Chapter 6: Masks and Shutters

"NO!  Not Good!  Stop!  Not Good!  What're you doing?  You burnt all the food, the shade, the rum!"  Arnav bellowed

"Yes!  The rum is gone!"  Khushi said smugly.

"Why is the rum gone?!"

"ONE!  Because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels.  TWO!  That signal is over a thousand feet high.  The entire royal navy is out looking for me, do you really think that there is even the slightest chance that they won't see it?"  Khushi spoke without a pause.

"But why is the rum gone?!"

"Just wait captain sparrow!  You give it one hour, maybe two, keep a weather eye open and you will see white sails on that horizon."

"Must've been terrible for you, being trapped here, Jack...Must've been terrible for you, WELL IT BLOODY IS NOW!"  Arnav paused as the scene played ahead on the television screen without dialogues.  "There'll be no living with her after this."

"Seriously...again?"  Anjali said walking into the living room.

"No!!!"  Arnav and Khushi exclaimed together.

"You broke the sequence!"  Khushi accused.

Anjali just rolled her eyes at her.  "Yeah well...I just came to ask whether or not you two are going out for your Thursday night...if you are, the rest of us can have a normalmovie night."

"You're driving!"  Khushi pointed to Arnav.

Arnav shrugged.  "Cool.  Let me throw on a shirt."

*

For their Thursday night out, Arnav and Khushi found themselves venturing aimlessly in the downtown area of the city.  Even at the odd hour, the city life was busy.  The drive, it turned out, wasn't aimless at all.  Khushi had gone out there with a plan in mind but she knew better than to tell Arnav.  She knew he would try to talk her out of it.  She quietly and subtly suggested him to take the necessary turns and he frowned when, at last, they were parked in front of a brightly lit building.

"Khush...why are we here?"  Arnav questioned eying the sign over the building.

She looked at him sheepishly and swallowed the mouthful of burger.  "I want to get one."

His head whipped around to look at her, his eyes wide.  Before he could launch into his lecture, she rushed on, speaking over him.

"I've always wanted one!  Ever since I turned nineteen!  I've given it so much thought and I know I want to do this." She said seriously.

"Do you have a design in mind?"  He asked as he eyed the tattoo parlour with weary eyes, taking her by surprise.  She had expected him to protest.  She was sure that she would have to emotionally blackmail him into letting her do this.  But if he was being compliant, she had no problem with it.

"No...That's the part where you help me out."  She grinned at him.

*

"Anjali!  Rohan!  Payal!  Akash!  Where are you guys?"  Khushi called out to all of them loudly as soon as she walked in to the penthouse.

The four tumbled out of their rooms, looking worried.  Most of the time, when Khushi came in screaming like that, it wasn't a good sign.  So, when they found Khushi grinning and Arnav rolling his eyes at her, they frowned in confusion.

"Sit!"  Khushi gestured to the couch.  She waited until everyone sat down.  "Okay...so the last time...when you guys found out about Goldie...all of you freaked out...we don't want a repeat of that so"

"What?!  Tell me you didn't buy another snake!"  Anjali cut Khushi off as she pulled her feet off the floor and hugged them to herself, her eyes searching the floor for a slithering reptile.

Khushi rolled her eyes.  "No.  No snake.  Just something that we need to show you...if you find out some other way, you'll freak."

She took her hand out of the pocket of her jacket.  She lifted her hand, showing the side of her right handed fist.  The next second, Arnav stood next to her, holding up his right fist the same way she had.  Anjali and Payal exchanged a glance.

"Y-you...got matching tattoos?"  Anjali asked as she sent a smug gaze to Rohan.

"Yeap!  Isn't it cool?  It's supposed to represent strength and stability...I decided to get it as a symbol of my super awesome friendship with this idiot here."

Anjali frowned when Rohan sent her a smug look as soon as Khushi said friendship'.

"See...I didn't know he was going to get it too...I went there to get a tattoo and saw the anchor and what it represented in the album and I told him why I wanted to get it...the next thing I know is that he had gotten one too!"

From then on, the conversation had flowed as it normally did with the six of them until everyone retired to bed.  Arnav walked straight into the bathroom.  After he washed his face, he was pushing his hair back with his right hand when his eyes caught the tattoo through the mirror.  A smile appeared instantaneously on his face.

His mind flew back to the half hour they had spent in the tattoo parlour.  He had noticed the change in her stance as soon as her eyes had fallen on a picture of the tiny anchor.  He recalled the smile that curved her lips as she read the little blurb explaining the symbolism of the icon.

"Oh that's an excellent choice honey."  The man with heavily tattooed arms had smiled at her.  His eyes flickered between Arnav and Khushi once before he continued.  "Lots of couples get those..."

"Oh...we're not a couple."  Khushi had clarified.  "We're best friends."

The man had shrugged as if that didn't make a different.  "Groups of close friends get this done too...sort of to symbolise the strength and stability in their friendship."

Khushi had turned to Arnav at that moment and grinned widely.  "I want this one.  It's perfect."

He had held her hand and distracted her while the man completed her tattoo.  As soon as hers was done, he had extended his own arm.

