Fates

Part 121- For Love

"Ye- yes we do." Aryan stuttered out awkwardly.

"Then when I came in the room why did you ask me who Rishi was?" Saritaji asked confused, going into interrogation mode.

"Because I... didn’t know that the Rishi you were talking about was... m- my Rishi." Aryan excused awkwardly.

"Your Ris-?" Priyanka began to ask offended.

"Yeah... we knew that he has a Dadi... just didn't know that Dadi was you." Riya explained awkwardly, cutting Priyanka off on purpose.

"But did you not see the pictures on the wall?" Saritaji asked matter-of-factly, causing all of them to mentally facepalm themselves because they had indeed not noticed the very obvious pictures of Rishi on the wall.

"Yeah, I guess we must have missed it." Riya explained with a sheepish smile.

"Yes because she's too lost in thoughts of aliens." Prachi said jokingly with a chuckle, causing Riya to make a face.

"It's great that you guys are friends. Rishi, why did you not tell us that you already knew them?" Pragya asked with a soft smile.

"That's because he seems to have forgotten every promise that he made." Priyanka answered instead of Rishi, giving him a hurt expression, and confusing everyone.

"Hah. She means that he kind of just forgot about us after he graduated... you know got busy in his own thing." Riya excused with an awkward chuckle because she didn't want Saritaji- Rishi's Dadi, to find out about his and Priyanka's relationship in this way.

"Oh okay." Pragya said believing what Riya was saying for the time being, cutting off whatever questions Saritaji was about to ask. And then everyone went back to eating, this time in silence, seemingly lost in thought.

*******
"What are you doing?" Drishti asked unbelievably, with an amused smile as she saw Rakshit boiling something on the stove, now wearing his clean shirt.

"Making tea, since you don't have black coffee in the kitchen." Rakshit informed as he was doing just that.

"Tea, at this time? Do you plan on staying awake the entire night?" Drishti asked jokingly.

"Yes actually, that way I get more work done." Rakshit said matter of factly.

"Do you want some?" Rakshit asked curiously.

"No, because I actually plan on sleeping tonight." Drishti said teasingly.

"I was just going to make myself a warm glass of milk." Drishti said as she moved around in the kitchen to do just that.

"Like a little kid? Warm milk before bed?" Rakshit asked with a short chuckle.

"Hey, warm milk always helps you sleep better at night." Drishti said as she stood next to Rakshit.

"That's what my Mumma used to say." Rakshit said after a short silence, even he not knowing which mother he was referring to. As Drishti looked at him in confusion knowing that he only called Arpita, Maasi.

"Used to?" Drishti asked after a long silence, finally asking what was on her mind.

"Yeah." Rakshit just said in a mere whisper, his tone turning somber, wordlessly telling Drishti that he didn't want to talk about this anymore.

"Well, you know what you should have with the tea?" Drishti asked to change the subject.

"What?" Rakshit asked curiously, giving Drishti a small but grateful smile when he realized what she was doing.

"Cookies." Drishti informed with a smile.

"First warm milk before bed and now cookies, you are truly a little kid Ms. Sood." Rakshit said teasingly with a chuckle.