Bzzz-Bzzz. Bzzz-Bzzz. Bzzz-Bzzz.
Groaning Arnav heaved himself up from his bed and looked for the source of the annoying noise. After a few moments he found the culprit: his phone that was hiding under the folds of his duvet. Bleary eyed he looked at the screen, it flashed Anjali's name. She was probably calling to see what time he was going to leave. Yawning he answered it.
'Hel-
'Chotay?!! Oh thank God!' her voice was frantic. He straightened up immediately. Something horrendous must have happened for her to sound this hysterical. 'Where are you?!! Why aren't you answering my calls? I've been sick to the stomache worrying over you. Are you ok? Chotay say something! Why aren't you saying anything? This is you isn't it, this is Chotay, I mean my brother Arnav Singh Raizada answering his phone, yes. Please say yes!' she ranted feverishly.
'Di. Di...DIII Yes its' me. Of course it's me, who else would it be. Why are you panicked? What's wrong? Did something happen?' Arnav shouted back into the phone over Anjali's continued worried questions.
'Oh Chotay. I was so scared. How can you do this to me Chotay?!! You know how frightened I get when I don't hear from you!!' she scolded him, 'Where are you? Is everything ok?'
'Yeah Di everything is fine. I'm in Nainital where else. I told you. I talked to you yesterday, so what do you mean about scaring you.' He asked a little confused and annoyed at her getting so worked up, when he clearly told her where he was.
'Still in Nainital? Why? Did you not complete your work?' she asked, now sounding confused herself.
'What? No I did. Di it was just a site inspection, which is done.'
'Then why are you still there? I thought you were going to get here by ten.'
'Yeah Di. I will.' He said getting up and stretching, now that she had woken him he may as well start getting ready to leave.
'How exactly? Do you plan on travelling back in time?' she said irritably.
'Hunh? What are you talking about Di?'
'Chotay have you forgotten how to tell the time, it's coming to eleven o'clock!'
'What?!!' he stopped in mid yawn. Then pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the clock on his display, twenty to eleven it read. 'Oh Sh*t its' nearly eleven!' he shouted into the phone.
'Yes that is what I just said.' Anjali retorted.
Crap!! No wonder Anjali was so angry and scared. He was a whole forty minutes late and Anjali only required a person to be five minutes late to start panicking.
'Di I'm so sorry, I overslept. I must have not heard my alarm. You must have been so tense. I'm so sorry. Ok, I'm going to hang up now and get going.' He said already throwing his belongings into his bag as he spoke.
'Yeah. Ok. But Chotay drive safely, don't speed, Khush-' She added, concerned that her brother may do just that considering he was late.
'Yeah. Yeah.' He replied half-listening. 'Ok Di, I'll talk to you when I see you, ok? Bye.' Hanging up he headed for the bathroom, only to stop on the way to open his door and shout across the hall for Khushi to wake up. Cursing her under his breath, as he headed to the toilet, for it was due to her he had slept so late and forgotten to put the alarm on. It came back to him now how her howls outside the door had tormented him and when they had finally stopped, the pain inside of him had not. He had tossed and turned throughout the night cursing himself for bringing up her past and character something he had promised himself not to do, no matter how much she deserved to have it thrown in her face. Her cries tortured him and he wished to go out in the hall and calm her, but he stopped himself as he knew they were only a means of hers' to draw him in. He didn't know when he had finally fallen asleep.
Throwing his toitletries into his carry-on he mulled the things over in his bag making sure they all fit inside and then zipped it up. There was no time to pack it properly. After having glanced around the room to check if he had not missed anything he went into the hall, which was still empty. It seemd her Highness was still asleep!Gritting his teeth, he went over to her door and pounded upon it. There was no answer from within, but the door did open on its own accord. He stared at it for moment, figuring that she probably hadn't closed it properly, he ventured in cautiously, for he wasn't sure exactly what state he would find her in.
