The Arranged One | ✔️

Chapter 3 - The Weirdest Man

All through the ride back home, Abhi was unusually quiet. When they reached home, he quickly went to his room without as much as a word to Siya, who was deeply confused and frustrated with his sudden coldness.

She went to her room trying to figure out what exactly was wrong with him. She thought about it the entire time she was in the shower. When she finally changed into her home clothes she opened her laptop and started typing-

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Dear Diary

Abhi is acting extremely weird today. Abhi never acts this way unless there is something deeply troubling him.

He sure pretends to be angry with me every now and then, but this is different. This is what I call the 'angry-Abhi' mode.

He behaves this way only on rare occasions. Let me elaborate-

1)Like the day we had gone to eat ice-cream with Anand back in seventh standard, and I had given Anand my handkerchief when the ice-cream had accidently plopped over his t-shirt, Abhi hadn't spoken to me for a complete day until he had finally shouted at me for being 'dumb and not giving Anand a tissue instead'. It was not until he saw tears in my eyes that he stopped talking about it and was back to normal.

2)Then, the day I came home from Jr. College in Dhruv's (my project partner's) car because our class had submitted the projects before Abhi's class , which meant waiting aimlessly for three hours. Dhruv offered to drop me home in his car since he lived in our neighbourhood. Abhi ignored me for a whole week. On confronting him, he told me I shouldn't have 'bothered Dhruv', I could have driven home in our car, and he would've come by train.

3)Then during our final year a guy named Ruthwik had asked me out. Ugh! He was a seriously annoying guy. I had given him a 'NO', in a rather decided manner and walked away. How the news spread all over our College was a mystery. The next thing I know, Abhi was pointedly ignoring me and shut everyone and anyone trying to tease me with Ruthwik by saying, "Please guys! It must've been humiliating for him to endure a serious rejection. Don't be so mean and rub it on." Though what he said hardly made any sense his chilling look silenced everyone. It took him few weeks to start talking to me normally. He can be so silly sometimes.

What's up with his male-freaking-dominant attitude? It's like he is angry everytime he thinks I might end up breaking any guy's heart. This is a side of him I don't completely understand.

Plus when the hell did he ever give a damn about Manav? Well, haven't told you about Manav right? Manav and Abhi 'HATE' each other since childhood. They both-

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"Siya."

She half jumped as she closed her laptop tightly shut. She whirled around to see Abhi dressed in workout clothes as if about to go somewhere, holding what looked like a gym bag. He wasn't looking at her directly, but straight ahead giving her the same indifferent attitude. She frowned as she noticed that he was still in his angry-Abhi mood.

"Yeah?"

"It's six-thirty. I'll be leaving after five mintues. Get ready and meet me in the hall."

"Er-Where are we going?"

"I thought you said the class was at seven?"

As she realized what he meant, she felt a wave of happiness go through her. He stood there, not looking at her, angry for some reason, yet deferring to her wishes all the same. She impulsively jumped up from her seat threw her arms around him. He was being so cute. She tightened her grip at that thought. But after a few seconds he firmly freed himself from her embrace. He was still behaving coldly, though his ears were red.

"Make it fast", was the only thing he said before rushing downstairs. Siya felt embarrassed by her sudden outburst moreover his coldness towards her. What the hell had she done to make him go all weird? And the way he stiffly broke the embrace...Blinking back tears she got up to get dressed.

***

"Where's he?" She asked Divakar Kaka, when she had reached the hall, completely ready.

"In the car. What's up with you two?" He asked her looking concerned.

"We're going for Waltz classes", she replied trying to sound casual.

"So I heard", he replied quietly looking at her thoughtfully. "I think you should not keep him waiting for long. And if I were you I would increase the A.C.'s cooling since the car's temperature is going to be unusually high today." He now smiled knowingly.

Siya nodded and sighed. "Your son is the weirdest man I've ever met."

"I couldn't less agree" There was a loud honking of horn.

"I must leave now. Bye Kaka! Love you."

"Love you too."      

"You're driving?", she asked getting in the car.

"Is there a problem?" he asked sarcastically, starting the engine. They drove in silence again; Siya didn't dare talk while he was disturbed and driving at the same time. They reached the dance class at five minutes to seven.

"Don't we have to register or something?" He asked unsure what to do.

"Yep. But I've already registered us both." She said now pulling him inside the dance hall, which had mirrors on all walls and a music system in a corner. There were four other couples in the room.

"You were so sure I would say yes?" He asked his tone dripping with badly concealed amusement and curiosity.

"I was sure that I would drag you into this at the end." She replied looking sheepish.

"Yeah. You do have that much control on me." He said before he realized what he was saying making both of them blush.

He seemed to have gotten past his bad mood, she noted. But the nagging feeling about what exactly went wrong kept pricking her.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled, her voice almost inaudible.

"For what?" he asked earnestly.

"Whatever I did that's upset you."

"Right." He said coldly, "Now can we just stop talking and concentrate?"

The bite in his tone made her flinch. She was shocked by the abrupt change in his tone. She had done nothing wrong, yet she had apologized. Instead of telling her what was wrong he was being rude and cold.

Her eyes filled with tears. And this time she couldn't stop them from rolling down her cheeks. There were two things which brought tears in Siya's eyes, anger and frustration. And at that time, she was experiencing both, making her forget where she was until she was in this bubble where only she and Abhi existed.

She hated it when anyone, especially Abhi was cold towards her, when she had done nothing wrong. Why should he always get away with his silent treatment? Why couldn't he for once tell her what made him that way?

She could feel the hot tears of anger which were bottled up inside her splash helplessly out of her eyes. She was glaring at him, in spite of the tears.

A/N. What happens next? Why is Abhi behaving the way he is? Do they make it through the dance class?

Comment/Vote...tell me what you think?

Glossary:

Kaka- Uncle in Marathi language

P.S. Just to be clear Divakar Acharya is Abhimanyu's Dad and Siya's Dad's bestfriend.