Intertwined - Tangled series (Overprotective famous brothers)

F for?

Alisha

It had been a crazy past few days. We had won the competition, and I had retained my position as the world champion in floor and, surprisingly, managed to come third on beam. I was being ruthless with teasing Lauren that I was going to steal her position as the beam queen, but we both knew that was close to impossible. Even with the horrible time we had after Kayla's showing up, she had managed to bang the gold.

Just after the competition, we had flown back to Mumbai for some more training before Olympics selection. We had around a month to prepare, and Dimitri had a full fledged plan for us both.

Just day before, Arbaaz, some well paid attorneys and I made our way to the Nike headquarters for a video conference with the other athletes who were taking part in this endorsement. The legalities and fees were all figured out, this was just the part where we were introduced to the theme, schedules were fixed, looks were decided upon etc. In short, the theme was going to be female athletes making statements, statements that challenged how women were portrayed by the media and perceived by the society. The script, in all honesty, was mind blowing. The theme, inspiring. Only looking at the concepts made us all awe.

And to start with, the co-endorsers themselves made me awe. From swimmers to tennis players, from soccer players to boxers, and finally a gymnast. There were a total of five athletes from diverse sports all together to prove a point. I was excited for the way it was all turning out, for how I got to work with these amazing people I had idolised all my life.

Anyway, unfortunately now was time for school. Sohail was driving me and I was still gushing about the theme and how they had these amazing ideas with the cameras and angles and it would be a statement in itself.

"And like, Serena is basically a Goddess, right? I mean imagine her and then me and like, what?!" I went on and on and Sohail sat there patiently, nodding about smiling at me. Everyone knew I was excited about this, it made me feel like I was doing something as myself and not just someone related to famous people. It made me feel important.

"Oh, Sohail, sign on this please?" I gave him a paper as he parked right outside the school. He glance through the paper and his eyes went wide.

"No way Alisha Khan, no way am I letting you get away with this!"

Well, in all the busy mess that life was, I had left my mandatory project incomplete and the letter was a request to let me have an extension period. The problem here was, a guardian's signature was required and Sohail was my only chance.

"You know Sohail, I was drowning in work." I made the best possible innocent face and he shook his head at me. I would expect Arbaaz to be this ardent about being disciplined, but Sohail was the one who took it easy with me when it came to academics. Today, however, he was not in the mood to let this slide.

"You had time, Alisha, but you spent it in the pool and...oh." and now he realised why I was in the pool for such long hours. The pool was one place where I went to when Adrian haunted me, when his memories took over. My eyes got teary and I looked away from him, but he wasn't about to ignore his slip. He hugged me tight and rubbed my back as I let my emotions flow for a while. I had been trying to stay busy and forget about Adrian, but sometimes he just popped in my head and it was like a storm.

"I'm sorry for the heartbreak you feel, and I'm sorry nobody is letting you forget it and move on,"

Which was true, since the media did not calm down and continued to spam me with questions about him, making Adrian impossible to ignore no matter how hard I tried.

"But I'm still not signing it." he broke the hug and I almost smiled about how the things turned out. I kissed him on the cheek and accepted my fate. I would have to deal with the consequences of my inability to deal with break ups.