Clandestine

|-21-|

His gaze goes somewhere else and I follow, seeing Karan's eyes already on us.

"Go to him before he rips my head off for talking to his girl."

"I'm not his girl", I sighed annoyed.

"Fine, wanna friend zone it? Friend. Go to your friend."

I scowl but it turns into a smile and he smiles back, patting my shoulder. I head towards Karan who changes his gaze to the ground when I reach him.

"You didn't tell me he was your cousin."

"Only Hiral knew."

"But I'm your partner. I should have known."

"It wouldn't be a big deal and anyways I knew you would find out tonight."

I keep boring into his eyes until he finally looks up at me.

"Are you going to yell at me for not telling you he's my cousin? I didn't know, okay?"

I close my eyes and sigh, giving up on yelling.

"No, no I won't. It's just what if they told him to act on our side? I'm worried and I have a right to be."

"Don't you think I've thought about that too? He seems genuine and I did some background research on his job as much as I could. We should take the chance."

His gaze goes from the ground to me, up and down as if he's conflicted on where to look.
I put my hand under his jaw. "Look at me."

He moves his head away from me and something in me sinks.

Why is he acting like this?

"What's wrong, Karan?"

"Nothing." He takes a step back. "I'm going to talk to Himanshu."

"Hold up-", I gently hold onto his hand.

He looks down and his brows furrow deeply before he lets go and leaves without a word or a glance.

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4 days later

My nightmares are catching up to me. I now get 2-3 a week and every time I force myself to write down what I remember but most of the time I end up getting headaches.

"DONT TAKE HER"

"NO"

"TEJASSWI"

It's the same words and the voice is distorted but familiar like it's asking me to go closer and it will reveal the voice.

Nights like this I can't help but think of the time Karan came and helped me out. It was so random, but his comfort seeped into me.

Now he stopped talking as much like he did in December. He's always on and off with me and I can never tell why.

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