CH 5 || Busted

Dhruv

******

All the crying took a toll on her and she was again unconscious in my arms. I took her to my house. I live alone in my house with my caretakers. Grandfather used to live with me but the company requires his presence a lot nowadays and he can't always manage his work from India, so he visits me once a month now. He can't rely on anyone completely regarding his work. Although Smita Aunty is there, still some things need his presence.

Smita Aunty is my mother's sister and grandfather's daughter. Kiaan and I are still young to understand stuff like this so we are no help to the company. Kiaan is my cousin and Smita Aunty's son. He too wanted to come to India with me for studies but grandfather didn't allow him. He was so stubborn and it took a lot of convincing to make him stay in London.

Smita Aunty is married to Ashok Chauhan, one of the renowned businessmen of London. Ashok Uncle is a very nice and very caring father. I guess my father would have been like him if he would have been alive.

Deciding not to go down the memory lane again, I sat beside Saavi who was still unconscious. I already called Riddhi's uncle and he came with Riddhi. Riddhi informed Rohit, he informed Namit, and Namit informed Arjun and that's how all my friends are here. So basically all of them are here because of Chain Reaction.

Mohit Uncle, I meant Riddhi's uncle was giving all of us accusatory looks. He clearly warned me that she is too weak to leave the hospital but I insisted as I couldn't see her in pain. She didn't want to stay in hospital and I didn't want to see her in that state, but I guess I did wrong.

"I have given her injection for now. She will wake up after 2-3 hours."

"I told you her body is too weak, but you didn't listen." I already told Mohi Uncle, that she was an orphan and I will take care of her. He was not ready to let her go because of her weak state but I was hell stubborn.

"Uncle, it's not his fault." Riddhi tried to take my side.

"Yes exactly, it's not only his fault but all of yours," he said to all of us.

He gestured us all to come out of the room and we followed like obedient kids. As soon as we reached the living room he asked me,

"Now what are you going to do?"

"I will take care of her," I replied.

"Yeah, just like you did before?" he taunted me.

"We all will take care of her," Riddhi said.

"You kids will take care of her? You guys can't even take care of yourself properly," he said angrily.

"We will take care of her with Sheela Aunty and Rana uncle's help," I replied. Sheela Aunty is my cook and my caretaker and Rana uncle is my driver. They both are very close to me and are appointed by grandpa to take care of me.

"Does your grandfather knows?" he asked but I didn't reply. I didn't want him to know. I know grandpa will not mind me taking care of a friend, but she is not just a friend for me. She is much more than that and grandpa will know. It will be tough to hide my feelings from him and more importantly he knows I don't have many friends here except Rohit, Riddhi, Namit, and Arjun.

He sighed and said, "so he doesn't know, just like I expected."

"Uncle, please. Don't tell him. We will take care of her. I promise to you. She will be fine with us." Riddhi started convincing him and gestured us to join her to gain his confidence and we succeeded but his question made us worried.

"Will she agree to it?"

His question made me worried. I wanted to keep her with me; that was the hard way but I also didn't want to force her to live with me. Seeing our conflicted expression he said,

"I will make her agree." our face lightened hearing it.

"But, promise me you all will take care of her and also I will come daily to check her," he said making us smile at his response.

All of my friends decided to stay with us for a week.

We used to have our night out session in the past too, so it won't be any problem for any of us. Rohit, Namit, and Arjun had their clothes at my home already from the last night out except Riddhi. Mohit Uncle said he will send her clothes from the driver. She asked for extra clothes for Saavi as I didn't take her clothes with me.

As promised, Mohit Uncle convinced Saavi to stay with us. I told Sheela Aunty and Rana Uncle about her and asked them not to tell grandpa.

Saavi was not looking happy, she tried to fake her smile whenever anyone tried to talk to her. I wanted to know the reason behind her sadness, but she won't tell anyone. Sensing her discomfort, everyone started to cheer her up, cracking jokes and telling her about embarrassing moments of each other's childhood but nothing could bring a smile to her face.

That's when a weird idea crossed my mind which could give a reason to my friends to tease me till death, but all I wanted was the sweet smile on her face back.

******

Saavi

******

I was lying on a queen-sized bed in a big and beautiful room. The room was filled with several paintings, just like how I imagined my room to be in the future. But the truth was, it was not my room, leave the room it wasn't even my house.

I was in Dhruv's house and now I have to live here because of my stupidity. Every time something happens to me, I end up with Dhruv. It's quite strange; as if he is my knight in shining armor, helping me always in my tough time.

I still couldn't believe that I lost my job in the blink of an eye and now my dreams were shattered. There is no escape from my miseries. It looks like, I have been trapped in this miserable life for eternity with no way out.

