“So , are you gonna visit them.?”Ishu was doing my hair, we both are almost ready for our outing, about the boys, they are waiting for us since last , don’t know how much time.
“ I haven’t thought about it. May be. Or may be not.” I replied
“ You know if they find out that you’re in India, you’re dead.” She said.
“ Huh. Dead‼ didn’t they sent me abroad to keep me safe, they are not gonna kill . I guess. Not sure about mamma.” Everyone in my family loves me, I’m the youngest and the most pampered one, but online. They only shower their love and blessings through video calls . Mamma is exception, Don’t know what her deal is.
“ You’ll be sent back as soon as they find out.” Ishu is concerned and I totally get it. We only meet once a year, in London. I’m not allowed to visit India, so they visit me. You know once I ran out of London to India and when I was caught, my mamma set me back immediately.
“ Well I’m grown up now, I will handle the situation, plus I have a solid reason that will help me stay here in India.” I winked at her.
“ Don’t tell me…” She said with a sense of surprise, or shock. IDK .
“ what..” I tried to figure out her reaction and what she wanna speak.
“ That you’ll get married to stay here in India” She said.
“ What the fuck, nooooo.. I’m not getting married, I got some better plans than marriage “ I took my purse , handed her her’s and gestured her to walk outside.
“ Okay” she sighed.
It’s been about three hours since I woke up, and it’s been almost a day since I met that girl. Despite so much effort, I couldn’t gather any information about her. Miss K…You’re like a complete mystery, and I love mysteries.
Heading to the club solo since all my friends bailed, except Maanav. Guess I’ll just roll with it and see where the night takes me. He mentioned introducing me to an old friend of his, a girl. I get a feeling that tonight might turn out to be unexpectedly exciting.
As I reach there, the club is already stacked with varients of people, and by varient I mean mixture of whole world. That’s a thing about goa, you’ll get to see a foreign face in every 5 steps.
Somehow I managed to reach the bar counter, ugh, thank god none of the girls have noticed me yet. It’s not that I don’t want them, It’s just that I fuck the one I choose, they don’t get the privilege of choosing me.
I was ordering when someone suddenly picked me up in the air and started rolling me around with them.
I know him, it’s my bestfriend, we have this thing since childhood.
Put me down you asshole, we’re in a fucking club.
He put me down.
“ Who was the one you were dreaming about?” the first question that slipped through his mouth after coming in front me is this. I knew this was coming , but not so early.
“ What the fuck man, you meet me after months and asking me about some bullshit meaningless dream”
“ bullshit and meaningless. You nicknamed her. “
Yes I did.
“ No I didn’t . come on maanav, I fuck almost every week. There is nothing to over react” I can’t tell this asshole about her. He’ll get insaan if I tell him.
I never in my life touched a girl twice. And If he knows that I’m dreaming about her and unable to get her off my mind, he’ll loose his mind.
“ Chal be, chutiya dikhta hun kya”he said .
( do I look like a fool?)
“ Tere sir pe likha hai, bachpan se dekhta aa raha hun”
( it’s written in your forehead, I’m seeing it since childhood)
“ You fucker…”
I tried to ignore his question, turned toward the bartender to order my booze and his too.
“ You told that you wanted to introduce me to someone.. where is she?” I asked to change the topic.
“ anhh.. actually…”
“ what?..” I took a sip.
“ You can’t Meet her “ he is hiding something serious, I can see it written on his face.
“ And can I know the reason?”
“ Nothing, it’s just.. it’s just that, she’s ill, haan, bimar hai bht bichari, she can’t come here “
He is showing his teeth, idiot, he can’t hide anything from me.
“ Acha… she’s ill. Chalo fine, let’s go and meet her then” I finished my drink in a single sip and got up from my seat, buttoning my coat.
“ Ishaan , leave it na. “
“ What!? She’s ill, she’s can’t come here, But we are fine ,no, we can go and meet her”
He pulled me back to my seat.
“ you wait here” He said and took his phone out of his pocket. Took a glance of me and then dialed a number.
He talked to some girl and told her the address of this bar.
“ She’ll be here soon. And please, don’t do anything stupid in front of her”
“ stupid. Are you mad or what? I’m not even the S of stupid.” That remark of his totally shook me man, he knows I'm not stupid at all. Still he choose to tell that to me.
“ You’re not but I’m not sure how you’re gonna act once you meet her”
“ What is she ? Some royal princess of a country.”
“ What if she is” came back from behind. From very close, I felt her breath in my neck.
Why do I feel like I have heard this voice somewhere.
Before I could turn around, she came in front and hugged Maanav.
