It was tiring to hear Rudra go on about how he made out with this girl a year ago, jumping onto every small detail. Annika was almost on the verge of dodging off but it was Rudra who was talking, she couldn't hurt him by saying he was boring her, so she hummed every now and then, letting him know that she was hearing him but she was not. From the corner of her eye, she could see Omkara and Gauri standing some distance away, talking with each other with a smile on their faces. 

Annika was glad to see the two together, finally. She always thought there were sparks between the two but they never talked out being more than just friends, at least this trip was going good for someone. Annika sighed, she found that Rudra was no longer speaking but staring at someone in particular, following his gaze, Annika spotted a girl, ofcourse. 

"Didi, wait here. I will be right back" Annika shook her head as she saw him running towards the girl he was staring at. Tomorrow they will be in Goa, the trip already felt so long and now two more weeks. Was he going to tag along too? Annika poundred over the thought before she was interrupted by a voice. It sounded similar. 

"Hey, darling" Annika frowned when she heard Rohan call her darling. The guts this guy had. She glared at him and at that he grinned widely, she was sure that he was nuts. "Don't you have work to do?"

"My work is to make your heart beat for me" 

"Look, there are many fishes in the sea, why are you chasing me?"

"It's fun, you see, every other fish wants me but you, my goldfish, you are running away from me. I just want to know what I am lacking" Annika couldn't help but chuckle, she had to admit he was funny. She paid her attention back at the bright full moon. Rohan stared at her and then at the direction she was looking was. She is beautiful, he had thought. 

"Darling, tell me your name" Rohan raised his eyebrows, a smirk on his face. Annika rolled her eyes, his black eyes had a mischievous glint in them. "Why do you want to know my name?" Annika asked, her eyes wandering at the numerous people who were busy with themselves. But when her eyes landed on the blue eyed guy, she froze in her spot, he was smiling, no, laughing at something. 

Rohan noticed her being still and a frown adoring her face, she looked cute nonetheless. "Oh, so you are pining at that guy too? I have already seen enough girls crushing over him" Hearing this Annika broke her stare off Shivaay, she felt like she was being a creep now. With a small nod, she decided to not acknowledge his words. Back in the college days, girls wouldn't stop looking his way but he, he only looked at one girl and at her direction only.

Annika shook her head lightly, she wasn't supposed to go back and remember those days when things were different, when they were happy. She knew that she wasn't getting them back any time soon. Still, there she was, her witless heart that felt pain seeing him with someone else. There was no way he was even going to look at her that way, the way he used to look at her four years ago.

"You sure about that? Because I can clearly see him staring back at you" Annika's heart thudded loudly, she slowly looked up to watch him staring back at her. What was that he wanted now? His intentions were misleading. And Annika wanted to do nothing with him, absolutely nothing. 

"So want a drink? I got one for myself " Rohan asked, and Annika shook her head, her gaze back at the sea. She felt his presence disappear and she was alone, again. Annika refused to shed any tears for him, it wasn't worth it. Annika looked around for Rudra who was nowhere to be found and nor was that girl anywhere to be found. 

She saw Rhea approaching her, with a glass of wine in her hand and giggling in her way to her. Annika frowned, where was Aryan? When Rhea reached her, she gave a smile to Annika and twirled the content in her glass, gulping down a bit. "Your brother is a big stupid human being" Annika blinked her eyes, she was drunk and mumbling anything but she couldn't help but laugh at her words. 

"What did he do?"

"He chose to ignore me, his beautiful girlfriend and chose work over me" Rhea stumbled a bit and Annika had to come forward to help her before she fell down. Rhea giggled and she removed Annika's hand off her arm. Rhea frowned at Annika, she sighed heavily, holding her head between her hands. Annika watched with her wide eyes as she stumbled some more. "Whoa, are you alright?" Annika held her again and this time tightly, Rhea gave her one small smile before shutting her eyes close. 

"Rhea, Rhea" Annika tried to wake her up by patting her hand on her cheek lightly but she was long, deep in sleep. Her weight on Annika was heaving each passing second. She looked around for help, unfortunately none was looking at her way. And there was no sign of Rohan as well. Groaning, she threw Rhea's one hand around her own shoulder and Annika's one hand clutching her waist. 

"Aryan, you are so cute" Rhea mumbled in her sleep, she had a smile on her face and Annika rolled her eyes, she looked lovesick. "Need any help?" The familiar voice hit her ears and she immediately looked up to find Shivaay standing there with a concerned face. Annika gulped down, she needed help, she did, but was her ego so big that she couldn't agree for his help? No, Annika knew she wouldn't be able to get her back safely by her own self, so she nodded. 

Shivaay did not speak a word and took Rhea's other hand and threw it around his shoulder, keeping his hand on the small of her back. Annika took a deep breath in, she could do it, this was not a big problem, was it? "Let's go" Annika spoke slowly, and Shivaay started to walk and so did Annika, dragging a drunk Rhea towards the hotel room.  

They walked in complete silence till they reached the lift until Rhea opened her mouth to say "You know, I guess Shivaay isn't that bad" And Annika's eyes widened instantly, she had wanted to go ahead and keep a hand on her mouth before she spoke some more. Shivaay lightly chuckled, he did not bothered to comment anything on that. Annika bit her lip, why the hell was the lift always taking time when Shivaay was around? She impatiently tapped her feet. 

Shivaay noticed it and smiled, some habits just don't change, he thought. "I am sorry for disturbing you, your girlfriends would be missing you" Shivaay frowned at that, girlfriends? He was confused at that question, before he could answer her, the elevator pinged. Annika was the first one to get inside, biting her inner cheek and telling hereslf it was stupid of her to open her mouth and speak. 

"I don't have a girlfriend" Shivaay clarified and Annika rolled her eyes, trying to handle Rhea as her head kept falling down at the shoulder. Rhea was whispering something but none of the words uttered by her made any sense. Annika could feel her muscles tightening with Rhea's weight on her shoulder. As they reached the floor, Annika and Shivaay both walked towards Aryan's room in silence. 

Annika was certainly a bit furious about how Aryan could leave her alone. She knocked at the door, one time, two times and the third time he opened the door. Annika sighed, before she could have spoken Rhea suddenly started shouting. "Oh my god, you brought me back to him? Take me away" Aryan heard her say, his eyes narrowing at her. He grabbed her arm gently, bringing her closer. 

"Sorry Rhea. But I really had some urgent work" Aryan muttered and Rhea pouted at him. Annika watched the two of them staring at each other with admiration, a smile formed on her lips. "Come on baby, let's go" Aryan waved his hand at Annika and he did notice Shivaay standing there awkwardly but he ignored him, he couldn't lay a finger on his sister, otherwise, he had known the consequence. 

When the door shut, Annika briefly looked at Shivaay, her eyes softening as she saw him smiling to himself. How was he capable of making her feel this way after everything he had done to her. She clenched her fists tightly, no, she had to get a grip on hereslf before she took any stupid step. She could feel his gaze on her and that made her look away from him even further. 

"Is that Ayaan and Sammer?" Shivaay spoke and Annika's eyes snapped towards the direction he was pointing at, there they were, with their mouths attached to each other. Annika and Shivaay both looked at them with widened eyes. 

ミ★

Sorry for this short chapter and sorry if anyone had wrong idea while reading the name of the chapter. Lol.

Q/A : What are your views on Shivaay the Gadha?