Everyone was trying to make me smile but I just couldn't. It hurts to even think about that the only thing which was my sole purpose to live, my dream has been snatched away from me. Dhruv was only observing me, he didn't take any initiative to come and talk to me. Sometimes I feel weird, I mean he talks to me alone but couldn't utter a word in front of others.

A sudden announcement by Arjun caught my attention. He was holding a remote in his hand and pretended it was a mike,

"Ladies and gentlemen, hold your heart because now we will be welcoming none other than our own personal Shakira."

I didn't know who she was and seeing my confused expression Riddhi said,

"She is a singer."

Riddhi played the song and as soon it started playing, someone entered the room. What I was seeing was unexplainable. I never imagined I will ever witness that kind of view. My jaws dropped at the sight and my eyes were widened till the song ended.

The song was named "Hips Don't Lie." which I never heard before.

The person who entered the room was Dhruv, disguising himself as a girl.

He was wearing a wig and a crop top. I didn't even blink for a second during the whole song. The song ended and everyone was looking at me, I didn't know why. I just couldn't believe the sight in front of me. Riddhi shook me to take me out of my trance and that's when I burst into fits of laughter.

He was looking so funny and that dance, I realized that Dhruv Kapoor was a terrible dancer. I didn't know what was he trying to do when the song was playing but it was too funny to handle. He tried to twerk and belly dance. The belly dance was fine, but that twerk was weird, no it was really very weird. It was so difficult to control my laugh, everyone joined me in the laughter session. Dhruv was looking embarrassed and was scratching the back of his neck. At one point, I felt bad for him and I suppressed my laugh so that he doesn't feel bad, but again I started laughing. My eyes filled with happy tears because of all the laughs. My stomach started aching and I clutched it tightly and finally after 15 minutes of continuous laugh I stopped.

Everyone was looking at me happily. I smiled back at them and this time the smile my face held was genuine.

I was introduced to Sheela Aunty and Rana Uncle, they seemed very nice to me. I had to have dinner in the room as I wasn't allowed to move because of my weakness but to my surprise, everyone joined me during dinner. Dhruv was silent all the while which was not settling well with me. I was glancing at him in between eating, I thought he must be upset as we made fun of him. I wanted to apologize to him but I thought to do it when alone because he might get more embarrassed if I do it in front of his friends.

Everyone went to their rooms after dinner greeting me goodnight. I laid down on the bed and all the events which happened since morning started hovering over my mind. I tried to push them but it didn't work.

My phone beeped indicating a text. I checked it, and it was a spam message. Of course, it had to be, otherwise who would text me. I didn't have any friends. Dhruv and the rest are my friends now but neither they have my number, nor they would text me when they could clearly come and meet me in person. I was about to put the phone back when I saw a text from my bank. I opened it and got the biggest shock of my life. It stated that an amount of 40,000 had been credited to my account.

I was sure that it was not for me. Someone must have credited it by mistake, otherwise who would send me money and that too, this much amount. I decided to call the bank the other day. Since sleep was nowhere in my sight, I decided to go through all the spam messages and delete them.

One of them was from the manager of the restaurant. I reluctantly opened it only to get another shock,

"We are very sorry, we had to terminate you from the job. Since all this was our mistake we would like to send a small amount of money as compensation and also as a reward for you being a great employee to us. An amount of 40,000 will be credited to your account till evening."

Our sincere apologies,

A.P.G Restaurant.

I reread the message, again and again, to make sure if it was the truth. Did it really happen? I thought I couldn't become a painter anymore, but this text made me believe in God again.

Happy tears made their way out of my eyes. The feeling was so overwhelming and I wanted to shout on top of my lungs. I was more than happy now. The amount was more than enough for me as I had my savings too.

After some time I tried to sleep again feeling happy and ecstatic about the fact that soon I will take a step forward towards my life's only goal. I closed my eyes and heard footsteps. I was too tired to get up and see who it was.

I thought it might be Sheela Aunty as she was about to bring the bottle of water so that I didn't have to go out of the room if I feel thirsty at night.

The footsteps stopped near me and something was kept on the headstand. I assumed it to be a bottle. The person caressed my hair but the touch felt familiar to me. It wasn't Sheela Aunty, but the one who has a weird kind of effect on me. Yes, it was none other than Dhruv. I heard the chair being pulled and he sat on it. He took one of my hands and held it drawing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb.

I could feel my heartbeats getting faster. I wanted him to leave because the effect of his touch was uncontrollable and also I didn't want him to know that I was awake.

After some minutes, which felt like an eternity to me, he got up and kissed my forehead. My heart was ready to explode any minute now. I heard his footsteps getting fade away.

And when I thought he went out, I got up and sat on the bed keeping my hands on my chest over my heart, trying to calm myself and then I heard,

"So, you were awake?"

I looked at the source of the voice and found Dhruv leaning at the door with his hands folded across his chest and a sweet smile plastering over his face. And at that moment I realized, I was Busted.