"The same thing, in the same place."  He had instructed the tattoo artist.

Khushi gaped at him for a few seconds.  "I thought you were against tattoos."

He had just shrugged in response.

The truth was that if that icon was a part of her body, representing what they shared, then he wanted to represent the same.  The idea had occurred to him as soon as the man had spoken about groups of friends'.  Except, he'd done it out of love more than friendship.  Somehow, the simple act of getting the tattoo had made him feel even closer to her...if that was even possible.  It felt as if they had claimed some exclusive right on each other by this gesture.  It was another thing that connected the two...this connection, inked permanently.

"Arnav!  Where are you?"  Khushi called out, sounding annoyed.

"In here!"  Arnav called out from the washroom.  He quickly wiped his face with a towel and grabbed his shirt before walking out into the room.

He found Khushi sitting in the middle of his bed, staring at the iPad in her hand curiously.

"What do you want?"  Arnav said slipping his arms through the sleeve of the t-shirt.

"I need someone to study with and that means you."  Khushi tapped the iPad furiously.

"I'm done studying for the day..."  Arnav pulled on the shirt and sat next to her.

She finally looked up and glared at him.  "Well then, you can quiz me."

Arnav stared at her for a second.  "Khush...firstly...My knowledge about the human anatomy and physiology is very limited...and secondly...trying to quiz you is a suicide mission..."

Khushi narrowed her eyes dangerously.   Arnav put up his hands defensively before she had the chance to speak.

"Fine...I'll read my notes again."  Arnav rolled his eyes.

Khushi grinned and pinched both his cheeks, tugging at them cutely.  "You're the best!"

"That I am!"  Arnav called out, still rubbing his reddening cheek, just as she walked out of his room.

*

"Would you just look at them?"  Anjali hissed in Rohan's ear as the two watched Arnav and Khushi sneakily.

Khushi was lying on her stomach on the floor with a book open in front of her while Arnav was resting his head on the small of her back, using her as a pillow while he read his notes.

"What?"  Rohan asked craning his neck to see what Anjali was talking about.

"Look at them and tell me you don't see anything going on!"  Anjali challenged.

Rohan looked at them and then scrunched his nose.  "I don't see anything going on."

Anjali's jaw dropped and she turned away in mock anger, crossing her arms.

"Men!"

"I'm sorry sweetie...its jus that I don't understand what has gotten into you lately...they've always been like this!  He randomly carries her in the house, she randomly jumps on his back for a piggy back ride...they use each other's laps to rest their head in...All. The. Time."  Rohan tried to reason.

"Exactly!  You only do those things with someone you're intimately close with."  Anjali argued.

"Maybe you do.  Maybe Payal does.  But they don't think like that.  Khushi doesn't think like a girl, we all know that.  You and Payal are the only female friends she's got because she can't stand women...He's her best friend and if they have mutually reached a comfort level, we shouldn't judge it to be anything else apart from friendship.  You saw what happened last time when you tried to make him jealous.  To be honest, I don't think they're thinking down this road."  Rohan explained but he knew Anjali didn't believe a word of it.

"They got matching tattoos, Rohan!"  Anjali argued.  She was appalled at the fact that Rohan was so blind to the obvious sparks between her brother and Khushi.

"Friends can get matching tattoos, love."  Rohan argued calmly.

"I think you're wrong...Payal and I will get to the bottom of this!  Tomorrow!  Its girls' night.  I'll have to use the oldest trick in the book."

"What's the oldest trick in the book?"  Rohan raised an eyebrow.

"A game of truth and dare."

Rohan groaned.  "Please Anjali...remember what happened last time?"

Anjali waved her hand dismissively.  "We're not going to make Arnav jealous.  We've decided we won't have him do anything.  We will get it out of Khushi."

Rohan looked at her with a sombre expression.  "I think you're getting carried away with this."

"Let me just make sure, Rohan...if there is something there, I want them to realize it...I don't want to see my brother date all these women...I want to see him settled with the woman he loves and I want to see him happy!  And I think Khushi is that woman.  Am I wrong to want my brother to be happy?"  Anjali got tearful.  This was her best weapon.  Emotional blackmail.  Anjali was the master.

"No...But trying to force something to happen just because it's your fantasy...is wrong."  Rohan cupped her face.  "If they do have feelings, let them wrap their heads around it themselves.  Stop trying to interfere and make things happen.  Besides...if something goes wrong between them, I don't want everything to point back at you because you're the one who got them together."

But one look at Anjali's face told him that he may as well be speaking to a wall.  She wasn't going to listen to him.  She was going to go ahead with whatever plan she had in mind.

*

"Anjali, hurry up!  We're going to be late!"  Khushi walked out of her room, tying her hair in a ponytail.  It was Friday night, their last dance lesson and they were running late!

"What the!!"  Arnav exclaimed as he looked at her.

She was wearing black athletic mid-calf length pants paired with a baby blue sleevelesssnugly fitting top that ended at least five inches from where her caprice began!  Where the hell was she going dressed like that?  Why was she dressed like that?

"What?"  She demanded.

