Crushed and Created- Tangled series (Overprotective famous brothers)

First Kiss

ALISHA

One week. One week since the chat and my life was normal. Well, it was my normal atleast. I had been training my butt off; Salman had been shooting for long hours. Malaika had left for Canada, leaving me alone again. Adrian and I used to meet almost every day while jogging or after my training got over. Today was just another day like those.

“Hey.” Adrian greeted me as I hopped down the car and towards the old cliff. It was particularly clear that day, and that was saying something for Los Angeles weather.

“Hey.” I greeted as Mike went ahead to give us enough privacy.

“You watched the E! news yesterday?” he enquired out of the blue, scratching his head. Boys always seemed gross doing that, but I liked it on Adrian for some reason.

“Why would I?”

“Because they had a story about you.” I knew that it was difficult for any guy to admit they were watching gossip, but he was doing so.

“About what? Let me guess, the attacks or the chat.” I spat with disgust. Why did they care about my life and found the need to display it in front of the world? Not to mention half the gossip was absurd.

“No. About you and Nick. Jonas.” He emphasized on Jonas and I almost laughed. Of course, if not Aryan or Adrian, they had to link me with Nick. Thankfully they still hadn’t linked me to someone old and stupid.

“Nothing new. As soon as they know about Miley and Nick, they’ll shut up.” They were really in love, and in a relationship. I was not best friends with Miley, but liked her personality overall. Loud, confident, independent so strong- the perfect twenty first century girl. And did I mention they were the lovebirds of the era?

“But you aren’t with him, right?”

“Why do you wanna know?” I focused at him, ticked off. Everyone wanted to know about my relationship status, and figured it was okay to harass me about it every day. There was a word called privacy that many people didn’t seem to know or simply chose to ignore it for some pleasure they derived.  

“Because, because he just didn’t seem right for someone like you.” He searched for words and I recalled about how their first meet had been.

“If you’re judging him on our dinner meet, let me tell you it wasn’t his fault. He was having a terrible high.”

“He drinks? What happened about the ‘purity ring’?” He yelled at me for no reason at all, and I raised my voice even higher.

“Not alcohol high, diabetic high. He has type one diabetes.”

“Oh.” He looked down defeated but I wasn’t giving up. This had to end right here, I needed answers for this weird behavior and random interrogation.

“Why do you want to know if I’m in a relationship or not?” I pressed harder for details. He seemed to be debating over something, and my voice got him back to Earth.

“Because I have a right to know!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Why? Who are you? The FBI, or my brother?” I stopped in my tracks, looking up into his green eyes filled with- jealousy? Care? What was it that I was looking into? For a moment I found myself pondering into his eyes for answers, for some kind of justification.

“No, because I like you! Don’t you get it? I like you!” he yelled at me, making me flinch. And then the words processed and registered in my terribly slow brain.

Before I could respond, he kissed me gently, just a peck on my lips. Hesitating a little, he whispered slowly this time, “I really like you.” His breath was cool against my skin, and made goose bumps rise on the back of my neck. What he was saying couldn’t be true; it had to be a dream.