I have my dinner and get back to lounging on my bed, faintly surrounded by Nikhil's smell as his shirt engulfs me, succumbing into unconsciousness.
I groan as I wake up to the sound of our doorbell ringing, instead of something nice like one of my favorite alarm ringtones or any song. I frantically look around and relax when I recall earlier events and realize that I've dozed off on my bed after talking to Nikhil.
Sleepily, I rub my eyes as I walk to the door, unlock it and swing it open lazily to find Nikhil in his pj's with his hands mid-air, about to ring the bell again.
"Hey..." His voice trails off as he eyes me up and down before quickly looking away.
Too sleepy to ask him what his problem was, I suppress a yawn as I beckon him before locking the front door and walk to my room to give him his thermos, which has been kept near the foot of the bedside desk.
Bending down, I take it and turn back only to see Nikhil staring somewhere lower, his mouth slightly open.
I hand him the thermos which snaps him out of his thoughts and he grabs it from me.
Our fingers brush teasingly as he takes the thermos, sending shivers through my arms and my eyes immediately snap to his lips as I remember our kiss.
I look up to see him doing the same as he comes closer to me, taking my face in his hands, leaning in very slowly while searching my eyes for...hesitation or uncertainty maybe, which I'm sure he won't find at all.
In my half-sleepy daze, feeling a bit brave, I close the space between us, connecting our lips.
His lips move against mine in perfect synchronization, a graceful dance to a music only they know, intensifying the sparks within me.
But, we homo sapiens require oxygen to respire in order to live.
Breaking the kiss, we catch our breaths and without thinking what I was saying, I blurt out, "Fuck, I like you so much!"
Nikhil freezes and I realize what I've told as I slowly pull away from him and fumble for words to cover my slip-up.
Any trace of sleepiness I had had left me now if not before.
"I— I mean, I was just going to—"
Placing his finger on my lips and shushing me, he whispers, "Did you mean it?"
Wow that particular molecule on the floor is very interesting isn't it?
Yeah, really fascinating. It beats all the other molecules. We should probably name it—
"Hey look at me, Ritu." Cupping my chin, Nikhil lifts my face, forcing my eyes to look into his.
"Did you mean it?" He asks slowly this time.
Biting my lip, I contemplate on whether or not to lie and settle for the truth to test the waters at first, keeping the 'I was just kidding' as a backup plan.
"Yeah." I speak, my voice barely audible.
Silence.
Hey, look! A tumbleweed.
Unable to bear the silence, I look up to see him smiling at me.
My breath stutters as he leans in and whispers, "Me too. A lot. And you know it."
I turn sideways to see his face, only to end up placing my lips on his and this time the kiss is sweeter, more emotions put into it.
I run my hands through his hair as one of his hands pulls me closer by my hip and the other runs along my bare thigh—
WHAT?
Pulling away I look down at my attire only to get my face heated up as I notice that I was just wearing a shirt—Nikhil's—with really short shorts.
I look at anywhere but Nikhil, embarrassed about the situation.
So this is what he was staring at earlier. Awesome! Way to flash yourself.
I was sleepy!!
I see Nikhil silently chuckling and suddenly his phone starts ringing.
Taking it out, he looks at it with panic filled eyes as he shoves the screen in front of my face and I see the reason for his panic.
The caller ID shows 'Ma' and I prevent myself from giggling as he frantically starts picking up the long forgotten thermos and walks to the front door while picking up the call and promising his mom that he was on his way.
Just before going out, he hangs up the call, leans in and hugs me tightly before saying, "We'll talk about this and don't you dare overthink it. Okay?"
I nod and smile, waving him goodbye, watching him as he runs down the stairs, taking three or four at a time.
Closing the door, I lock it and lean back on it but jump in surprise when I see my mom eyeing me mischievously.
"How did you—? But I—" I sputter looking around to find out how she had appeared out of nowhere, quite literally.
"It's okay. Just promise me you'll give me grandchildren but only when you're above twenty years old at least." She smirks.
"MA!" I yell, burying my face in my hands. I'm sure the brightest red pigment can be extracted from my cheeks considering my current situation.
"Okay, okay. Anyways, this was bound to happen so...I win thirty bucks I guess."
"What? You bet on whether or not we'll get together?"
"Nah. I said you'd be together before your finals, but your Paps said he'll do something big after your finals and that you'll be together after that. You know how your Uncle Akhil's a sucker for dramatics."
"Real mature." I remark before going to bed with a smile etched on my face.
***
"Ugh! When did biology become so difficult?"
"When you started shredding papers instead of cutting them properly." I interject Harsh's whines.
It's lunch now, and after practically inhaling our foods, Mia, HD twins and I are sitting around our chart as Mia and Darsh write facts on the chart while Harsh and I are stuck cutting pictures.
"But why can't we write?" Harsh continues.
"Yeah, like anything written by you two can be read." Mia snorts.
