Destiny's Play!!

Chapter - 32

It was Wednesday afternoon and Avni was restless. She was nowhere close to finding out how Riddhima felt for Uday. She hadn't even seen the girl since Friday when she had last gone to college. That was the problem. She didn't go to the college anymore and so didn't meet her every day. She didn't even have her number, one because she hadn't felt the need to take it and two she wasn't the talkative sorts. So now what does she do? She definitely did not want to play 'pretend' with Uday.

Her life was getting into a pattern now. She had a routine and she liked it. Because it left little room for memories to make way. She remained busy during school hours and was now getting a hang of how things operated so she was not as hassled as she had been on Monday. She even found that the amount of detailing she went into was not required for the age group of seven and eight year olds. So she was managing things much more easily. Mrs. Singh was great to work with. Once back home she worked on her daily projects and lessons then helped Nilakshi in the kitchen too. Though Nilakshi had protested she had insisted. It kept her occupied but every night when she went to sleep, she unconsciously checked for lights in the silent stone house. She had found out that when Karan was away the dogs were taken care of by Sukhdev the servant. They stayed at the servant quarters. So for the past two days Avni had decided to go along with Sukhdev taking the dogs out for their morning and evening walks. She even carried out food for them. They were getting to know each other and she found she liked them. They were fun and as Karan had rightly pointed out the best destressers ever. Though she hoped he wouldn't mind her taking care of them. They were really well trained. They did play around but they listened when she asked them to do something. She liked to think they liked her too. And since they didn't growl or snap at her maybe they did. Avni still couldn't believe the kind of cruelty the poor things had faced or even the potential deaths. And she now had an insight into the kind of man Karan was and why Manya kept saying he was a sweetheart because she was coming to believe in that too.

Avni sighed as she was brought to the present. Her predicament on first finding and meeting Riddhima, and then having a chat with her. She walked towards the cluster of trees and sat under one of them with her sketch pad. She had realized that she liked restarting her hobby. Last night she had sketched late into the night and now again she was here. She had returned from school about an hour back. She had filled up about five pages till now and all of them had captured different moods of the person who had made a permanent spot in her head. As she worked she thought about Manya. The girl had been quiet for some reason around her lately. Was she still guilty about last Saturday's incident? She hoped not. Avni had already cleared that up with her the very next morning. But every time Avni had asked her she had just smiled and told her it was nothing. And Avni had no option but to take the girl's word at it. She sighed and then she heard a twig break behind her she turned to look and found Riddhima standing there. She had been so intent on what she was doing she hadn't heard the girl at all. Avni was surprised to see her. Why was she here? Shouldn't she go to the main house to see Manya? Avni smiled but kept sitting. Then belatedly she realized she had her sketchbook open so she quickly closed it before Riddhima saw the contents.

"Hey," Riddhima said politely.

"Hi," Avni said and smiled, "Manya isn't here?" she told her.

"I know," Riddhima replied, "I saw you sitting here when I parked my car so thought I would say hello," she said, "it has been a while," she said casually.

"Yes, it has," Avni replied and looked away.

"Mind if I sit here?" Riddhima asked but didn't wait for a response as she sat down anyway. "What are you doing here all by yourself?" she asked.

"Nothing," Avni replied evasively.

She hadn't told anybody she sketched except for Karan. It wasn't a big secret but she wasn't sure how it would be taken by others. Since her family didn't like it at all.