Heya lovelies!! Hope y'all have been faring good. Thank you for all the lovely response to the previous OS. A reader commented and asked me to not stop with the questionnaire so here I am.
Question: Your Guilty Pleasure?
Answer: Watching You Tube! (P.S. Answer only if comfortable *smiles with a wink*)
So, without any further ado, let's start. But guys, do vote and comment. Please don't forget giving inline comments. They are highly appreciated!! It motivates me to work better and push my limits to the best. Come, come; Let's rush to the update!
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"You stupid creature! Wait right there or I'll kill you." A girl in her early adulthood shouted. Wearing her blue Track pant, white tee and white shoes, she had been chasing her idiot best-buddy for a while now. Her luscious brown locks secured in a tight high ponytail had been sticking to her face because of all the sweat she transpired during her morning jog.
"Catch me first! Then you can kill me for all." He, her best-buddy shouted back, laughing and panting slightly. The sweetest girl he had ever come across in his life, was his best-buddy-cum-bro now for past 15 years after a struggle of 7 years of budding friendship. They had known each other since childhood days and were the closest since then. Their existed no secrets between them and no details of each others' life was unknown to them.
He loved her and she loved him; not romantically but like friends. With a bond as pure as diamonds, they knew what other felt even before they themselves knew about it.
"Cabs, stop it bro! Please, I'm tired of running! For God's sake, I'm sorry bro." "Sorry? You can be anything but sorry, you devil! You complained to Dad, Ridzzy!" Kabir shouted at Riddhima angrily. She had stopped running now; one, because she was tired and two, because she was tired!
"It's not my fault that you could not hide your broken watch at the right place. If I just brought uncle to your room to show him my assignment, it doesn't mean I told him." Riddhima defended herself when Kabir halted at his place and came to hit her at the back playfully. " Moreover, he blackmailed me in the name of mangoes, you tell me how could I lie?" With a dreamy sigh, she waited for him to understand her side. When she knew, her trick was working, she showed her puppy eyes; her ultimate weapon and her work was done.
Releasing a sigh mixed with a shaky breath, he answered," Okay, okay! Your weapon worked now.", shaking his head at the end with a small smile at his lips. She squealed and hugged him tightly, shouting 'Thank You' while he continued after a laugh, reciprocating her hug," Your mangoes are in my custody for these two days, though." Her smile faltered and she looked at him in shock, oblivious to the mischievous glint in his eyes.
After few more arguments, both stepped inside the Raisinghania Mansion and went to their rooms to freshen up.
For the last 17 Riddhima and Kabir, have been friends after meeting at the office's party where their fathers worked and were friends. Though Riddhima lost her mother to a car accident, Kabir's mother never let her feel so. The Raisinghania family loved Riddhima like their own daughter, except one. And why not? She was an adorable kid and had grown up to a sweet, bold and lovely woman.
The only exception was Kabir's elder brother, Vansh Raisinghania. Being the bright student of the college, he had always been the one to stay in lime lights as "the star kid". Though Kabir loved him with his whole-heart, he always had an inferiority complex built up due to the comparisons between "The Star- Vansh" and "The mediocre- Kabir". Likewise, Riddhima too was a mediocre child and being alike, Riddhima and Kabir had become good friends with a beautiful bond over time.
While, for some unknown reasons, Vansh never left a stone upturned to hurt or taunt Riddhima when she came home, and no one knew the reason for the same. His hurtful words made Riddhima feel pained and she had resolved to fight back and mask her hurt with attitude and anger.
"Oh!! So you're back home." Vansh told when they both returned home after the morning walk. Riddhima and Kabir halted in their steps, their smiles vanishing and mood saddening at Vansh's unusual behavior. "Vansh, see I am having a great day and now, though I don't know what's up your mind, but please, let me go for today. Though I doubt it." Riddhima retorted, with a tired voice and her voice a mere whisper at the end, sighing.
"And you think, I would listen to you?" Vansh questioned her with disbelief all over his face. "Okay, you won't listen to me, right? Then do one thing, I say that you should completely irritate me whatever you can. Then do otherwise, and let me go!" With folded hands and over-dramatic expressions, she answered, while Kabir coughed to hide his laugh and Vansh furrowed his brows and scrunched his nose in frustration. Vansh huffed and left after informing his Mom.
And this was how fights ended in between Vansh and Riddhima, lately.
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"This is how you solve this question students, is that clear?" Barely suppressing a yawn and her eyes drooping, Riddhima sitting beside Kabir, kept her chin in her hand and her elbow on the desk. "Bro, when is the lecture ending? I'm sleepy." Riddhima asked Kabir, eyeing the professor in front of her. "And, there you go..." Stretching the 'an' sound Kabir grinned as soon as the bell rang, while Riddhima and Kabir rushed outside, with packed bags in hands.
