Chapter 14: Jealousy

 

"But don't you also need a date to come along with?" Khushi asked.

"Yeah you are suppose to have one, but some people go also even if they don't have one. So it's okay to come along," Lavanya said.

A date? Was she thinking of asking someone to come along with her? Arnav thought to himself, and just the thought of some stranger being with her made his heart tug. They finished eating their lunch while chatting away, and left for their classes once the bell rang again.

After school Arnav went to football practice, they were reaching almost the end of the season so it was important to play their final games really well. The entire team practiced for a few hours then the coach dismissed them to leave. Arnav was heading to the locker room when he also saw the cheerleading team outside on the other field. He spotted Khushi and waved to her, and she also waved back. Walking into the gym he heard Yash coming right behind him.

"Hey," he said to Arnav.

"Hi, so what's new?" Arnav asked.

"Not much, you tell me?" Yash said.

"Everythings that same with me also," he replied back.

"So are you gonna ask her?" Yash asked Arnav when they entered the locker room.

"Ask who?" Arnav said confused.

"You know who I'm talking about, stop being so oblivious. I meant Khushi," he said sitting down on the bench.

"Ask her about what?" Arnav asked even more confused than before.

"For homecoming...?" Yash replied back.

"And what am I going to even ask her?" Arnav retorted back.

"You're so slow dude! I meant are you going to ask her to go with you as your date?" he said throwing his towel at Arnav.

"And why would I want to ask her?" he said catching the towel.

"Because you like her," Yash replied back.

"There's nothing like that," Arnav said.

"So you won't mind if I asked her to come with me?" Yash asked.

"What?!" Arnav said his voice rising a bit more than usual.

"I said that if you aren't going to ask her to homecoming, then can I ask her?" Yash said trying to push him to the edge even more. He had no intention of actually asking her out since he knew that Arnav kind of liked her, he just wanted him to be the one to ask her

"Uhm yeah, why would it matter to me at all?" Arnav said turning around to the other side but Yash didn't say anything.

"But you don't even know her," Arnav said turning back to face him.

"So?" Yash said.

"So you don't even know her enough to go out with her or like her," he said, he knew he wasn't making any sense, but for some reason he didn't want Khushi to go to homecoming with Yash.

"And you do?" Yash retorted back.

"Yeah I do," Arnav said not realizing the slip of his tongues.

"But you don't have the guts to ask her out," he said quickly.

"Yeah I do," Arnav said.

"Lagi shart? You will have to ask out Khushi in the time of the next two weeks and take her to homecoming," Yash asked extending his hand forward. (You wanna bet?)

"Yea, I will," Arnav said fiercely not thinking over what he was getting himself into.

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"Hey Khushi wait up!" Lavanya called behind her as she was walking inside from the practice.

"Hey," Khushi said entering the locker room.

"So you want to go dress shopping this weekend?" Lavanya asked.

"Dress shopping?" Khushi asked.

"Yeah for homecoming, you'll obviously have to wear a dress," Lavanya said opening up their locker, "It's not until two weeks, but we'll just go around and look this time and maybe next weekend we could actually buy them."

"Sure, just call me up when you want to go," Khushi said, "Is their a color scheme or anything specific?"

"Not really, you just have to match your date, but you can just wear any since you don't have one," Lavanya said.

They were packing their things when they happened to overhear a conversation some of the other so called "popular" girls were having. Khushi and Lavanya had noticed that "their" group of friends were very stuck up and pretty much just spoiled a lot. Just a bunch of girls belonging to very rich families and thinking that they were just on top of the world.

"So Naina who asked you to homecoming yet?" Tina said.

"Uhm well a lot of guys have asked me, but you know Naina never settles for anything but the best," she said looking at her nails.

"So who are you going to ask?" Another girl asked her.

"Well if I want to win homecoming queen, then I'll have to go with someone who is popular and liked a lot," she said flipping her hair.

"And who will that be?" Tina asked.

