11

                                    

                                          
Her parents looked very worried as Yuvansh ushered in a weeping Shreshtha into the house and took her up to her room. He shut the door and gently made her sit on the bed, holding her hand all the while. He placed the bouquet on her study table.
'Tell me what happened? I was told you went to Sanam's place for a sleep-over.'
Shreshtha glanced at him and sobbed. He caressesd her face,wiping her tears but remained silent.
When her sobs eventually subsided,Shreshtha hicupped and said,'I was with Sanam ,but I wasn't at her place.'
'Where were you then?'
'Every friday ,for the past several months,' her breathing was laboured because of the weeping,'I told mummy papa that we were studying at her place, but I didn't go to Sanam's place'.
'Then?'
'We went to Dharamshala.'
'We?'
'Sanam and I .'
'Why Dharamshala?'
Shreshtha confessed everything to Yuvansh, breathing raggedly. When she reached the point in her narration about the previous night, Yuvansh's jaw clenched hard especially as she told him how they'd got drunk and the way Dhruv had forced himself on her.
The silence was broken only bye Shreshtha's rasping breath because her hysterical weeping had congested her nasal passages. She suddenly droped to her knees in front of Yuvansh and please,'Please don't breakup with me. I'm truly sorry,i truly am.'
The action took Yuvansh bye surprise and he immediately held her shoulders and raised her to her feet.
  
'Never kneel down. Not in front of me. Nor anyone. You are a queen. You are my Ranisa. And queens don't kneel,' he kissed her forehead.
'I know this will change things between us. I know it',she gasped. 'And its all my fault. I shouldn't have gone with Sanam. Or into that room with Dhruv. I was so tipsy that i didn't have the least idea of the probable consequences of my stupid guillibility. And now I 've gone and fucked my world.'
Still holding her in his arms ,Yuvansh extracted on long- stemmed rose from the bouquet.' Close your eyes', he said. She obeyed. He held the rose before her and said,'Hold this tight now.'
Shreshtha closed her fingers around the stem and an involuntary'ouch' escaped her. Yuvansh gently unclenched her fingers,dropped the rose and sucked the drop of blood from her finger. She opened her eyes. 

'Did ot hurt? he asked. She nodded .'Did you smell the fragrance of the rose?' Shreshtha nodded.
'Love is the simultaneous infliction of pain and the invasion of the divine fragrance. And it is entirely your choice which aspect you focus upon: the thorn or the blossom.'
'Aren't you hurt that i pet someone touch me inappropriately?' She averted her eyes as she enunciated the last few words.
'I am. But something else hurt me more. That fact that you lied to me about the night study at Sanam's house. Technically,it's not a lie because you didn't tell me anything; I learnt of it fro. Your parents. I understand why you did what you did. Perhaps you assumed that if you had told me,i would have forbidden it. But when have I ever said no to you? I would have been concerned about the travelling alone part, but I guess i would have agreed to it it it gave you happiness.'
 'Please don't say anything more. I can't bear it, 'Shreshtha choked,feeling guiltier than even.'
 'And as someone who has been a little more of life than you have,just  take a this as a lesson : more often than not, men will seek you for what they want, and not appreciate what you really have within you. There are exceptions, but then life runs through generalization, not exceptions.'
  'I was sure i had lost you'.
Yuvansh cupped her face and said,'it's not so easy to break us', he kissed her forehead again. She finally felt calm.
  
It took two whole days for Yuvansh to track down Dhruv.Shreshtha had mentioned his name. Yuvansh saw his picture on facebook, navigating from Shreshtha's profile to Sanam's to Vivan's and finally to Dhruv's.

Vivan had come down to Tosh after hearing Shreshtha's story as relayed to him by  Sanam. He apologized to her on Dhruv's behalf. But Dhruv had told him that Shreshtha had been equally eager to have sex. It was a blurred line and the only witness were the one involved. When Vivan left Tosh, he was oblivious to the fact that he was being followed. He reached Kashmiri Gate in Delhi and then took the metro to his place. He was shadowed right up to the gate of his house.
The next evening ,Vivan emerged from his house to walk his dog. Later that night, around nine,he drove to a nightclub in his car. Yuvansh stationed his car close to Vivan's in the parking lot. At around 1:30 am, when Vivan and Dhruv emerged,the latter began  to be tailed. His car was haphazardly overtaken bye Yuvansh in one of the lonely stretches in Noida before screeching to a halt. Dhruv hurled a barrage of abuses. But the car in front of him had stalled and didn't budge. Frustrated ,Dhruv alighted from his car,walked to Yuvansh's car and thumped the window bye the driver's seat,all set to punch the driver. The window swished down. Dhruv realised that the driver was wearing a mask. Before he could react, pepper was sprayed into his eyes. Dhruv broke into a stream of profanities that turned the air blue. He felt a blow on his head and fainted. He was dragged into his own car. Within the nest hour,Yuvansh skilfully amputed Dhruv's lips using a surgeon's scalpel and left him bleeding in his car.
'If you don't respect women,you shouldn't be allowed to know what it feels like to kiss them,' he whispered in his ears before he got out of Dhruv's car and drove off in his own. The fact that he had taken Dhruv's wallet and other valuables made it look like a mugging gone horribly wrong.
When Sanam told Shreshtha about Dhruv's situation, she felt it was karma doing it's job. Sanam never asked Shreshtha to accompany her to Dharamshala again. Shreshtha realised how much she must have hurt Yuvansh. She vowed never to hide anything from him ever again and renounced alcohol,unless she was drinking with Yuvansh.
A month later ,Shreshtha cracked the CAT and secured a seat in a management institute. It was in a city from which Yuvansh always wanted to keep her away: Udaipur.