5. Cornered

should've learnt fucking karate

The biggest moral dilemma that I would face if Aladdin's genie decided to show up in my life would be fighting the urge to permanently erase calculus from the face of the Earth instead of pollution. Glancing at the clock, I impatiently clicked my tongue and scratched off the equation I had just written on the worksheet. I was supposed to meet West at the curb ten minutes ago, but this calculus shit was impossibly lengthy.

He's waiting...

But so what? He's a jerk.

With my back to the door, I was busy exerting an immense concentration on exerting concentration on solving the math. Therefore, I noticed neither the creak of the iron gate opening nor that of the front door, and the mischievous footsteps to my door went unheard.

Suddenly, a firm hand landed with a thump on my shoulder.

"Boo!" A familiar voice yelled, making me jump up from my chair with a terrified squeal.

"AAH THe FuCK?!" I stumbled and not-so-gracefully landed on the floor — with a foot still stuck on the chair. Taking off my glasses to increase the ferocity of my glare, I fixed West with an incredulous glare.

"WEST, THE HELL? WHAT. Are. You. Doing. In. My. HOUSE?!"

"You should've seen your face, scaredy cat." He allowed me a smile, the kind that makes your eyes widen just a little. The clarity with which I could see the ridges along the edges of his front teeth made me conscious of our proximity, and I pushed him away with my palm.

"Don't avoid my question. What're you doing in my house, creep? I swear I'll tell my parents that a creep is following me— " a sudden wave of panic slammed into my chest. My parents.

"Holy shit you need to get out! Now!" I lowered my foot from the chair and hastily launched myself up, pulling him out of my room by the hand.

"If you wanna hold my hand, just tell me," he teased, making me picture the smirk spreading across his face in my peripheral vision and promptly loosen my grip around his wrist.

"Not the time, nor the place for jokes. Do you know where you are right now?" I asked him in all seriousness, too bothered to roll my eyes.

"Um, a kennel? 'Cause you a bitch."

My teeth gritting, I shot him a stinky look. "Wrong, asshole. You are in a brown household. If my parents find out that a boy was in the house while I was all alone, I'm getting shipped right back to Bangladesh. Actually no, that wouldn't be that bad, they're gonna make me stay at Khammi's for redemption!"

His confusion dissolved into realisation as we stepped into the foyer and he sheepishly scratched his neck. I ushered him out of the door.

Fishing out the key from the pocket of my jeans, I locked the door and cast a longing look at DiCaprio, my bike, propped up against the red-brick wall - a five-minute bike ride was way better than a fifteen-minute walk with a guy who'd slashed my canvas.

As I hurried out of the iron mini-gate with him on my tail, I noticed that the navy blue flannel he wore complimented his figure like pb & j on bread, making me conscious about my own sense of fashion, which by now was a mess - a mix between Art's funky improvisations, Lee's classy suggestions and Ma's death glares at anything that showed skin.

10 yards further down the road, a familiar black Mercedes stood. West casually began to lead me to it. "We could've just walked to the venue, it's not far from here," I muttered. Unable to resist the urge to provoke him, I continued, "Or is the dark prince unable to walk his majestic arse to the stadium?"

He shot me a look so passive that embarrassment crept up my cheeks. "You're ugly, dumb and stuck with calculus. I can help you out in the car."

"Or maybe he's gonna kidnap me," I muttered at my feet. The guy slept in half of the classes and bunked the rest, how'd he be able to do it? But if I brought it up, he'd probably say that I stare at him all day, so I didn't. "I'm not dumb, I'm the topper," I feebly managed to say, which earned me an eye roll.

West opened the car door and slipped in. I followed him in, revelling in the gorgeous smell that clouded the air - must've been the smell of being filthy rich.

He inspected the stapled sheets for three seconds, sighed and threw it on my lap. "Stadium's quarter of a mile east of Dummy School, Shuan."

Dummy School? Who the hell does he think he-

"I was under the impression that we would be going to the school building, sir," Shuan's cold Asian accent cut off my train of thoughts before I could retaliate.

"Yeah, I changed my mind," West said, stifling a yawn, pulling out a pair of earphones from his trouser pocket. As he was about to tuck the second bud into his ear, Shuan spoke again in his ice-cold voice.

"It is not happening, sir."

