"Come on Ridhima, he is not that bad of a guy" Falak said. After Armaan had felt, Ridhima had gone back to sleep for a few hours and was now having breakfast with Falak. Ridhima was not used to waking up so early in the morning; she was the girl that woke up around 12 on the weekends and six the earliest on weekdays if and only if she had school.
"Not that bad of a guy! He tied me up to his bed!" Ridhima said she was holding her hands in fists trying hard to control her anger.
"You just don't understand Armaan" Falak said trying to reason with Ridhima at the breakfast table.
"What is there to understand about the devil" Ridhima said about to rip something apart.
"He's old fashion, he liking the idea of him being in power. To have things his way, and your just different from what he is so used to. He's the type of guy that wants to protect his women not follow behind them" Falak tried to explain but the understanding just did not pass though Ridhima's head.
"Well I'm not asking him to follow me!'"
"I don't mean it like that, Ridhima your and independent person, and Armaan doesn't like that. He needs the feeling inside of him to know that the person he's with needs him. He is an empty person from inside. And in order to really know him, you have to show him that you need him to hold on to." When Falak said this, everything inside Ridhima clicked and all of a sudden everything made sense.
That night, that one night years ago all made sense. It all made sense as to why Armaan had slept with her when he wasn't drunk and she was. He would never do something like that but he had his reason. And three years it all made sense.
*****
"Where's Anvil" Ridhima asked. She had not seen or heard from Anvil for three days. It wasn't like him to not call her or show up at her house to surprise her. Ridhima had gotten so desperate and was now calling Armaan of all people. "He's busy, what the hell do you want, I'll let him know the news" Ridhima always hated Armaan, he was such a rude guy. Always mean to her. She just did not understand how Anvil and Falak were friends with such a man.
"Just tell him to call me!" Ridhima replied to Armaan in an angry voice. He always aggravated her. Ridhima was tired of just waiting around. She had a feeling that Armaan was not going to give Anvil her message and thought to go down to Anvil's house herself to see what was going on.
Falak had not been picking up Ridhima's calls and every time Ridhima would try calling Anvil's cellphone it would go to his voicemail. At least Armaan had picked up but wasn't much of help.
Ridhima went down to the subway. She was getting worried. She had a feeling something was wrong. Even in Armaan's rude tone she could feel that there was something in his voice. Something but she just could not tell what.
Once Ridhima reached Anvil's apartment, the maid opened the door. "Hi is Anvil there?" Ridhima asked. She felt weird just showing up at his house. She never had a boyfriend before after all she was only fifteen and she was just being a little over cocky of the fact that Anvil had not called her for three days, but something was up."He's at the hospital, don't you know?" The maid asked curious. She would have expected Anvils girlfriend to have at least know.
"Know what?" Ridhima asked concerned. "Anvil has cancer, he's had cancer for years" Ridhima became wide eyes 'Cancer' Ridhima could not say a word, her was absolutely shocked. Her first boyfriend and, how could it be'
"What hospital is he at?" Ridhima asked.
"Just three blocked from her, St. Peters Hospital." Ridhima did not say a good bye, but ran. She ran down the flight of stairs at Anvils apartment. Three blocks wasn't far and she ran for it. Through the New York rush Ridhima ran to the hospital.
As she entered the hospital, she did not even have to go to the counter. Right at the door she saw Armaan with a fresh cup of coffee in his hands. She was on the verge of tears as she screamed in his face. "Where is he?" Ridhima screamed.
There was no point in Armaan hiding the secret from Ridhima "Room 320, third floor" Ridhima ran. The elevator was too slow for her so she took the stairs up three floors. On the third floor she saw Falak outside of Anvil's room. Ridhima ran into the room to see Anvil sleeping. He looked the same, but weaker. His face looked tired lying in that hospital bed. And right in that room Ridhima fell down crying.
"Come on, Ridhima, he needs his sleep, I'll take you home" Armaan said pulling Ridhima out of Anvil's room. It was the first time Armaan had talked to Ridhima like a normal person. That moment Ridhima had needed a person to hold on to, and Armaan had just happened to be that guy.
He took her in his rust car. His car was different then Anvil's, Anvil had a nice one hundred thousand dollar car and five other's that he dove on occasion. While Armaan just had a rusty one that ran and if lucky then the AC would work.
Ridhima did not want to go home. She was to upset to go home. As Armaan drove he stopped at a stop light, Ridhima noticed a club. Everyone in school knew of the place. It was the number one spot that didn't check of ID's so many high school students could get in that place. Without thinking Ridhima got out of Armaan's car and ran towards the place. She had to lose herself, normally she would never go to such a place, but she just had to forget everything.