"The new boy Arnav. I've heard that he's a pretty good football player and very well liked by the team, also very rich," Naina said.

"And what if he says no?" The other one asked.

"No boy has ever said no to Naina, and neither won't he. I'm the most popular girl in the grade, why wouldn't he want to go to homecoming with me?" Naina said talking as if she was stating the obvious. They all high fived her and then left the locker room.

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Chapter 13: Movie Night

 

The front row was already occupied by Shaleen, Anjali, Payal and Akash. In the second row, NK and Lavanya were sitting next to each other, leaving the back two rows empty. Khushi decided to take the seat next to Lavanya, leaving Arnav standing where he was. He also followed her and sat down next to her, not wanting to alone by himself in the last rows.

"So what movie to do you guys want to watch?" Anjali asked opening up the family netflix account.

"Di it's your birthday, you can decide," Akash told her.

Anjali settled for a classic bollywood movie (ok, so no one gave any suggestions, just think of any bollywood movie). The movie had started out and they were all enjoying it. One of the servants had popped some popcorn and brought it down for them.

Khushi was trying to watch the movie, but the noises that were coming to the right of her kept on annoying her. She looked over and saw Lavanya and NK cuddling with each other and talking sweetly. She looked over to her left and saw Arnav was no longer there, she looked behind her and saw he had decided to move a row back, lying down on one of the sofas and occupying it to himself only. She got up and joined him back there also, in the other sofa.

Arnav was lying down when he saw a figure approaching, he sat up and saw Khushi come to sit on the other sofa. He moved to the arm rest towards the center and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I decided to give them some privacy," she said nodding to NK and Lavanya, "What about you?"

"Same reason, but decided that a little while back," he said smiling.

"It's so cute though, when people cuddle together," Khushi said looking at NK and Lavanya.

Arnav looked between them and Khushi, he swung his arm around Khushi's shoulder and said, "Do you want me to cuddle with you?"

The shocked expression on her face made him chuckle, "I was just kidding you know."

And she just smiled back. He removed his arm from around her and they continued to watch the movie, casually talking in between the scenes.  The movie finished by 11 and they all made their way upstairs.

"Should I order pizza?" Anjali asked as they sat on the sofas in the living room.

"Di, it's kind of late and maybe we should just cut the cake only," Akash said.

"Yeah, I don't think anyone is really hungry since we all had popcorn," Shaleen added and they all agreed.

"Let's cut the cake Di, before it's 12 and your birthday actually is over," Arnav said standing up, "I'll bring it here."

He left to go to the kitchen and everyone else was chatting in the living room.

"Oh I should also go get the plates and spoons from the the kitchen, Chotte will probably forget," Anjali's said.

"You stay here, I'll go get it," Khushi said offering to go and left.

Arnav had taken the cake out of the refrigerator when he saw Khushi entering also.

"Did you need anything?" He asked her.

"Woh Di said to bring the plates and spoons," she said.

Di, what she had now started calling his sister. Anjali had awhile back told her to call her that because she was the same age as her sister, and it just seemed better than saying Anjaliji all the time.

He told her that the spoons and plates were in the upper cupboard. Arnav also told her to grab the candles and matches that were lying on the counter.  They went back to the living room and settled down. Akash placed the candles on the cake then lit them up and moved he came in front of Anjali.

 

They all sang her happy birthday and clapped. She cut the cake and fed the first piece to her brother and Akash, then everyone else. They talked afterwards and then decided to go to sleep. The boys going to sleep in Akash and Arnav's room; NK with Arnav and Shaleen with Akash; and all the girls decided to sleep in Anjali's as they wanted to still talk and gossip.

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The weeks passed by as they were soon busy with the new projects and exams, barely getting any time to hangout anymore other than the weekends and. They would all eat lunch together everyday and catch up on their lives in that amount of time. Their friendship amongst each other was growing and they all had become adjusted to each other. Arnav and Khushi had also gotten very adjusted to their friendship, always talking to each other in and outside of school. Also because of football and cheerleading, they saw each other a lot and spent time together on their ways to trips and the games. They still continued walking together in the morning to their classes, neither having a problem with it or noticing this continuous pattern. It had become a daily routine since the first week of school.