“ Long time huh” said almost in same voice after breaking the hug and laughed at it.
I don’t need to see her face, i already know it’s her. Not sure about anywhere else, but she sure is a princess of my dreams.
She turned around to face me, Maanav’s face was pale, same with the others who came with her. They know me, I know them all.
“ Ishaan, she’s my friend, Khanak. Khanak, he’s Ishaan, my bestfriend.” Maanav gave our name’s as introduction.
She extended her hand , I joined Her’s maintaining the eye contact established between us, her eyes held boldness, power and a different chilling attitude, different from what I saw in the morning.
“ Hii, myself Khanak Bajaj, pleasure to meet you “ she said with a smile . Not the usual one that people give to each other. It was intriguing.
“ Ishaan Shekhawat. And trust me, the pleasure is all mine” so, she is from our rival family, that’s why Maanav was hesitant and that’s the reason I couldn’t find anything about her.
We withdraw our hands but the eyes were still in touch with each other. Damn. She feels different now. Stronger. Seducing me more & more.
“ So miss. K, where were you hiding” I asked passing the Martini, which she ignored so casually like I never offered her the glass.
“ A bottle of wine” she ordered and looked at me.
“ Are you asking me to reveal my den’s location. Smart move.” She said opening the bottle of Temranillo.
“ Well pardon me, I’m just a curious little soul miss K”
“Oh my god, The Ishaan Shekhawat, referring to himself as ‘little.’ I really don’t like that, kisi ne sun lia to kya kahega” she exclaimed, clearly putting on an act.
”I don’t care about others’ opinions. I simply spoke what I felt like saying. It’s up to you how you interpret my words, others doesn’t matter to me. Now can I get my answer.” I asserted, redirecting her attention back to the question I had asked.
“Well, what can I say? It was your family that put us in that situation, forcing my family to hide me. I suppose you’re well aware of that,” she said smoothly, simplifying it, but we both knew it wasn’t. The tension was escalating.
"What I'm aware of is that you don't exist. You died back in 2007," I disclosed what had been told to me. My family did attempt to kill her; they considered the Bajajs responsible for my grandfather's death. So, when they had the opportunity to harm someone from that family, they chose that innocent little girl and killed her—or so we thought until now, when I see her sitting in front of me, wholly.
Sensing the escalating tension between us, one of our friends decided to intervene—that was Advani, Samir Advani. He's dating my cousin Tiara.
Yes, I know that because my sister never hides anything from me, but he doesn’t know that I'm aware of their clandestine relationship.
“ Guys, end this conversation her. Forget that you ever met, please. Khanak let’s go.” Samir said holding her wrist, almost pulling her.
But she didn’t move a inch, our eyes were glued to each other’s , talking silently, without letting the world know. I can feel the desire, which she’s is trying to suppress within while I am clearly showing what I feel.
“ Relax Samir, I’ll not killing her , our families are rivals , not us. We can be something else.” I said and winked at her.
“ I’m not trusting you around her. She is precious to us and I can’t let anyone hurt her. Specially her rivals, who tried to kill her in the past” Samir said, acting like a possessive and protective big brother.
“ Oh please, do you even know me personally? And not my whole family is full of monsters, except one or two.” I had to defend my family. I can accept that my father and uncle can be heartless and ruthless, sometimes.
"Is there anything else left to know? Your whole life is on full display. Only a fool would be unaware of you and your actions," Samir remarked sharply.
"That’s it. I’m trying to remain as calm as possible, but this is ridiculous . I won’t tolerate a single word now," I declared, feeling the sting of his words. I had never endured insults from a stranger in my life before.
Taking a step forward, I stood closely in front of him. "You see, my length is more than yours, just like my family status, I can crush your family in silence and no one will even know about it. So it would be better for you to stay within your limits."
Enraged, he grabbed my shirt collar. "What do you think of yourself, insulting my family."
{flashback}
Maanav invited us to the club, so we all left the hotel together for the club.
If you guys don’t know who Maanav is, you gotta read Intense Amour, but in short, he is my childhood friend too. We are more like family friends, connected because of our families. Though we don’t share a strong bond now, we used to play together as children.
Upon reaching there, I found him talking to a man, the man being none other than Ishaan Shekhawat—the boy who messed with me in our first meeting, the one who took my number in front of my eyes without my knowledge, the one who seems to have the ability to read minds, and the one who intruded into my dreams. A complete freak, if I may say so.
Like me, sam, shubh and Ishu also saw him. Aaron doesn’t know who he is so, NVM.
“ What the hell is he doing here? Is he following us or what” said shubh.