Upon entering the room he was shocked at the scene before him. The room was completely empty. The bed unslept in and her bags gone. He didn't understand. How could this be? He went over to the bathroom and knocked, but this door too was open and there was no sign of Khushi inside it either. An unsettling feeling began to form in his stomache. Where was she? He came out of her room and checked around the hall again, had he somehow missed her. May be she was already downstairs in the lobby. He grabbed his bag and headed down to the lobby. When the lift opened on the ground floor he still saw no sign of her. He walked out and looked for her but she was no where to be found. He whisked out his phone from his pocket and began dialing her number only to cut it before it began ringing as he remembered that she had left it at home. Annoyed he paced the lobby trying to figure out where to look for her, when the delicious aroma's from the hotel's restaurant wafted into his nose and he realized, foodie as she was, he would find her there break-fasting away, not a concern in the world about how she had worried him.
He marched into the restaurant. It was sparsely filled, good that meant she would be easier to locate. He looked around but still didn't find her. He went over to the buffet table, thinking that may be she was there filling her plate leisurely. But she wasn't. Now he was confused and a little worried, if she wasn't here then where was she? It was then he heard it, the snippet of conversation that halted him, it was the same man who he had rescued Khushi from the night before.
'...yes she was beautiful, I tell you. I've never been so enthralled. I mean I've done it so many times but, this one...she was special. You know it was lik- but the person was unable to describe the rest for in that very moment Arnav's fist came into contact with his jaw, resulting in the man tumbling off his chair and landing on the floor with a loud thud.
'Hey, what the h*ll man?!!' his audience and friend called out in unision, but stopped from advancing as Arnav threw them a menacing look. He turned back to the man sprawled on the floor, clutching his bleeding jaw and cursing in pain as Arnav gave him another powerful punch in the gut this time, making him jerk up and howl in pain.
'Where is she?!! And how dare you talk about her in public this way?! Do you have no decency at all!! You are humiliating her by talking this way in public about her!' he growled.
'Who?! What are you talking about man?!' Rishi cried back in pain.
'Don't act like you don't know. You know exactly what I'm talking about, you were with her last night. Didn't I make it clear that she was off limits? Yet you still went after her! What did you do to her?! Where is she?!'
'What woman?!' he asked again, 'I have no idea who you are talking about, I was with no woman last night!' he blubbered back as blood seeped from his mouth.
'Don't lie to me! I heard you. You were just talking about her! Re-telling your little episode with her!' Arnav spat. Disgusted at how he was relating his night with Khushi in front of the rest of the world, all the while in shock at how she could have gone back to this man. From her howls last night he had thought she had regretted her previous actions and had changed. He thought that may be her hysterical pregnancy had taught her caution but hearing this man bragging on he realized that she had not. For she had sought him out in the night. That's why the cries had stopped. That's why her bed was un-slept in for she had found another bed. It made his blood boil at the thought of what she had done and how this man was now advertising it. Whatever Khushi had done, how could this man then go about publicizing it? It was disgusting. They both were disgusting creatures. But right now he had to protect Khushi, for she was with him and he could not allow anyone to taint her name publicly. 'Where is she?!!' he roared again.
'I have no idea what you are talking about. I wasn't talking about any woman right now, I was talking about the peak, Mayang and I climbed this morning.' Rishi exhaled exasperatedly.
Arnav stared at him and then recalled the conversation he caught last night between him and Khushi. We plan on climbing one in the morning, will leave before dawn so that we can reach there and watch the sunrise. Want to come? Could he be telling the truth, had he completely mistaken the conversation? Had Khushi so completely occupied his mind that he had believed him to be talking about her? He looked at his friends and then back at him. 'You mean you weren't talking about Khushi but about the mountain you climbed this morning?' he asked just to be sure.
He nodded. So did his friends. Crap! What was Khushi doing to him? He was beating up random people because of her. Damn it! This woman was driving him crazy! He let go of Rishi and got up. Then just to make sure, 'So you didn't see Khushi?' he asked all three of them, Rishi, Mayang and the third party who they had been relating their adventure to.
'No man.' Said Rishi, as Mayang helped him up. Then added as he finally realized who Arnav was talking about. 'Look man, I admit I like having my fair share of women, but I don't go after other men's women ok...that's not my thing.' He said rubbing his sides and jaw.
'Oh. How noble of you.' Arnav remarked sarcastically as he stalked away. Where was she?! He went back into the lobby and checked again, in case he may have missed her, but she wasn't there. Panic was now turning him nauseous; he didn't like this not knowing feeling. He needed to find her, see her, make sure she was ok. If the cries from last night were any indication then she was in a terrible state, cause of him. May be him showing her the mirror had done the trick and made her repent. But he hadn't wanted her to do it in this way, he hadn't wished for her to disappear. What if she had...no he could not think like that. But then where was she? How was he supposed to find her in this small but completely unfamiliar town? And she too had come here for the first time, where would she have gone? What if she met the wrong sort of people? Ugh where was he going to find her, he had no idea where to even start looking.
