"Harder, harder." I was saying.

"Ow, ow, ow. It hurts." Aditi cried.

"Its only gonna hurt in the beginning. You'll be good once you get the hang of it."

"I can't. I can't do this." She said and put the guitar back on the bed.

"I'm telling you, it'll only hurt in the beginning. You can't play guitar if you can't press it hard enough." I said picking up the guitar and strumming a few times.

"So, I won't ever be able to play it." She said and pouted.

"Its just a matter a time, you'll be good in a few days. But one thing..." I paused and licked my lips.

"What?" She said looking at me.

"You need to kiss your soft fingers goodbye." I said taking her left hand in mine and pressing her fingertips.

"What do you mean?" She said pressing her fingertips with her thumb.

"Feel this." I said and held out my left hand to her. "...and now this." I said and held out my right hand. She rubbed her thumb over all of my fingertips and looked at me.

"Feel the difference?" I said and pulled my hand back.

"So, you mean, the skin on the top will get rough?"

"Yeah, and not just rough, the skin wears off at first. And it starts getting darker every time you play guitar."

"I can live with that. If only I could just press it hard enough." She said and pulled the guitar back on her lab.

"So, this is G-chord right?" She asked pressing some random strings.

I corrected her fingers and gestured her to strum. She couldn't.

"I suck at this." She finally gave up.

I took the guitar back played some notes on the G-string.

Mom and Sayal were not home and I was free to bring anyone I liked. And I did not like bringing anyone except Aditi. I was teaching her few basic stuff about guitar for the last three days. The first day I gave her a list of many songs that I insisted her to listen and talked about many great guitarists. The second day I explained to her how guitar worked. I explained to her everything from why the strings were of different thickness to how chords were pressed. She listened attentively to everything I said and even took some notes. It was not hard teaching her those stuff, but my motive was entirely different and I was not too hard on her thinking she might quit.

I didn't know why I still wasn't asking Aditi out.

Did I not like her?

Of course, I did.

Was I not good at talking to girls?

I was not bad.

Was I too chicken to ask her out?

Probably. But I wasn't entirely sure if it was fear keeping me back. It was more like suspicion.

There were a few things fishy about her. Roman, for instance. She had no reason to avoid or hate him; well, as far as I knew. But for some reason she did.

She always ceased texting whenever I mentioned Aditya and later give an excuse for it.

She hated a green color like you hate a villain who always ruins the hero's plan. This was not a matter to be concerned about but since green was my favourite color I wanted to know more about why she hated it so much.

And everything just led me to keep talking to her to unlock her 'mysteries', as I liked to call them. She wasn't a open book, that's for sure.

"Earth to Samar." She said and giggled. I quickly regained my posture and put the guitar back on the bed.

"Want some coffee?" I said standing up. She was looking at her phone. I rocked back and forth on my heels, waiting for a reply.

"No, I gotta run." She said standing up and picking up her stripped leather purse, which surprised me by not being blue. She had her dark jeans and a light blue shirt on, that said 'I'm talking to you'.

"Anything urgent?" I said on the way to the front door.

"No. I just need to meet a friend." Was her last sentence before she left hurriedly.

She didn't even say bye or see you tomorrow. I wondered who this friend was, that was more important than me. Was is Aditya?

I really needed to get my head straight. I didn't even know who Aditya was. He could be anyone; her friend, her ex, her cousin, her brother, I was thinking too much about it. And I just hoped he wasn't who I feared he was.

____________________________________

"Hey, Samar." Her voice was too high and cherry to go unnoticed. She came closer and sat next to me with her left hand on my thigh.

I sighed and looked at her. "Hello, Alisha." I paused. "How do you know my name?"

"I've got my ways. And I can ask you the same question by the way." She said with her hand still on my thigh.

I dragged my chair away from her. "But you won't."

She looked at me with anger and disbelief.

You may be the hottest chick around but I've got my own ways of dealing with people.

"No. I won't." She finally said.

I focused back to my burger trying to ignore her. Just get up and leave, already.

"Oh, Hi. Who're you?"

I looked up. Alisha had her head turned to Aditi who was standing across the table.

Aditi quietly sat down and popped her fries in her mouth. Typical Aditi. The only times she actually had lunch, she'd have fries or burger.

"I think I asked you something." Alisha was frowning. See, this is the thing I hate about girls like Alisha; they seek too much attention and are hell-bent to destroy anyone who gives them any less.

I guess I mentally noted: 'I hate the hottest chick around.'

Aditi sighed and looked straight at Alisha. "I'm Aditi. I'm new here." She chose her words cheaply.

"And you could only find this table to sit at? Don't you see that a couple is sitting here?"

