The Controlling Lover (ON HOLD)

Chapter Seventy

Sneaking in from a side entrance, Khushi led Arnav into Glendale High School. It had obviously been quite some time since the two of them had been in a high school, yet while it felt like yesterday for Arnav, it felt like a millennia for Khushi.

Arnav had to admit - this high school wasn't like those typical high schools in the cities that looked like trash, but like an actual institute for learning. For some odd reason, he thought of all of those movies he had seen as a teen and how his sister would get excited about going to a high school like this - clean, spacious, and high-school-musical like.

Yup, it was that kind of school.

The hallways were filled with clean, white, pristine lockers, and they weren't even the half sized ones where you would get towered by your neighbor above, but the full-sized ones. Arnav couldn't help but to think of his trashy half-sized locker in high school when he saw these.

Walking down from one hallway to another, they ended up to another side of the school. The lights outside came in through the wide windows, illuminating the dark halls. At the corner, Khushi halted and so did Arnav.

"This was my locker," she said softly, placing her hand over it. "And if I'm not mistaken...."

Khushi turned the lock, Arnav watching her as she put in the combo: 4: 23, 20. The lock clicked and the locker opened.

"Same ol', same ol'."

Of course, as it was summer time, the locker was empty.

"They never change the combination," Khushi shook her head. "But then again, once you got a locker, it was yours till you graduated. They expected us to never tell anyone our combo, but its not like anyone ever listened. And that's how people would get their stuff stolen," Khushi chuckled.

"A lot of my life was here," she continued. "These halls, these classrooms, this locker," she said, running her hand over the door, "this was the only life I knew."

Khushi took Arnav's hand and led him down the hall.

"But I wasn't alone in all of this. Even though Bhai had already graduated from here, he was constantly a part of it since he was once a member of the football team - he had left a legacy."

Arnav rolled his eyes. I should've known he was once a football-head.

"But besides him, there was someone else... who helped me survive my first two years... was always by my side...."

Arnav looked at her curiously as she took in a shaky breath.

"My older sister, Payal."

Arnav's eyes slightly widened. His thoughts were immediately transported back to the first day he had met Khushi. After their first encounter, Arnav had called his people up to get the security footage from the camera near where the two of them were and to run a facial recognition on her. While his team did that, he worked on the school database, which was why Khushi had seen him in the library then. When his people gave him a name and searched her up, he looked her up on the school database. Of course, the school didn't have much to offer, but that was what his team was for.

When Arnav had gotten home that night, Nigel had handed him the file the team had gathered on Khushi. So Arnav knew what her full name was, her date of birth, place of birth, parents, and of course her siblings. He knew that his sister had passed away while Khushi was still in high school, but didn't care about it to know the details. Today, he was glad he hadn't because he knew now how important this was.