OS: Falling in Reverse

 Read all my other One Shots over here.


Please note I retain sole ownership of all the works of fiction on this blog so please do not reproduce or alter my work and claim it as your own.

OS: Falling in Reverse

Arnav hadn’t thought he was capable of such emotion. But there it was, refusing to go away. Jeejaji and Khushi were hugging. It seemed unbelievable, unbelieveable and even inconceivable. But still there was an unmistakeable ache in his chest where there should have only been anger. He wanted to turn around and go back, he wanted to pretend he’d never seen it but somewhere between his brain and his feet the message got lost. It never made it and he continued to stand there transfixed, transfixed by the sight of them together.

He was feeling and thinking too many things at once as their words began to penetrate his numb mind. He was angry at Khushi, angry at Jeejaji, confused, distressed, but most of all heartbroken for his Di. It was kind of ironic that he had chosen that particular day to admit to herself he was in love with Khushi when Di’s love story was falling apart in front of his eyes. Since his mother’s death he’d never wanted to fall in love, whereas Di’s search for it had increased since that day. Falling in love meant being considerate, thinking about someone else first, giving everything you have and not expecting anything in return. Falling in love meant getting hurt. And that’s exactly what had happened.

He didn’t know whether to leave with his tail between her legs or confront him. In any other circumstance he was the confrontational type but things had always been different with Jeejaji. Di worshipped and loved him and that had always been good enough for Arnav to trust him by extension.

But Khushi... Why hadn’t she told him? Khushi had always been an enigma to him. There were days when she was as annoying as hell, somebody he tolerated for his family’s sake but didn’t particularly like. And then there were the days when she was unbelievably cute, funny and understanding. No matter what he did, no matter what he said she never seemed to hold it against him for very long. But he thought she’d known how he felt about her. They both knew it, just neither of them had said it yet. So why hadn’t she trusted him?

Arnav wasn’t sure of anything anymore. His legs suddenly decided to belatedly carry out the orders they had received from his brain. But instead of walking away from Khushi and Jeejaji they were walking towards them. Thankfully they had stopped talking briefly and Arnav could feel the anger radiating from Khushi’s trembling body. He fought down the desire to punch his brother in law and hug Khushi but came up behind them as slowly as possible. Khushi noticed him first and looked over her shoulder, almost as if she could sense his presence. Arnav watched as Shyam saw him as well and pasted a slow sickening smile on his face before he started with his lies.  

If Arnav hadn’t witnessed the scene before he would have been perplexed by Khushi’s expression upon seeing him. But unfortunately he had seen it and he could recognise the elation at seeing him mingled with the fear that he had possibly caught heard everything. The guilt he could see on her face made it worse. If it was possible for the pain to get any worse that is. She didn’t need to feel guilty, she shouldn’t be worried. He was the one that should be sorry that he hadn’t recognised his Jeejaji for what he was. He was the one that should feel guilty because he had never given Khushi any reason to trust him.

He came and stood next to Khushi, aching to take her into his arms, reassure her and free her from all the worry he could see on her face. Instead he looked at his Jeejaji and pasted a fake smile on his own face. There would be time to deal with Jeejaji, to talk to Di and figure out what he was going to do but this was not it. First he needed to talk to Khushi. He needed to show her that she could trust him, that she could love him.