FF: Breathing Only Half of the Air - Chapter 4

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Chapter Four

Arnav pulled his hand back and hissed in pain as he viewed the redness of his knuckles and the slight split over one of them beginning to ooze blood. 'f**k,' he said again as he opened the door to go downstairs.

---

'What are you doing?'

'Shut up and dance, Khushi Kumari Gupta,' Arnav said as he slid his arm around her waist and took hold of her hand in his.

Khushi ignored the tingling feeling at her waist at his touch which had never occurred with N.K, 'but what about Nanheji? And you said you didn't want to dance with me!'

'I still don't want to dance with you! But I don't want you to lead N.K along either. He bought you those flowers for a reason and dancing with him is just going to make it worse.'

'What? I don't... '

'Shhh.'

Arnav pulled her closer so their chests collided and every sane thought went flying out of Khushi's head.

---

Khushi concentrated on looking at his shoulder and nowhere else. If she had thought practicing with him for the last couple of weeks was bad, actually dancing in front of a hundred guests was like torture. He had spent all evening staring at her almost unashamedly, following her every movement with his eyes and she'd been constantly blushing ever since.

'Khushi?'

She looked up quickly wondering if she'd inadvertently said something out loud or stepped on his foot.

She looked up and Arnav felt himself losing his train of thought once again. She looked beautiful, innocent and seductive at the same time in the yellow dress she was wearing. He'd smiled instinctively as soon as he'd seen her and been unable to take his eyes off her since. With the spotlight on them, he almost felt as if there was nobody else in the room, he wished there wasn't and he could stop this ridiculous dance he didn't want to be doing and instead convince her to do something different, something which didn't need pre-planned and rehearsed moves but relied purely on passion and instinct.

'Arnavji?'

'Oh erm... I was saying that I think N.K got the message,' he tilted his head to the right.

Khushi smiled as she saw N.K flirting with a girl on the sidelines and turned back to look at Arnav who'd taken the hand off her waist to reach into the inside pocket of his suit. Khushi watched in astonishment as he pulled out a single yellow rose, with a cut off stem.

'For me?'

Arnav didn't answer but instead took the flower and positioned it in her hair above her ear, using one of the many clips she already had in there to secure it.

Khushi hadn't realised N.K was thinking of her as more than a friend until Arnav had pulled her, rather forcefully to the poolside where he'd arranged a table with small bushes of different coloured roses and explained the different meanings of the different colours as if she was stupid.


'But can't you just give red roses to friends sometimes?'


'No Khushi! He came to see you at midnight with a bouquet of red roses! Use that non-existent brain of yours and connect the dots!'

---

'Jeejaji, you have to give in to my demands only then will you get your shoes back!'

Akash had already begun to reach for his pocket when Arnav put his hand on Akash's shoulder. 'This is ridiculous Khushi, just tell me where you've put them.'

Khushi grinned and shook her head, 'no, that's not how it works Arnavji. Use your non-existent brain to find them or give up!'

Arnav turned to Akash quickly in a bid to hide his smile at her throwing his own lines back at him. 'Sorry Akash, I tried. You'll have to get your own shoes back; I'm not getting involved with this madness anymore.'

'Don't worry, I'll find them,' N.K said before he ran up through the crowd and up the stairs of the hall with Khushi following behind.

Arnav watched them go, his feet itching to follow needing to be absolutely sure that this wasn't N.K's way of being alone with Khushi. He stayed put for a few minutes, eyes fixed on the stairs waiting for them to come down before he found himself following them.

Khushi was walking backwards giggling with the shoes held behind her back and he stopped in place on top of the stairs until she inevitably walked right into him.

'You! No, no, you can't have them,' Khushi moved away holding the shoes away from Arnav who wasn't even making an attempt to take them from her.

Arnav scowled angrily at the sight of her grin, obviously the benefit of spending time with N.K. 'Don't worry Khushi, I'm not here to take your money ticket away from you. Where's N.K?'

Khushi looked at his set jaw as he looked over her shoulder and into the room she'd just left, '...money ticket? You know what, keep them! I don't want your money or your shoes!'

Arnav looked down at the shoes she'd just thrust into his hands bewildered before he realised what he'd said. 'Khushi, wait,' he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him to see tears in her eyes. 'Khushi, that's not what I meant!'

Khushi looked away from him as he continued to speak.

'I didn't mean it like that. I wasn't saying you just wanted money... I've never meant it. I mean yes, I did mean it the first couple of times I said it but I didn't know you then. I do now. I know you're not like that. Khushi?' She looked up at him then smiling slightly, 'I'm sorry Khushi. Really, I am.'

Khushi pushed his arm away from hers and grinned as she held the shoes that she'd snuck out of his hands while he was talking and held them aloft. 'It's okay,' she said as she ran down the stairs.

---

Arnav fingered the petals of the light pink rose Khushi had given him at the end of the wedding. She'd obviously pulled it roughly from one of the wedding decorations but he'd managed to keep it looking fairly fresh for the past two weeks although it had started to wilt and develop black spots. He'd had to hide the small glass vase in a dark corner of the poolside in case Khushi or anybody else should notice it and was wondering if it would be the height of madness if he pressed it inside a book. He heard the knock on the door and breathed in deeply to steady himself before he put the rose inside his bedside drawer.

Khushi stood at the door anxiously wondering why Arnav had told HP to tell her to meet him in his room as soon as she arrived. It sounded ominous somehow and she wasn't sure if she was prepared to go back to their old bickering ways rather than the friendly banter they'd enjoyed for the past month.

Arnav opened the door and held it open wordlessly for her to come in. He watched amused as she edged into the room slowly as if he would attack her at any moment. She walked towards the chair and stopped, picking up the ends of her scarf to twirl around her fingers nervously. Arnav turned around to close the door, rolling his eyes at the scared whimper he heard behind him.

Khushi left her scarf to bite her nails as he closed the door. Why was he doing that? She was trying to think of all the things she could have possibly done wrong since she'd seen him the day before when she heard the shout.

'BHAI! NANI! QUICKLY! BHAI!'

Arnav turned to look at Khushi quickly to see her looking as shocked as he felt at the sound of Akash shouting so anxiously and quickly opened the door again. Khushi followed Arnav out of the room and down the stairs, leaving a solitary red rose unnoticed on top of the bedside table.

---

Arnav was crouched in front of the freezer holding a bag of ice on his hand when he heard her behind him. He turned around in time to see Khushi notice him and stumble to a stop and gasp.

He stood up slowly, his mouth set in a grim line as his mind did mental cartwheels.  It was ridiculous but he felt vindicated somehow that she was wearing a plain loose fitting dress but there was no scarf to accompany it and she wasn't clutching awkwardly at her neck as if she needed it.

'I... I... didn't know you'd be... what happened to your hand?' Khushi rushed over to Arnav only to have him pull his hand away reminding her of the day he'd hurt himself with his gardening shears.

'What are you going to do? Kiss it and make it better?'

The sarcasm in his voice was obvious but Khushi still tried to reach for his hand again but he took a step backwards.

'So are you going to tell your... Suraj what happened or is that just going to be another secret that you keep and then pretend it was for his own good?'

Khushi looked up at him hurt as she slowly pulled her hand back and took a step back herself. '...I really did think it was for the best. I never thought he would... he would do something like that. If I had, I never would have...'

Arnav slammed the bag of ice onto the counter, and stormed out of the kitchen. He didn't want to hear anything about Shyam. Any mention of him always reminded Arnav of what a blind idiot he'd been and even more it reminded him of how Khushi had just used him and his feelings to her own advantage.