17:A Banter, A Possession:

Arnav and Khushi @ 15:

He ran across the field, with the ball rolling along his feet and as his team continued to encourage him, Arnav glanced at the net ahead of him whilst using his energy to kick the ball allowing it to travel in air. The ball remained in air in the split of a second, the anticipation of everyone around increasing along with its angling height and before he knew it the ball hit the net escaping the goal keeper just in time for Arnav to successfully complete the goal.

“Yea!!” he squealed throwing his hands in air, his lips going round with delight, even as the players around him, ran to give him the pat on his back. He then looked to his side and winked at the cheer-leader who was standing amongst the cheer-girls, practicing their moves for the upcoming match. The girl openly flirted back with him.

“Bhai”

He turned around, fetching the bottle of water to see Aman standing at the periphery on the accelerating long stair case of the field, where there were other pupils watching the practice match. “You didn’t come for the practice again, two days in a row. You might soon be out of the team Aman.” He warned, before lifting his head behind to sip on the water, just when his eyes caught the girl standing behind Aman.

“uh, bhai, I was just coming”

“Well, you are late. The match has already started” he chose to ignore her. As usual. Like they always did with each other.

 “Just come to the point Aman!” he heard the annoying voice after what seemed like ages and turned around to face them completely only to be greeted by the tom-boyish Khushi. He never really understood what was with her and the urge to be different from all the teenage girls. Every girl he knew in their school tried and tried harder to look like the perfect eye-candy competing to be the next top model, while Khushi’s dressing sense took a complete U-turn.

“What does she want?” he asked not giving her a second glance.

“Mr.Raizada and Sameer uncle are coming back this weekend” Aman started speaking even as the two standing on either side of him began to give each other, eye-rolling glances.

“Yeah so?”

“We…we have a party at khushi’s place, celebrating the success of their recent movie, the five Filmfare awards that they have received for their music….”

“---oh! Wow!! Are you here to invite me Maddy?” He cut him off, setting himself in a mission to have his banter with her.

“An invitation from me, you wish!”

“—Just in case you are forgetting, I don’t need an invitation. It’s my party too”

“Oh really! In that case the least you could do is, try and organize things”

“---Oh I have much better things to do  event managing, unlike you, Nerdy!”

“Everyone is aware of your better jobs, cheapo!” she threw him a look, before momentarily glancing at the cheer-leading gang, standing at a distance from them.

“Whoa! Whoa… easy! Khushi! I thought we are here to talk!” Aman exclaimed helplessly. “What? He stated it first! Your good for nothing Bhai!” she twisted her words.

“you!”

“Bhai, please. Just one minute., We have something to talk”  Aman was all but pleading.

“What?” Arnav spat at him.

“Uh, this weekend will also be Khushi’s parents’ anniversary. 25^th is it?” Aman asked when Khushi nodded. “And she thought maybe we should perform something together and surprise them”

“---I’m sorry what?” he cut him off completely struck by the words. Performing is something they haven’t really done for ages, let alone performing together. After that little lecture by Cathy to be precise. He knew for the fact that she didn’t prefer to do anything with him, when it came to music. Also, that academic year being their Eleventh standard, studies have been keeping them quite busy and a good reason to stay away from music. At least he has decided not to try hands on anything new until he would feel like. Meanwhile, the typical upper class Mumbai teenager life style that he was newly introduced to kept him completely occupied, in a good way. At least for him, it was. But she on the other hand has become weirdly isolated.

If the girls of her society and her beauty reduced the size of their dresses and belonged to the cheerleading campaign, she chose the nerdy gang and loose jeans with her newly developed spectacles forming the effective look that she needed. If the other girls spent weekends partying with guys like him, she chose literature world and spending time with her mother. She had become weirdly insane over the year and has matured in a complete different way when compared to him. That being noticed, they hardly crossed each other’s paths except for such family events, which now happen only when their fathers were home. He spent his time with his Cathy when she wasn’t around and she made sure there was no reason to cross his path, neither at home nor at school. Finally, their worlds were separated, something they had been asking for years and they were in much saner space, for the first time in years. Or so they thought.

And hence she bringing it up out of the blue baffled him.

“Bhai!”  Aman broke into his little trance and Arnav just looked between the two still confused.

“You want to perform?” he asked her directly and she just looked at him with an unreadable expression. He didn’t know if she practiced or did music any longer. He had been away from her monotonous life to such an extent. Suddenly he found himself wondering, if she had been doing music even while not practicing with him, and that thought left him figuring it out if she had mastered and excelled in the art, discovering the true talent all by herself. Did she?

“Uh, we don’t really have to play anything new. Maybe we can take one of their hit tracks and perform. It will be surprising enough” she spoke, with an even voice ever since she had come, breaking into his thoughts and answering his question, much to his relief. No, she didn’t. She seems to be in the same place as he is. Good. He was relieved. Although he didn’t really want to acknowledge, why that knowledge made a big difference to him.

“We have a match this weekend Aman, did you forget?” Just because she asked, he wouldn’t run to play music. He would do it, only if he wanted to.

“But Bhai, the party is in the evening, we can practice a few hours every day?”

