Smiling at his gestures, I kissed him and caught his jaw in my palms. And like I had said, his hands didn't wander anywhere than the areas I told him. He listened to me. He always did. Grinning, I touched our forehead, panting before kissing him again and burying my fingers in his hair. What would I do without him? Who would be as considerate as him? Who would listen to me like he did? Who would love me the way he did? He was mine. I would kill him if he ever thought of leaving me after making me feel too much, after changing so much in me, after making me love him when I had stopped believing in it. "Rahul is right." Confused by his statement, I broke our kiss and sat on top of him. Panting, he bit his lower lip, his hazel eyes clouded and hair messed up because of my hands. "You've turned sexy. I never noticed it before but today you looked so irresistible." If our kissing didn't make me feel hot, his comment did. "Never leave doing yoga. It makes you so sexy." Laughing at hi
"Open the laptop!" I shouted at Nisha, not caring her mother was standing behind me and tusking at Nisha's habit. It had been an hour since NEET result was declared, and this girl wasn't ready to open the laptop, too scared to see the zero score again.I didn't even know her roll no, neither she was telling any of us.For an hour, Kabir had been calling on her phone, but no, this girl wasn't ready to accept it."Nisha, see it." Her mother placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure it will be good.""What if I fail?" She asked in a scared tone. "What if I get a too low score to have admission in a good college?""It'll be good. Trust your mom." Her mother settled on the opposite chair whilst I blinked my eyes. Mom wasn't this sweet. "Whatever it is, we'll go through it together. Your dad is calling me again and again.""He'll be disappointed, mom," She mumbled, staring at her laptop. "I promised him I will do better. What if get a too low score? How will I tell him? With so much difficult
"Ready?" Nisha wriggled her eyebrows behind. Chuckling, I shut the eyeshadow palette and turned to look at her. "I knew this black dress was a killer. And damn, your new room." She let her gaze wander around the new room of mine. It was the opposite of my old room, much more stylish, and the books of shelves were behind my bed, rather than being on the opposite.Kabir had argued what if an earthquake came and they fell on my head. The creative mind of his."Your dad has a good taste," She commented.Bending down, I caught hold of my wedges and tied them to my feet. "Thanks for helping with makeup.""Never mind." She waved her hand in the air. "I love dolling you up. You say nothing while I do it. Apart from my brother warning me to not cake your face.""What?"She giggled. "When I was leaving, he warned me if I caked your face with makeup, he will steal my canvases. He loves his natural bookworm too much.""Oh." Too warm. Too hot."What natural things are you both doing?" She smirked.
"Nice dress." My smile froze on my face as I stared at her from the mirror. "From where you got it? Maybe I can go there?""Zara."She clicked her tongue. "Too costly for me." She chuckled, and stood next to me. "Was it costly for you? Of course, it wouldn't be.""You can ask Dhruv. He'll get you one, but why buy?" I faced her with a mocking expression. "His mother is a fashion designer. Her clothing is trendy."To my surprise, she laughed and nodded, "I have a share of them. My boyfriend loves showering me with gifts. Dhruv was wrong. You have a fire in you. An angry fire. But anyone would have it after that thing.""What thing?" I asked quietly, nails digging into my wrist.She gave me an innocent look. "Your past? Have you forgotten with Kabir? And damn, he's so delicious." She took her lipstick out, applying it to her lips. "What does he like? He works out, isn't it? Why is he with you?" She passed a disgusting look at my arms. "He must be crazy. No matter how handsome he is, he's
"Alina, where were you?"Placing the glass of water on the counter table, I swirled to look at Meena Auntie, standing at the door of the kitchen, worry etched on her face.Gulping the water, I answered, "Club and then dhaba. Nisha's party. I forgot to tell you. Sorry. You were busy with work and I was getting late." Leaning against the counter, I stared at her worried face. "Didn't papa tell you?""He went to his room after coming back. Your parents fought.""Oh. Is everything okay?" As if it was something new.She shrugged her shoulders, stepped forward to settle next to me. "Don't you think it's late for you to come?""Got late. Why? Papa said something?" I asked urgently. "But he had said the curfew starts at midnight." I opened my phone and checked the time. "Fifteen minutes are still there.""Nothing," She replied. "You never stay out this late.""Blame my friends." I grinned. "They love night outs." And I had to convince Kabir to drop me home before midnight because dad would've
"Damn, Alina, be my girlfriend," Nisha whistled as I stepped inside her house. The pages clutched in her hands fell down as she shamelessly checked me out. Was Kabir right? I mean first, this girl bought me a lingerie—a sexy lingerie—and now she was checking me out without thinking how creepy it appeared. "I wish I was a guy.""Shut up." Walking next to her, I nudged her shoulder. "Where is your brother? He has been teasing me since he saw that girl.""You shut up." She placed her hands on my shoulder, checking my red and black Patiala suit. Blushing under her gaze, I swirled my gaze to some other part of the hall. I had never worn a suit in my entire life, felt too weird and out of me. "The fitting is great. You look hot.""Kabir—""Leave my brother for a second. You know what?" She grinned. "I want to see his reaction. Come. He's playing pool with Rahul."She started dragging me upstairs, ignoring how hot I felt at the particular moment as if the heat was prickling at each side even
