Blinded by love

Chapter 39 - Culturals

I wiped the water off my face with my shawl.It has been raining terribly for the past two weeks and I have been getting drenched almost everyday.Taking an umbrella is something I keep forgetting and Akash scolds me for that so so so badly that I feel like shutting my ears at times.But that would make him even angrier so I'd just listen to him with a sorry face and puppy dog eyes and he'd eventually laugh.

"Caught in the rain again eh?",Ria came out of nowhere and scared the life out of me.I was standing near a departmental store with Maaya in her pram.I picked her up from the creche and came by to get some groceries and by the time I could finish it,it started raining.

"Ria,dude...!"

"What?"

"Nothing.Just got scared."She chuckled.

"Come on,join me",she said,pointing to her car.

"That's ok.I think this will stop now.You carry on."

"Are you mad?This is not gonna stop now.You just stop blabbering something and come.",she said,picking Maaya from the pram.I joined her under the umbrella and took the pram with me.She then dropped me home,since it was pretty close by.Her's was a few kilometers from here,I knew.

"Ria,you stay here until the rain stops.I'm not letting you go in this rain.It not safe."

"Hey,that's alright.I'm a good driver you know.I'll...",her phone began to ring and it interrupted her.It was her aunt,she told and went out to the balcony to talk as she couldn't get signal here.She came back in a couple of minutes and told that her aunt wanted to talk with me.

"With me?",I said,taking the mobile from her.

"Hello!"

"Hello dear.Is this Aarthi?",she asked.

"Yeah,aunty."

"Can Ria just stay there for the night.Its raining terribly and I don't want her to go out at this time of the night.She was coming back from her class and it stared raining all of a sudden."

"Its completely fine,aunty.I was telling the same."She asked me a few questions like where I lived and with whom.She sounded a bit unconvinced when I said I had a daughter but was not married but she didn't make an issue about it and then,she hung up.I gave Ria one of my dresses and we sat down and ate dinner.

"Ria,you've never told me anything about your parents!"

"Oh!No wonder I don't speak about them.I hate them.My dad is a popular business man.You know,Amir Prakash...I'm his daughter."I almost dropped my mouth in surprise.This was something I least expected.

"Dude...Don't give me that reaction.That man...I just hate him with every cell in my body."I stayed silent and looked into her eyes,a technique to make people speak further and it worked most of the time.

"He tried to get me married but luckily,that guy wasn't interested.After that,I came here and stayed with my aunt,so he wouldn't keep pestering me with something or the other.",she said,placing Maaya on her bed.She had slept.I was expecting Ria to ask me something about the whole 'unmarried issue' that I was dealing with but she didn't and I felt relieved.

"Oh you wanted to study eh?",I asked.

"That was one of the reasons but the main thing was I wasn't ready for it."

We then studied for sometime and practiced for the upcoming cultural.Ria was playing guitar and I was gonna sing.She had her guitar with her since she was coming back from her guitar class.In a low volume,I sang and she played.We had been practicing pretty well but Dhruv was being a pain.He kept ill-treating us since we were juniors and thought we weren't good enough.And me,I just don't know why but he hates me so much.I was going to participate in the music and oratorical competitions.Ria was gonna participate in music and dance and Akash joined in dance too.