||CHAPTER 63||
《¤》
"What made you think that I have an obsession with miniature planes, Vika?" Arnav frowned, once he unwrapped the gift. "Mai iska kya karunga? Agar dena hi hai tho remote controls wale laa na."
"Tu kitna baqbaq karta hai," I complained, readjusting my head on his shoulders. It was four in the wee hours of the morning when my flight landed in Delhi, and I was sleepy. "Sone de!"
"Sone de?! Mai apni neend gawake tujhe pick up karne aya, and you say sone de?!"
He couldn't shut up, could he? "Drive tu kar raha hai kya? Chup chaap so naa fir!"
"Nahi, and tu bhi nahi soney wali hai," he pushed my head from his shoulder.
He frowned at me, I squinted my eyes at him. He cracked a smile, I hit his shoulders laughing. "You're not going to say it," his arms came around, as he slid to the further end of the seat, making me rest my head on his lap, "but I missed you."
"Bleh, whatevs," I shooed him with my hands, lying down in the backseat of our car. I was not going to say that back, so I just closed my eyes, and pulled my hoodie tighter around myself. Strangely enough, I did not like not having him around.
"Tune Mumma ko abhi taq nahi bataya na, tere is vacation ke baremein?" I heard him ask.
"Tere jaisa chugalkhor bhai agar merey paas ho, tho kis baat ki fikar?"
"No, dude," he said seriously, "you should tell her."
I yawned, "Arnav, we've had this conversation before. Let's not spoil the mood, now."
"Fine," he replied defensively, "Do whatever you want."
"Like sleeping for now? Good night."
¿¤?
When I woke up, the surroundings were not familiar. The bed was comfortable, too comfortable in fact, but it was not warm. My brother was seated on the bean bag, a container of Pringles open on the carpet on the floor, and his fingers typing profusely on the screen.
"I don't like this room," I informed Arnav. "Like, at all. The colour is yuck. This place is yuck."
He looked up from his phone, from the rose gold bean bag he was sitting on. "Stop being a brat. You like it, and you know it. I'm taking this bean bag, you don't deserve it."
I threw the graphic cushion at him, "I am not being bratty." I totally was, I just needed an excuse to go back to our old residence. "I mean, look," I pointed at the distance between the bed and my desk, "the bed is here, the desk is there!"
"Vika," he shoved his phone back into his pocket, "the dimensions of this room and your old room are the same. The only thing extra that you got and I did not," he spoke with mock contempt, "is that balcony."
"Kyoo? Teri Juliet feminist nahi hai kya? She won't climb in through the window for you?"
"Haha, very funny," he pulled my hair, receiving a hit in return.
I had slept through most of the day, and though the surroundings were different, it was refreshing. No, I still wasn't in favour of the shifting, but the bed was comfortable.
"Tune Papa se baath kee?" I asked, sitting straight on the bed. He knew I was talking about us moving back into the flat.
"Not yet, dude. He hasn't been in a good mood after Ratan Kaka left. Let's wait a little."
I pursed my lips, and yawned. "I'm hungry."
His eyes lit up, and that did not give me a very good feeling. "Pehele kyu nahi bola? Let's go neeche! I've got something for you," He didn't wait for me to say something, he dragged me downstairs into the kitchen instead.
And then it clicked, the cake. The cake he baked last night while talking to me, the cake that had a truck load of raisins in it.
"Arnav, no!" I tried freeing my hand from his grasp, "Bilkul nahi, don't even think about it!"
"Aise kaise nahi?" He shrugged, opening the refrigerator. "Itne pyaar se banaya hai maine, I fucking watched videos on how to bake a cake-"
"Videos mei ye bhi kaha gaya tha kya ki kishmish daalna zaruri hai? Mai nahi khaane wali, jo ukhadna hai ukhad le," I stood my ground, folding my hands.
But the way Arnav grabbed two dishes from the larder and started cutting the cake- which looked disastrous to begin with- it seemed as if he did not care about what I had said.
"Arnav," I started backing out, "Dude, no-"
Ding Dong
The calling bell here, was weird. Arnav and I stared at each other, pausing midway. "That felt like we're in the prehistoric era," I commented.
Thankfully giving up on the cake, he passed me to get the door. "Dad isn't supposed to be back before ten, you wait here. Mai dekhke aata hoon."
Once he was out of the confines of the kitchen, I tip-toed over to the cake, bringing it to my nose. It looked unappetising, yeah, but it smelled chocolate to me. Glancing again at the door, I broke off a small piece, and brought it to my mouth.
Bad idea.
There was a reason I did not like raisins, and covering it with chocolate definitely did not solve the problem. Grabbing a bottle of water I tried swallowing it. Not only was the cake full of raisins, it wasn't sweet at all. The only thing other than raisins, that I could taste, was the baking soda and cocoa powder and eggs. But no sugar. Did he even microwave this or did he simply put it into the deep freezer?
"Yuck," I muttered. I was definitely going to puke, this cake batter had juggled my hunger into food poisoning.
"Why the sour expression?" I heard Ishita's voice, and when I looked up, I saw her entering the kitchen.
"Ask Arnav," I replied, swallowing, gulping water at record speed. "What a goddamn welcome treat."
