Stars | completed

9. Falling Hard

As I shut the door of my new room staring at the clothes to select one, I found myself lost in what happened between me and Manik a few minutes ago. I couldn't stop replaying what happened and a small smile took over my lips. Something happens to me when he's near me, when he touches me, when he pulls me close to him. It's like I lose all my senses of right and wrong, as if all my confidence and my head just goes away somewhere and I blindly lead onto the heat of the moment.

Pushing the thoughts to the back of my mind, I pulled out a military green colour shirt romper and tied my hair in a messy knot. I wore my jet black shrug with it and walked out of the room, suddenly nervous to face him again.

When I went out, he wasn't there. Neither in the kitchen, nor in the living room. I was stepping out inside my room again when I saw him standing in the balcony of his room, sipping into a can.

Hesitatingly, I walked inside. "May I come?" I asked standing outside his balcony and he turned behind, acknowledging my presence.

"Oh you're already inside. Cut the formality and just walk in," he called and I didn't know if should be annoyed at his ego or say thanks to his cut the formality part. His ego is more confusing than him.

"Mr. Sahai, the broker, he called. He said I should be expecting my roommate tonight," he said and I nodded as realisation struck me. "We're roommates!" I repeated in shock.

"Weird coincidence," he said, nodding his head negatively. "Destiny," I smiled to myself, correcting him.

"Did you say something?" He asked and I nodded negatively, lying. If I tell him that I and him were destined to be in this house, he'd probably think of me as a mad woman or some mad one sided lover. What if he doesn't ever talk to me again thinking I'm his fangirl? Or even worse, what if he calls up Agra Mental Hospital and asks them to take me away? And that too just because I said destined? Not fucking happening.

"You're talking to yourself again," he said and my eyes snapped at him. "What? You think I've never noticed?" He sipped again and then offered me. I looked at the can that said Red Bull, and I took it from his hand, taking a sip. I was aware that he was drinking from the same can and my lips left a stain right over his, and even red bull seemed sweet because it was like I could taste his lips and not the drink. It made me feel crazy and brought me back to my first day in Mumbai, the day we kissed— or rather, he kissed me.

"We have attached balconies," I pointed out and he nodded, as we sat by the rails, with our feet dipping out. It was sunset, and the sun nearly took its dip in the horizon, leaving the last rays of light, the sky coloured in blues with stars beginning to shine.

"Its twilight," he says, pointing out at the sky as well and a smile takes over my lips as the first thought that comes gushing to my mind is of Edward and Bella, the two fictional characters that successfully kept my mind engaged on dark nights.

"Twilight," I repeated, "And it's beautiful. The sky is such an amazing phenomenon, it's so lovely to see how it turns from shades of rasp yellow to the lusty blue and then a husk purple littered with tiny silver stars," I glanced at him as he smiled staring at the faint appearances of the stars

"You love stars, don't you?" I had to ask, because there was something in the way his face lit up every time he stared at the night sky and his eyes shone as if they held galaxies in them.

"I do," he smiled, looking at me for a brief second and then looking up again, "I think I get this from my mother. When I was young, she often took be stargazing. And I feel there's so much to learn looking at them."