Running in corridors, shouting and laughing, they came to a sudden halt as Riddhima ran into a hard chest and bounced back. She shut her eyes as she fell backwards, ready to be hit down. When the hard fall never came, she opened her eyes to find two arms snaked around her waist, protectively holding her. Snapping her eyes to the face of the person, her eyes bulged out of the sockets to witness Vansh, staring her; his black orbs shining with amusement and... adoration? Masking it in a flicker, he put up a mask of anger and disgust. jerking her straight, he yelled, "Don't your eyes work? You are in a college corridor, not your personal garden that you keep running, shouting and breaking discipline," he stopped abruptly, breathing deeply with wide eyes, to see Riddhima's moist eyes flashing hurt and pain. "Now don't start crying, Momma's doll, oops! My bad, you don't have Mom, right?" He feigned a sad look at her.
But this time, Riddhima didn't cry. She didn't feel hurt and pained to listen to Vansh. This time, she noticed him. She noticed his eyes which held only deep pain, anger and disgust while saying it all. She noticed his voice that trembled in the end, not due to anger but due to pain. As everyone around laughed or teased her, her sole focus were him, his eyes and the confusing plethora of emotions she observed and felt. Eyeing him confused, she observed him masking his feelings before breaking their eye-lock. When he looked back, duh! His eyes held no emotions.
He walked away, moving past her, along with his friends and their seniors, Angre, Ishani and Sara. She turned around as she glared his retreating back confused, with him moving away. Kabir rushed to her side the moment they left. "Ridzzy, you are okay, right? Please don't take his words to heart. You know how Bhai is, ever ready to taunt you..." He paused as his nose flared in anger and irritation, "Today, he will answer me about why he's doing this. He always changes the topic and makes everything go haywire. It won't work today." She came out of her trance the moment he mentioned about Vansh dismissing all the questions her Cabs put in front of him. He was pulled back by a tug at his elbow even before he could move ahead.
"Cabs! Listen, I-I'll go and talk to him, please?" Her ultimate weapon, her puppy eyes, came to her rescue and he gave her a nod. "Okay! But we're not going home separately. I'm taking you to your house, you change and then we leave for our home. And that's final even before you speak something." He spoke with a finality in his voice while she just nodded while reaching out to their car.
*******
Life was not fair to him. This was what he had thought since the last 15 years. It always tested him. At the end of the tests, when he passed them with flying colors, he always turned a little more cracked and exhausted, mentally. Being a good student at academics, always disciplined, well-behaved and obedient, had its own drawbacks; no one ever thought so, however. This was what people thought to be a 'good life'; he too did. Only he knew what it truly was. He had to rise to a very high standard and people always kept their expectations higher, making him strive for more and make efforts to not disappoint them.
It was okay for sometime but after that lovely yet addicting sweetheart came to his life, he wished for something more and different. He wished to be a little carefree in his life. For once in a while, he wanted to live and laugh whole-heartedly. He wanted to be less-disciplined, a bit fun-loving and more notorious. He wished to be a bit more weak in his studies so that his parents would care for him, would show more concern for him than his younger brother.
Not that he did not love his brother, he did love him, a lot! He felt neglected when his parents would always fetch for his younger brother and keep a watch over him, pampering him to lure him to study and score good marks.
And things like that made him like this, insecure and self-loathing. While Riddhima, well she being deprived of mother's love for long, still got his mother to love and care for.
This was what made him envious of her and he still kept falling for her unknowingly. Yes! Vansh Raisinghania had started loving Riddhima Vashisht so much that he just wanted her to stay happy yet away from him because he knew life would snatch her away from him if she ever took a step in his direction. He pretended to hate her yet only he knew how much his heart ached when he hurled insults upon her. Only he knew how badly his heart broke every time when he taunted her. He knew how heart-wrenching it was to see those beautiful, doe-shaped orbs reflect pain, hurt and anger at his words.
"*What is in our hearts, we will reveal by our words and our deeds." He jerked, startled to hear the voice, known to him very clearly. His Riddhima, whose voice he would find even in a crowd of thousands! Wiping the traitor tears that had come down to his cheeks, he turned around to face her with a mask of irritation painted on his face. She chuckled, "These are the words of a great person, Ertrugel. Well, I felt them appropriate to use now, so shared them with you."
"Why are you here in my room?"
"Vansh listen,"
"No, you listen! I did not allow you here. You are permitted to move anywhere in the mansion but this does not mean, you can come here too. Please go because I don't want you here, okay?" He cut her off, rudely. He so wished that she would leave before anything happened that would make him regret later. But she didn't budge.
