The Official Ring
The scene outside the window was changing but the thought that was struck in the mind was not budging at all. Even though the outer luscious green scenery was vibrant and positive but still the gloomy thoughts kept making their way to the surface. The towering trees looking blur but the memory was crystal clear. Prachi tried her best to move her mind to something else. Something stupid. But no. The memories of the late morning came back barging to her mind.
Though dozing off just about a couple of hours prior, Prachi woke up abruptly. Checking the clock, it was a good time after four. She got up groaning at yet another pounding headache because of yet another crying session. Looking to her side she smiled feebly at her sister who was sleeping by her side, a tissue still in her hand, that she had been using to wipe away her tears.
She had just brought the water bottle to her lips when she heard a soft thud. Soft and nearby. She heard the same soft thud again, but this time it was much clear. She got up, gingerly moving her feet that had turned numb, and moved to the door, opening it and looking outside. She saw Ranbir, totally wasted, swaying on his feet as he moved towards his room, or rather being carried by Aryan.
It took all she had to not follow them, but still, she rushed to the balcony to at least hear anything that might assure her that he was okay. As much as he can be after she went ahead and ripped his heart to shreds.
After standing quietly in the chilly air, she saw the light of the adjacent room turn on. She held onto her breath, in fear that she might miss any noise. Jumping in surprise when the door of the balcony opened and Aryan came out. Thanks to the dark, he didn't notice her and returned after picking up something from the iron chair.
"Prachi..... Prachi?" She jolted awake, coming face to face with Shahana, who was bent forward in front of her from the car door.
Hasn't she been on her right?
Prachi looked around, taking in her new surroundings. The blurry surroundings had come to a standstill and she identified the building in front of her as the Mehra mansion. She blinked, and then blinked again, realizing that the extreme mental and emotional exhaust had made her fall asleep somewhere in the way. She got down from the car and rubbed her eyes, trying to pry the sleep away. The mansion was the same in the structure, but the paint had been changed from the previous to the pearl white shade. She was just admiring the place that she had come to several times, that had later turned out to be her own house and now she will be leaving it soon.
Ranbir got down from the car that he had shared, forcefully, with Abhi, Pragya, and *disgusted noises* Rhea.
He groaned as his head pounded, hangover and sleep deprivation being the equal reasons. The small nap he had slipped into during the ride was woefully disturbed by the creepy fiance of his who, instead of traveling in one of the most luxurious cars, kept on clinging to him.
Groaning lightly again, he moved forward, eyes squeezed shut while he rubbed his temples with his fingertips, gasping as he bumped into something soft and he felt that thing falling forward. His hands worked on their own accord and reached out to wrap around the thing to keep it from falling. He opens his eyes just in time to come face to face to black silken threads, the oh-so-familiar scent filling his nostrils immediately. He could feel her hands gripping his arms tightly that were wrapped around her waist, and her breathing heavy due to shock. His breaths automatically synchronized with her's as her back heaved against his chest, and his eyes closed on their own accord.
He was about to lean in to have some of that familiar calmness some more but, fortunately, or unfortunately, everyone rushed to them.
"Prachi are you okay?"
"Ranbir are you fine?"
"You both didn't get hurt, right?"
And way more intermingled questions were sent their way that he could not comprehend. His eyes snapped open and he straightened up, pulling Prachi with him. His grip was still intact till Prachi pushed his arms away and he instantly missed the warmth.
"What the hell Prachi?" Came an irritated voice and everyone turned to the source. Rhea Mehra.
"Huh?" Everyone chorused in confusion at the out-of-place statement.
"Rhea, what do you mean?" Dida asked, rather harshly, her brows furrowed.
Rhea snapped into reality, noticing everyone around, she took a U-turn.
"I- I mean, where was your focus?" She asked masking her anger with fake concern. "You could have got hurt, right? Why were you not paying attention-
"It was my fault," Ranbir interjected. "I didn't pay attention to where I was going and bumped into her."
"It's okay, Ranbir." Abhi said, "You were quite sleepy in the car too."
"Yeah, everyone is tired." Piyush commented, "Even Prachi was asleep half the ride." He would have continued if Prachi had not sent a glare his way.
