U And Me Will Always Be Together

Chapter 23

Suganthi beamed into Raji's room and shouted hugging Raji "Happy birthday Raji." Raji hugged her back and said thanks shyly.

Rishika, whose sleep was disturbed by the loud voice, woke instantly and watched Raji and Suganthi hugging each other. She got up and said "Good Morning aunty"

Suganthi smiled at her and replied back "Good morning ma. I guess you had a good sleep." As Rishika nodded at her, she turned to Raji. "Raji, get ready by 10.

We have-" she stopped mid sentence as she realized something and turned back to Rishika.

"Rishika? Why did you sleep with Raji?" Rishika's eyes widened in horror as she heard to Suganthi's words while Raji choked on her breath.

Then suddenly it struck Rishika. As she was Santhosh's wife she was supposed to be in his room not here.

'Damn it! How come the thought never came to my mind?' she cursed herself as she looked at Suganthi frowning at her.

"Au…nty.." Rishika could barely speak. She noticed Suganthi frowning at her expecting some explanation and gulped the lump of her throat. " uh….

I and Santhosh……." she started slowly expecting her brain to work some wonders. "yes…" her eyes glittered with spark and she added "we had a fight and that's his punishment to sleep alone."

She finished in one breath and tried to study Suganthi's expressions.
"Fight?" Suganthi spoke in a loud voice while Raji shook her head at Rishika's not so wise answer.

"Why did you both fight?" she added.
Rishika sighed in despair. 'Shit, I shouldn't have said that.' She thought and said "No, not a fight. It's just…."

She fumbled with words and added "he was irritating me and so I came to sleep here. Nothing serious." she smiled fakely.

"Yeah serves him right. He keeps on irritating her and then apologizes with the puppy face of his." Raji came to her rescue.

"Oh" Suganthi said who seemed to be not satisfied fully with the answer. "Fine. Raji, you get ready. We'll go to the temple and Rishika party begins at 7 pm in the night. So get ready by then." She said and left.

Rishika fell back on the bed and sighed deeply. "That was very close" she whispered while Raji smiled at her and left. But Rishika felt guilty of playing with their emotions.

They all love her so much and the day they come to know about this- she shuddered thinking about it. She got up from bed and went to washroom.  
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Santhosh watched Rishika descend the steps during lunch and was again drowned in his thoughts. He still didn't understand why he was hell lot of angry at her the previous night.

He did apologize but even that tactic of his was weird. He was aware that unknowingly he is being drawn towards her. His mind was not yet ready to accept the fact that he started caring for her or rather he was falling for her.

He shrugged the thoughts aside and looked at her. She smiled at him weakly and sat beside him at the dining table.  He noticed her being quite and again felt guilty for the previous night.

But the lunch time was eventful. His cousins left no stone turned in teasing him along with Rishika while his mom and Raji enjoyed it as if they were watching an old romantic movie – atleast that was what he thought they felt.

By the end of lunch, Rishika and Santhosh turned red due to embarrassment.

Rishika quickly finished her lunch and got up to get back to her room as she can't stand any of their teasing more.