Poles Apart

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Looooong chapter ahead! 

Author

"I need to tell you something," Arvi announces at the breakfast table.

Her father looks up from the newspaper, and slides the spectacles off his nose, before looking at his daughter expectantly.

"About what?" Karthik asks, intrigued.

Arvi gulps, visibly, trying to remember what she wanted to say, but suddenly, all thought seemed to abandon her. She couldn't remember what she wanted to say to her family, how she wanted to say it.

"Have you—" Madhurima starts, bewildered, "Are you— I told you! I thought you were being safe!"

Arvi, whose line of thought hadn't been anywhere close to what her mother was implying takes a few moments to process what her mother said.

In the meantime, Karthik's eyes nearly fall out of their sockets given how his eyes widen with shock. "You got knocked up?" Karthik demands, enraged. "Are you crazy, Arvi?"

Arvi's jaw drops open. "Are you crazy?" she shoots back at Karthik and turns to glare at her mother.

"I don't understand what sort of an obsession you have with me being pregnant, all the time!"

"It's not an obsession!" Madhurima argues. "I want you to be safe! The wedding's still four months away!"

"Oh, my god!" Arvi groans, clutching her head. "We're not having sex, Amma. I swear to god, I'll leave the house if you bring it up one more time."

Pranathi stifles a chuckle, hiding her upturned lips from view as she drinks from her glass.

Madhurima calms down, she was only trying to make sure her daughter wasn't pregnant, she's only twenty-four, and unmarried. She certainly would sing a different tune if Arvi was married and wanted a child, but right now she definitely wasn't married, and it didn't matter if she wanted a child when she wasn't pregnant.

Naveen Ravichander clears his throat, awkwardly. Listening to his daughter speak of her sex life was quite uncomfortable for him, like the father that he is.

"You said you wanted to talk about something?" Naveen reminds Arvi. "Is it about the job offer?" he asks, referring to the job offer Jacob Blake had made her.

Arvi shakes her head, solemnly. Time seemed to still on the table as she gathered her thoughts.

Everyone seemed to get the sense that this was a matter of importance, as Arvi stuttered and winced, trying to form a complete sentence.

"Arvi?" Karthik prods. "What's the matter?"

Arvi sighs into her hands, thanking her stars for her grandparents' absence. The last thing she needed right now is them being here and worrying unnecessarily. Luckily, Sunita, their younger daughter was hosting a lunch for her in-laws and invited her parents, too.

"Karthik Anna," Arvi addresses, holding back any sort of emotion in front of her father that thought showing emotions was an act of vulnerability. "Please don't be mad at me."

Naveen Ravichander observes Arvi's features for signs of stress, all of which he finds in her sunken eyes and raw-looking lips.

He didn't understand why Arvi would think Karthik would or could get mad at her, but Madhurima, the one that jumps to conclusions had already begun to think of the things that Arvi might have done.

Both Naveen and Madhurima agreed that Karthik couldn't get mad at Arvi, but while one waited for her to finish speaking, the other was quick to ask, "what did you do?"