Armaan called behind Ridhima to come back "Ridhima, stop'" she did not listen "'bloody hell" he said to himself. It was starting to get dark and in a few mintuest it would be only the dark night. As soon as the stop light turned green, Armaan turned to park his car in the nearest garage. Which had just happened to be a block away from the club.
He ran all the way there. He did not have a hard time convincing the guy in front of the club that he was twenty one, he just had to convince him that he wasn't a cop, which also wasn't all that hard.
Once inside he spotted Ridhima almost right away. She looked so young compared to everyone else around her. She looked like a child, but then again she was a child, a fifteen year old had no business in a twenty one over club.
Ridhima sat at the bar drinking over excessively. Armaan was surprised at how fast she was consuming alcohol. She obviously had never dunk before and just in the ten minutes that Armaan had been away from Ridhima she looked almost completely drunk. "come on Ridhima, let's go" Armaan said trying to pull her off the bar stool, but she just wouldn't budge."Fine if you want to be that big if an *** then stay!" He said angry, as he turned to leave he head her sobbing. Oh why did she have to cry, he thought. He turned around immediately. She looked broken.
"Why didn't he tell me before" She said crying, her eyes were crying pools of tears. She was so young, so innocent. Armaan had never seen her like that before. She was always strong and independent. She never needed anyone in life and here she was sobbing like'like'well like she needed someone.
"He loved you too much to tell you" Armaan said, sitting down at the bar stool beside her. Never had he seen her in need of someone. "How do I forget this, how do I forget him! I want to forget him, just for one night, just for tonight!"She screamed as her tears flew down her cheeks. The music in the club was loud to drown out the pain screeching through Ridhima's lips. She rested her head on Armaan's chest crying.
He felt bad for her. She just did not want to live that one night. She wanted to forget Anvil. She really loved him so much that the thought of Anvil dying was unbearable to Ridhima, and Armaan could feel her pain. He understood her pain. Armaan has, had years to except the fact that his best friend was going to die, but Ridhima only had a few weeks to except that her boyfriend, the first guy she had ever learned to love was going to die.
"Dancing always helps" Armaan said. He could not believe what he was suggesting. He was supposed to get Ridhima out of the club not deeper into the trans. He just could not believe that he was actually being nice to Ridhima. Everything about her pissed him off. But she needed someone. She was just like all the other girl's, she needed someone to hold on to, and it did not matter if it was her grandmother who she loved or her boyfriend's best friend who she hated.
Armaan stood up as Ridhima wobbled a little from the excess drinking in a short amount of time. He held on to her tinny waist to the dance club. Like every club the dance floor was overly crowed. The only dancing that could be done was close by sex dance. Ridhima did not care what dancing it was. She just wanted to forget.
Armaan danced with her close to her. Through the loud music he could hear a silent beat. Her heart beat. He felt like he was becoming drunk with her. Just like she needed a shoulder to lean on, he needed a shoulder to cry on. For the years he had known that his best friend was going to die, he never let out a tear. But being so close to Ridhima, being able to hear her heart beat. Tears started to weld in his eyes. He pushed him back and pulled her out of that floor. He could not be so close to her anymore, she brought out the empty side of him to fill up.
"Come on Ridhima; let's get you home, your parents are going to worry" Armaan said pulling a drunk Ridhima out of the club. He was going to have to walk her for a block to the parking garage.
As they walked she was holding on to Armaan's arm tightly. Her nail dug in his arm, and he liked that feeling. She needed him, and a part of him knew that he needed her too. "my parents are gone on a weekend trip they are gone for two days"
"well we should still get you home before you hurt yourself" Armaan said walking with Ridhima, she was walking too slow for his pace but he took the steps with her slowly. It took a ten minute walk twenty instead.
He had Ridhima sit in the passenger set. Making sure her seat belt was on. He then walked to the driver's side to see that Ridhima had taken her seat belt off and was attempting to get to the back seat of Armaan's car.
He closed the driver's side door once he was in her car "Ridhima what are you doing" Talking to Ridhima at that point was pointless. She was just too out of her senses to understand a word coming out of Armaan's mouth."I don't want to go home, come back here with me" Ridhima said trying to pull Armaan in the back seat. Armaan just rolled his eyes and squeezed through the little space between the driver and passengers seat's.
Armaan knew that if he tried going against Ridhima's wishes, she would just scream. He would just have to convince her or make her too tired to care and then take her home, till then he would just have to go along with her stupid wishes.
