Arhi FF: Us Against the World

Chapter 8

'Khushi Kumari Gupta! You have some explaining to do.' Preeto demanded wagging her finger and narrowing her eyes at her best friend. She had been worried sick for Khushi. The streets of Laxmi Nagar were ripe with gossip and she didn't know why no one had a clue where Khushi was. She had tried calling, went over to her Bua ji's, even marched up to Shantivan but everyone had refused to cooperate, uttering ugly things about her. She had always considered Khushi her sister, they had grown up together. That is why she had donned Kali Maa avatar whenever they had tried to talk anything bad about Khushi. Now, one look at her friend and her anger evaporated. She rushed to where Khushi was sitting and took her in a tight hug.

'Preeto? What are you doing here?' Khushi asked pulling away from her friend's embrace, happy to see her. She had been so disoriented up until now that she had forgotten to even contact Preeto to tell her what had happened. Although she was over the moon to get support from unexpected sources, she was happy to see a friend that had always been there for her.

'I've been looking for you all over Delhi and then I met this idiot...' Preeto ranted, pointing at Aman and shooting daggers at him.

'WHAT THE HELL?' Aman exclaimed. He had been asking around the neighbourhood about Shyam and Khushi's relationship when out of nowhere this stupid girl had come and bitten his head off. After that, she had demanded to take him where Khushi was and had been glaring at him the whole ride like he had kidnapped her friend. And now she was calling him an idiot.

'You insinuated that my best friend was having an affair with a married man!' Preeto scowled at him. She didn't like this man. Period. The way he had been asking around sceptical of the relationship Shyam and Khushi shared, she knew what he was thinking. Although it was common to think that a girl was involved with her fiance but seeing her Khushi's struggle with the whole engagement, she couldn't help but give him a piece of her mind. Preeto looked ready to pounce on Aman if not for Arnav's intervention.

'What the f*ck, Aman?' It was Arnav's glare that made Aman gulp. He was tired of Aman's petulant behaviour. Aman was a friend more than his employee and Arnav trusted his judgement in everything but he didn't know Khushi at all to make such assumptions. Deep down, Arnav did appreciate Aman's protective nature but now he was getting tired of this.

'Oh is that Laad governor? He's hot!' Preeto's gushing voice that made Arnav turn to look at her. He was stunned, to say the least, when he saw her checking him out openly and tried hard to fight off the blush at the open admiration amidst amused glances of everyone else.

'Yeah, but he's taken. His cousin however is not. Nice to meet you, pretty. I'm NK.' NK introduced himself and moved forward to shake hands with the beautiful girl who had barged into the apartment and started talking a mile per minute. In a yellow chikankari kurta with ripped jeans and a colourful cloth satchel hanging across her body, Preetika Kaur might look like a simple girl to the general population. But to NK, she looked exotic. He was delighted when she kept her hand in his and blushed a little before telling her full name. Khushi, on the other hand, would've fainted in shock seeing the ever-confident Preeto flush on NK's comment and give him a shy smile.

'We were asking around about Shyam. Out of nowhere she comes and starts lecturing us about manners. She's crazy.' Aman statement was enough to bring Preeto out of her la la land.