stop her tears from falling as she had sat by her. Vinita Raizada had lost a considerable amount of weight, her hair were chopped to only two or three inches in length, her cheeks had sunk in, and the blue-green of her veins at the back of her hand had popped out.
Khushi still remembers how a slim hand had approached hers and held it in her own as she'd said something which Khushi never quite forgot.
"You love my son, don't you?"
"Aunty..."
"Don't try to lie. I know what's been going on between you two since a long time now." She had said placing another hand on top of their linked ones.
"I'm... Im sorry sorry, Aunty." She hadn't known how to react to such a confrontation.
"Aaah, don't be sorry. Who can stop the stupid heart? When I was your age, I was in love too. My twentieth year. What a time it was."
"Oh! And then what happened?"
"Marriage, of course, the very next year. But that is another drama and another story altogether."
"I didn't know you had a love marriage." She had confessed.
"It doesn't look like now, does it?"
Khushi had chosen to remain quiet.
"But we were so in love. He was so handsome, much richer than what I was, much older too. We were quiet a pair."
You still look like quite a pair, Khushi had wanted to say, but hadn't.
"But look at us now..." Her voice had trailed off, "I'm sure you don't want me to give you details. Anyway, do you know why am I telling you all this?"
"N - no."
"You're young. You've have had your fun but it's time to say goodbye to Arnav. It'll take some time to get over him but he'll go back soon and won't return anytime soon. You'll get plenty of time. Complete your education. Go abroad if you need to, we'll fund you. Do well for yourself and your family. Make them proud. You have a lot of time."
As the tears had continued to spill, she had sat shell shocked, with her clammy hand capsuled between both of Vinita Raizada's. She was asking her to stay away from her son!
"I'm saying this for your own good."
"Aunty..."
"Staying near to this family is like ruining yourself. You'll never be able to fit in."
"Aunty, but, I really can't - "
"Arnav is the heir, he might say the opposite but he's never going away. He has to come back. And you...poor girls like us, Khushi, are not made for the rich. The rich...the rich only care about themselves, their lifestyles."
"Aunty but...we love each - "
"You don't know how things are in the household...I see myself in you, my dear. And I don't want you get ruined like I did."
"But...I'm..I'm...Aunty...I won't be. Please..."
"Promise me, promise me you'll not say anything about this to Arnav."
"Aunty - "
"Promise me!" She'd said a little frantically, eyes huge and her hand tightening around khushi's hand.
"I-I promise." Khushi had said in between sobs. Of all the worst possible things she'd expected Vinita Raizada to say, this was not one. If Khushi had considered anyone from the Raizada household as her ally, it was Arnav's mother. She'd actually gone and thought that she liked Arnav and Khushi together!
"Promise me you'd stay away from him. Just do whatever it takes to make him understand. I've tried and failed. He won't listen to me."
"Aunty, please don't, please don't ask me to do this..."
"You tell me which university you want to go to, which country. I'll talk to my husband. You'll get the best education. Just...just stay away."
"I - I - okay. I'll try to...try to stay away."
"Good," she'd said then, releasing khushi's sweaty hand from her tight grip only to reach her face to wipe her tears. Her hands hadn't feel soft and warm anymore like they'd usually felt. "Now you go and take some rest. Too much crying gives you a headache. And look up for colleges."
She'd quickly gotten up. "yes, I will. Thanks. Take care, Aunty." Turning around and wiping the rest of her tears, she'd ran out of the hospital.
The ten minute slow walk from the nursing home to Shantivan had done her good. It had give her some time to think and calm herself. But nothing could prepare her for facing Arnav right then, but that is what had happened.
"Khushi, hi. Come, I was just going to the hospital to see mom. Spending the night there. Do you think you can accompany me?"
She had no reason to say no. Even the week before she'd spend two nights with him at the hospital. But as she stood in front of him, craning her back to look up, she almost couldn't meet his eyes when she said,
"I - I have assignments. I need to discuss it with Aman. Our deadline's tomorrow."
He'd hated hearing that, she'd known, as yet he'd acted cool and patient and said, "you can call him from the hospital."
"I - I need to meet him."
"At night?"
"Like I said, our deadline - "
But he'd already walked past her and into his car. She hadn't slept a wink that night, going over and over what Vinita Raizada had said.
~~~~~
Edited by Lilypop - 10 years ago
Fan Fictions
7