'Oh sorry sir. Were you waiting to check out? You should've rung the bell, I was only in the back.' The clerk behind the desk broke through his thoughts.
'No. I was- he stopped as a thought occurred to him, may be he had seen Khushi. 'Do you remember the woman who came in with me?' Arnav asked.
'Yes sir.' He smiled, remembering Khushi. 'She was quite remarkable, hard to forget.'
Arnav didn't like the way he described her, but checked himself, he needed his help right now so it would do him no good berating him for his tone. 'Did you happen to see her this morning?'
'Yes. She came down early, around five-thirty asking for the bus stop.' He replied casually, as if there was nothing wrong about a woman leaving that early in the morning, alone.
'Bus stop!' Arnav exclaimed aloud. She left without him. What was the meaning of this? How could she be so irresponsible?!
'Yes. She asked and I told her, where it is, just down the road. Not too far. But why are you so worried sir? If you ask me, its' better she left in that manner. Women like her are not worthy of you, they are trouble, best to enjoy the night with them and let them leave in the morning. You-
But he didn't get a chance to continue on with his advise, for Arnav gripped his collar, choking him for insinuating Khushi to be a call-girl, 'How dare you...just do what you're hired here to do, instead of thinking too much...it doesn't become a person like you to say such things about women you don't know!!' he blared into his panic-striken face. With that Arnav shoved him and threw down his credit card on the counter between them motioning for him to clear his bills. He did so without another word, too afraid to upset Arnav again.
Once in the parking lot, he went to his car, threw his bag into the boot and got in. He drove past the bus stop just incase Khushi may still be there, but of course she wasn't, which he knew for she would have taken the first bus out, but he needed to make sure. Seeing no sign of her, he floored the accelerator and hit the highway, desperate to get home soon and give Khushi a piece of his mind, not to mention make sure that she had arrived soundly.
Groaning Arnav heaved himself up from his bed and looked for the source of the annoying noise. After a few moments he found the culprit: his phone that was hiding under the folds of his duvet. Bleary eyed he looked at the screen, it flashed Anjali's name. She was probably calling to see what time he was going to leave. Yawning he answered it.
'Hel-
'Chotay?!! Oh thank God!' her voice was frantic. He straightened up immediately. Something horrendous must have happened for her to sound this hysterical. 'Where are you?!! Why aren't you answering my calls? I've been sick to the stomache worrying over you. Are you ok? Chotay say something! Why aren't you saying anything? This is you isn't it, this is Chotay, I mean my brother Arnav Singh Raizada answering his phone, yes. Please say yes!' she ranted feverishly.
'Di. Di...DIII Yes its' me. Of course it's me, who else would it be. Why are you panicked? What's wrong? Did something happen?' Arnav shouted back into the phone over Anjali's continued worried questions.
'Oh Chotay. I was so scared. How can you do this to me Chotay?!! You know how frightened I get when I don't hear from you!!' she scolded him, 'Where are you? Is everything ok?'
'Yeah Di everything is fine. I'm in Nainital where else. I told you. I talked to you yesterday, so what do you mean about scaring you.' He asked a little confused and annoyed at her getting so worked up, when he clearly told her where he was.
'Still in Nainital? Why? Did you not complete your work?' she asked, now sounding confused herself.
'What? No I did. Di it was just a site inspection, which is done.'
'Then why are you still there? I thought you were going to get here by ten.'
'Yeah Di. I will.' He said getting up and stretching, now that she had woken him he may as well start getting ready to leave.
'How exactly? Do you plan on travelling back in time?' she said irritably.
'Hunh? What are you talking about Di?'
'Chotay have you forgotten how to tell the time, it's coming to eleven o'clock!'
'What?!!' he stopped in mid yawn. Then pulled the phone away from his ear to look at the clock on his display, twenty to eleven it read. 'Oh Sh*t its' nearly eleven!' he shouted into the phone.
'Yes that is what I just said.' Anjali retorted.