The brunette emitted a groan of annoyance. "Just drive, Shuan. I'm so not in the mood for this."

"It's dangerous, Mr. West." As Shuan insisted, a stiff silence fell like one in a graveyard. "There will be people from different schools, we-" he cleared his throat, shooting me a cautious look through the rear view mirror. "I have only investigated each profile that attends Edelweiss Academy. I'm afraid you cannot go." Making eye contact with me again, he declared: "And Miss Rashid, you're staying here. Keep the young man company, otherwise he'll bother me."

West sighed and I resentfully kicked the seat in front of me as Shuan swung the car door open and guided himself out, an unusually large laptop in his grip.

"Care to explain, asshole?" I cocked my head towards his to find him chewing on his lip.

"Uh, you know my brother? He's really, like really insecure about everything, especially criminals. He's also pretty rich. So, uh, he got me a bodyguard. I told him that he's a real pain, but he wouldn't budge with getting rid of him."

It seemed as though West was having just as much trouble convincing himself about the genuineness of his words as persuading me. "Well that's dumb," I blurted out before I could bite my tongue. "I mean-"

"It's okay, I know. Not as dumb as you though. I can't believe I thought you were smart. This thing is painfully easy."

With that punch in the face of Pride, suddenly, his hand traveled to my face and reached for my cheek, which were beginning to copy the pink of dusk, and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. As my confused imagination was about to be driven wild, West plucked the pencil I had placed there and turned towards the homework, scribbling away in a purposely sloppy handwriting as a small smirk appeared on his lips.

"West?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm not the kind of girl one flirts with, you know."

At that, turning my way, he cocked an eyebrow in the most hurtful way possible. "Don't get so defensive. I only flirt with girls I find attractive."

"Good, because I hate it when jerks flirt with me," I managed to breathe out, staring out through the window at Shuan, who was hunched over the bulky, complicated laptop on the sidewalk. Geez, who are these people?

"Does that ever even happen?" Snorting aggravatingly, West handed me the completed homework. I tried to focus on the paper instead of his scorn, noting that his nearly-illegible handwriting was remarkably similar to mine. "So that's where I went wrong. How'd you know, though? You skip, like, half of the classes." I folded the paper and shoved it into the pocket of my jeans.

West leaned back in his seat with a self-satisfied smirk gracing his lips. "May have escaped your notice, and I wouldn't be surprised. I'm a genius. I've got a photographic memory."

Midway through rolling my eyes, a thought shot across my mind.

"Hey! I told you to wait on the curb, I never gave you my address! How'd you know where I live?"

Like a deer in headlights, West's eyes widened for a split moment before he reestablished his poker face, cocking his head to meet my gaze. "No, you told me."

"No I didn't!"

"Did too. How else would I know?"

"Something in here is fishier than the Padma," I said through squinted eyes. Before he could reply, the door to the driver's seat was swung open. Shuan climbed in, gracefully placing his laptop in a briefcase beside him from which I caught a glimpse of a walkie talkie and what I prayed was not a gun. "We can go to the stadium. Everyone's clear, except for a kid who got turned in for egging his ex-girlfriend's car." He muttered something under his breath about psychologically challenged teens.

By that time, I'd figured that asking West what Shuan was on about would be useless. So I slumped back in the seat and, fiddling with a loose string in my mustard sweatshirt, tried to recall if I'd ever told him where I lived.

I was sure I hadn't.

-

From the bleachers, Lee, Art, their other cheerleader friends and I watched Ever hand West his jersey outside the locker room. Lee could probably sense that I felt awkward sitting with them, because she patted my arm lightly, followed by a consoling smile.

The noise of teenagers chattering loudly poured into my ears like honey dissolves into a steaming cup of tea. I hadn't expected so many people to turn up. I recognised very few amid the swarming crowd that was scattered everywhere - this tournament was apparently a pretty big deal.

A piercing whistle cut through the air and the players filed into the court, making people all around me sit up straighter while some cheered. Ever had on a nervous grin as he waved at us, and Troy followed confidently. Passively, West jogged in after them.

West's legs, clad in green EA shorts, were hotter than I'd ever admit. His gaze flicked to meet my eyes, making me rapidly snap my head to the side out of reflex. An 'ow' escaped involuntarily from my throat as a sharp pain nudged at my neck, and my hand shot up to it. I glanced back to West.

