Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
RAASHI
She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her, but Raashi had an indescribable urge to poke the bear. Or in this case, the surly, shaggy golden retriever glaring at her.
“No one is playing strip poker,” Agastya muttered irately.
Harsh grinned, a slow, lazy sneer that had a wave of heat sweeping through Raashi. He didn’t look away from her as he replied to Agastya. “Worried you’re going to end up naked, Big Brother?”
“Worried I’ll need to gouge my eyes out after seeing you naked,” Agastya retorted.
“How does Trivial Pursuit sound?” Veda asked.
Harsh stiffened beside Raashi and she had the weirdest urge to take his hand and squeeze. Instead, she shoved her rebellious hands into her track pockets, clenching them into fists for good measure. She glanced at his tight expression and knew she had to do something to derail her sister’s nerdy interests. He met her eyes and looked away.
“Oh please,” she said, trying to sound bored and snarky. “Don’t make me wipe the floor with you lot.”
“The arrogance!” Veda laughed.
“The confidence!” Harsh corrected her smiling slowly, his body warmth enveloping Raashi as he stepped closer to her, slinging one arm over her shoulders. “Whatever we play, I’m on her team.”
“Which brings me back to-“
“Don’t say Truth or Dare,” Harsh warned.
“You have any suggestions smartass?” Veda glared, the night breeze blowing her long hair into her eyes.
“Yes,” Harsh replied. “We could just drink and hang out. Is that so hard to do for a bunch of over achievers like you lot?”
For a second they all just stared at him, their overthinking brains trying to compute the concept of doing nothing.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” he said in disgust. “Let’s play Pictionary. There’s a set in my room we can use.”
He did better with pictures than words. Drawing he could do. Drawing he was good at. Sadly, ten minutes into his game, he realised drawing was not in his partner’s otherwise formidable skillset.
“An island?’ he guessed, squinting at the blob on the paper.
Raashi glared at him. Then she drew some random squiggles around the blob and stabbed ferociously at the paper with her pen.
Harsh stared at the confusing mess on the paper. “An ice cube melting.”
A low, growl emanated from his bride-to-be. She scratched at the blob angrily and picked up a fresh sheet of paper. Harsh ignored the snickers from the rest of the group and tried to concentrate on the new mess emerging under her pen.
“A dog?” That straggly line at the back was a tail, maybe?
A high-pitched screech whistled out from between her clenched teeth. For a moment, he actually thought she would attack him. He shifted away from the lunatic with the pen and closer to Veda. If Raashi decided to stab him with the pen, he could hide behind Veda and toss her in as collateral damage.
“Time’s up,” Veda said, laughter seeping through her voice.
Thank God, he thought fervently. Next time it was their turn, he’d get to draw.
“It’s a freaking penguin.” Raashi flung the pen at him almost taking out his eye. He ducked at the last moment, saving himself.
“In which universe?” he asked, genuinely flummoxed. Raashi looked like she wanted to strangle him.
“Whatever we play, I’m on her team,” Veda said sotto voce. Now, Harsh wanted to strangle Veda.
“Does that look like a penguin to anyone?” he demanded of the group. Given the highly intelligent group of people they purported to be, they all declined to comment. Leaving him to put his very large foot in his even larger mouth.
“Honest to God, all it looks like is a blob.”
Raashi’s face closed off, her eyes shooting sparks at him. She clearly took board games very seriously. As did he, on a normal day, he acknowledged. But he hadn’t thought he was sitting down to play with the Hulk on his team. She morphed into the Green Monster pretty quickly. A Green Monster who couldn’t draw. It definitely wasn’t her superpower.
“My turn!” Veda sang out and picked up a card. She stared at it for a long moment and then picked up her pad and pen. Harsh watched as she sketched a car and a man lying beneath its wheel, a realistic pool of blood seeping from a wound in his head. Wow okay. So not all Gaddes were shit at drawing. Some of them were morbidly good at it.
“Accident?” Agastya guessed.
“Yes!” Veda kissed him enthusiastically. “You’re so good at this.”
“He’s so good at this?” Harsh laughed, a bark of sound. “He’s got freaking Michelangelo as his partner whereas I have-“ He stopped abruptly. Too little, too late.
“Whereas you have?” Raashi asked, her voice taking on a dangerous edge to it.
“I have Picasso?” he asked hopefully, not daring to look directly at her.
Someone stifled a snicker, the sound dying even before coming to fruition.
“The same Picasso who draws blobs?” she asked, the edge in her voice now sharp enough to slice vegetables.
The snicker came again. Harsh glared at Priyanka, the blood traitor. She swallowed her next laugh and gamely put her hand up in the air like the good student she’d always been.
“Our turn,” Priyanka called out. She rolled the dice, moved their counter and then tossed a card in Aarush’s face. “You draw.”
Aarush peeled it off his face and stared at it for a long moment. Then he picked up a pen but he didn’t get very far before the door to the terrace opened and Ram stepped through. He took one look at the Pictionary board, and everyone sprawled around it and shook his head.
“No. No. No. No.”
“Tell us how you really feel,” Virat drawled from where he lounged with his glass of whiskey.
“I’m out.” Ram turned to leave but the terrace door opened at the same time, slamming into his face.
“FUCK!” he roared, his hands going to his face, cupping his nose.
“I’m so sorry.” Aadhya’s head of curls appeared around the door, her fingers curled around it. “I didn’t know you were there.” Then, she frowned. “Why were you there? Couldn’t you move?”
Veda and Raashi were on their feet, rushing towards their brother who dropped his hands and growled at Aadhya.
“You tried to break my nose and somehow it’s my fault?” Ram was beyond furious, his rapidly swelling nose making it hard to understand what he was saying.
“We should go to the hospital,” Veda said, peering up at him and trying to get a better look at his nose.
“It’s fine. It’s not broken.” Priyanka walked up to them and examined Ram’s nose carefully. “I’ll get some ice. If you’re still uncomfortable after half an hour, we can go to the hospital.”
Ram came to sit beside Harsh. “If I have to play this stupid game, I want to be on your team,” he told Harsh.
Harsh eyed him suspiciously. “That depends. Which sister do you draw like?”
Ram laughed, a pained sound, as it pulled on sore muscles. “You were partnered with Raashi until now?”
Harsh nodded grimly. “Dude, I know nursery kids who can do better than her.”
“How about you pair up with me and we can stick her with Virat or Aadhya?”
Harsh opened his mouth to agree but a strange sensation snuck through him. Oddly enough, it felt like he’d be betraying Raashi by abandoning her midway through the game. It was just a stupid game, he reasoned. But a stupid game he’d like to win and he wouldn’t win anything with her on his team.
Priyanka and Raashi came back with the ice and Priyanka helped Ram apply it to his nose. From across the circle of friends, Aadhya frowned at Ram like his nose personally offended her. Maybe that’s why she’d tried to shatter it.
“So, are we playing or are we not?” Aarush called out.
Raashi came to sit beside him, her hair falling forward and brushing over his arm. Those annoying bees woke up and buzzed. And Harsh knew he couldn’t do it.
“Sorry man,” he told Ram. “I’m with her.”
Ram smiled and pushed to his feet, still holding ice to his nose. “I’ll partner with Virat or even better, sit this out.”
“Our turn.” Raashi moved their counter after rolling the dice and then pulled out a card. She looked at it carefully and then placed it face down. She picked up her pen and pad and started to draw.
Harsh groaned as he saw the chicken scratch appearing on the page. It was going to be a long night. Was that a pile of shit?
But whatever, Pictionary loser or not, he was with her.