"What a movie, yaar.. maza aa gaya (it was fun)," Aman exclaimed as he got up from his seat like others to leave.
Ayan looked at his brother sleeping peacefully with his head resting on his shoulder. He patted Arnav's cheek lightly, whispering, "Bhai.. bhai.. utho (wake up)."
Arnav woke up with a jerk, sitting straight and rubbing his left eye, trying to process his surroundings. He looked at Ayan frowning slightly, "What happened?"
"Why are you so worried as if you woke up to World War 3? Relax, kuch nahi hua bhai. you just slept during the movie," Ayan replied, patting his brother's arm as if asking him to calm down.
Arnav narrowed his eyes at his brother, who smiled sheepishly at him.
"By the way, was the movie boring that you felt asleep while watching?" Ayan teased him.
"Nahi yaar.. it's the tiredness taking its toll on me because of work," Arnav sighed, when he looked at the screen, it was showing the closing credits, "The movie ended already," he muttered as realisation dawned upon on him. He didn't have time to discuss the details of the scenes with Khushi like they did last time with the RRR movie.
Thinking about Khushi, where is she? She was sitting right beside him. He remembers it clearly. What happened during the time he slept that Ayan took her place? He thought to himself as he looked up, searching for Khushi.
His eyes found her standing in the middle of the aisle of their row, with NK and Lavanya as they discussed something inaudible to him.
"Ayan.. why are you sitting in Khushi's seat?" he turned back to look at brother, confused.
"Khushi didi asked me to switch seat with her, so I could help you sleep properly," Ayan explained.
They didn't have much time to discuss further as Aman started calling them to leave.
*****************************************
The driving back home was a silent journey with Arnav lost in his thoughts, Ayan playing games on Arnav's phone and Khushi silently happy, but tired too. She just wanted to get back home, freshen up, and land straight on her bed to sleep.
When they reached home, Arnav asked Ayan to go upstairs while he stayed with Khushi at the parking lot of their building, standing near his car.
"What happened, Arnav ji?" Khushi asked, curious to know the reason he asked her to stay back with him.
"What happened during the movie that you had to change your seat with Ayan?" Arnav asked in a serious tone, making Khushi look at him startled for a while, before she replied:
"Voh.. you fell asleep.."
"And what did you think? I would take advantage of you.. that's why you changed your seat with Ayan?" Arnav asked, his chocolate brown eyes reflected how much hurt he was by this move of hers..
"No, Arnav ji," Khushi shook her head vigorously.
"Then why did you switch seat with Ayan?"
This time, she could feel his tone laced with a little bit of anger as he demanded the answer to the question that was bothering him.
"Because.. I.. I .. I've my.. limits," she replied, her eyes brimming with unshed tears, "I've.. never been so close to a.. man-"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Which limits are you talking about? Do you think if I unintentionally fell asleep and touched you during my sleep, it would have made you cross your limits? If I mistakenly touched you while sleeping and made you uncomfortable, you could have woken me up and told me about it. Instead of changing seats as if I was going to do anything wrong with you in my sleep," he frowned slightly, staring at her incredulously, "And did you forget your so-called limits when you asked me, a 'man' to take you out to watch a movie?
Khushi didn't reply to him. She just nervously started fidgeting her fingers and lowered her eyes.
"You know what, Khushi.. you need to wake up and face the reality of the world you're a part of. There isn't a separate world that consists of only women there for you to live in. You live in this world only, with both women and men. You can't keep avoiding any kind of interaction with men. You can't think that every man in this world has no right intentions when they approach you. Take, for example, in your college, your classmates are boys and girls, and you can't keep ignoring the boys and only be friends with the girls in your classroom because you'll have to deal with them for four long years."
"I'm trying Arnav ji," she finally spoke, frustrated, raising her teary eyes to meet his. He was blaming her as if she's at fault.
"I've been brought up in this way by a conservative and strict family since I was born into this world, okay. Yes, I get scared and uncomfortable whenever any man comes to talk to me or tries to behave friendly with me because my family always reprimanded me whenever a boy came close to me. It's so easy for you to judge me and lecture me on how I should open up myself with others because you and your siblings had the liberty to do what you feel right. Ratna Aunty didn't raise you three by caging you all in a lock-up full of restrictions. But I.. I was forced since my childhood to behave like a girl from a reputed family. And do you know how a girl from a good reputed family should behave? We're taught to be simple and obey our elders because they know what's good for us, talk in a low tone, and never raise your voice in front of others. We're taught to wake up early in the morning, clean the house, and learn how to cook at a young age so that when our elders think we're mature enough to get married, they start looking for prospective grooms for us. We're strictly prohibited to talk or be seen with boys that aren't from our family, because that would spoil the reputation of our family, the society will question the moral and values our families instilled in their daughters and we won't get marriage proposals from good families then, we're taught to dress decently, cover our bodies and not use make-up so that men don't look at us with other intentions, we're taught not to smile too much otherwise men will get enticed by us, we're taught that good girls mostly stay at home with their families and avoid staying out of the house for long time.. this list of rules is longer than you imagine, and it might sound unbelievable to you, but this is what I've been going through all these years of my life with my family in Lucknow. It's not so easy to change.. but I'm trying to fit myself in your world."
Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she still continued to speak her heart out to her. He asked for it, so now he will hear it from her today.
"And look who's lecturing me about man's intention. Weren't you the one who asked me to call you by your name and not bhai? You had no problem if I considered Akash or Ayan as my brothers, but not you. What was your intention then?" she asked accusingly, her eyes red with tears flowing down her cheeks.
Arnav looked at her stupefied for a moment. This girl's sharp mind always surprises him whenever they're having an argument. First, she caught him with the 'promises are meant to be broken' thing, and now this.
"It's because I knew what your intentions were. That's why I made it clear to you that I only want friendship for you. Sirf dosti, yaad hai? (Only friendship, remember it?)," Khushi asked, making him remember the day they went to buy gift for Aman's mom and how he crossed his fingers behind his back when he made the 'Sirf dosti' promise to her.
"If you think I was or still am interested in you, then that's your biggest misconception, Khushi," Well, he had to lie as he couldn't let her know the feelings he had for her and win this argument from him, "I just wanted you to feel comfortable with me, that's why I asked you to call me by my name. I just want to help -"
"I don't need your help anymore. I'll manage to adjust myself to this Delhi lifestyle without you," she cut him off, deeply hurt as she took off the wristwatch and thrusted it into his hands.
She walked away from there, wiping the tears rolling down her cheeks with her palms.
Arnav stood still, staring at her wristwatch on his hands numbly. He was still trying to process the shocking turn their conversation took that they end up parting ways like this. Was this the end of their friendship?
*****************************************
This is a short update for the readers who asked for a quick update.
Thank you so much for the response in the previous chapter. It means a lot 🙈🩷🙏.