"Something cold?" Kabir enquired, pushing his spaghetti plate in the middle of the table. "Do you want to eat more?"I stared at my plate and shook my head. "Stomach full. Yes, something cold. Ice-cream?""Sundae?" I nodded, cleaned my mouth with the cloth before placing it back on the table."Ask them about almonds."I opened my phone to go through the stuff but turned to look at the stare burning through my back. Since we had sat down in the restaurant, a girl was glancing at me again and again as if I had committed a crime. Whenever I would look back, she would change her gaze. Maybe I was overthinking and that girl was looking at something else.Shaking my head, I faced Kabir and smiled. "I just remembered. Papa asked you to come tomorrow." His hands halted at the cleaning cloth placed over his mouth and he stared intently at me. "For breakfast."He placed the cloth back on the table. "Have I done something? Why he wants me to come?"Shrugging, I said, "He asked me in the morning,
"Kabir—" Nisha started speaking from the kitchen."Not now." Fuming, he walked downstairs, ignoring Nisha's and my voices from behind. Opening his room door, he entered and closed it shut. "Sit there." He made me sit on the bed."I don't want to!" I shouted. "I want to break up with you! It's hurting me!""I was a jerk once!" He shouted back, opened his cupboard and took his camera out, placing it on my lap. "I was hormonal, okay? I am not proud of what I did with her. I came out of the hostel and joined the school. Everyone was talking about girls and that stuff." He paced back and forth. "I wanted to see what was so special about it. Everyone was trying, hiding it from their parents. I wanted to be a hero in their eyes like yes, I did it before every one of you.""Yes, what she said was the truth. Yes, I asked her and broke up when she was refused. Yes, I made her my girlfriend to sleep with her. Yes, I booked a room in a hotel. But then, I met you and everything changed.""You met m
Rubbing my neck with the hand, I felt his presence on my back. "What is he doing here?"I turned to face him. "Kabir--""Alina, no." He cornered me, caging between his body by placing both of his hands on the counter table. "It's ten at the night.""He came. I couldn't say him to leave.""Or you could have said it's not ideal for him to come," He shot back, straining lines visible on his forehead. "You looked uncomfortable. Did he say something?"Nothing just confessed it to me and I had no idea why he thought he loved me when he knew nothing about me except the things I shared in the support group when he had no idea how needy I was, how I seek for attention."No," I whispered. "You got late.""Work." Pranit voice from the hall echoed in the kitchen and Kabir's eyes darkened. "I hate him. When I see him, I see how you said you loved him." But it was a lie. I was trying to hurt you, make you see how you leaving had impacted me. "I know you both have same past," He dragged a shaky brea
"Come again?" Dr. Sha asked, her hands flying from right to left, hitting the ping pong ball with the red colored bat.Hitting with my bat, I tried to dodge her attempts to make me lose a point. "Why are we playing ping pong?""Don't you get bored staying in a room?""Kind of."But this wasn't what I had expected when she called for an outside meeting instead in her building's cabin. I had thought a café maybe, or someplace quiet but she had surprised by calling me to a club and assured nobody would come in this room."Your dad was ready to allow it.""His friend owns the club," I mumbled dryly, the sound of the hitting echoing in the four walls."And he loves you," She pointed out, smashing the ball and before I could hit, it flew from my side. "And you lost a point.""Funny," Grumbling, I walked to one of the corners, picked the ball and started the game again. The sweat had started forming on the forehead, my grip on the handle of the bat was losing, my wrists were aching. What was
Yawning, I closed my books and stretched my legs. Getting up from the bed, I walked out of the room to find something to eat. Switching on the lights, I found a note stuck to the refrigerator.Food is in the microwave. You were sleeping. Must be hard practice 😝 Ps. Heat and eat.Chuckling at her handmade emoji, I crumbled the note and threw it in the dustbin before opening the microwave and found the plate in it. She never forgot about me. Twitching my lips, I brought the plate out and grabbed a spoon.Cold food was better than hot food and she wouldn't understand that.She wouldn't understand why I had gone straight to the bed after coming back from college, she wouldn't understand how much it was killing to know that how deep secrets we both were holding.Before I could take a spoon, the kitchen walls were invaded by the screams.Alina.Dropping the spoon, I sprinted to her room, opened the gate and saw her struggling in her bed. She hadn't gotten any dreams since she had started s
