Chapter Fourteen

An hour of kicking around one ball between twenty adrenaline-filled teenagers exhausted Mayra, even though she was only a spectator. She had undoubtedly enjoyed the few goals Shrey had scored and scoffed at some Samarth had managed to execute. 

Thankfully, everytime the ball approached her way, she'd dodged it. But Niharika, one of the cheerleaders wasn't as lucky, neither was she attentive or had good reflexes. It was good to know that she'd only hurt her arm. Nothing major. 

Mayra had barely read a few pages of the book she'd freshly issued from the library. A spark of excitement had ignited inside of her and she knew she couldn't wait for the next session. She was beyond enthralled and now understood why there existed so many 'die hard' football fans. 

"Amazing is the word, right?" Shrey asked with a smirk, trying to be cool. 

"Gross is. You're drenched in sweat and layered with mud." She scrunched her nose. "I can't hold up with this. Please, go clean yourself."

"Okay." He said with a defeated sigh. 

Had she said something wrong? 

"Oh, god!" Whispering to herself, she rose from the seat as her eyes speculated the arrival of someone she clearly didn't anticipate a conversation with at the moment. 

She was glad when the cheerleading squad surrounded the devil and peppered him with compliments. 

"They don't know a thing about football but they do love biceps." Tania shrugged and waved at Samarth. 

He did emerge forward with utmost difficulty but he didn't give a single glance to Tania before focusing on Mayra. 

"Didn't think I could do that without you cheering for me from here." He said with the fakest politeness he could muster. Mayra eyes threatened to bulge out of her eyes. 

"I wasn't cheering for you." She scoffed. 

Samarth smiled, "I wish you were. I might've scored more goals. But you we're watching me, intriguingly."

Mayra took a side glance at Tania. She was gaping at them, perplexed. 

"Apparently, the guy who scored more you than is my best friend. God, what is it like inside of your head? You think everyone drools over you?" Mayra shook her head in dismay. She sensed an incoming migrane. 

"Here's the thing: I don't care about everyone." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. 

She slapped his arm. Gathering all her belongings, she walked away, stomping her feet on the ground with all her rage. 

Samarth laughed boisterously and settled himself on a bench. His plan seemed to have started working. 

"What just happened here?" Tania asked while chewing on her bottom lip. 

Samarth opened a bottle of chilled water and poured it all over his head. He shook his head lightly letting the little droplets fall off his hair strands to all directions. "What did it look like?"

"No! No, no, no." Tania smacked his arm, "Not her, grumpy boy!"

"Why, Taani?" He asked with furrowed eyebrows, genuinely interested in her answer. She had never objected his decision to flirt with anyone before so what was the matter now? 

Tania held her head in her hands, "Why don't you see it? She's a good person."

He picked up another bottle and gulped down the water, "Irrelevant."

Tania complained, crossing her arms, "She's no toy for you to use when Reanna is away." 

"It's only a part of my revenge plan. Did you forget she slapped me for doing a harmless prank?" 

Tania had no words to say. He was right at a point but that incident now seemed so old, she had believed he had let it go long ago but apparently, he hadn't. 

"Conversation terminated, grumpy boy." She said and walked away for the last lecture of the day. 

Samarth had began waving goodbye at her but she was gone already. 

_______________

"No, Tania. I... I can't." Mayra tried refusing her politely but Tania was consistent. 

"One movie! Just one day. You can do that assignment later too, right? We don't even have lectures after this." Tania persuaded her further and received a groan. 

Don't get her wrong. She did want to go for the movie. Shrey had promised Tania he'd tag along and she didn't want to miss the fun. But then there was another person who would be joining too and that spoilt all her excitement. 

The events that had occurred in the past few days roamed about in her mind, never settling in peace. She recalled the conversation between them many times, wondering what would've happened if she had replied with something else. 

"No, please."

Tania complained, "But you said you would come with us. I got the tickets already. Aadhya has ditched us and trying to convince her for this is like trying to fill water in a bucket with holes."

Tania turned to the only person who could now get her to join them, "Shrey! Tell your friend!" She commanded and for a second Shrey seemed scared but recovered quickly and made an attempt too. 

"Why are you denying now?" Shrey asked her calmly. 

Mayra opened her mouth and closed it again. There was no way she could get out of this now. "Fine, I'm coming." She said and Tania cheered and clapped her hands like a child. 

She engulfed Mayra into a side hug and dragged her along as she moved, "We're going to have so much fun! "

_____________

"I didn't know you were this good at surprises, babe!" Mrunal pecked a light kiss on his cheek and they walked inside the movie theater hand in hand. 

Vrushank didn't mention to her that it was a surprise for him as well. He had found the tickets lying on his clinic table and since it was a Ranveer and Deepika movie, he knew Mrunal would love it. 

He had handed the rest of the tickets to his brother and told him to enjoy with his friends. 

"We've got seats at the back, in the corner." He said with a naughty smile.

Mrunal pouted, "Keep your hands off me when the movie's on. I love Deepika and Ranveer."

"Okay, I promise to be on my best behavior."

_________________

"I can't believe I have to spend three hours like this," Mayra whispered to herself, her lips curved downwards. She knew she would be regretting her decision. 

Samarth had purposely taken a seat beside her. The order was: Aditya, Niharika, Tania, Raina, Samarth, Mayra and finally Shrey at the corner. They had bought popcorn buckets and coke and Raina had finished hers before the movie even began. She had snatched Aditya's with a scoff and had not said a single word during the whole time. 

The experience was nowhere near fun for Mayra. They had laughed no doubt on all the jokes cracked by the actors but the romantic scenes were difficult to get through. Samarth eyes would observe her all the time and that made her heart beat erratically. She tried to resist the urge to look back at him and almost failed several times. 

During the interval most of them went away to get another bucket of popcorn for themselves, thankfully Samarth had gone too. Shrey, Raina and Mayra stayed behind. 

"Are you okay, Ri-ri?" Tania asked a frowning Raina. 

Something was definitely off about her. The frown on her face made her look ugly. 

"I am. Why wouldn't I be? I love to watch Adi make out with that slut while a romantic scene plays in front of me, don't I?" She crushed in popcorn in her fist. 

Tania shrugged, "I take my question back. I don't want a say in that matter."

Raina narrowed her eyes at her, "Well you don't have one."

"Great." Tania pressed her lips together. She pulled out her cellphone and clicked a selfie. Shrey and Mayra joined in too. 

"All the pictures are great! I'll be posting them on Instagram."

"Don't forget to tag me!" 

Tania gave Shrey a coy smile, "I won't."

"Here, let me see the pictures before you post them." Mayra grabbed the phone from her hand and began swiping. The pictures were indeed good. One picture however caught her attention. She zoomed in, the girl in the other corner looked familiar. She had fair skin and long dark brown hair. 

"Hey, Shrey. Look at this." She tugged at his arm. 

"Who's that? Wait... Is that Mrunal?" So, she wasn't the only one who thought the girl looked like her sister. 

However, when Mayra had turned to gaze to look, she realised the seats were empty. The girl, who probably had been her sister had left. 

"That's definitely Coffee! I'd recognise her anywhere!" 

"She didn't tell you she was going to going to be here?"

"No. I didn't tell her either, because I didn't have the time to. She told me she would be at Megha's house today." With furrowed brows, she shook her head lightly. Why would she lie to her? 

"Maybe she's here with Megha. You can ask her later. Look they're back and the movie's on again." It's not even necessary to mention that she wasn't able to enjoy the other half either with the uneasy thoughts filling into her brain.