"Come on everyone, let's go in." Pragya ushered everyone inside the house, Prachi too trotted behind, ignoring the glare she could practically feel on the back of her head.
The interior was almost the same. Only minor changes were made, those too were only noticeable by observing minutely. They stayed in the hall for a while, talking and laughing and whatnot.
Ranbir wanted to leave as soon as they had reached and drown into the solace of his room but Rhea had clung to him like an infant monkey and refused to let go, forcing him into staying there with a fake smile plastered on his face.
The elders were enjoying the 'family time' merrily. Only if they knew what their younger ones were going through the wind whirls of emotions. Fear, guilt, heartbreak, and much more. Realizations that their lives were about to take humongous turns and that too unplanned and unwanted.
"I'm going to my room," Prachi said, getting up, but halted when she realized that she don't know which room is hers.
"Umm, Maa, which room is mine?" She asked and Shahana too stood up. "Ours?" She added and Shahana nodded.
Pragya had just opened her mouth to answer but the overexcited father, Abhi, beat her to it. "I'll take you. Rhea come-on. Aarav, Ranbir you too, everyone come and see their rooms." He said and took Pragya and Prachi upstairs, Shahana following closely behind and Rhea after her.
"I've not seen him this enthusiastic in ages." Purab commented and everyone hummed, following the three fourth of the family with eyes.
"What are you guys doing here?" Pallavi asked Ranbir and Aarav. "Go on, you too see which room is of your respective significant others."
"Yeah, might need to sneak into their room at night," Piyush said, wriggling his eyebrows at his brother.
Aarav didn't do anything and just returned a bored look but obliged nonetheless.
Instead of putting him off, it just encouraged the curly-haired boy more and followed with Aryan adding teasingly, "He ain't denying it."
Everyone laughed and dispersed to their rooms.
They reached the door of a room and Abhi asked Rhea to open it. "This is my room." She said and entered the room, squealing as she turned around, again and again, praising how the room matched her style and expectations.
Leaving her behind, the next they crossed a door that Abhi said was his and Pragya's and to their right was what he told to be Prachi's. She opened the door and gasped, not only was the room beautiful but it also consisted of one or two of the things that were brought there from Saritaji's house. Like the earring holder on her dressing table or the dreamcatcher on her window.
"Did you like it?" Abhi asked, anticipating the answer.
"Prachi?" Pragya called when she didn't answer.
"I loved it." She replied still looking around. Her eyes fixed on the small space that was filled with shelves of books. One wall was completely glass and on looked the backside of the house that was filled with trees.
She gasped, eyes wide when her eyes landed on the small wooden chest on her bedside table.
"How... Where did you get it from? How did you find it?" She asked moving to the rectangular box and picking it up, her voice conveying some degrees of panic.
"Saritaji sent it from your room in her house. Didn't you like it? Pragya loves these types of boxes so I thought that you may too like it. Did I do something wrong?" Abhi said, feeling out of character nervousness.
"This is mine Prachi. This is not yours." Shahana quickly made her way to her and whispered in her ear.
"This is yours?" Prachi asked in a daze.
"Yes," Shahana replied loudly so that everyone can hear. "This one is mine. See it has my initials here." She showed it. "and yours have your initials."
Prachi nodded and looked around not meeting the odd gaze of everybody else.
"Bro, I don't think that the window is a good way to sneak in," Piyush said, leaning against the balcony, shaking his head disapprovingly "it's too high. Might break a bone or two if someone tripped from here."
Aarav just looked at him with a face that screamed 'What the hell" and shook his head vigorously when Abhi and Pragya gave him a spectakle look. Aryan seemed disgusted and Ranbir was on verge of pushing Piyush from the balcony.
"Like Prachi won't if somehow someone manages to climb successfully," Shahana replied not paying attention to anyone's reaction. "She would beat anyone who tried to do so black and blue. Ask Ranbi-"
"NO ONE IS SNEAKING INTO MY ROOM." Prachi screamed, cutting her off.
"Of course not." Aarav supported.
"Better not," Abhi said giving a look to Aarav and Prachi and Ranbir sighed for getting at least one logical response out of him.
