The Arrangement

Chapter Six: Expectations

I waited for him in bed.

My lehenga was splayed out around me, my knees curled up to my chest. My hands were sweating.

Maybe I could make some excuse. I could tell him I had my period. Maybe he'd be too disgusted to touch me. Or I could tell him I had some kind of disease.

As my mind scrambled to think, the door opened slowly, hesitantly. I jumped nonetheless. My hands tightened around my knees. My face was still covered by my veil, and I couldn't bring myself to lift it, to move at all. I heard the door close, soft footsteps approach me. The bed creaked a little as his weight added to it.

I was pretty sure I was trembling by now. Hands took the edge of my veil and lifted it. Vivaan's face appeared in front of me, his eyes were wide, expectant.

His lips started, he leaned in, and whispered, "Do you like horror films?"

I blinked. "What?"

"Horror films," he repeated, and climbed back off the bed. His face turned eager, and he walked towards the TV sitting against the wall in front of the bed. He bent down and started working on the DVD player. "I found a whole collection of them at this second-hand shop a few weeks ago. They're the old, dramatic types. I thought it'd be fun to watch."

Was this some kind of foreplay before the foreplay? My mind couldn't make sense of what was happening right now. I remained rooted in my spot, until Vivaan glanced back at me. "You can take all that off and change into something comfortable." He pointed to the side. "Bathroom's right there."

"I-." But I didn't know what to say. So I silently obeyed and got out of bed, my knees groaned with pain form being curled up so long. My jewelries chimed as I moved, my skirt rustling with each step. I shut myself into the bathroom. Leaning against the door, I took a deep breath.

I told myself to relax. He probably wanted me to be comfortable with him before he made a move tonight. It meant he respected me.

I hastily changed into my pyjamas - fleece pants with an old, sleeveless top with a band logo on it. I took the heavy jewelries off, but kept my bangles on, they chimed against each other on my wrist, complimenting the intricate henna work that had been done on my hands.

I would've preferred to wash the heavy makeup off my face, but it would've taken too long. I shook my hair out of it's tight bun, taking out all the hundred pins that kept my layers down, and let the spikes stick out.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, Vivaan glanced at me, then paused as he took in my appearance. A smile stretched across his face before he turned back to the DVD player.

"Here," he said, handing me the remote. "Get it started and get settled, I'll go and get changed."

I expected him to go into the bathroom to change like I had, instead he left the room and came back a moment later, dressed in a T-shirt and pants, a large bag of popcorn in his hands.

I was leaning against the pillows by then. He climbed onto the bed and settled in beside me, then placed the popcorn between us. "Eat," he said, then turned his attention eagerly to the TV.

I took some of the popcorn in my hand, but didn't eat it yet. I kept waiting for him to do something, but it never came. My focus started going to what we were watching. It was a really terrible movie, but eventually, I started to eat and watch, and found myself laughing at the badly made monsters and the fake blood that was too red.

We watched several movies until we fell asleep, popcorn scattered across our lap, our head resting at awkward angles against the pillows.

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