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Saturday 23 June 2012

Chapter 4 - Floating Dreams




You see the world in terms of what you would like to happen, not what actually does. - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.


"La?"

"Yes sir? What can I do for you? Did you get my text?" Her voice rattled on through the phone. Arnav rolled his eyes, the smallest breath of space and there was no stopping.

"Can you please stop!" He exclaimed into the phone, he did not have the patience for her at this point in time.

"Sorry sir!"

"La you said you had a sister that was looking for an internship. What was her name Pam something?" His voice perfectly masked his suspicion.

"Oh yes! Payal!" Lavanya beamed into the phone, suddenly feeling a bit too happy at Arnav Singh Raizada remembering something about her life.

"Payal," he emphasised, as if it had only just come back to him and his eyes lit up with that victorious glint. "Yes that's right. So?" He let the word hang in the air, giving her the opportunity to grab the chance.

"Oh my ghosh ASR!" Lavanyas voice was filled with joy. "You'll give her an internship?! Are you serious?! Can I pinch myself?" She was now bouncing up and down her chair, her hands waving about in an animated fashion.

"Well you can if you want to, he chuckled lightly. "But yes tell her to come over to my office tomorrow. And La?"

"Yes ASR?!"

"Get that grin off of your face and get back to work!" He snapped, returning back to his business tone and with that he replaced the phone in its cradle, a satisfied smirk now taking place on his face.

****

"Hellooooo!" She exclaimed, seating herself in front of Arnav, who looked up at her face then back down towards his file, smirking in the process.

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Well as your brother does't seem to have the time of day for me I thought," "You'd come and stalk me?" "Shut up! I'm not stalking just visiting!" He flitted his eyes up at her, amusement adorning his face.

She smiled a brighter smile at him, the edges of her eyes crinkling with the effort, "So?" She mused extending her arm out and placing her hand on his, momentarily pausing his writing, "if you aren't too busy, can we go somewhere?" He heard what she was trying to make it out to be and what it really was; a desperate plea, the dejection clear in her voice.

"Sure just let me finish off and then we'll go somewhere," he smiled at her, placing a genuine smile on her face.

"You know, you should have a word with Aakash, not one of those ear drum bursting sessions you had yesterday but an actual conversation," he said, not taking his eyes off of the page, wanting the fiasco over sooner rather than later.

"Arnav, we do have conversations you know? He's just busy," came the reply, as she pouted slightly.

He looked up pointedly at her, a little annoyed at what she had just said. He wanted to ask her if she was blind, if it would kill her to look at the non-sunny side of things for a change, but instead swallowed the words down. This was her coping mechanism and sometimes it was just best not to interfere with her emotions. "Do you really? And what the hell is it that he's doing exactly?" He asked instead, his left eyebrow lifted in question.

"Yes we do!" She slammed her palms of the desk, standing up, then continued to stare straight into his bewildered eyes which were staring right back at her. "And he's working for you! You should know! You are the one that's making him work so hard!" Her voice was getting louder, the tears just beneath the surface. "You know Arnav, I only wanted to hang out! It doesn't give you a ticket into my personal life!"

He pushed the chair back abruptly, anger flaring through his eyes and stood up to look down at her, having now lost the minuscule amount of patience he had had. He was in front of her within a mere seconds and grabbed her by the shoulders, she winced from the pain and looked up into his eyes which had taken on the colour of charred coal. "Why don't you stop hiding things behind that perfectly shiny happy cloak of yours and tell me what the hell is actually going on?!" He barked, glaring down at her eyes that were glazing over with pain.

"And why don't you stop acting like a beast and let my arms go!" She exclaimed looking him straight in the face. She struggled in his tight grip, hot tears steadily making their way down her face as his grip tightened then almost immediately let go. He turned away from her, clenching his fists.

"I'm sorry Khushi, I just..."

"It's okay Arnav. Never mind I don't want to go anywhere anymore I'll see you later," she cut in, wiping her tears with the back of her hands and turning round to walk out.

He let her go, refusing to look back at her. She needed the time to think, there was something severely wrong and he knew how to make her tell him.

****

"Sir, room 241, 256, 128 and 176. He alternates between those one."

"The same ones? And why does he alternate?" Asked a curious Arnav, noting the numbers down then folding the piece of paper in to a tiny square then dropping it into his wallet.

"I don't know sir. But that's the information I've managed to get so far. He leaves around 9am on most days."

"And what time does he get there?" His voice was lightly on the side of agitated, why did you have pull information out of people these days? Even the ones you paid?!

"It changes everyday sir, sometimes it's as late as 5am sir."

He nodded absorbing the information and calculating his next move. "Good work Aman, keep the work going and let me know if you find anything new," he said on his way to ending the conversation.