"It looks chocolate to me," she pressed her index finger on the crust, "You like chocolate."
"Oh, you care about what she likes?" Arnav's statement was anything but a sarcastic dig. The way it changed the expression on Ishita's face... Something was weird.
When the awkward silence stretched for more than five seconds, I offered her the knife. "Why don't you try it? Arnav ne banaya. All yours."
Rolling her lips in, she grabbed the knife and the dish, and cut out a good portion of the cake. I observed Arnav, he had a contemptuous look governing his expression as he leaned against the counter.
"Whhkyaa," Ishita grabbed a paper napkin from the table, covering her mouth. After spitting it out, she snatched the bottle from my hand, drinking with urgency. "Yeh kya hai? It's not even sweet! Did you not add sugar or something?"
Arnav frowned, reaching out for the cake himself. "What do you mean? Maine sab daala tha! In fact, I even added White Flower essence instead of the Vanilla one because Vika hates Vanilla-"
"YOU DID WHAT?!"
"Uhm..." Arnav scratched his neck. "I added White-"
"You," Ishita said, shaking her head, "are hopeless."
"Awe," Arnav smiled at her, too sweetly, "Look who's talking."
That was the beginning of their stare off. I looked at them, what the hell had happened when I was away?
"Guys," I snapped my finger in front of their eyes. "Are you guys crushing on each other or something?"
"Crushing," Arnav scoffed. "I choose the people I like wisely, Vika."
Ishita looked away. Something was definitely out of place here. This was not normal.
Informing us that he had some calls to attend, Arnav left the kitchen. I turned to Ishita. "So, what's up?"
She sighed, scraping out a bar stool to sit. "Arvika, I need to tell you something."
¿¤?
"Hello, neighbour," Karan whistled, spotting me and Arnav the next morning, after we came back from our jog the next morning. We now had to reroute our tracks for the early morning jogs.
I wasn't willing, trust me. I was simply trying to avoid Dad's reprimands.
"Yo," Arnav fist-bumped him. I didn't say anything, I wasn't exactly sure as of yet, as to how to be around him. Yes, we had put the past in the past, but now we lacked a reference point.
"That's some nasty hit you took there," Karan pointed to his left jaw.
Glancing at Arnav, I realised I never really asked him about the bruises he got two days ago. "You had a fight?"
Karan snorted, "Wow, that's funny."
I raised my eyebrow. "Why is that so?"
The smile fell off his face, and I noticed Arnav's hands close into tight fists.
"She doesn't know?" Karan mouthed to Arnav, except I saw it.
"What do I not know?" I asked. This was getting irritating. "What's going on? Kal Ishita bhi strange act kar rahi thi."
Karan coughed. "Ishita hamesha pagal jaisi act karti hai."
"No," I pressed, "That's not what I meant. The Ishita I know, would have screamed Vickeyyy the moment she saw me, and hugged me so tightly that I wouldn't have been able to breath. Yesterday... she did neither of those."
"You missed her while you were gone?" He taunted, dodging the question. I glared back.
"I guess, then," Arnav turned to walk back into our house, "You don't know her."
I watched him go inside, and turned to Karan. "She said she needed to tell me something."
"She did?" Karan scratched his brow.
"Yeah," I said, observing the sweat on top of his brow. "She told me that she does not like Avni sitting in my place. She doesn't let her doodle during Chemistry."
I grinned at his expression.
"Arvika?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
I laughed, his cheeks were red. It was funny. "But on a serious note, though, Arnav suddenly seems so furious about her. What's wrong? Mujhe tum logo ne itna miss kiya kya, ki competitive ho gaye?"
The only response I got was his middle finger saluting me.
_____
Namoshtaii!
So, a reallllyyy early morning Sunday update (it's 12:55 a.m.), because yeah I am guilty for not updating for almost a month when I should have. The thing is, like you must know, I always try to keep at least a five chapter lead, so that when I want to change something, I can do it without any hassle, and it kind of helps with developing and concluding small plots for the bigger ones. And the portion I am writing now is kind of very near to the end of the DJH and I'm emotional. And I want the conclusion to this book to be satisfying from a wider perspective. So I had to write, delete, write again. And the fact that I had my BITSAT coming up wasn't of much help either. Thank you guys sooo much for being supportive. The characters have changed (or shown their true colors, whatever you wanna call it), and will change in the coming chapters, and in the beginning I was worried about not being able to portray them as I wanted to, but thank you guys for understanding them! The way you guys hate them, but understand them at the same time literally makes me squeal all day.
Also, if it isn't clear yet, Ishita did not tell Arvika about her deal with Mehra's. And yes, please do not add white flower essence instead of vanilla. My mother and I did that when we tried baking for the first time, assuming they're just flavours and won't matter. They do. Very, very much.
I'm going to West Bengal for my last exam, and as much as I want that to be a vacation, my last day there is going to be the day after WBJEE. Is it hard to believe that though I'm a Bong by birth, I've never toured around the state? No, I haven't even been on a tram, nor have I visited College Street. But this time, I have planned to do so. Any great book recommendations for me? I've heard College street has all the books in the world.
Aneewess, tell me how your holidays have been. Mine have been boring, but ehhh I don't have school anymore :D College, let's see what that's like.
Read, vote, comment and promote!
~chaashnee