Crap!! No wonder Anjali was so angry and scared. He was a whole forty minutes late and Anjali only required a person to be five minutes late to start panicking.
'Di I'm so sorry, I overslept. I must have not heard my alarm. You must have been so tense. I'm so sorry. Ok, I'm going to hang up now and get going.' He said already throwing his belongings into his bag as he spoke.
'Yeah. Ok. But Chotay drive safely, don't speed, Khush-' She added, concerned that her brother may do just that considering he was late.
'Yeah. Yeah.' He replied half-listening. 'Ok Di, I'll talk to you when I see you, ok? Bye.' Hanging up he headed for the bathroom, only to stop on the way to open his door and shout across the hall for Khushi to wake up. Cursing her under his breath, as he headed to the toilet, for it was due to her he had slept so late and forgotten to put the alarm on. It came back to him now how her howls outside the door had tormented him and when they had finally stopped, the pain inside of him had not. He had tossed and turned throughout the night cursing himself for bringing up her past and character something he had promised himself not to do, no matter how much she deserved to have it thrown in her face. Her cries tortured him and he wished to go out in the hall and calm her, but he stopped himself as he knew they were only a means of hers' to draw him in. He didn't know when he had finally fallen asleep.
Throwing his toitletries into his carry-on he mulled the things over in his bag making sure they all fit inside and then zipped it up. There was no time to pack it properly. After having glanced around the room to check if he had not missed anything he went into the hall, which was still empty. It seemd her Highness was still asleep!Gritting his teeth, he went over to her door and pounded upon it. There was no answer from within, but the door did open on its own accord. He stared at it for moment, figuring that she probably hadn't closed it properly, he ventured in cautiously, for he wasn't sure exactly what state he would find her in.
Upon entering the room he was shocked at the scene before him. The room was completely empty. The bed unslept in and her bags gone. He didn't understand. How could this be? He went over to the bathroom and knocked, but this door too was open and there was no sign of Khushi inside it either. An unsettling feeling began to form in his stomache. Where was she? He came out of her room and checked around the hall again, had he somehow missed her. May be she was already downstairs in the lobby. He grabbed his bag and headed down to the lobby. When the lift opened on the ground floor he still saw no sign of her. He walked out and looked for her but she was no where to be found. He whisked out his phone from his pocket and began dialing her number only to cut it before it began ringing as he remembered that she had left it at home. Annoyed he paced the lobby trying to figure out where to look for her, when the delicious aroma's from the hotel's restaurant wafted into his nose and he realized, foodie as she was, he would find her there break-fasting away, not a concern in the world about how she had worried him.
He marched into the restaurant. It was sparsely filled, good that meant she would be easier to locate. He looked around but still didn't find her. He went over to the buffet table, thinking that may be she was there filling her plate leisurely. But she wasn't. Now he was confused and a little worried, if she wasn't here then where was she? It was then he heard it, the snippet of conversation that halted him, it was the same man who he had rescued Khushi from the night before.
'...yes she was beautiful, I tell you. I've never been so enthralled. I mean I've done it so many times but, this one...she was special. You know it was lik- but the person was unable to describe the rest for in that very moment Arnav's fist came into contact with his jaw, resulting in the man tumbling off his chair and landing on the floor with a loud thud.
'Hey, what the h*ll man?!!' his audience and friend called out in unision, but stopped from advancing as Arnav threw them a menacing look. He turned back to the man sprawled on the floor, clutching his bleeding jaw and cursing in pain as Arnav gave him another powerful punch in the gut this time, making him jerk up and howl in pain.
'Where is she?!! And how dare you talk about her in public this way?! Do you have no decency at all!! You are humiliating her by talking this way in public about her!' he growled.
'Who?! What are you talking about man?!' Rishi cried back in pain.
'Don't act like you don't know. You know exactly what I'm talking about, you were with her last night. Didn't I make it clear that she was off limits? Yet you still went after her! What did you do to her?! Where is she?!'
'What woman?!' he asked again, 'I have no idea who you are talking about, I was with no woman last night!' he blubbered back as blood seeped from his mouth.