"I am tired, I want to sleep." Prachi declared and everyone left the room. Shahana too followed as her room was next to Prachi and next to her's was Aryan's. Aarav and Piyush's rooms were in front of Shahana's and Aryan's. Aryan's room was on the edge corridor that turned to the room of Ranbir and that corridor also joined the Kohli and Mehra mansion.
Prachi took her time unpacking the luggage and heaved a sigh when she found her own wooden box safe and sound in her bag along with her jewelry boxes. She once again placed it in the far back corner of her safe and hid it behind the jewelry cases, locking the safe and falling on her bed, letting a dreamless sleep engulf her.
~*~
Everyone was having dinner and the Kohli's have too joined them after some persuasion from Rhea. Well, the need for the persuasions were for the eldest and youngest members of the family. Pallavi had agreed in an instant and Vikram too had agreed without putting any fight. Dida however, was much reluctant. She refused to go claiming that she was very much tired from the journey and would have the dinner in her room only.
Ranbir had locked himself in the room. Refusing to come out at all. But to make him see what she had overheard, Rhea had to do something to bring him downstairs.
So she had shed some 'All-Time-Ready-Crocodial-Tears' and viola, Pallavi had taken it upon herself to bring the Kohli heir to the dinner by hook or crook.
Prachi had been sound asleep when she felt someone stroking her hair. Her eyes snapped open and she had seen her mother smiling down at her. It felt like it's been ages since she had been with her mother and she felt her crave for her mother's love coming to the surface. She shifted on her bed so that her head rested in Pragya's lap as she continued to stroke her hair.
"Are you okay Prachi?" Pragya asked.
"Hmm." The girl silently replied.
"Are you happy with this alliance?" Pragya asked and Prachi sat upright, clasping her hands together and her eyes trained at the small fairy lights that were hung in one corner of the room.
"Aarav is a nice guy Maa, I had known him since childhood. He is one of my best friends. He's sweet, kind, sensible, and mature. We had shared every problem of ours and he had helped me with a lot of things. Piyush is really happy with this alliance. Now at least he will stop flirting with me." Prachi chuckled. "Any girl would be very lucky to have Aarav as a life partner. He's the textbook definition of the boy any girl wants."
But he is not Ranbir, she wanted to add.
Pragya was about to confront her that she didn't answer the main question but choose not to.
"How are you adjusting to the family?" She asked instead.
Prachi was about to answer when Mitali called them for dinner.
"Well, except for one thing" Prachi answered making Pragya frown. "There are too many rooms, if you have to find one person you'll have to do a mini-marathon to each room." She completed and Pragya laughed.
"Is there any tip?" Prachi raised her eyebrows.
"Shall I tell you a secret?" Pragya asked and Prachi nodded. "Even I get confused sometimes."
After days, Prachi laughed genuinely. The laughter coming from her heart. They were interrupted again when Abhi called them down and Prachi sighed. "There is also a lack of privacy." She said and Pragya laughed, them making their way down.
And now, you have the two sitting on different sides of the table. Both were pushing around the small of the food they had taken, not a bite making way down their throats.
Prachi's little uplifted mood vanished as soon as she saw the red rimming the brown eyes. Her stomach was in knots and she regretted coming down immediately. She would have survived without dinner just fine but her mother had been with her after a long time and she didn't want to leave the chance for the world.
The conversation was mixed with the clanking of spoons with plates but neither Prachi nor Ranbir could care less about anything.
Prachi did felt hurt, but not odd. Maybe she had gotten accustomed to the hurt. Instead, she felt odd when she was laughing with her mother. When she was laughing, she felt a tug at her heart but when she was sad, as now, she felt normal. Prachi wasn't dumb to not know what it mean. It meant only one thing, that this is how the rest of her life is going to be. Normality in sadness and any other emotion will be unfamiliar.
Ranbir was feeling that level of hurt against which the past months will look like a soft hum. The thing that was breaking his insides wasn't that Prachi was getting married to someone else. Well, it was part of the hurt though. But what was ripping his heart and messing with his brain was that she was being forced into it. That too by her own self.
First of all, he wanted to unhinge the jaw of that Aarav, for getting this kind of thought for Prachi. He knows that he can't blame him fully, Prachi was the girl anyone would fall for, but still. Then, in the second part, he wants to get a word through with his chief and Pragya aunty.