Khushi had just sat down at the lunch table to eat when a very happy and excited Lavanya came running in with NK right behind her. They both were always the last ones to make it to the table since their classes were on the complete opposite side from the cafeteria.

"What happened to you?" Anjali asked her as she sat down.

"NK asked me to homecoming!" she said with a smile on her face.

"Oh congrats!" Payal added.

"Yeah that's great," Khushi told her.

"Yeah, he asked me this morning," Lavanya said, "You guys have to come along also."

"Anjali and me have to go to a birthday for one of our classmates," Shaleen said.

 

Lavanya looked towards Payal, but she said she was camping for a club that she was in, and Akash just plain out refused.

"Khushi you and Arnav are the only one left and you both have to come with us," NK said, "We don't really want to go by ourselves."

"Please guys you both have to come!" Lavanya said.

"But--," Khushi started off and was interrupted again by Lavanya.

"Please come! I don't have that many other friends other than you other than a few on the cheerleading team, and many of them are very stuck up," Lavanya added.

"Fine fine, I'll go," Khushi said.

"And Arnav you have to come along also, I don't want to be the only boy with them," NK added and Arnav also agreed to come along.

"But don't you also need a date to come along with?" Khushi asked.

"Yeah you are suppose to have one, but some people go also even if they don't have one. So it's okay to come along," Lavanya said.

A date? Was she thinking of asking someone to come along with her? Arnav thought to himself, and just the thought of some stranger being with her made his heart tug.

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Chapter 12: Just Friends

 

"Where did Lavanya go?" Khushi asked looking around trying to find her, she was going to walk with her to the locker room, but she was nowhere to be found.

"NK and already left and said they would meet us at the front of the school," Payal said.

                        

"You all go to the front and call the driver, we'll meet you there after going to the locker room," Arnav said and they all left.

They both walked out of the field The sun had set long back and the moon shined a bit in the sky. The lights in the stadium made it visible to see, there weren't many people left in the stadium beside them, They stepped into the gym through the doors, Arnav left for the boys locker room and told Khushi to meet him outside there after she had gotten her stuff.

Khushi went to the locker room and removed her bag from the locker. A few girls were left in their changing put seemed like Lavanya had already left. Khushi took out her change of clothes for the party and changed into them, she took off a lot of her makeup because it felt too much. Only eyeliner and a little bit of lip gloss remained, the rest of it had been wiped off. She gathered up her things and left to go wait for Arnav. She stood outside the door of the boys locker room against the wall, waiting for him to come out. A few guys would come out at a time to leave, but Arnav still wasn't coming out yet. After awhile she asked one of the guys if Arnav was still in there and if he could tell him that she was waiting.

Arnav had gotten into the locker room and it smelt terrible due to all the sweat. He decided to take a very quick shower before they left for the house. After taking a shower, he walked back to the benches and removed his clothing from the locker. A lot of the boys were still also in their, taking showers, chatting and getting ready to leave.

"Hey Arnav," Yash said coming from outside. Arnav and Yash had become good friends with each other and Yash would hang out with NK and him at times also.

"Yeah?" Arnav replied putting on his shorts.

"There's a girl waiting outside for you," Yash said. And right then the entire boys room went into hollers of "ooos!!"

"Shut up guys! It's nothing like you think it is," Arnav replied back and put on his shirt.

"We didn't even ask anything about her and you're already clarifying," Yash replied back in a teasing voice, "Kuch toh baat hai (Something is up)!"

"We're just good friends," Arnav said picking up his bag to leave.

"Sure sure, that's what they all say," Yash replied back only to get Arnav running after him around the locker room. He had no other escape so he ran out of the door. And Arnav quickly followed trying to catch him.