'Don't lie to me! I heard you. You were just talking about her! Re-telling your little episode with her!' Arnav spat. Disgusted at how he was relating his night with Khushi in front of the rest of the world, all the while in shock at how she could have gone back to this man. From her howls last night he had thought she had regretted her previous actions and had changed. He thought that may be her hysterical pregnancy had taught her caution but hearing this man bragging on he realized that she had not. For she had sought him out in the night. That's why the cries had stopped. That's why her bed was un-slept in for she had found another bed. It made his blood boil at the thought of what she had done and how this man was now advertising it. Whatever Khushi had done, how could this man then go about publicizing it? It was disgusting. They both were disgusting creatures. But right now he had to protect Khushi, for she was with him and he could not allow anyone to taint her name publicly. 'Where is she?!!' he roared again.
'I have no idea what you are talking about. I wasn't talking about any woman right now, I was talking about the peak, Mayang and I climbed this morning.' Rishi exhaled exasperatedly.
Arnav stared at him and then recalled the conversation he caught last night between him and Khushi. We plan on climbing one in the morning, will leave before dawn so that we can reach there and watch the sunrise. Want to come? Could he be telling the truth, had he completely mistaken the conversation? Had Khushi so completely occupied his mind that he had believed him to be talking about her? He looked at his friends and then back at him. 'You mean you weren't talking about Khushi but about the mountain you climbed this morning?' he asked just to be sure.
He nodded. So did his friends. Crap! What was Khushi doing to him? He was beating up random people because of her. Damn it! This woman was driving him crazy! He let go of Rishi and got up. Then just to make sure, 'So you didn't see Khushi?' he asked all three of them, Rishi, Mayang and the third party who they had been relating their adventure to.
'No man.' Said Rishi, as Mayang helped him up. Then added as he finally realized who Arnav was talking about. 'Look man, I admit I like having my fair share of women, but I don't go after other men's women ok...that's not my thing.' He said rubbing his sides and jaw.
'Oh. How noble of you.' Arnav remarked sarcastically as he stalked away. Where was she?! He went back into the lobby and checked again, in case he may have missed her, but she wasn't there. Panic was now turning him nauseous; he didn't like this not knowing feeling. He needed to find her, see her, make sure she was ok. If the cries from last night were any indication then she was in a terrible state, cause of him. May be him showing her the mirror had done the trick and made her repent. But he hadn't wanted her to do it in this way, he hadn't wished for her to disappear. What if she had...no he could not think like that. But then where was she? How was he supposed to find her in this small but completely unfamiliar town? And she too had come here for the first time, where would she have gone? What if she met the wrong sort of people? Ugh where was he going to find her, he had no idea where to even start looking.
'Oh sorry sir. Were you waiting to check out? You should've rung the bell, I was only in the back.' The clerk behind the desk broke through his thoughts.
'No. I was- he stopped as a thought occurred to him, may be he had seen Khushi. 'Do you remember the woman who came in with me?' Arnav asked.
'Yes sir.' He smiled, remembering Khushi. 'She was quite remarkable, hard to forget.'
Arnav didn't like the way he described her, but checked himself, he needed his help right now so it would do him no good berating him for his tone. 'Did you happen to see her this morning?'
'Yes. She came down early, around five-thirty asking for the bus stop.' He replied casually, as if there was nothing wrong about a woman leaving that early in the morning, alone.
'Bus stop!' Arnav exclaimed aloud. She left without him. What was the meaning of this? How could she be so irresponsible?!
'Yes. She asked and I told her, where it is, just down the road. Not too far. But why are you so worried sir? If you ask me, its' better she left in that manner. Women like her are not worthy of you, they are trouble, best to enjoy the night with them and let them leave in the morning. You-
But he didn't get a chance to continue on with his advise, for Arnav gripped his collar, choking him for insinuating Khushi to be a call-girl, 'How dare you...just do what you're hired here to do, instead of thinking too much...it doesn't become a person like you to say such things about women you don't know!!' he blared into his panic-striken face. With that Arnav shoved him and threw down his credit card on the counter between them motioning for him to clear his bills. He did so without another word, too afraid to upset Arnav again.
Once in the parking lot, he went to his car, threw his bag into the boot and got in. He drove past the bus stop just incase Khushi may still be there, but of course she wasn't, which he knew for she would have taken the first bus out, but he needed to make sure. Seeing no sign of her, he floored the accelerator and hit the highway, desperate to get home soon and give Khushi a piece of his mind, not to mention make sure that she had arrived soundly.
*****
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