Arnav Khushi SS: She will be loved [Complete] - Page 4

Part 5

"I think I am going insane," Khushi said.

She was sitting next to Arnav on a bench in the park, and had somehow ended up telling him about everything that had transpired with NK. It was odd how easy it was to open up to him.

"The implication being that you were sane to begin with?" Arnav smirked.

"I'm serious," she continued, deep in thought, "I am constantly getting extremely angry, in a way that makes me want to break stuff and shout at him and throw things at him. But then after some time I calm down and go back to being depressed and melancholic. I want to hate him, and sometimes I think I do. But then I see him, and I just... can't. I know what he did was wrong, and yet, I... still forgave him. But not really. Because I still feel very very angry at him at times. That makes no sense, right?"

"It does," he replied, taking her by surprise.

It was the strangest thing. He could not curb his sarcasm and felt the need to tease her every now and then.

And yet, in times when she was certain that he would throw a sardonic remark her way, he decided to be sincere and considerate all of a sudden.

"How does it make sense?" she asked, a tinge of desperation in her voice. She longed for normalcy once again. Well, her brand of normalcy, at least.

"You have so much buried within you. You need an outlet. Once you express what you feel and get to terms with it, you will be fine. You'll know what you want."

"I want him to love me as much as I love him."

"Do you?"

"I don't know," she sighed, "I don't know what I want. I am just hurt and angry at the way he treats me. I want him to feel bad about it at least."

"And, let me guess, you feel bad about wanting him to feel bad?"

She smiled, pleasantly surprised, "You have come to know me well."

"I can go further," he said, "You feel bad about your own anger towards him, because somewhere you feel that you didn't deserve him to begin with."

A long silence prevailed after his words.

"What's your name?" he said finally.

She couldn't help but burst out laughing, "I can't believe it, you know more about me than anybody else, and I still haven't told you my name! It's Khushi."

"Khushi. Happiness. It suits you."

"Really?" she raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying that because you just saw me bawling my eyes out?"

"No, because you spread happiness all around you."

It was a strange statement to make. Khushi could not make head or tail of it.

He went on to ask, "Do you remember how you celebrated your last birthday?"

She continued to peer at him, puzzled.

She did remember. She had taken the kids from an orphanage out for pizza. But that was something she had not told anyone about. She did not want others to term what she did as charity. She did not spend time with the children to make herself feel superior - she did it simply because they made her happy.

"I was there," he continued, "I work as a waiter at that pizzeria on a part-time basis. You are a very special person, Khushi. Beautiful inside and out. You have no right to think less of yourself, or to allow people like NK to make you feel like that."

"Hm, I thought you looked familiar. And you're very kind, thank you."

"I only said the truth."

"Yeah, right," she replied, raising an eyebrow skeptically, "Beautiful inside and out?"

"You don't think so?" Arnav said, looking slightly shocked for some reason.

She squinted at him through her spectacles, trying to figure out if he was pulling her leg as he so often did.

Just then, her phone buzzed.

NK was calling.

She took a deep breath and took the call, suddenly remembering that she had not replied to his text message.

"Sir?" she said

"Khush, where the hell have you been?" NK's voice came booming out of her phone, "Did you get my text message telling you to order flowers for Sheetal? Why didn't you reply? Did you at least place an order for the flowers? Yaar, you're gonna get me killed!"

"Sorry, Sir. I - I, I was... busy."

"Busy doing what?"

Khushi gulped, not knowing what to say.

Suddenly, Arnav piped in from beside her, "Who is it, jaan?"

Khushi gaped at him.

"Oh, right. I'll do it myself," NK said, before he hung up.

"Why did you do that?" Khushi asked Arnav.

"You may be his personal assistant, but office hours are over. He can buy his girlfriend flowers himself. Just because you're nice doesn't mean you should let people walk all over you."

He looked uncharacteristically stern all of a sudden.

"I'm such an idiot, right?" Khushi muttered, realising that he was right.

"That's not what I meant," he shook his head, the smile returning to his face, "You're a very kind person and you don't have to change that. But let your kindness be your strength, not your weakness."

She mulled over his words for a few seconds before the realisation struck her...

"But you called me 'jaan.' Now he will think that I have a boyfriend. He already thinks that you are my boyfriend for some reason."

"Does he now?" Arnav said, an impish grin playing on his lips, "Okay I'll admit, I did that deliberately. Actually... I have an idea."

She could easily pre-empt what he wanted to say, "No, you are not going to pretend to be my boyfriend."

"Why not? It's a foolproof way to make him stop taking you for granted. Once he realises his mistakes, you will have the power to choose whether you want to forgive him or dump him."

"You know, I had come to meet you to suggest the same thing, because I was so angry at NK, but I realised that it's all very childish. Plus, I don't want to use you. Especially not now that you are my friend."

"But I'm offering to help you, as a friend."

"No way, Arnav," she stated firmly, "I won't let you do that."

"What if you pay me?"

"What?"

"I'll treat it like another part-time odd job of mine. I reckon it would be a lot more fun than scrubbing dirty pans at the restaurant."

She felt an uncontrollable smile tug at the corners of her mouth as she fought the urge to laugh. And then NK's face swam before her eyes.

"But I don't actually want to hurt him. I mean, I do, kind of, when I get super angry, but... He's not a bad person, you know."

"I know. He's probably just a brat. And I know you don't want to hurt him. You just want him to see the error of his ways. What you must understand, as kind as you are, Khushi, is that it's okay to be angry when you've been wronged, and it's okay to stand up for yourself when required. You're not doing anything wrong. In fact, you'd probably be doing him a favour by helping him grow up."

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me."

And somehow, she did.

...

Part 6