Yudhi [# A Love Story - Completed]

Arohi POV - Part 7

A/N: Chapters 7 to 9 describe what happened in Arohi's world till the point of Yudhi’s arrival. If you want to skip these parts and continue with the story, then go to  chapter 10.

Three months back ....

            Really feels good to be home for vacation. Though I was excited to move out of home for college, to do medicine, recently I have been feeling homesick and am looking forward to finish my course as early as possible and return back home.

Today I was supposed to meet with Kim, my best friend, classmate and roommate. Both of us have been friends since sixth grade, same town and same school. Both of us are still together in Texas, studying medicine. We came home together for vacation and  planned to go on a shopping trip today.

Finally, I hear Kim’s car and was almost stepping out, when I hear mom “Arohi, don’t forget to be home by six, we are going out for dinner.”

“Okay mom, will be home by six, and don’t worry” I yelled back and was off to shopping with Kim.

“What’s up with the sudden dinner plan?” Kim rolled her eyes.

“Not sure girl, mom already told me a million times since morning” I replied,  wondering at the same time, as mom looked really tense and I saw her and dad talking in a hushed tone yesterday. We go out to dinner often and I didn’t think too much about it, but it still bothered me a little, as mom kept on reminding me about it.

We had a great time going through mall, checking out all the latest trends and finally hit the shoe store. Kim is crazy about shoes, so is her sister Kat, who was doing her doctorate at Berkeley. We quickly went through bunch of them, trying them out and doing small cat walks, checking out other shoppers checking out us. As usual, there were too many guys around, some checking us out from a distance, but  few ventured and tried to engage us in small talk to see if we were open to some good time.

San Francisco Bay area is such a dynamic place, a melting pot of all cultures and lot going on socially. Too many parties with alcohol and drugs easily available, but since I grew up here, I knew exactly, who and how to talk to, and ways to avoid all the pitfalls. We liked boys chasing us and to just keep them at safe distance, so not to tip the balance either way.

Finally our legs gave up, but not our hearts. We wanted to keep on going, but I was so tired, that we decided to crash into Starbucks for a nice white chocolate mocha and feel the liquid drip slowly into my digestive system. Just enough coffee with chocolate and cream to make me feel alive and Starbucks a little richer. Kim brought me back to reality, reminding me about dinner and that we need to start to beat the rush hour traffic, if we have to make it by six pm.

Since Kim was driving, I kicked my shoes off and decided to take a nap, but Kim kept on poking me. She was talking about her sister’s love life, Roger, and how they would often go on and off, depending on seasons and basically hormones.

I could never understand the whole love thing, as it means, devoting major part of my life thinking about someone and do things just for their pleasure. Maybe I am too selfish, but doing medicine is a full time job and I don’t have time for drooling on someone. I saw how other girls spend their time, texting every bit of information to their boyfriends and expecting the same back. Then they would analyze each and every text, resulting in more texts and more fights. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting boys attention, but just want to keep the things the same until I graduate and start making some money. I know the exact kind of guy I need and I will not give up till I find him.

Finally, we reached home on time. Mom and Dad, were all dressed up and waiting for me.

“Where is Abhi?” I asked, while rushing to my room to freshen up.

“She is at her friend’s place doing some project work. Get ready soon, we will be late for our reservation.”

I stepped into bath to take a quick shower, but couldn’t stop thinking, why Abhi wasn’t coming for family dinner. If my sister is not available, then we could always go to dinner some other day. I thought of asking mom to postpone the dinner, but since both my parents were doctors and work most of time, thought maybe they were tired and wanted to have a quiet dinner outside, instead of all the cooking and cleaning that goes with homemade dinner.

Having both parents as doctors, has its advantages and disadvantages. Since they too had been through the same course, they exactly know what goes on and I don’t have much room to play, with regards to studies and grades. So after placing our order, they started the usual line of questioning regarding grades and lab work. I even know their routine questions, hence had the answers that would satisfy them. After the usual study questions, they started asking me about Kim and other friends. They know all my friends and in some cases their parents too.

“What about other friends?” my mom asked casually.

“What do you mean by that?” I just told you about all my friends.

“No, about the ones we don’t know. You must be having some friends we are not aware of..”

“Oh! Yah there is one, Karuna. She joined this year only and we are really hitting it off. She even asked about you guys and wanted to visit us sometime as she is also from California.”

“Sure, not a problem. But I am asking about boy friends?” and they looked at me like I was in a cage.

“I just told you about Billy, Guru and Anish.” I didn’t meet anyone else.

“No honey, not them, I mean like someone whom you like?” my mom rolled her eyes and winked at me.

“No!!! I already told you that I am not into such things and if I do, don’t worry, you will be the first one to know. HAPPY!!”

They both were still looking at me, but now, it was a different look and I was still trying to decode it.

“Wait, did you just bring me to dinner to ask this?” now it was my turn to roll my eyes and look at them.

“Well, we thought we could cover the topic as your sister is not here and let you know other important things that need your attention.” Both of them were serious now.

“Archi auntie called and it looks like Yudhi is almost done with his studies and has received many important job offers” and she was going on when I drifted away. I could see my mom’s face glowing as she started talking about Yudhi. It was my clue to play dead with my eyes looking at her, but I was already far away with my thoughts. Wish I had my “Yudhi punching toy” with me to get my sanity back.

I love my mom and usually never had any issues other than the “Yudhi” topic. I am not sure what happens to her when she goes to  India, but I try to keep away from her, whenever she returns back to US. She tortures us for almost three months and compares us for everything with Yudhi. She would say “Oh! Yudhi would have done it this way or can you believe how careful he is or how good he is or how great he is …”

I wanted to visit India, but didn’t go, because of Yudhi. I am sure, if he ever comes face to face, I would punch him so hard that he would be dead in one shot. Years of frustration and anger, rolled into one punch and boom!!! He would be dead. Such a geek, I am sure he does things to impress mom, and she doesn’t realize that. Every year she buys gifts for him, sometimes better than my gift, and no wonder he does everything to keep the flow of gifts and ends up as pain in my ass. Me and Abhi, actually used to play a game, where we could come up with new ways to torture and kill Yudhi.

I was still lost in my thought, when I noticed a change in my parent’s expression. Looks to me, they were expecting a response from me and I think I heard her say something about India…Archi...Yudhi..job..Google. Must be either Yudhi is googling for jobs in India or maybe he got a job in Google-India. Well either way, I don’t care,  they probably want me to also to find a good job as Yudhi, so I went with my safe answer – always agree.

“Ok mom, if you are happy then I am happy”.