"I still think you shouldn't go," Kabir's voice brought me back to present.Shaking my head, I tried to remove the memory. It was before I had started imagining him as Rishi, it was before when we were happy and there used to nothing other than nightmares to trouble our relationship.Now we had to be careful. This careful was getting on my nerves."It's fine," I stated, changing the song on the stereo of the car."Here." He passed me his phone, connected it to the black aux cable. "Listen any you want."Taking his phone, I went through the songs, ignoring the EDMs he loved to hear and settled on something soft to not make him hyper."Now, Dhruv and you. You're traveling too much.""I'm not. He needs me. He's all alone, handling Ria." I curled on the seat. "She's too small. She needs to see people love her despite her father leaving for jobs. And Dhruv deserves a break.""I get you're worried. We all are." He dabbed his palm on the horn. "But look at yourself. You're squeezing your sch
[ A L I N A ' S P O V ]Gripping the pen tightly, I wrote down the explanation of the sonnet, completing the work that had been due last night. I blamed it on my over-worrying boyfriend who couldn't keep his mouth shut on why I was traveling this much. From past two months, I had been pacing back and forth between Bangalore and Delhi every weekend.He was getting angry.And I was getting pissed.Sighing, I placed the pen between the pages. Just two more lines, Alina and then you could go and shower to remove the aftermath of mediation and yoga."What you writing?" Hearing him, I levitated my head to stare at his face, but then, my gaze dropped to his chest.Where was his shirt? And why the hell wasn't I changing my gaze?Gulping, I paid attention to the white pages, overwritten by my hands. "Sonnet explanation. College work. You didn't go to GYM?""I'm taking a time off for a while," he answered, moving across the kitchen to grab a bowl for himself and picked the milk carton from m
***"You!" Shouting, I shut the door of her cabin. Jennifer looked up from the files. "In my cabin now."She raised her eyebrows in amusement and nodded. Who told her to tell lies to Alina? I got her teasing on me, I accepted it but feeding lies to her wasn't acceptable. I was an inch away from losing Alina again. Inch away to destroy all the progress we both had made after getting back together.Taking a deep breath, I entered my office and turned to face her. Yesterday, I had spent all my day to get new clothes before selling my old clothes and helping Alina with the packing.She was moving back with me. Good. I could see clearly how she was scared of me.Jennifer stepped in. "Now that's the Kabir I know. Angry and dominating one."Rolling my eyes, I nodded my head to the money placed on the table. "You're leaving India in next twenty-four hours. This is your pay. You're no longer my assistant.""I answer to your father, not to you." She crossed her arms over her chest. "He sent me.
Staring ahead at the scene, I smiled and tapped my fingers on her arm. She turned with a smile and slipped her hand around my waist."I missed you.""You did?""Yup," She grinned. "Don't go again."Laughing lightly, I was about to reply when her figure disappeared from my arms and all I could see was the face of her house perched in front of me. What was I doing here? I was in our apartment, meeting her after a long time.A hand tugged on my shirt. Peering down, I stared at the girl."Kabir, save me." Confused by her statement, I wondered what she was talking about me. "Save me, Kabir," She cried, thumping her hand on my chest. "You promised you'll save me. Save me now."She took a run inside the house. Frowning a bit, I followed her inside, took the flight of stairs and entered the room I hadn't been into for past three years.Wasn't it burned? Wasn't it locked?My feet thumped on the old familiar room, looking for the small girl but, all I found was Alina standing at the corner, sta
Presenting a smile, I stood up, took the clothes and strode to her bathroom. Shedding the rest of my clothes, I entered the shower and cleaned the disgusting things sticking to my body. When I checked for a shower gel and shampoo, I found the girly stuff and sighed. Looks like I would be smelling like her until the morning.As I was washing my hair, all the previous month we had spent together started biting my places. She was too distant from me. Her words seemed to be held and assessed carefully. Maybe moving in with me would change everything, maybe we would be different then, maybe we would back to our love life.But what about the insecurities? How would I solve them?"Kabir, are you done?" She knocked the door. "Was I too harsh? Is it not removing? Do you need my help?""Yes, it's not removing!" I shouted back, smirking. "Help me.""Tie a towel."Looking around the shower, I grabbed the towel from the upper shelve and tied it around my waist. "Done." My eyes remained glued to th
Alina's expression didn't change, her hands remained still at her side, her eyes narrowed at me."You're lying." Again, the same sentence. "She saw you without clothes.""I'm aware," I confessed. "Once she came in my penthouse. I was roaming in my briefs and she saw it." Seeing her expression, I added quickly, "I did yell at her for disturbing my privacy. I changed the code too. I didn't know she knew about it. She purchased the penthouse. I should've been aware.""But you kissed her." She clutched the arms of the chair tightly. And that was the reason I didn't want to tell her. "I can't stop imagining when you kissed her." She dragged a long, shaky breath before facing me, turmoil residing in her black eyes. "You wanted to forget me?" With reluctance, I nodded. "Was I that bad?""No, I just love you too much," I replied honestly. "Wouldn't you have done anything to forget me?""True." Standing on her toes, she trudged to my side, caught my face in her hands and inched it closer to he