Chapter 40-Frozen hearts..will they melt by Deepti

Chapter 40

Looking at Kushi, who was staring him right in the eye, Arnav  sensed that something was not right.

“Now that we have him here, you can go ahead and tell me what you wanted to….right in front of him “, said Shriya addressing Kushi, while she gave a victorious grin to Arnav.

One look at both the women and Arnav realized that his plan went for a toss. And before he could say something, “How could you tell someone that we both are in a relationship?”, asked Kushi with anger all over her face.

As her attack took him by surprise, Arnav remained muted for few seconds, and tried to analyze the situation.

“May be I shouldn’t have got her involved in this without seeking her permission. She looks quite upset. But did I have an option? I didn’t have the luxury of time the way she did in  Abhay’s case. Did I ever expect this head ache to show up here out of nowhere?”, thought Arnav, as his switched his gaze between Kushi and Shriya.

“Answer me DAMMIT!!!”, demanded Kushi, in a tone which was so new to him. “Was she imitating him?”

Ignoring the amusement which the other woman was having at his expense, he took a step towards Kushi, to tackle her, but stopped right away when he heard her say, “Stay right where you are! Don’t you even dare take a step ahead”.

Seeing the baffled expression which lingered on his face, Kushi tried her level best to suppress her chuckle. “Did I ever dream that I could make him dance to my tunes!! Should thank this girl for giving me this opportunity”, thought Kushi as she looked at Shriya.

“Kushi, just listen. Let me explain”, said Arnav, trying to take the situation into his hands.

“What will you explain now?”, demanded Kushi confronting him.

“Yes Arnav, what will you explain now when your lie is out in the air? Let’s go. We have a lot to catch up”, said Shriya, as she lifted her hand to grab Arnav’s wrist. But before she could succeed in her action, Kushi held her hand saying, ” Excuse me, I’m not yet done with him.”

As a confused expression crossed Shriya’s face, Kushi left her hand and turning towards Arnav she said, ” When we have decided not to disclose our matter to anyone, how could you tell some random stranger about our relationship ??”.

As Kushi words startled him, along with Shriya, ” What the!!”, said Arnav. But the next moment it hit him that the drama queen was executing the plan.

“Do you know anything else apart from those two words??What the..What the… first you  make mistakes and then you say WHAT THE. You and your WHAT THE. It’s not going to rectify the damage you caused by exposing our relationship, Mister”, said Kushi, taunting him.

As Arnav watched her with his wide open eyes, “You mean to say… You and him???”, asked Shriya, pointing her finger to Kushi and then to Arnav.

Understanding what she meant by that, ” Yes. Me and Him!! Do you have any doubt? Do I have to prove it to you in front of everyone?”, asked Kushi looking sternly at Shriya.

While Shriya was taken aback with the intense in her voice,  Arnav too was quite surprised to see the confidence she was  portraying.

“What would she do, if Shriya says YES”, Arnav couldn’t help but wonder.

“No. I didn’t mean to say that. But.. how? I mean.. from when?”, blabbered Shriya who was still in a state of confusion.

“When you had the audacity of telling a complete stranger about  US, why didn’t you tell her, when and how it all started?”, asked Kushi turning back to Arnav.

“Excuse me, I’m not a stranger to him. I was his junior at MIT”, said Shriya, whose ego was hurt hearing the word, ‘stranger’.

“Oh! Old friend?? Then she has every right to know about us. Doesn’t she??”, said Kushi looking thoughtfully at Arnav.

But before Arnav could open his mouth and come up with an answer, Kushi resumed her talk, and said, “It’s okay! When we have someone who finally knows about US, why don’t we enlighten her, by sharing our story with her?”, giving a mischievous look to Arnav. And then turning back to Shriya, she said, “It’s just that I never got an opportunity to talk about our story”.

“You mean, your love story?”, asked Shriya.

Though the word ‘ LOVE’ sent some strange signals to her brain, which in turn made her cheeks turn crimson, Kushi tried to lock all those thoughts at the back of her mind as she said, “Yeah, our love story”. The way she blushed when she uttered those word didn’t go unnoticed by Arnav and somehow, he was pleased to hear her say that.

“So how did it all start?’, asked Shriya, drawing the couple’s attention.

