A Dare

Chap_19. Too Late

Akash’s POV

Hearing Arnav, I was utterly shocked. The Arnav I knew would never fall for a girl. He just loathed girls for some reason.

And that same arrogant guy, Arnav Greystone was asking for help and admitting himself that he was in love.

Since I knew him from school, I could feel he wasn’t lying.

I wanted to help him as he was there for me when I needed him. He was my best friend. I gave him that dare with a girl and the girl turned out to be Khushi.

I could have stopped him but I didn’t. I shouldn’t blame him only as I was the same or even more guilty in all this.

So giving it a good thought, I decided to help Arnav and forwarded to talk to Khushi but deep in my heart, I was afraid of her reaction.

I stood in front of her room and uttered under my breath, “For my insecurity, I couldn’t get in their way when I was sure both of them were in love with each other.” and with this thought, I knocked on the door only to get it wide open. Being confused, I entered the room only to find it empty.

It didn’t take much time for me to understand where Khushi could be now and forwarded towards the place.

The swimming pool lounge.

As expected she was there, her legs in water and she was staring at the sky. I knew she was sad and remembering the past.

Her parents' accident was a dreadful incident of her life and then Arnav and his fake love just shattered her to the core.

I noticed this a few times. Around us, she became a smiling girl but alone the same broken girl.

I tried to be there for her but I couldn’t bring up the matter of Arnav being afraid.

Taking a deep breath, I got near her. Getting my legs into water, I sat beside her.

Both of us were silent until she spoke up, “Did you really know Arnav back then?”

I got paused for a few moments though I was here to speak about the matter itself.

I heard myself uttering in a lower tone, “He was my best friend.”

She gave me a confused look as she uttered, “Then why didn't I see you two together not even for once?”

I thought for a moment what to say then spoke up about what the reason actually was..

“I didn’t want to let you know about us and besides I got busy with my project thesis. So, we didn’t hang out often that time.”

She kept staring at me and I was getting mentally prepared to answer her next question which I thought she was about to shoot at me.

But she didn’t rather getting me shocked, she uttered, “That’s okay, Akash. And in that case, you two should get along. I don’t have any problem with that. Because of me, you don’t have to end your friendship with him.”

She again looked at the sky and kept staring at it blankly making it difficult for me to get what was going on in her mind.

“Arnav is not a bad guy, Khushi. He was out of his mind for some moment then. But now he is sorry for the past time.” hearing me, Khushi gave me an all shocked look and shot the question  which I expected earlier, “By any chance did you know about that dare?”

I got paused again. Getting hold of myself, I was about to utter something but couldn’t as Khushi spoke up, “I don’t want to discuss this topic, Akash. Anyways, I am feeling sleepy. I should get some sleep now.”

She got her legs out of the water and forwarded towards the entrance of the mansion leaving me all alone with my agony.

Khushi’s POV

I could feel in what direction our conversation was going. Out of all the people, I didn’t think Akash would try to convince me about Arnav after knowing everything.

But it was too late. Neither I could forget the past, nor I could forgive him.

I got back to my room without dragging our conversation and getting changed, I got on the bed.

Soon sleep engulfed me since I was really tired and got me into a dream which I wanted the least.

The next day I got finished my work in the office before going for the meeting with Greystone group of industries because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to concentrate on my work after meeting him.

I didn’t know why but I was getting a vibe that Arnav was up to something to get things troublesome for me given the last day’s incident at my place.

I wasn’t sure of his intention nor did I cared to know.

Arriving his office, I found him in the meeting room already with his PA maybe.

Today I wasn’t accompanied by my whole team but just a one member, Derek. We were supposed to brief him about our marketing plan.

Through the all time of the meeting, Arnav was all formal and at last got uttering, "Okay then, thank you very much. You guys can take your leave."

I felt somewhat relieved as my assumption was proved wrong. Derek and I both rose on our feet, intending to leave.

Only to get stopped as Arnav called my name, "No wait, Miss Khushi."

I turned around and furrowed my brows.

"The list." His gaze moved to the file in front of him, "You didn't explain me the criteria. On what grounds you've selected the people in this list?"

He went on, "How about if you stay a little longer here and explain me the plan on behalf of your teammate?"

“Okay then. You stay here. I am going ahead.” I slightly nodded and Derek left from there.

My frown deepened as he looked at his PA and he left the meeting room also leaving me alone with Arnav in the meeting room.

He walked towards me and sat on the edge of the table at a little distance from me and spoke up, “Continue.”

Glaring at him, I spoke up, “What are you trying to do?”

Shrugging off my question, he shot one with a smiling face, “Are you busy this evening?”

I kept staring at him without answering and then spoke up, “I guess you already got cleared about the list. I should leave then. Aman is waiting for me.”

His smile got faded away at my last sentence but I didn't care a bit. I stood up from my seat and forwarded to leave.

I lied as I thought he would give it a break hearing this but I got proved wrong as he uttered calmly, “That's a lie, Khushi.”

Casting him a glare, I forwarded towards the door to leave.

Author’s P.O.V.

Arnav got the door closed with his one hand blocking Khushi to get out from the meeting room.

Khushi turned to him giving him a deadly glare which Arnav didn’t care a bit.

“You can't keep running away from me, Khushi.", Arnav said, his face was all serious as his eyes bored into Khushi's.

Standing her ground, Khushi uttered using her utmost effort to look confident, "I am not running away."

Arnav went on uttering all confidently, "Yes, you are. And eventually you're going to have to stop. And I'm going to be there no matter how far you go. Because I know"

At this point Khushi blurted out sternly interrupting him, "Don't even think like you still know me well when actually you don't even have any idea about this new me."

Arnav's confused eyes met Khushi's as she got uttering with a hard face, "I have put back my pieces differently."