Jennifer~

"Argh, Mumbai and its stupid heat," I mumbled to myself as I shielded my eyes from the blazing sun while searching for my brother. How sweet of him to come pick me up from the airport.

I almost laughed at myself. I bet my ass that mom pushed him out of the house.

Right when I whipped out my phone to dial his number, my eyes fell on him.

My brother was standing right next to him but of course he is the first one I notice.

If they'd come to pick me up, they sure were not showing it as both their heads were turned in the opposite direction of the exit gates. I craned my neck to see what they were looking at.

A group of air hostesses.

Well, of course.

I rolled my eyes before a smirk came upon my face. I quickly picked up my bags and walked the other way out. The blind fools hadn't seen me yet.

I slowly crept behind them and smacked them right on the head with my bags.

Both of them jerked forward as they screamed like little girls. Luckily, they caught themselves on time.

Or on better thought, unluckily they caught themselves on time.

"What the fuc-"

"The hell-"

I laughed at their angry faces. "So glad to see you both too," I said with a sweet smile plastered on my face.

"This is why I didn't want to come," Soham groaned as he massaged his head.

"We didn't have a choice, remember?" Jeremy replied as he rubbed his head, too.

Do I feel guilty? Nah, not so much.

"Well, excuse me but no one asked you to come pick me up. I would have caught a rickshaw and come home perfectly fine. Alone."

"Yeah but in case you've forgotten, you've got a perfectly fine Indian mother," Jeremy counteracted.

I sighed.

"Both of you'll had nothing else to do?" I asked.

"Oh you know Jen, my schedule for the day was to get up at this ungodly hour-

"Its past noon," I corrected Soham.

"during my summer holidays, drive up to the airport with horns and cuss words breathing down my neck because your brother doesn't know how to drive-"

"Its not my fault! The second-hand jeep stops whenever it pleases to-"

"Get pushed around in this crowd because some celebrity had come to the airport and then get hit by your bags. Thank you!" he finished with an exaggerated chuckle.

"Looks like you had a great day. You're more than welcome," I said back.

He narrowed his eyes at me before mumbling under his breath, "I knew the moment she'd come back, my days were doomed."

I ignored the pang of hurt I felt along with his words.

"Lets go before there is bloodshed at the airport," Jeremy said, while picking up one of my bags and heading towards the parking.

I marched behind him not bothering to see whether Soham came along or not.

I couldn't care less.

~*~

"Guys, I need to pee," Jeremy announced, after a half an hour hunt for his car because the two of them had forgotten where they'd parked.

Just when he left, Soham tried opening the car door.

"Bastard took the keys with him," he murmured.

I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing.

He sighed as he turned around and leaned against the black jeep, his eyes shutting close. Unknowingly, I found myself studying him.

He looked good just like he always does. In fact, he looked more built than the last time I saw him. I bet he has been working out.

White tee under a red and black cross-checked shirt and ripped jeans. Along with his favourite pair of Nike shoes. They were almost five years old now. I should know because I'd paid half its price but Soham thinks its Jeremy's gift to him.

"Stop checking me out, dud," he suddenly said, his eyes still closed.

I choked on my spit.

"Oh please," I stuttered out.

An annoying smirk crept up his face and I wanted nothing but to wipe it off planet Earth.

"So engineering, huh?"

That did it. He narrowed his eyes at me, his smirk long forgotten. I knew that he hated engineering and it was his parents' wish to go in that field.

"You're gonna work as a slave for your mom?" he retorted.

Well, we both knew how to anger each other.

"FYI, I'm not going to work as a slave. It will be like a part time summer job and I will learn how to operate my own store and work around with the fashion brands. Its just the cherry on the top that my mom is a fashion designer too and she can guide me through it all. Atleast, before my classes officially start."

"Ah, the reason you came back. You got into a college in Mumbai, right?"

"Yes."

"Pune kicked you out?" he snickered.

"You talk as if Pune is my home. You do remember that I've spent most of my childhood here, right?"

"Yeah, yeah I think I have a distant memory of that," he said in a thoughtful voice.

"Asshat," I mumbled under my breath. His laugh echoed around the empty parking lot.

I almost smiled when I heard it. How long has it been since we've had a direct conversation or more like random bickering? Ever since I blurted out my feelings in that basketball stadium two years ago, things were never the same again. Both of us were treading carefully around each other. He'd ignore me whenever I came to visit and that's just how I liked it too.

My thoughts went back to that fated day.

"Why are you here, Jennifer?" he asked.

Oh, he was pissed. He never took my full name otherwise.