A couple. I almost scowled at her words but chose not to react to see Aditi's reaction. Aditi was looking at me with curious eyes. I just focused my gaze on my plate.

"I'm sorry, you are...?" Aditi asked.

"Does it matter?" Alisha said placing her hand over mine on the table. I slowly pulled my hand away and looked at Aditi again.

"Yes, it does." Aditi said firmly.

"I'm Alisha. Alisha Magar."

"Alisha Magar." Aditi repeated and looked at me. I smirked at her and lifted my hands.

"You can stop now, Alisha." I spoke up. "Aditi is my close friend. If I were in a relationship with someone, she'd be one of the firsts to know."

Alisha stared at me. Her face somewhere between anger and disgust. She got up and left.

"So, that's Alisha Magar, huh?" Aditi said with a smirk.

"Yep." I sighed. "That's Alisha Magar."

"No wonder you turned her down."

"Yep." I sighed again.

The rest of the day went smoothly with me not paying attention to most of the lectures. In the last class however I got into a weird conversation with a girl named Samjhana. She was fair-skinned with long hair, reaching her waist. She insisted me to sit next to her tell her a few stuff about Newton's law of cooling, before Physics class started. Other then that, it was all good.

I reached home to find myself alone again. But it was alright, Aditi would be there soon.

"How often do you do that?" She said looking at my hand.

"This?" I said lifting the cigarette. She nodded. "Not too often. My mom doesn't know about it, and I want to keep it that way. So, I am super careful not to get too addicted."

"But you are addicted." She said.

I shrugged and took another long drain, letting the smoke cloud my insides. We were sitting on the top of the hill, next to that small river.

"All total of six-thousand rivers flow through Nepal. Do you think this is one of them?" Aditi was sitting upright, being careful not to slid down the hill.

"I don't think this is even a river. It's more of an irrigation cannel." I said and pointed to the fields in the distance. She looked over her shoulder to see where I was pointing and nodded.

"So, tell me something about you." I said after a while.

"What do you want me to tell you?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you don't talk too much and we never get to share anything. So, tell me anything relating to you."

"Okay...ahem...I love Disney. I love their songs."

"Noted." I said pressing my jaws into a tight lock. I had hoped she'd tell me about Aditya. But I guess it just wasn't to be talked about.

"What?" She called.

"Nothing." I said shaking my head.

"You're giving me that look, that 'I'm bored of you' look." She said and nudged my shoulder.

I didn't move and looked at her with a smile. She mistook my concerned look for bored one.

"So I really am boring you." She said standing up.

"Stop." I said. "Sit down. You're not boring me, I was just thinking about something else."

"About your crush." That wasn't even a question. She made an statement.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, what else would one be thinking about?"

"So, you're thinking about your crush as well? Or do you have a crush to think about? Yeah, that sounds proper."

"I don't know. I mean its not a crush but yeah I think about someone sometimes."

So she liked someone too. And what a coincidence it would be if we were talking about one another.

"Who is it?" I blurted out.

"You tell me yours; I'll tell you mine."

"Fair enough."

"So, tell me and I'll tell you."

Do I tell her? What are the chances that she is talking about me? Do I risk it all to hear a name which may not even be mine?

"I would. But you gotta go first."

"You sure?"

"Yep."

"Umm...There is this guy that I like, a lot. I don't know how he feels though."

"And?" I said quietly wishing I'd never asked her. Deep down, I knew this was going to happen, but I took the risk and now I had to face it.

"And I haven't talked to him about my feelings thinking he might reject me. So, I guess its nothing too deep. But if anyone asks if I had a crush, I'd say I do."

We were silent for a while. I had no intension to continue that conversation and she seemed happy to stay quiet. So, this was what a heartbreak felt like.

Technically, this was not a heartbreak, but it didn't hurt to think that it was.

"What's his name?" I asked after a while.

"Can't tell."

"Okay."

"Your turn."

"Can't tell, either."

"Not fair. I told you mine."

"Life isn't fair. And you didn't even tell me yours, you just said you liked someone but didn't say who."

"At least tell me something."

I sighed. "Okay. I like a girl from our school. She's always in her own little world and does not notice me very often. She doesn't talk to me often and doesn't know my feelings. She thinks of me only as a friend and I want us to do more, but I don't know how. And she's the most amazing girl I've ever met."

I finished with raised eyebrows and a smile.

"Why don't you just ask her out?"
"Its not that simple."

"You have to try."

"I am."

"And you think you're trying enough?"

"You tell me."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Come on we still have half an hour to teach you how to play guitar."

________________________________________________________________________

Hey people. What do we think of this chapter?

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And please point out any typos if you see them, cause everything looks the way you want it to after you've repeated it a hundredth time in your mind.

Enjoy the story.

Lots of love.

~Hunt.