Arnav frowned at her and without a word, stomped past her and into her room.  Rolling her eyes at him, she started walking towards the couch.  Just as she was about to sit down, she felt an arm go around her waist and she was pulled into a muscular chest.  Of course, she knew who it was.  Only one person in this house touched her like that.

"Arnav!!  What the hell are you doing?"  Khushi exclaimed as she felt him twist one of her arms towards him.

"I am not letting you step out of the apartment like that."

"This is how I dress for the dance class Arnav...its more comfortable this way!  Ahh!  Stop!"  She yelped when she felt him try to push her arm through a sleeve.

"Even more of a reason to not let you go there dressed like this.  Especially when there are men crushing on you and possibly having weird fantasies about you."  Arnav muttered.

Khushi turned her head to give him an incredulous look.  "You've got to be kidding me.  Can you please stop acting like my father? Or a brother?  Or a possessive boyfriend?"

He went still at the word for a second.  Then suddenly, he pulled her dangerously close and brought his lips against her ear.  Khushi's heart nearly exploded at the electric tingle that ran down her spine when his lips brushed against the skin of her ear ever so lightly. 

"If I were your boyfriend...you'd be dressing like that only for me.  Got it?"  His husky voice blended with his musky scent was enough to make any woman on the planet dizzy.

They just stood there like that for a few moments.  Arnav was still as a statue but Khushi recovered faster than him.  Taking advantage of the situation, Khushi wiggled out of his grip and ran around the couch, putting distance between them. 

"I don't know what's gotten into you lately but you need to see a doctor.  I think you're losing what's left of your tiny little brain!"  Khushi chuckled, running around the couch as he chased after her.

"Khush, get back here!"

"No!  I won't wear that hoodie...do whatever you want."

"Khush...don't tempt me."

"Pfft.  Please...I'm not scared of you."

"Khushi."  He said in a clipped voice, making her raise her eyebrows.  He never called her Khushi unless he was very serious about something.

Khushi pouted and shrugged.  "Nope.  Still not scared of you."

Having had enough of her nonsense, Arnav jumped over the back of the couch and in one swift motion had her pinned under him on it.

"Ahh!...No!...Stop it!  Let me go!...Ouch!... You're awful!  No!  Stop it!"  Khushi spoke whenever she could manage as she felt him move her and twist her arms to his liking as he slipped her arms into the sleeves of the hoodie.

Somehow, she managed to wiggle out yet again only to have him grab her by the waist and pin her against the wall, his towering form hovering dangerously close to her.

Khushi suddenly froze as she saw the look in his eyes.  There was something there that she hadn't seen before...something that she couldn't decipher.  It was only there for a fleeting second and it was gone before her brain could process it.  How could she process anything when her own brain seemed to have stop working?

Her mind was aware, too aware, of his hands holding onto her waist.  She felt her skin burn under his touch as he moved his hands towards her stomach.  She just looked at him as he looked back at her.  Neither one's face gave anything away.  Years of putting on a friendship charade had taught them both well.  Practice makes perfect.  Maybe too perfect.

If he had been unable to mask his feelings for her, she would have seen the naked desire in his eyes.  She would have seen the longing of having her close to him.  She would have seen the love that had been blooming in his heart for as long as he could remember.  She would have heard the words he was unable to speak.  But she didn't hear it.  She didn't see anything in eyes or in his face.  He had become a master at shuttering his eyes and putting on a poker face that even Khushi couldn't look past.

And if he hadn't shuttered his eyes, if he had kept his eyes open and observant, he would have seen every emotion of his reflected in her eyes.  No matter how much Khushi tried to shutter her eyes...it was the one skill she had never mastered.  Her eyes were, by far, the most expressive feature of hers.  Her poker face, however, was even better than Arnav's.  It was that poker face that had led him to believe that she didn't reciprocate his feelings.

So now they stood here, obviously affected by the other's presence but so obviously oblivious to the effect they had on the other.

A thousand butterflies were unleashed in Khushi's stomach as his fingers felt around the soft skin of her abdomen.  She saw Arnav's gaze flicker down towards her stomach for a quick second.  He looked up at her with a victorious glint in his eyes.  Khushi frowned slightly, trying to figure out the reason behind that glint.

The next second gave away the reason behind the glint.  She felt the fabric close around her abdomen as Arnav pulled up the zipper ever so slowly until her bust was covered.

"If I'm important to you even a bit, you won't take off this hoodie."  Arnav murmured with a smirk and walked towards his room, leaving a shocked Khushi behind.  He had used Anjali and Khushi's favourite card...Emotional Blackmail.

"I hate you!"  Khushi yelled just as he closed the door behind him, chuckling victoriously.

The four silent spectators in the other corner of the living room just looked on with appalled faces.

"Did I just see a man force a woman to cover up?"  Rohan thought out loud.

"Now I've seen everything in life."  Akash sighed.

Anjali and Payal looked at each other, feeling more victorious than Arnav had.  The two shared a significant look, a nod, and a smile while the other two men just stood oblivious to the exchange.

*The scene in the beginning in the red font is from Pirates of the Caribbean.  It's one of my fav scenes and I'm posting it below if someone wants to watch it *