“Oh! You have no clue how excited I am to talk about it”, said Kushi as she clapped her hands in excitement while she gave a big grin to him. As he looked at the naughtiness that sparkled in her eyes, he understood what she was up to. She would leave no stone unturned to make the most out of the situation and he was no fool to let that happen.

So, before she could start, he interrupted her saying, “She doesn’t have to know everything about us, Kushi”.

“She doesn’t have to know or you don’t want me to say anything”, asked Kushi who was aware that he understood her intentions.

“Both”, replied Arnav as he warned her with her eyes.

“You should  have thought about it before bringing me in to the picture”, she said as she almost whispered the last words in his ear.

“You are not  going to utter even a single word. Let me handle this”, murmured Arnav, looking intently at her.

“Stop me if you can”, whispered Kushi, challenging him.

Watching the couple who were whispering, ignoring the presence of a third person there, Shriya started to become restless. “Are you both done discussing?”, she asked impatiently, addressing the duo.

“Sorry! It’s just that he doesn’t want anyone to know that he was on his knees when he proposed to me”, said Kushi, hearing which Arnav literally jerked and said, “What the!”

“Arnav?? And on knees??”, said Shriya who couldn’t believe that the man who ignored all the girls in college went on his knees to propose the girl who was standing right in front of her.

“Kushi, ENOUGH!!”,  said Arnav as he caught her wrist and tried to take her away from Shriya.

“Come on!! Don’t worry, I will not tell her how I rejected your proposal and how I had to accept it after seeing you in so much pain”, said Kushi with her voice filled with sympathy as she tried to free her hand from his grip.

“What the”, said Arnav in a state of shock as he left her hand.

“Do you mean to say that you initially rejected his proposal and then  accepted it?”, asked Shriya who couldn’t believe that the most handsome guy she had ever known could also face rejection.

“Not exactly!In between the rejection and acceptance , I  didn’t count properly but he must have proposed a thousand times …Am I right?”, asked Kushi as she looked at Arnav and batted her eyelids.

“What???Thousand times?? Have you gone crazy? “, asked Arnav who totally forgot about Shriya’s presence there.

“Why do you look so surprised? Are you not able to accept it…. in front of YOUR friend”, asked Kushi making him aware of Shriya’s presence there.

On noticing the suspicious look which Shriya was giving him, Arnav switched the gears and said, “Actually, I never counted then. So was kind of surprised to know that I scored a thousand”, trying to cover the damage his actions could make.

As the text which she received on her phone diverted Shriya’s attention, ” If you want me to help you, then just agree to whatever I say to her”, whispered Kushi in Arnav’s ear. He opened his mouth to retort but on finding Shriya’s attention back on him he remained mum.

” Now I get it, why my proposals were never taken into account”, said Shriya as she kept staring at Arnav.

Though she didn’t like the way Shriya was staring at him, Kushi was surprised to know the latest piece of information.

“I might have proposed to you at least a 100 times Arnav. My bad, didn’t get time to do more than that”,said Shriya, as she recollected the past.

“Why??”, asked Kushi, curiously.

“Shouldn’t she be worried that this girl was behind me?“, his heart questioned. “Why would she, when then there is nothing between us?“, came the reply from his head.

“I was at MIT only for a year… had I continued there.. I would have never left him without making him accept my proposal”, said Shriya staring at Arnav.

“Glad that you didn’t. Those were not proposals…they were mental torture for me”, thought Arnav, looking away from Shriya.

“Even then, you wouldn’t have scored more than him”, said Kushi, who wanted to draw Shriya’s attention from Arnav.

“Excuse me! What do you mean by that”, asked Shriya, who didn’t understand what Kushi meant by saying that.

“Let me explain. In the first year, if we consider that you proposed a 100 times, had you continued there for  3 more years, you would have proposed him 300 times. Oops! Since you were his junior he would be available to you only for two years. That brings your count to 200 for those two years. So, altogether, it’s 300, which is way below his score. If you remember, I just said that he proposed to me a 1000 times. So…”, said Kushi, leaving the rest for Shriya to figure out.

“Is she praising me by saying that I made a high score or is she making fun of me by saying that I proposed to her a 1000 times”, wondered Arnav. “Definitely, it’s the second one”, he concluded seeing the wide grin on Kushi’s face.