He smirked and looked away.

-

"So Aditi, what's the deal with you and the new guy? He's totally hot, " Ruby, the Art Club President, asked as the break ended and the game resumed, proceeding to tie up her strawberry blonde hair with a loud purple hair tie (which made several guys gawp at her). All of them grew silent and turned to face me, making me slightly flustered.

"Uh- nothing, really," I began, which made some of them roll their eyes. "You guys. We pretty much hate each other. And before you ask, just because we're both brown and Muslim doesn't mean that we're cousins. Or that we're gonna end up on top of each other. God, let's focus on the game, we still need another point to win-"

"The way I see it," Ruby muttered, "he's a nice guy, but he's so mean to you that it makes everyone think that you two are gonna end up on top of each other."

Remembering the 'I only flirt with guys I find attractive', I let out an exasperated sigh. "And you're a nice girl, but you are really not making any sense."

Art assayed me with an uncharacteristic thoughtfulness for a few seconds before muttering, "You can't deny the sexual tension, though."

As she turned back to the game and I pondered upon the ridiculousness of that idea, a high-pitched male voice whistled and went, "Look who it is! Aditi Rashid, what're you doing here?"

I froze. Oh god. This can't be happening. No no no no. But I knew the voice too well. I thought that I might vomit, but I remained in a petrified trance in my seat when Art leapt up from her seat. Somebody had scored.

With a start, the erupting yells and cheers of enthralled EA students awoke me from my daze. As the whistle cut through the air, I shot up from my seat and hurriedly stepped past the whooping audience, moving as fast as I could on my shaky legs. As soon as I stepped out through the exit, I broke into a mad sprint, aiming for the washrooms.

God wasn't particularly impressed with me, I supposed, because despite my silent prayers, a hand sharply yanked me by the wrist. The touch made my skin crawl. In spite of how desperately I tugged, I couldn't pry it off.

Should've learnt fucking karate.

Bracing myself, I turned around to face him.

I hadn't the foggiest idea why the guy sported a high-school t-shirt - he was in college. His tall form was slightly hunched, beard styled to perfection, grin just as wolfish. To think that I once found this leech attractive.

"Hi, I think you didn't recognise me," he laughed easily, letting go of my wrist. "I'm-"

"I know who the fuck you are. What do you want?"I said through gritted teeth, and his grin momentarily faltered. He regained his composure in record time.

"Ah, that time of the month, is it? Anyway, you look...wow! Do you wanna grab a coffee after the match?" he blabbered on. I wanted to throttle him to death, watch his body dissolve in lava...but what did I do? I teared up.

"How...can you possibly do what you did? How are you called a human?" I spat, glaring at his hazy silhouette through the tears. The commotion inside the stadium had grown louder, but I couldn't care less about who had won. All I wanted to do was leave.

"What do you mean?" The boy laughed again, this time uneasily. As he ran his hand through his hair, I inhaled and closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose with two fingers.

My voice trembled when I spoke, struggling not to shout. "Leave me alone. I don't want coffee."

Then, from behind him, a taller boy imposingly cleared his throat.

West's gaze was concerned. "Hi, babe," I cried, looking pleadingly at him as I stepped closer, cringing inside. When he played along with an equally natural 'hi', I mentally sighed in relief. "Zayan, this is my boyfriend West. I'll be going with him now."

As I lead West to the main exit, he peered skeptically at Zayan, who stared after us with a curious expression, shrugged and strode back inside the stadium.

"Hey, will you tell me what's going on?" West inquired, looking intently into my eyes. I let out a short, cruel laugh.

"You're not even my friend. I spit on you, remember? Just because you helped me out of the water doesn't mean that we're buddies now, okay? Fuck off," I ranted, flailing around both my hands.

His gaze faltered for a moment, before he looked me square in the eyes. "It's only fair that your boyfriend knows what's bothering you, right?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks for saving my face. Consider it a favour returned, for showing you around." Hugging my arms, I turned to leave. "And, for the record, don't ask me to trust you unless you can trust me with, I don't know, why you have a bodyguard who has zero chill? How you're so great at stupid calculus but not bothered about grades?"

West didn't reply.

-