“ Following or not, that we’ll decide later, first let’s choose a place far from him. I’m don’t want him anywhere close to Kay” sam is always the protective one.
“ Its okay guys, I can handle this” without listening to any of them , I stepped forward.
******
I already knew that engaging with him could lead to chaos, but still, I don’t know what got into me as I directly approached the trouble himself.
Sensing the tension, I positioned myself between them, creating a little gap. My back faced him as I looked at Sam. I could hear his heart racing when my back touched his front, my ears dangerously close to his chest.
I gently pushed Sam back and then glanced back at him. Now, we were standing a few feet apart, his eyes fixed on me.
"You two, do not fight. And for me? Not at all. I do not like fights," I declared.
"You better drill that into your big bro's head, he’s the one who started it," Ishaan retorted.
I gestured for him to stay quiet with my eyes, which worked, and without saying another word, he walked out of the club. Maanav followed him.
I turned to Sam, who was still angry, his eyes blood red.
"Calm down, Sam. Our families may be rivals, but that doesn’t mean we have to carry on their legacy and continue this rivalry. We could be the change," I expressed, voicing my thoughts. I detested unnecessary baggage, and this family feud seemed entirely pointless to me. Why should we live with something that happened decades ago?
"Accept it or not, but your families are rivals and that is not gonna change, ever in this lifetime," Sam retorted.
"Stop it, you guys. We came here to enjoy, not to have unnecessary arguments and fights," Ishu intervened.
"Right, let’s do that," I agreed.
"I don’t think I would be able to do that now. You guys carry on, I’m gonna go," Sam declared, leaving.
"Yaar, ye chala gaya. Ab kya khaak maza ayga. Hame bhi chalna chahiye," Shubh lamented with a long face.
"You guys, no one is leaving. You order drinks, I’ll go fetch him," I said, heading outside to talk to Sam.
I followed him, just five steps behind. He went straight to the parking lot where Maanav was talking to Ishaan. Both of them looked at us questioningly. I smiled and assured them not to worry. Then I turned to Sam, who was taking angry breaths while glaring at Ishaan.
I knew I had to make things right. I pulled him in the other direction, far from them.
"Do you have any personal issues with him?" I asked Sam.
"You are personal. So yeah, I have a personal issue with him," he admitted.
"And if I’m not in the picture, is there anything that can make you hate him?"
"No," he replied with a little hesitation.
"Then why were you ready to fight with him?"
"I—I—wo," he faltered, unable to find an answer.
""Listen, Sam, I don't harbor hatred towards him or his family. Sure, he might come off as a creep and a total freak, but that's not a sufficient reason to despise him," I explained, hoping to get through to him.
"What if he causes trouble in the future?" he queried.
"Chill, man. It’s not like we are going to spend a lifetime together. It’s just a party. That’s all," I reassured him.
"Hmm... okay," he conceded.
"So, are you ready to make up with him?" I asked.
"Only for you," he said.
I hugged him.
"Okay, let’s go," I said, taking his hand and leading him back towards where Ishaan and Maanav were still talking, their expressions positive and changed.
Ishaan raised his brow, questioning.
"We’re here to apologize," I said, nudging Sam with my elbow.
He looked at me once, "I’m sorry for unnecessarily fighting with you."
"It's okay, brother-in-law," Ishaan's words made us all shocked. Sam's eyes widened in shock, while Maanav and I screamed together, "Brother-in-law."
"Oops, my bad, future brother-in-law," Ishaan clarified.
All of us were looking at Sam, who seemed dumbfounded by his remark.
"WHAT THE HELL, SAM? Are you dating her sister?"
"Uh, correction, my cousin," Ishaan interrupted.
"Khanak, uh, I, uh, Tia, uh, my, uh, date, girlfriend," his words came out in pieces.
"Wow, my best friend is dating someone and I get to know this from a stranger," I couldn't believe that he hid something very important from me. How could he?
"I thought that you wouldn’t like it, as she is from r-"
"Use that R word again and I’ll chop your head off," I interjected.
"Hey, hey, relax. You guys can continue this conversation later, for now let’s get back to the party," Maanav said.
"This conversation is not over yet," I insisted, and we all walked together back to the club.
"So, what did she say that changed your POV?" Ishaan asked, keeping his hand on Sam's shoulder.
"She said that you may be a creep and total freak, but that doesn’t mean we should hate you," Sam looked at me and winked. My eyelids widened; I didn't expect him to say that at all.
Ishaan turned around a little and gave me that bombastic side-eye look, which surely meant that I’ll deal with you for this.
We went out inside, drank a lot of alcohol, danced a lot and returned back to the hotel, wasted , all of us, together, including that creep .