“True. 1000 is quite a big number! “, said Shriya who got lost in a thought.

“Yup! 1000 times in three years is quite a big number. Did I tell you that he proposed to me for the first time when I was 11  and I finally accepted it when I was 14”, asked Kushi as if she forgot to give that info to Shriya.

“What?? At 11???”, asked a shocked Shriya.

“What rubbish!!”, muttered Arnav and then as he instantly remembered the story he cooked up for Abhay he understood where all this was coming from.

“Ya, 11. You know, he used to bribe me with chocolates , candies and used to beg me to say  yes.But no matter how much I loved candies, I never fell for them. I kept on rejecting and he kept on proposing. In fact, he used to propose almost daily in those three years…taking a off here and there on weekends”, said Kushi as if she was recollecting the past.

Though he was annoyed with her nonsense, Arnav couldn’t help but smile seeing her getting involved in her role.

” Then what made you change your mind and accept finally”,asked Shriya, who was curious to know how it all ended.

“What to do… I had to. During those three years he lost focus on his studies and somewhere I knew that I was the one to be blamed. He did terrible in his tests and felt very bad about it. I  wasn’t able to see him in so much pain.So, I had to finally give up. You know something, he got into MIT, just because of me. Had I not accepted his proposal, I can’t even imagine how his future would have been”, said Kushi.

Arnav just stared at Kushi thinking, “ Why did I even think of her to get rid of this Shriya. Will her nonsense ever come to an end? Let this drama end and I will show her future to her”.

Seeing Shriya lost in a thought, Kushi raised her eyebrows, asking his feedback on her performance. And on getting a threatening glare back in response, she figured out that once this episode ends, she should be no where around him.

“That means, you  were already in love with her, when I  met you at MIT??”, asked Shriya as she came out of her thoughts.

Though that question took him by surprise, “I hated her at that time. But what about now?”, thought Arnav. As he kept staring at Kushi, Shriya cleared her throat to draw his attention.

Coming out of his thoughts, he said, ” YES”, in response to her question.

“You should have told me, Arnav”, said Shriya.

“I couldn’t”, replied Arnav, not understanding what else to say.

“But why??”, asked Shriya.

“I…..”, Arnav started and then paused, searching for the right words when Kushi came to his rescue saying, “Actually, I asked him not to. I didn’t want anyone to know about us at that time. We were so young you know. Even now, I don’t want to disclose our relationship to anyone else until it’s time for our parents to know about us. I hope you understand”.

“She asked you not to…and you stood by her word . In spite of my  continuous tortures you never opened your mouth?? Hats off Arnav. I envy your love for her”, said Shriya.

Arnav didn’t know how to react and looked at Kushi who was suppressing her smile, enjoying the inconvenience he was going through  on hearing Shriya’s praises.

“But, had I known about you two, I wouldn’t have even looked at you, Arnav. I would never fall behind a guy who was in love with someone else”, said Shriya as she shook her head.

“Damn! Had I known this, I would have cooked up some story and got rid of you long ago”, thought Arnav.

Shriya felt bad that all these days she thought about a guy who belonged to someone else. She sighed and turning towards Kushi, she said, ” You are very lucky, Kushi.You got him and I didn’t .”

Kushi noticed the sadness in her eyes and decided to cheer her up at the expense of Arnav.

“Good that you didn’t! And you know what. It’s not me who is lucky. It’s you.”, said Kushi surprising the other two folks.

“You don’t know him right. That’s why you are  thinking that I’m lucky. Had you known what kind of a person he really is, you would definitely take back your words”, said Kushi looking at Arnav who was utterly shocked hearing Kushi’s statement.

“Really???”, asked Shriya who was surprised to hear Kushi’s words.

“If not what??? Do you know anything about his temper?Oh God!!!! Only God knows how I’m bearing him and his temper. Did you ever see any other expression on his poker face? He roams around all the time saying what the what the. I haven’t seen a grumpiest fellow as him”, declared Kushi.

Arnav couldn’t believe what she was blabbering and watched her as she went on with her nonsense.

“Seriously!!!”, asked Shriya.

“And you know what, the kids in our colony start crying if they see him anywhere near them. Actually they nicknamed him as Monster Uncle”, added Kushi.