Khushi had heard some loud noises inside the locker room, but let it go because boys were always very loud. She saw the door opening and the guy who she had asked to go ask Arnav came out running. Behind him came Arnav who seemed like he was trying to catch him. Arnav saw Khushi from the side of his eye and turned around to look at her. Yash also stopped running and came to stand by him.

"Nice choice," he whispered into Arnav's ear.

"Shut up!" Arnav growled back so only Yash could hear.

"Did you say something?" Khushi asked looking between both guys.

"Oh, I was just saying that my friend Arnav over here," Yash began then put a hand on Arnav's shoulder. But before he could continue, Arnav interrupted, "He was saying how you were waiting for me!" Arnav quickly made a save.

Arnav looked back at Yash with gritted teeth and he knew not to speak anymore.

"Khushi this is Yash, and Yash this is Khushi," Arnav said introducing them.

"Nice to meet you!" Yash said smiling. They chatted for a few minutes and then Arnav decided that they should probably leave.

"See you later," Arnav said to Yash.

"Yea, see you later," Yash replied back. He went back into the locker room to retrieve his things.

Arnav and Khushi walked through the school halls to go outside. They both walked in silence as they stepped outside. Arnav held the door open for Khushi, she stepped out and Arnav followed. They didn't see anyone from their gang there but saw the driver. They went to him and he informed Arnav that everyone else had left in the other car because Payal needed to stop at her house to pick up her clothes. They all had decided to leave together and told the driver to bring Arnav and Khushi straight to the Raizada Mansion. Both of them got in the back seats of the car and the driver started driving to the mansion. They were chatting about things when Khushi's phone rang.

"Hello," she asked picking it up.

"Khushi, it's Payal," Payal said from the other side.

"Yeah what happened?" Khushi said. Payal te her how their parents had allowed them to sleep over since it was Anjali's birthday. Payal had received the call when they were waiting for Arnav and Khushi to return from her mom, they had then decided to leave. Payal asked Khushi about what pair of clothes to brings and other stuff, which Khushi told her. She hung up the phone and looked up at Arnav who was staring at her.

"It was Payal," she said.

"Yea, I could hear," he replied back.

The driver pulled up into the driveway of the Raizada Mansion a few minutes later and they both stepped out. Arnav rang the doorbell and Hari Prakash opened the door. Hari Prakash told them how all the others had retired to sleep and that they had told them to order the pizza when they wanted to. The rest of the gang arrived about 15 minutes later and it was decided by Anjali that they would first watch a movie.

All of them made their way down the stairs into the basement. The lights were out so it was hard to see everything.

"Where's the light switch?" Anjali called out.

"Di it's suppose to be right next to the door," Akash said.

"OUCH! NK watch where you're going! You're stepping on my foot!" Khushi exclaimed.

"You're foot?! But I'm all the way over on the other side!" NK yelled back.

"Then who is this duffer?!" Khushi asked.

"Duffer?! WHAT THE?!" Arnav exclaimed.

The lights were then turned on by Anjali. And Khushi turned around to Arnav who was looking at her only.

"Did you just call me a duffer?!" He asked.

"Yea duffer! Can't you see where you're walking?" Khushi replied back.

"Excuse me! I couldn't see where I was walking," he replied back.

"Excuse me also! I couldn't see who I was talking to!" Khushi replied back in the same tone.

Arnav was going to argue further but Anjali interrupted their dispute, "Just leave it both of you, everyone is already sitting down so you both join us also if you want to watch the movie."

That is when they both noticed that everyone else indeed was already sitting down. The movie theatre wasn't that big, and was made for more of a family place rather than the professional kinds. There were only sofa seats in the entire theatre.The front row was already occupied by Shaleen, Anjali, Payal and Akash. In the second row, NK and Lavanya were sitting next to each other, leaving the back two rows empty. Khushi decided to take the seat next to Lavanya, leaving Arnav standing where he was. He also followed her and sat down next to her, not wanting to alone by himself in the last rows.

"So what movie to do you guys want to watch?" Anjali asked opening up the family netflix account.

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