"why do you hate me" first thing that came out of Ridhima's mouth. He did not have an answer to it. Armaan wasn't sure where exactly his dislike from Ridhima came from. It was just there. "I don't know I just don't like you" Armaan said. Maybe it was the fact that is best friend was going out with such an ordinary girl when he could be going out with super models in their twenties.
It was the first time since Ridhima had know Armaan that he had not yelled at her or said anything in that annoying tone of his to make her angry. Even though Armaan just told her to her face he did not like her for no good reason, she still did not get angry at him.
"Why do you always wear suites like a thirty year old, your only eighteen" Ridhima said as she pulled on Armaan's tie which he was wearing from under the suit coat. As Ridhima tugged on Armaan's tie his neck pulled closer to her bring his face just inches away from her face. She did not notice. She was just too busy untying Armaan's tie. She did not like the stupid tie, it bugged her see it on him. It made Armaan look older then he was. Went she got the tie off of Armaan, she noticed how close his face was from hers. Just less than an inch away.
She did not know what was going on, she could not remember from right or wrong. It was like nature had its' way in life and Armaan Mailk being as close as he was to her just screamed to her like she needed him. He stood still in front of her just inches away, he could not remember anything. She was all he saw at that moment. He could see in her eyes, she needed him.
"Can I kiss you" He asked her. He asked her! He knew what was going on, but she didn't. He could have moved away, but couldn't. She nodded yes, with no words to say. He leaned in and kissed her. He had made it gentle, soft. His large hand cupped around her cheek kissing her lushes lips. But she made things ruff. She shoved his mouth open, making the kiss passionate. Armaan had seen Anvil kiss Ridhima plenty of times before, but he could not think that she could have brought so much passion to his friend as she was to him.
Armaan leaned in towards Ridhima to have her below him. The back seat was too small for Armaan's large body; he broke the kiss and pulled Ridhima roughly up against the back seat of the window. He threw off his suite jacket to the front of the car as to not get in the way. Ridhima was wearing the same as she always wore, simple blue jeans and a t-shirt. Armaan locked his lips back on to Ridhima as he took her hands and forced them under his shirt. He wanted her to touch him, not stay still, virgins always the hardest to break.
Ridhima felt his strong abs under his shirt. She had never touched anyone like that before. Not even Anvil. She had never been kissed or kissed back a guy as she was to Armaan. She did not understand what was going on. It wasn't like what she had seen in the movies or read about in books. She quickly pulled open Armaan's shirt. She wanted to see him. She leaned in against Armaan pushing him down on the seat. There wasn't enough room for his legs so he rapped his legs around her.
She looked down at his stomach, so strong. She then went back and kissed him hard on the mouth
He couldn't take it anymore; he pulled off everything on him, to take her. She still had her clothes on but she wouldn't for too long. Armaan did not bother to take her shirt off. He pulled her up on the seat, not even pulling off on her all the way down, a took her.
She monad at the unfamiliar feeling. Everything felt odd and so awkward. She did not know what was going on at all, she never had such a feeling and then'
Every thing shook inside. She felt like something ripping as flash of pain swept through her. She cried, and just as quickly it was gone. It was over.
Armaan pulled away from her, but this time she was the one to make the move. She rid her shirt and everything else and went back to him. She kissed mouth and that feeling came back, but this time stronger. The feeling stayed. It got to a point where she felt like she could not take it anymore. She tired pulling away but couldn't. And soon enough both her and Armaan blacked out in the car.
*****
She needed him that night. She had needed him and so he needed her back. Gosh why did Armaan have to be so complicated of a person. Ridhima was sitting in Armaan's bed, she just couldn't come to think of it as her own room, it just felt too off to her. The night was getting late and Armaan still hadn't been home.
She did not understand why she was waiting for him. Just because Falak's words in the morning made sense it did not mean she no long disliked Armaan. But it made so much sense. Armaan never hated Falak because he always felt the need to protect her like a brother. All the women around Armaan were those who he was either superior to or had to power to protect, but with her it was different. When she was with Anvil he did not have the right to protect her and nor was he in any away above her.
All the women around Armaan cling to him with need but Ridhima wasn't the same. She never needed him except for that one night years ago. That's what made him so angry with her all the time. He knew that he just could not beat her even when he won every fight they had.
There was no way Ridhima was going to go around the house pretending like she needed Armaan's help just so he would start liking her. She had more pride in her then that. He would just have to learn to know that not all women needed men to protect them. He was just going to have to learn to live with the fact that she did not need his protection and she did not have to be below him to be good enough for him.
In a way she had an advantage over Armaan, she understood his heart. And with it she could do so much. Too bad she did not understand that men could never be changed all that easily.