"Before you speak anything more, listen carefully Vansh!! I'm saying it loud and clear, I won't repeat." Taking a deep breath, Riddhima found courage to go on, she asked him with a confused frown on her forehead, "Till today, I always thought you do everything to hurt me but today, I saw hurt, pain, disgust and anger in your eyes when you said everything, why was that? I realised today you pretended to hate me, why that? You did not want to hurt me yet you did that, right? Kyon?(Why?)"
Taken aback by the straightforward question, Vansh flinched back. He opened his mouth to lie through his teeth but she cut him to it and instead said, "Don't even think of lying because I won't buy your lies." He exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding and started to answer, "Now when I'm to say the truth, then so be it."
He stepped forward, in a long stride covering all the distance they had, physically. "Being the elder sibling, 'The Star Kid'," he chuckles with a sad smile, "I was always in limelight outside my house, but at home, Kabir was the more pampered, looked-after one. Not that I don't love my Kabootar!" He stops, with a genuine small smile, maybe lost in his thoughts, reminiscing the lovely moments of his brother.
"I love Kabir more than anyone not just so that he never faces whatever I faced, but also, because he is very sweet and innocent, just child-like. The bridge that got built in me and my parents was because of their negligence thinking that me being a grown-up, I don't need them much. Alas! THEY.WERE.WRONG." Raising his voice at the end with angry tears in his eyes, Vansh breathed heavily while Riddhima got a bit scared with his high-pitched voice and pain. Unknown to her, her eyes pooled up and tears cascaded down her cheeks.
He told her everything he felt, "Just because of them, I started behaving rudely with you too Riddhima as your presence almost made them forget me. I tried hating you but you know, I couldn't. I just could not because of you," Snapping his head in her direction, he looked in her eyes with such intensity that it took away her breath in a mere second. His proximity too, was not helping her mind, as it went all hazy with his citrus scent diverting her attention to 'not-so-good thoughts' about him.
"Every time, I tried hurting you, I tried saying harsh words, the look at your face jus-just felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing my heart at the same place." He sniffed, with fresh tears following the path of already flown ones.
The next words of his not just startled her, but she became numb, completely. "The sweetheart that you are, I just couldn't even think of hating you, forget getting mad at you. Your lovely eyes, charming smile, over-loaded cuteness; these things always make me smile unknowingly. I don't even realise and I get lost in you." He said with a husky voice, cupping her face slowly and affectionately- the electrifying touch sending sparks in their bodies, making Riddhima jerk a bit and breath deeply.
His brown orbs suddenly turned a darker shade as she observed, or more like studied his chiseled face. As if in a trance, Riddhima brought her hand up, to his face and traced her fingers down his face, from his forehead to his eyes, which automatically shut on their accord with her touch and moving down to his nose.
When her fingers reached near his lips, she put the movement to a halt, making Vansh open his eyes with a jerk. He was shell-shocked and his eyes were ready to come out of the socket any moment. Gulping visibly with difficulty, he darted his eyes to hers and found her gaze already stuck on his eyes, as if she knew he would look at her.
He released a sigh of despair and with some pain in his heart, he closed his eyes. Realising she was just playing with him, when he saw her lips twitch upwards in a small mock smirk, he couldn't help the deep agonising feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.
He was worthless.
His parents didn't care for him much anymore and today the love of his life, who was his first and last love, didn't reciprocate anything.
Not even a plain liking.
"And I am not playing with you VR, I really want it," Riddhima whispered with a small smile on her face, looking down. Holding her head up, looking for any hesitation in his eyes, Riddhima looked at Vansh's face and just got lost in the cute struck look on his face.
He leaned in with closed eyes and smiled when she nodded with a small smile and closed her eyes. Their lips met and moved in a smooth sync with pure love. The mere intimate touch sent shivers down their spines and goosebumps covered their bodies.
Every incoherent thought and his conscience's voice left his mind when her lips touched his.
The rhythmic motion of their lips signifying their peaceful beats moving in synchronization, realizing which they smiled in the kiss. Her hands went to his nape, massaging it and easing him down while he carresed her waist engulfing her in his arms tighter yet comfortably.
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Whoa! That was pretty long and I had to put a stop here. Lol! Will post the second part, don't know when. *shrugs casually*
Y'all know the drill. Vote. Comment. Share. ;)
Feels so much better to be able to put up something after so long. I realized that this(p.s. writing) is my life.
So, any guesses about the relation of title with the story so far? Waiting for your theories excitedly.
Till next update,
Sayonara!!