“I’m occupied Aman and so are you. Let’s just not waste time in these and get back to practice. Come”

“I told you talking to him is in itself a waste of time! Go be his tail, coward Mathur!” khushi yelled at Aman. “Thank you so much Mr.Busy-Raizada! I can plan the surprise myself; I should be blamed to even think of giving this a shot!”

“Please blame yourself. You don’t really do that often”

“Shut up!”

“You shut up!”

Khushi groaned with frustration and stamped her foot hard, before turning around to walk away leaving a helpless Aman and a victorious Arnav behind.

**

He pinned the girl to the pillar, as his one hand tugged at her half t-shirt, and his other playing with the bangs of her hair while he continued to whisper coyly comments into her ear. It was then, that he heard that loud sound. He chose to ignore. The canteen was big enough and eventful enough for him to hear dramatic things quite often and he was not really bothered.

“Hey diner-girl! You could have asked for help!”

“---well, if it’s not for your oversized pants waitress”

“Don’t forget the sweat-shirt!”

He heard people bullying targeting someone. It wasn’t new either. He could still choose to ignore. But then the description of the girl that he heard, sounded familiar.  “Get your lives everyone! She isn’t a waitress!”

He heard Aman’s voice and the next moment he knew he was pushing the crowd to have a look at the drama himself. The food items were scattered everywhere, from what seemed like a stack of at least four trays, her hair was covered with coke, the place was more or less has become a mess and Khushi was sitting amidst the mess, with Aman trying to help her get up. Agitation creeping into his nerves from nowhere, he rushed to pull her up in one swift moment and even as the people around him continued to bully her, he turned around abruptly, his eyes turning fierce. “Quite everybody!” He yelled and thanks to his reputation, the room was all but silent in the next split second.

He then caught hold of her elbow before walking hastily pulling her along with him away from the canteen, into the adjoining corridor. “What the hell is going on there?” he yelled once they were alone, letting her go, even as she winced at his grip.

“How dare you pull me like that??”

“Can’t you be anything else other than clumsy?”

“Can’t you be anything else other than a playboy?”

“Why don’t you get yourself good clothes to wear at least? Did you not hear what people were talking?”

“Why don’t you get yourself good people to hang out with? Those were your friends who were bullying by the way”

“Khushi!”

“Arnav!”

The banter was quick, in a whim like everything that they had to say to each other has always been planned, statements being uttered one after another, in fast retorts and once the yelling of their names have been done, the two stood gazing into each other’s eyes quite furiously. For several moments. As if their eyes were communicating the rest of their angry words.

“What the hell is your problem Arnav. I fell, I got myself into a mess, people were bullying me and you still have the nerve to show your attitude to me!? Ofcourse you will! A few words of sympathy were never your cup of tea, are they?” she was the first one to break the trance.

“Sympathy!” he sneered. “Carrying four trays at a time representing a perfect waitress, the one with no practice only to put yourself into mess and you expect people to sympathize with you?”

“That was a dare! And I was doing good until I had to see your godamn face sneaking behind that pillar! Making out in public place? Eww! Gross!”

“That’s called having fun, which you probably aren’t aware of, obviously because you are rather busy in playing waitress in the canteen and daring to be one, tch tch!”

“How does that interest you Arnav! You should be happy instead, that I fell!”

“Yeah right! I find it extremely annoying to acknowledge that I know you! Madass! Of course it annoys me if you make a fool of yourself time and again!”

“Look who is speaking. Don’t you think I’m not aware of your late night racing? Do you even have a driving license yet Arnav? What if I enlighten mom about this? Badass?”

“You stay out of my life, will you?” He stepped closer, pointing his one finger right onto her nose.

“Well, maybe you should learn to do that too. Since you have just managed to intrude into my life, I’ll just follow you to your illegal racing tonight and get pictures to show mom”

“You may do as you wish!” he said, as he watched her being dragged away.

**

True to her words, Khushi sneaked out of her home late in the night taking her camera, as she chose the boot space of his car to hide herself as he would use the same car for the race that she had heard of. Moments after settling in, she heard voices, a few familiar and a few strange. She could tell there were at least four people in the car, a couple of them being girls. One of them, as she recalled, the famous annoying voice of cheer-leader Sheethal was all but talking about the greatness of Mr.Arnav Singh Raizada. Khushi uttered an eye-rolling snigger. Of course he would love to have her around him. She proves to be such a boost to his ego. She never understood why men chose such girls to hang out more. Sheethal Mukherji. She hated the girl with passion.

The car came to a sudden halt and Khushi waited for everyone to get out of the car. After what seemed like hours, she found herself gather the courage to come out only to be met by thick darkness. She looked around and identified the place as the parking space under a huge building. All she could see around was darkness and a sudden chill ran down her spine to alert her of what seemed like her sudden petrified stance. She held the edges of her t-shirt into her fist and looked around for the sign of some human or a light. Maybe she should get back into the boot space, she contemplated. But it had been suffocating enough in there. Maybe she should have asked Aman to sneak around with her. But he was too loyal of a friend to Arnav. She concluded.

Gathering the remains of her courage she stepped a little ahead and released a sigh of relief spotting not just a soft lighting, but also people at a little distant, loud shrieks echoing, kids of her class, ganging up and having fun amidst the head-lights of various other cars. It was then that she discovered that Arnav used another car for these racings. She had an investigation in agenda. She was suddenly determined.

**