"Hey!" Harsh defends the same time I rebut, "We can read what we write."
Affirming my statement, Harsh and I share a high-five making Mia and Darsh to roll their eyes.
Mia is about to retort while something behind me catches her attention and before I could turn, warm lips peck my cheek while the very well-known person sits beside me.
"Someone's lovey-dovey." Darsh mutters under his breath which I alone hear, while Mia raises her brow at me with a glare.
It's been a week since the thermos incident and we both had talked about our feelings with me agreeing to be together with him but nothing official yet.
And I'm gonna get an earful from Mia since I hadn't told her yet.
DIE!! WWCD!
Slowly getting up to retreat I speak, "I can explain this Mia, we just recently talked about this and we haven't even agreed to be a couple yet. We're taking things slow and—"
I'm interrupted by Mia as she speaks obnoxiously loud with her eyes at something behind me, "OH MY GOD! YOU TWO ARE TOGETHER? WOW, I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS."
I finally turn around and see DQ's narrowed eyes on our group.
I look back to see the entire group smirking at DQ.
Rolling my eyes, I sit down beside Nikhil again but startle as he gets up and kneels beside me.
Taking my hands in one of his, he brings out a simple bouquet with Ferrero Rocher—from his bag—with his other hand, surrounded by black and white fabric and laces with little green artificial leaves between the chocolates.
Gazing directly at my eyes he speaks while grinning, as I sit there frozen, "Rithvika Sharma, will you do me the honor of accepting me as your boyfriend and be my girlfriend?"
He knows me very well to not buy a flower bouquet.
I sit there gaping at him—all the students surrounding us were too—as he looks at me expectantly for an answer.
I open and close my mouth, no words coming out, almost like a goldfish while Nikhil patiently waits for me to speak.
Suddenly a hand slaps me hard in the face, snapping me and no, I wasn't offended by the slapper—in fact, I was grateful—because if not for them, I wouldn't have been able to say this to Nikhil without gawking at him for eternity.
"Yes, Nikki. I will."
His grin widens even more as he jumps back to his feet and leans in to kiss me but stops short when Harsh shouts, "MY EYES! I'M SCARRED FOR LIFE!"
Sighing, Nikhil kisses my forehead, but his grin still remains as he sits beside me.
"You owe me for that slap." Mia says while caressing her palm.
So it was her.
"Sure, I'll help to get you and Darsh together." I tease and notice her and Darsh starting to blush.
Smacking me playfully, Mia gets back to her work and so do I, as Nikhil lies his head on my lap, making small talks and playing with my ponytail absentmindedly and occasionally feeding me a chocolate from his bouquet.
"Y'know, it'll become empty before I even reach my house." I say while chewing on the bite of chocolate Nikhil had fed me.
"Meh, but I get to eat from the same chocolate as you here." He says shrugging and that was when I realized that he and I had been eating from the same chocolate.
"Okay, don't look now, but Darsh and Mia are going all gooey on each other." He mutters suddenly—quietly—only for me and Harsh to hear.
I subtly peek from my lashes and see Mia bumping her shoulder with Darsh's playfully while he shakes his head in return as he bites back a smile.
"I hope they don't make their babies here." Harsh muses quietly from my other side and Nikhil agrees with him while I give slight chuckles.
"Oh, look at DQ. The only thing missing is smoke bellowing from her ears." Harsh whispers in my ear and I turn to see that he was indeed true.
But the other sight I saw made me wanna drown in guilt.
It was his choice, ain't no crap you can do for him liking you.
There, a few feet away from our place diagonally sits Ved, looking gloomy—eyeing the hand that I had just ran through Nikhil's soft locks—making my stomach turn.
Not wanting to make him feel bad, I send him a smile and look away quickly, turning back to Darsh as he starts another one of his fantasies.
I might not like Ved, but he's been a good friend and I care about him. At least he deserves that much.
I'm brought back to now as Nikhil roars in laughter at something Darsh had said, while the others just rolled their eyes, but smiling nonetheless.
"...So I was made the leader of our country's SPD..."
Oh my god, this story.
I swear, if this guy writes it all like some collection he'd become super-famous!
Laughing lightly at that, I look around my friends—Mia and the twins who're too busy bickering about where to stick which pictures—and my boyfriend.
Boyfriend...wow that sounds strange as hell, but really good at the same time.
And you sound cheesy as hell! Eww!
Nikhil suddenly plants his lips on mine—surprising me—but I react back nevertheless, making him smile against my lips.
Pulling away, he looks into my eyes while saying, "I'm one lucky bastard..."
And I'm in love with you.
Yes I am. No use in denying anymore.
While my brain cheers at my boldness and throws around confetti internally, I look at Nikhil who looks more ecstatic than ever.
"GET A ROOM!" Harsh yells, making me swat his arm while the others laugh around me.
A/N: Thoughts? Vote and comment, please and thank you!