After breakfast, Khushi and Lavanya left. They hugged Payal and Anjali and then bid goodbye to NK, Akaash and Shyam. Khushi smiled shyly at Arnav, who in return pulled her into his arms and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“Will I see you before we go back to uni?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll have time. I mean we have less than a week to go and La and I haven’t even had time to go shopping yet.”
“Well even if we cant see each other, I shall be calling you every evening.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“Bye babe.”
*****
On the way back to their house, Khushi broke the news to Lavanya that she and Arnav had slept together. To Khushi’s surprise, La did not take the news well.
“What the hell Khushi! What were you thinking?”
“Lavanya I told you. I couldn’t say no! The way he asked me, the way things happened I didn’t want him to feel bad. But it’s not just that, I wanted it too.”
“I know what you mean, but Khushi didn’t you think about your future. Just imagine if you and Arnav don’t get married, you get married to someone else, what will he think of you if he realises you’ve slept with someone before!”
“I know Lavanya, but…”
“But what? What will you say? What will they think of mom and dad? The guy will think that mom and dad were completely useless parents, hence why you were able to go and sleep with someone!”
“Lavanya, you’re acting like you’re someone from the last century! This is normal. Whoever I marry will probably have slept with someone at some point as well. You’re making it sound like people never have sex outside of marriage.”
“That’s not the point! What if you get pregnant with Arnav’s kid now?”
“That won’t happen! We used protection!”
“They do rip sometimes! And knowing the way you two are, you wouldn’t have even realised!”
“Lavanya, stop it now! You’re being ridiculous and quite mean! You’re my best friend; you shouldn’t be like this with me. You should be happy for me!”
“If I was just you’re friend then yeah, I would have been happy, but I’m your sister as well. I’m thinking about your future before everything else.”
“I know you mean well. But don’t worry, nothing bad will happen. Arnav’s promised me we will get married!”
“I hope you do…”
Lavanya remained silent for the rest of the journey and Khushi sighed and let herself relive everything that had happened the night before.
When they reached home, they were greeted by Garima at the door.
“My babies are back. How was your party, did you enjoy yourselves?”
Lavanya nodded and then excused herself.
“Amma, I’m not feeling too good, I’m going back to bed.”
“Same, aunty, I’m tired as well.”
“Goodness, you sleep all night but you’re both still tired. Fine go on. Go back to bed.”
When in their room, Lavanya closed the door and sat down on the bed. Her mood had changed a lot since the journey. Khushi just assumed that now that Lavanya had time to process the information, she was more understanding of her.
“Now tell me everything! How was it? How did it feel?”
“I was… It was something out of a fairy-tale.”
“Did it hurt?”
“It did to start with, and actually the pain did last a while and I was aching this morning too, but the pleasure of it was just mind blowing.”
“God, I hope mom and dad find me a decent guy soon. I want to get married now, just so that I can experience all of this.”
Khushi yawned and lay on the bed.
“God, you really are tired aren’t you! I just said that so we could get some privacy so I could talk to you about all this, but you genuinely are tired.”
“We didn’t get to sleep until well after 4. Any way, Lavanya, can we go shopping tomorrow. I need to buy some new dresses.”
“Sure. But let me sleep now too. I am actually quite tired too. We were all up until about 3 just talking. You know the Raizada’s are really lovely people. They will be awesome in-laws for you.”
“I know. It’s like I’ve known them forever. I just hope that nani ji, mamaji and mamiji like me too. And then there’s aunty and uncle. I won’t marry unless they approve!”
“You know, NK’s really sweet as well. Every time I turned to speak to someone else, he would start conversation with me again.”
“Arnav was right! He does have a crush on you!”
“I don’t know about that, but he is really nice and I wouldn’t mind getting to know him better.”
Both fell silent and just let their minds relax. After a few moments of silence, Lavanya had a thought and she felt she had to speak about it with Khushi.
“Khushi, what about your brother?”
Khushi jumped up at the mention of her brother. The question had startled her. They hadn’t talked about her brother in years!
“What about him?”
“What if he doesn’t approve of your relationship with Arnav?”
“How would he find out? And even if he does, it doesn’t even matter what he thinks. He’s never cared, so why should I care about what he thinks.”
“Khushi, he does care. If he didn’t, why would he keep in touch with mom and dad, finding out about you, sending you money?”
“I don’t know Lavanya. But all I know is, is that he doesn’t love me. If he did, he would have got in touch with me personally. I understand he keeps in touch with uncle and aunty, but he left me when I needed him the most, I’ll never forgive him for that! He left me all on my own. And he knew where I was, if he cared, he could have come to see me. But he didn’t.”
“But he’s still your brother. He matters Khushi!”
“Lavanya, please I don’t want to talk about this!”
“Fine we wont talk about it, but the truth is, you can’t avoid your brother forever Khushi. He will return one day and you will have to face him.”
“Let him come, he won’t see my face!”
Sensing that this was a futile discussion, Lavanya dropped the topic.
“Just one thing Khushi, when you and Arnav do get married, make sure you keep your volume down.”
“Meaning?”
“I could hear you; I was staying in the next room. And I could hear you moaning and screaming!”
“What! Seriously? If you could hear us, why were you so surprised when I told you that we had slept together?”
“I just thought you guys were making out and doing other stuff, I didn’t think you had actually had sex.”
“Oh god, that’s so embarrassing! What was I saying?”
“You were saying his name over and over again.”
Khushi looked away and blushed.
“I’m so happy for you babes. I hope you always remain this happy.”