“What UNCLE??? And me???”, asked Arnav.  As the expression on his face was worth watching the girls couldn’t help but laugh seeing his state.

“Kushi…you will pay for this”, thought Arnav giving a death stare to Kushi.

Kushi totally ignored his stare and seeing Shriya enjoying her talk she went overboard and continued her nonstop nonsense saying, “And did you ever hear him yell…..I strongly feel that  by now, both my ear drums are partially damaged, with his yelling. He and his yelling! God!!”, said Kushi as she placed her hands on her ears.

Shriya giggled seeing Kushi’s actions while Arnav’s temper started taking a hike.

“You are exaggerating Kushi. I don’t think he is that bad. In spite of my innumerous tortures, he never showed this side of him to me “, said Shriya.

“Lucky you. Not only you, but many don’t know the REAL him”, said Kushi, as if she was giving out a secret.

Arnav rolled his eyes thinking, “As if she does” and as Kushi looked back at him  he felt that she said, ” Yes, I do”.

She then turned to Shriya and said, ” It’s just that, he doesn’t like to show his tantrums when he is in public. But when there is no one around… God!! Don’t even ask me what he does!!”, said Kushi in a very sympathetic voice.

“Really??? What does he do in private??”, asked Shriya curiously, staring at Arnav from head to toe as if she was seeing a new Arnav.

Kushi bit her tongue sensing what other meaning her statement could have and she hastily tried to correct it by saying,  ” I didn’t mean it that way”. But before she could explain further, Arnav interrupted her saying, “Kushi…what’s the necessity to discuss …..WHAT WE DO IN PRIVATE”,hoarsely.

As Kushi’s cheeks heated up hearing his words, she became uncomfortable  under his gaze.

“No. Sorry, I didn’t mean to ask that”, said Shriya, who too felt uncomfortable, as the subject suddenly took a different turn.

“Anyways, if  you both are done talking, Kushi,  shall we move to the dance floor”, asked Arnav , seeing few couples on the dance floor. He was done with the nonsense for the day and was in no mood to leave the ladies alone for some more time.

“What, dance??? And with you??? For all the nonsense I blabbered, you will toss me up in the air and leave me to crash on the floor”, muttered Kushi. And in order  to save herself from him, she said, ” We can dance later. You both met after many years…you must have a lot of things to catch up. Why don’t you two spend some time together?”

While Arnav glared at her for her ridiculous suggestion, “Actually…there isn’t much to talk about, after knowing about you two. And especially you, Arnav”, said Shriya.

Arnav didn’t pay any attention to her as he was intently staring at Kushi and one look at him,Kushi understood what’s in store for her. ” Kushi, you are dead. The moment this girl moves away from here, he is going to kill you. Do something and escape”, she warned herself.

She was so tensed looking at the man who was throwing daggers at her with his eyes, that in her tension she blurted,  ” Shriya, if you want you can have him.  I can happily step aside.”

“HAVE  YOU GONE MAD”, barked Arnav looking at her incredulously.

“No, Actually… I thought..”, said Kushi trying to cover up. But before she could land him in more trouble, Arnav grabbed her by her waist and held her close to himself.

As Kushi’s eyes grew big in her face and watched him in utter disbelief , Arnav smirked.He was aware of the affect he has on her and knew that it was the best way to shut her up.
And the moment his hand wrapped  her waist, Kushi forgot to breathe and  stood like a statue with her eyes glued on him.

“She is just joking..isn’t Kushiiiii”, he asked drawing her closer.

Though Kushi nodded her head in response her entire focus was on her heart that started beating vigorously and her waist which was surrounded by his arm.

“Thank’s for the offer,Kushi. But, no thanks.I’m not interested in any second hand….be it a person or a thing…I always prefer first hand.Anyways, I have a flight to catch up early in the morning.It’s getting late.Time to leave the party and India too. It was nice meeting you both. Bye”, said Shriya as she smiled and walked away, leaving the couple all alone.

“WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY??? SECOND HAND??? DID SHE JUST CALL ME A SECOND HAND”, said Arnav with his hand ,still around Kushi’s waist.

While his voice boomed in her ears, Kushi’s brain started functioning and she shut her eyes, knowing that the volcano  was all set to burst and turn her into ashes.

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