One day they are claiming that they respect Prachi's decision of marrying or not and that they want to spend some more time with her and on the very next day they are pursuing her to marry a guy who is going to another country the next month and most probably will settle there permanently, meaning that they will end up not seeing their daughter for years at extent.
That too, when the first answer of the girl was a solid NO. Not even a silent one at that, a very verbal, strong, and out there NO.
The cherry on the top was that look that Prachi had. Not an emotion. YUP. Not a single emotion was there on her face. She could just lean back on the chair and close her eyes and with flying colors, she would pass for a dead body.
He shuddered at the thought.
His eyes burning. He downed another glass of water to replenish some of the water he had lost crying. Yes, it was what he had been doing the whole day, as he wasn't able to meet Prachi. Well, what better was there to do anyway?
Maybe except for dying,
Or kidnapping Prachi.
But he can't do that, he had promised Prachi long ago that he won't force her into anything, and he will stand by his words, even if it kills him slowly and tortureously.
*Long sigh*
Seriously, how can anyone not see how dead Prachi looked? She looks the fartherest thing from a bride-to-be any girl could look.
On the other hand there was the younger twin of her, Rhea, who looked like a lovesick bitch. *Curse may or maynot be included*
The dinner ended and everyone seated in the hall, Rhea talking animatedly about her plans and ideas for marriage.
Aarav stood up, gathering everyone's attention. "Umm, I want to say something."
"Yeah sure, go on."
He smiled, nodding. "Prachi, will you please join me?"
Prachi just looked at him, taken aback, but stood up after a nudge from Shahana. She looked around and the visages of the rest of the family reflected the confusion.
"Last night didn't went as planned," Aarav said and Prachi wanted the ground to engulf her instead of remembering it.
"Some things remained uncomplete, I think it should be completed." He completed and Prachi's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Aarav digged his hand in his pocket and retrieved a velvety box. A lot of 'Ooohs' and 'Aaahs' were heared around the hall as the realizations were made.
He picked the ring out of the box and forwardwd his other hand towards Prachi. "Would you like to officially wear the ring?"
Th girl just stared at the outstreached hand and to the ring. Her mouth agape and heart pounding.
"Prachi he is waiting." she heard and her head snapped to her side, where Rhea was standing next to a crestfallen Ranbir.
Prachi just needed one look at his face and her resolve crumbled. She turned toward him and was about to take a step towards Ranbir and shout everything out, but the action that she witnessed next halted her.
Rhea moved to their father, who had his arm around her mother's shoulder as they smiled towards her, smiling as they were thinking that they are going to witness their daughter getting engaged. Rhea got to them and took Abhi's arm off of Pragya, standing inbetween them and smiling up at Abhi as he wrapped his arm around her instead.
Rhea faced her with a raised eyebrow and a twisted, Wicked smile, one that said that 'This is how easily I'll tear them apart".
Prachi's eyes widened, she gulped and took a step back. Not risking to look around, she raised her left hand, trying her best to keep it from trembeling, and failing. Tears stung her eyes and she took deep breaths to keep them at bay. Cold dread clutching her as she felt the cool metal slip in her ring finger.
She curled her hand in a fist as soon as Aarav left it. Her jaws clenched.
Pragya made her way to her and hugged her tightly. Prachi could see tears glistening in her eyes.
"My little girl is all grown up." Pragya chocked out, kissing her daughter's forehead.
Prachi just feebly turned her lips up, just enough to faux a smile.
"Why are you crying?" Dasi asked Pragya, moving towards Prachi. "May god gives you all the happieness in the world my child" She said, stroaking Prachi's head. "I'll call the priest tommorow, we have two marriages to fix."
She said and everyone got bedward saying that there are gonna be a lot of hectic days ahead.
A/N:- Hey Cheesecakes, How are you doing? Here I present to you another chapter. Thanks for waiting patiently.
Do tell how you find it? Make sure to share your reviews and Vote and Comment to encourage this little writer here. As always, inlines comment are being looking forward to.
Lots of Love,
Simran
P.S.- Have faith in Pranbir. They are ment to be. Even if I had to kill someone off for it, I won't think twice before taking some unnecessary weight off of earth.