"Sir! There's something else," Aman cut in hurriedly.

"What is it Aman?" Arnav was quickly losing patience for Amans slow answers and closed his eyes awaiting this new information, stroking his temples from exhaustion of a very long day.

"Sir a man was found lurking around under your car in the parking lot, we managed to catch him but he's not uttered a word since."

Arnavs eyes flew open, he sat glowering into empty space for a few seconds, that same raw rage consuming his whole being. "Where's the man now?" He asked through gritted teeth, the anger flaring out of his every pore.

"He's sitting in the security point sir."

"I want you to put him in my car. Get him to drive it. Follow him from behind and film it. I'll wait with a bucket of popcorn tonight. And Aman, get my other car ready, it was high time for a new one anyway!"

****

"Khushi! Arnavs here! Come out of your room!" Garima thumped on the door. Khushi took the pen off of the journal which she had been writing in and turning her head back towards the door shouted back, "Tell him to go away! I don't want to see his face!"

"Aunty tell her if she doesn't come out I'm breaking down the door!" She heard him shout from somewhere in the lounge, the humour back in his voice. She frowned and looked back towards her journal mumbling back to herself, "what does he think of himself! Urgh! Ass! Thinks he can man handle me!" She could hear their hushed conversation behind the door and it irritated her. Her mum never seemed to enjoy talking to Aakash, always questioned his every word, whereas with Arnav it was almost like he was a son. But then again, Arnav would turn on the charm immediately, it was always difficult to escape that, hell, it was what she had fell for so many years ago. "Urgh!" She groaned again shoving the thought out of her mind.

"Khushi! Open the goddamn door otherwise I'm breaking in!"

"Go away!" She screamed then stuffed her head in a pillow.

"On the count of three! One! Two!"

"Oh my god!" She screamed flinging the door open. "First you man handle me! Then you threaten to break my door open! FREAK!"

"Yes yes I'm all evil, mean and threatening. Now if we are done with this little rant of yours, want to head out Beauty?" He smiled, already walking in.

"Fine! I'll grab my bag as you'll probably kidnap me otherwise anyway!" She shouted, giving in then stomped off to grab her things. He watched her smirking, a familiar glint sparking his eyes.

"Where's your normal car?" Khushi questioned as soon as she stepped out of the house, curiously eyeing the lamborghini aventador that Arnav only brought out on special occasions. "I wanted to make up for our little break up this morning," he winked. "Oh whatever!" She rolled her eyes, ignoring his sweet talk, "do you know what? I don't think I even want to know!" She retorted yanking the door open.

"Hey! Be gentle! Don't take your revenge by woman handling my baby!" He laughed.

"Don't woman handle my baby," she mocked annoyingly, "just shut up and start driving the car loser!"

"Okay there cat woman don't get your claws out on me now," he laughed throwing his hands back in defeat.

"So where are we going exactly? Typical Arnav Singh Raizada, a drink in a club?" She rolled her eyes, still looking away from him, straight ahead.

"No actually," he replied, getting in and turning towards her, "I thought you might like to help me pick out my new car," he said smiling slightly, knowing his best friend inside out, already reading her reaction.

She jumped around immediately in her seat, clapping her hands together, her face brightening up with the largest of smiles, "oh my ghosh! Yey!" She yelled engulfing him in a bear hug.

****

"WHAT?!" He's dead?! Can you not do anything right Shyam?!" Arundathi Raizada screamed into the phone, panic already taking over.

I'm sorry ma'am, I don't even know what happened," came the voice through the phone.

"Well you better find out!" She bellowed, breaking into a cold sweat, her fingers shaking from the fear. "Get the job done Shyam and get it done fast! I can't afford to waste anymore time!"She cut the call off not knowing if she had the energy to say anymore and popped two sleeping pills into her mouth, followed by a large glass of water, which she drank down in a frenzy, then began pacing her room.

****

Arnav sat in the dark, his legs out and crossed on the large coffee table as he sipped his scotch. He watched as his SUV went and crashed then burst into flames on the screen. A dark chuckle rippled out of his throat as he took one last sip, savouring the rich flavour in his mouth.

And he was still only using his pawns, they didn't know how well Arnav Singh Raizada played chess, especially when the pieces were humans.






3 comments:

  1. four months and no update!!!! it's an interesting story. pls update soon. he is playing chess with humans. wish i had brains like him!!!! I need to sort some people out too ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there thanks. Erm it has been updated. There are now 28 chapters up :S. I usually update every week, but have been lagging behind for two weeks now. But there have always been regular updates. Do you maybe not have the main blog link?

    And tihihi wish I did too :P. Could do out with a lot of sorting out myself too haha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. nice updatee..
    arnav has killer brain :)

    ReplyDelete