Both turned away from each other and let their eyes shut as they peacefully fell asleep for another few hours. La and Khushi were at peace, but their peace was not to last…
*****
Khushi and Lavanya returned to university a week later. After dumping her bags in her room, Khushi went straight over to Arnav’s. She knocked on the door, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for Arnav to open the door. The moment he opened the door, she flew into his house and into his arms.
“Well hey there, I didn’t realise you would miss me that much in such a short amount of time.”
“I missed you so much, you don’t even understand.”
Arnav hugged her tightly and smiled at the fact that she had missed him so intensely. Breaking the hug, he took her lips in a hungry kiss. After an eternity they pulled away.
“I’ve missed your taste so much! That sounds so strange when I say it out loud but it’s the truth.”
“Same here. I missed yours too.”
Breaking apart, Arnav gestured Khushi to sit down on the sofa and he sat down beside her.
“So, have you finished your assignment?”
“Which one?”
“I only set one over the break, the one that’s due tomorrow.”
“Oh shit! I totally forgot!”
“That’s okay, you don’t have to do it.”
“No Arnav, I have to do it. Just because I’m your girlfriend doesn’t make me any different to anyone else in the class. I’m still your student and I need to do my assignments if I want to graduate this year.”
With that, Khushi jumped to her feet, placed a quick kiss on Arnav’s cheek and rushed out. After watched her rush off, and he couldn’t help but feel amused by her all over again.
*****
“Welcome back everyone. I hope you have all had the time to unwind and relax a little, but I also hope that you all remembered to complete completed my assignment.”
There was a shuffle as students took their laptops out or to get their notebooks out. Most of the members either pulled up their documents ready to forward onto Arnav or had the hard copy ready to hand to him.
One member of the class however, raised her hand and instantly Arnav knew what was coming.
“Sir, I haven’t done it!”
“Miss Mishra, welcome back. I must say I really had hoped that you would have the work done, but I’m not at all surprised.”
“You really expect too much from me. Like you said, it was time for us to relax and unwind and that is what I did, you assignment simply did not find into that agenda.”
Members of the class looked to each other, flabbergasted at the way Sia was able to speak to Arnav.
“Ah, well yes, you do have a point. I completely understand. But you’re back now and it’s time to get back to reality and I want my work done. So seeing as you have failed to complete my work, you shall have to add an extra 2000 words to your assignment and I want it on my desk first thing tomorrow morning.”
Sia grumbled and then looked away muttering to Tina.
“He might be good looking but he’s a right ba***rd.”
Khushi looked at Sia and threw her a dirty look, but didn’t say anything. Inside, she was seething though. How dare she call Arnav such a thing? She turned away and continued to listen to what Arnav was saying. And just like that, his voice was enough to calm her down completely. Was it possible just to be turned on by his voice? To find so much peace in his voice even when he wasn’t speaking to her? It was the strangest thing but she liked the feeling.
The lesson ended and Khushi watched as everyone else left the room. Arnav looked at her and smiled and closed the door.
“My baby stayed back for me?”
“Of course I would.”
Khushi got out of her seat and sat on Arnav’s desk. He moved towards her and closed the distance between them. He positioned himself between her legs and moved in to kiss her. The kiss started light like every other time and gradually he hunger between them grew like a fire.
When they finally moved apart from one another, Khushi gave him a playful smile as she played with his tie.
“My man doesn’t want me today.”
“How did you get to that absurd conclusion?”
“You’re not hard.”
Arnav raised his eyebrow at how straight forward she was being. But it was a game he was also well versed in and was ready to play with her.
“Do you want me to be hard?”
“Maybe.”
“If I was hard Khushi, I would take you on this very desk. I’m fighting for my self control as it is. I’m trying so hard to respect your wishes but, when you say things like that, you really test me.”
Khushi giggled and Arnav moved in again to kiss her. His hands caressed her body as she wrapped her arms around his neck. But before they could settle into the moment, the door flies open and Arnav and Khushi jump apart.
“Oh my god! What the hell! I’m so sorry!”
Arnav was the first to get back to his senses and react.
“Miss Mishra! There’s something called knocking! Shut the door please.”
Closing the door, Sia walked into the room nervously, her eyes never leaving Khushi.
“I left my bag and my phone.”
“That’s fine, but again, there’s something called knocking.”
“Khushi, you’re with Mr Raizada? But Lavanya said you were with some guy from another university!”
Arnav turned to Khushi, waiting for her to respond but when he realised she was still too shocked to say anything, he knew that he needed to step in.
“Well, she said that because we wanted to keep our relationship quiet. I’m sure you can understand that a teacher-student relationship is not something that people would be impressed about. Sia, please don’t tell anyone about us. There would be a lot of trouble if anyone found out about is.”
His tone was a lot softer towards the end of what he was saying and he could tell that he was getting through to Sia. Finally, Khushi came back to her full senses and she knew that she needed to say something.
“Please Sia, I know you don’t like me and we’ve never been friends or anything, but please, just this once, don’t say anything.”
“I-ok, I won’t say anything. But Khushi don’t think it’s because I like you or anything. I’m only doing so because Mr Raizada said so!”
With that, she grabbed her bag and phone and rushed out of the room. Arnav raised his eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, trying to comprehend what had just happened, but he smiled as it all sunk in. It wasn’t the ideal situation but it was better than nothing.
“The nerve of that girl!”
“Even if it is for your sake, at least she won’t say anything.”
Tanzeela’s Creative Writing Corner 