Chapter 10
Varsha totally couldn’t believe
what Arnav was doing. She pinched herself to make sure that she wasn’t
dreaming. She was trying to get a clearer view of them both. Resting her hand
on the table having a decorative piece on it, she was leaning more beyond the
wall. And swoosh! Her hand skid through the clean glass top and pushed the
decoration down, shattering into pieces. And THAT alerted them both. Khushi got
up in a swift movement but it wasn’t a good move on her part.
Due to the wetness of the already smooth
marble floor, her leg skid and she lost balance. She was mentally preparing
herself to bear the pain of hitting the hard floor. She shut her eyes tightly
and was waiting for the crash. But voila! She felt a strong arm winding itself
around her waist. In a moment she was clinging to his torso.
Arnav was now relieved. ‘Thank
god she didn’t fall down and get herself hurt! Now she is safe… Safe in my arms….’ his thoughts faded away as
his eyes once again met hers. He lost himself to the splendour of her chocolate
brown eyes. He wanted that moment to last forever. Just seeing her eyes made
him forget everything…
Khushi was shocked, surprised,
dazed. A storm of emotions flooded her brain. For long she couldn’t even
comprehend what was happening. She was completely lost. She was in heaven. She
didn’t know how long they were in their trance… Until the sound of Varsha
clearing her throat reached their ears.
Khushi struggled to free
herself from the embrace. She could see Varsha crossing her arms and looking at
them with a naughty glint in her eyes. ‘Oh
no! Not THAT look! Oh god!’ Khushi was struggling. “Um…. err...Laad
Gov….oops… Arnav… Varsha’s seeing…” she left the sentence hanging. Then only
Arnav realised what he was doing and released her, reluctantly.
“What were you doing, Arnav?”
asked Varsha who was totally shocked and surprised at what she was seeing
minutes ago.
Arnav didn’t
know what to say. Just like a nine year old boy, caught stealing chocolates and
trying to give an explanation, Arnav was thinking hard to give a sensible
explanation. “I was just –um- trying to help her. You know…” RING RING! Before
he could complete, he was interrupted by a call. ‘Thank God!’ he thought. He excused himself and made his way out of
the room giving an excuse that there was no signal in the room.
Varsha scorned at the phone for
having saved Arnav from her. But she decided to have fun with Khushi. “So
Khushi, would you like to explain me what just happened now, when I was away?”
“Just nothing, Varsha… I got
thirsty and decided to help myself with some water, and I accidentally ended up
spilling the water… I didn’t know where the towels were and he helped me with
the cleaning. That’s it!” Khushi bent down once again to dry up the place.
“Khushi, leave that off. I’ll
go get the mop; you switch off the AC and turn on the fan. That would help. I’ll
be here back with the mop in a jiffy.” Varsha said leaving to get the mop.
Khushi, now left alone in the
room could only think of Arnav. Trying to distract her from thinking about him,
she decided to think about something else. But wherever she started, her
thoughts came right back to Arnav. ‘Enough,
Khushi! Stop it before you create another mess thinking of him! Control your
hormones, girl!’ she mentally rebuked herself. She turned off the AC,
switched on the fan, all the while thinking of him…
*~*
“What do you want from me? Why
do you keep calling me? I really don’t like doing things like this for you.
Just leave my sister! She deserves to be happy. You can do whatever you want
with me… I beg you, just leave her!”
yelled Mehul on the phone, who was not very happy about the way things were
taking shape.
“Darling, cool down! Even I
really don’t want to do anything to your sister. I would let her free. But the
thing is, she isn’t capable of doing things that you can do for Me.” came the
reply from the other end.
“Why can’t you say what you
want? Having me and my sister isn’t enough for you? Why are you dragging Khushi
into this whole thing? Poor girl…. At least don’t involve her!” pleaded Mehul.
“Just like you have an
important role in my master plan; Khushi too is having a role in my plan. In
fact I’m having YOU in my plan just
to have control over HER! This would
help me implement my plan smoothly. I’m sure I would be successful…” said the
mean voice.
“You wouldn’t be happy for
long, you creep! I’m sure you’ll be punished soon for your immoral deeds! I’m
really ashamed of myself for being a helping hand. What to do? I have no other
go… But I pity on you because you’ll never succeed in whatever you’re trying to
do! I curse you that you’re going to fail this time too!” shouted Mehul, who
was starting to have tears at her helplessness.
“Oh dear! You need to learn to
be polite. Just now I realized who the girl was. Her name’s Varsha. Hmmm…. This
is getting more interesting than I expected. Whatever you curse me, I’m
confident that everything will turn out to be good on my side this time! Bye
bye! I’ll call you later to let you know what you have to do. Aahaha! Think
before you shout again or speak against me rudely just like you did now. This
time I’m forgiving you, next time it’ll be your sister who will face all the
pain. Take care, darling! Bye”
“Stop calling me ‘darling’, you
moron! And don’t you dare touch my sister, you-” the phone went dead before
Mehul could complete.
“Oh God! Only you can put an
end to this!” Mehul sent a silent prayer, with tears rolling down her cheek.
*~*
Varsha came back with the mop
and started to clean the wet floor.
“So, Khushi, what do you want
for dinner? Say something simple, Okay? I mean, I’m not a good cook and it’s
really late that we can’t go out for dinner too….”asked Varsha.
“Um…I don’t want anything. I’m
not feeling hungry. Skipping a meal wouldn’t be a problem.” replied Khushi.
“Hey, that’s not good! You ought
to have something! You must be really tired after a long tiring day!”
“No probs, Varsh! I just want
to sleep. By the way, what’s our plan for tomorrow?”
“We’ll be going to the mall for
buying you some cool dresses and to my boutique there for getting your outfits.”
“Hey, I have my dance coaching nearby.
So how about you buy the dresses and stuff, while I go there? You know…I’ve
been looking forward to this class for a while. If I go there I might be able
to learn ballet and salsa! You know, kind of a touch up.”
“Okay, that’s fine. Just say me
the timings tomorrow. Alright?”
“Yup. Now are you finished? I
mean I’m getting a bit droozy here!” said Khushi, yawning.
Arnav now came back to the room
after thinking hard of a good explanation. He was about to start but was
stopped by Varsha.
“You needn’t
explain a thing. I know what took you so long. I bet you weren’t talking on the
phone all this time. At last your brain came up with a good reason. Anyway, I
don’t want to hear any. I’m winding up for the day. I’ve kept towels for you in
your room, in case you need them. And don’t forget the pills, okay? Good night,
Arnav!” Varsha waved good night.
‘Thanks for saving me again, God!’ mumbled
a relieved Arnav. He was on his way to his room, but he suddenly stopped and
turned back to meet a pair of eager eyes. This elated his heart. “Good night,
Khushi!” he said with a small smile.
Khushi was
too overjoyed that he actually wished her good night. She was instantly
transported to her dream land. She was completely lost until she felt Varsha
giving a blow with her elbow. “Ouch! Er - Good night, Arnav.”
*~*
