His Tutor

35: Charlotte

"I didn't want to get them upset," I admit.

"Must be hard being my girlfriend."

"Yep. That's why I'm not going to be your girlfriend anymore."

"Seriously?" Ahaan asks, unable to detect my sarcasm. Then again, I don't blame him. I'm really bad with sarcasm.

"No, silly. I'm joking," I laugh.

Ahaan slams me down on the bed and wraps himself around me, hugging me tightly.

"This is your punishment. I'm hugging you to death," he smiles.

I wrestle myself out of Ahaan's grip and hug him back, so tightly I hear him exhale a groan. '

"I'm retaliating."

"How do you not realize how strong you actually are?"

"I am? I don't know. When I wrestled with Ishita as kids, I always lost."

"That explains it."

Sonu and her ballet class start to file into the room once they relocated me. I release Ahaan from my hold to avoid the parade of feet jumping on his bed, nearly stepping on us.

"Sonu, go play in your room," Ahaan instructs.

"No fair. Ishqi gets to play in here," Sonu whines.

"That's because you almost made her go bald."

"No, we gave her a makeover. Why did you take it off?"

"Kids, pizza is here!" Mrs. Malhotra calls from downstairs.

As fast as they had infiltrated the room, they left. I get up to follow, but Ahaan pulls me down.

"Let's stay here," he says, hooking me down with his leg.

"But there's food," I protest.

"Are you choosing food over me?"

"I will always choose food over you."

Ahaan lets me go and turns his back to me.

"Aw, I'm sorry." I tug on his shirt. "I was joking... Let's go eat... I love you just as much as I love food."

"Just as much?"

"I can't live without both..."

More than satisfied with my answer, Ahaan follows me downstairs. By the time we're down there, all the girls had sprawled out on the couch and floor. The coffee table is piled with at least ten boxes of pizza, which is overkill, considering most of the kids won't finish even one slice. Good thing I'm here to help...

Ahaan already knows this and grabs a plate for me with five slices on it.

Around the corner, I can see Mr. Malhotra sitting at the dining table, stern as always. He's reading some documents again, his pizza barely touched. His eyes glance at me and a scowl immediately forms on his face.

After dinner, the girls go back to playing in Sonu's room. Ahaan and I brush our teeth and we lay back on his bed. I can feel my eyes get heavy, but I try to keep them open. Ahaan sees this and covers me with his blanket, getting under it as well.

"Tired?" he asks, so softly it was almost a whisper.

"A little."

"You should sleep then."

"Can't. They're still playing in the room."

"Sleep in here then."

"Can't."