Tere Liye | ✔

Chapter Twelve - The Challenge

The second time when the bottle had pointed to Arnav's direction, Sheetal had felt a sudden interest in the game but upon hearing Anjali's question, she knew the answer won't be pleasant to her ears. 

And she was right.

The words of love that escaped Arnav's mouth for Khushi brought an scalding ache in her heart. An intense anger was what she felt at that moment and all she could think about was the smile that had adorned Khushi's face - the smile that teased her sanity, bringing her on the verge of losing her mind completely and just yank her away from Arnav, the one who owned her heart and the one she wanted to be loved by. 

However, she masked her facial expression when she noticed everyone looking at her. She feared for a second that they might have seen her hateful gaze fixated at Khushi but as NK asked her whether she would choose truth or dare, she felt relief flood through her. 

She stared at the brim of the bottle that stared back at her before giving a disinterested reply. "Truth." 

Her interest however managed to peak at the question that Anjali asked. 

"Okay. So tell us, what is the best memory of yours from college?" 

Sheetal glanced at Anjali who thought she asked a simple question, but didn't know the wicked opportunity she just gave her. From the corner of her eye, she then took a glimpse at Khushi, her burning insides calming. 

"My best memory? Well, that has to be me and Arnav's hit pair of playing basketball." She said, tongue pressed against her cheek as Khushi's serene smile faltered. 

"Nannav used to play basketball?" NK's probing question made her task easier and she nodded, smiling widely as she looked at Arnav. 

"Do you remember that, Arnav?" 

And as if fate was for once on her side, Arnav seemed to be interested in this one conversation about their time together in college. 

"I do. After all, basketball was the only game that did not use to irritate me." Arnav smiled. Indeed the game was special to him. It was taught to him by his grandfather during his tender childhood and after the latter's death to a heart attack, that game stuck with him as almost a mechanism - which he would use to relax himself whenever his parents' fight would hurt him or after their demise, whenever their memories would torment him. 

"Exactly." Sheetal grinned. "And Arnav remember, how everyone used to praise us for our coordination? They used to call us, um, what was it?" She pretended to be pensive. 

"Awesome twosome!" Arnav reminded her. No doubt he hated that name his friends had gave them. Mainly because they used that as a ship name, believing that there was something cooking between him and Sheetal. But it was the memories of his basketball matches - the only memories he cherish from college - that formed a bright smile on his face. Smile that was misinterpreted by Khushi, making her dwell on the extent of his close friendship with Sheetal, again.

"Bang on!" Sheetal snapped her fingers, laughing at the memory of being called that. "So you remember those days!" 

"Of course! How can I even forget them?" Arnav shook his head and imagined himself once again in that stadium, playing just to sooth the pain in his heart. #

So the days with Sheetal were so amazing that he couldn't forget them? 

Khushi's crooked mind, on the other hand, again took another turn, making it difficult for her to quietened the voices that were corrupting her a day ago. 

"Wow! Basketball? That's awesome mom!" She looked at Aarav who exclaimed joyfully before proceeding to express his extreme love for basketball, just like Arnav and no matter how much she tried reminding herself of Arnav's words earlier the same evening, her heart only sank lower and lower.