I left my pursuit for the ball as I straightened up and turned to him.

"Well I came to watch you play and then, I challenged you with a game-"

He took a step closer and I took one back because I knew exactly how angry he could get. I felt the wall behind me and cursed the stupid ball for leading me here. He placed his hands to the wall, caging me in and I tried my best to not show the fear I was feeling.

He won't do anything. This guy is harmless. You grew up with him. You know him better than anyone else. I chanted in my mind.

"Who told you about Trisha?" he asked. His breath fanned my face as he locked his eyes with me.

"You must be living under a rock if you don't know the rumors flying around," I said.

He took a deep breath to calm himself before he asked, "No, I meant who told you that I liked her?"

Liked.

A flicker of hope bloomed in me but I dismissed it away.

"It was pretty obvious, you know," I replied honestly even though it hurt.

"When?" he asked as he tilted his face to the side in confusion. He was adorable but he will never be mine.

I chuckled dryly as I said in a whisper, "Too long ago, if you ask me."

"Before I realized it myself?" he asked.

Could he just stop with these questions?

"Lets just continue with the game, Soham," I demanded.

"I need answers and I am getting them," he replied sternly.

Damn him for his stupid stubbornness!

"What do you want to know?" I whined.

"Why...I mean how? How did you know?"

"You know I am a good observer," I replied.

"No, you aren't."

No, I wasn't.

Suddenly I had enough. Enough of his demanding self as I shouted, "I saw the way you would look at her, the way you used to act different when she was around, the way you used to smile dreamily when she talked about anything random. I knew it was something vaguely like love-"

"As if you know a thing about love," he said nonchalantly.

"Excuse me?"

"As if you know a thing about getting rejected by someone who means a lot to you. Heck, you don't even know the real world yet. You are just a pampered girl who gets whatever she desires. She bursts crackers in school and answers arrogantly to a teacher after that? Cool, because she gets sent to a rich boarding school where there are other rich snotty girls just like her-"

"Shut up, you fucker! You don't know shit about me, okay?" I shouted at him.

"I've known you for my entire life, Jennifer D'souza. So don't tell me that I don't know you-"

I chuckled dryly in return.

"Oh really? Well, guess what? You don't know one very important fact."

"And what is that? Is it that the color of your dorm room in Pune is not your-"

And before I could stop myself, the words came tumbling out.

"I love you."

It was stupid of me and there wasn't one day that I didn't regret it.

"So then who're you gonna support in today's match? Pune Supergiants or Mumbai Indians?" he asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

"What?"

He rolled his eyes. "IPL," he stated simply.

"Pune of course, wherever MS Dhoni is," I replied scoffing.

"That's why you aren't coming with us."

"Where?"

"We are gonna watch the match live in the stadium after dropping you off."

"No way, I'm coming with both of you."

"No Pune fans allowed. Sorry."

"What are you guys talking about?" Jeremy interrupted.

"She ain't going with us, right?" Soham turned to ask him.

"Why did you even tell her, bro?" Then he turned to me, "You aren't going with us."

"What? Why?"

"We've got only two tickets. Now come on, the match will start soon."

"I'm driving, Jeremy. You almost got us killed while coming here."

"No way. Its my jeep-"

"I am coming with you both and I know that you can pull some strings and make those tickets into three-"

"Give me those keys, Jer. You aren't driving. My life is precious-"

"Well, I passed the driving test before you, in case you don't remember-"

"The police who was taking your test was half asleep for God's sake!"

"I wanna watch that match live too. I haven't watched one in ages-"

"Oh, yeah? Then how come I didn't knock out any of those traffic cones unlike you?"

"Three of you'll will be taken into the airport security room if you'll don't clear the parking lot in three minutes."

We stopped shouting all at once and turned behind to see a policeman standing right behind us.

We piled up immediately into the jeep and were off even before a minute was up.

~*~

"Yes, one more ticket. Thank you, Parth." Jeremy sighed as he ended the call while I squealed and bounced on my toes.

"How the hell does she have a list of things to blackmail you with, Jer?"

Jerry glared at me as I smiled cheekily back at him.

"Let's go inside. There's no way I am missing the toss," Jeremy mumbled as he walked away, ignoring Soham's question.

Right when I was about to follow him, I got pulled behind by the hood of my jacket. My back hit a muscular chest before I quickly turned behind to put space between us and shrugged his hand from my jacket.

His face was inches from mine and I could feel my heart thrumming away for no reason.

"You support Pune and I'm throwing you out," he threatened in a low voice.

"Deal," I smiled giddily at him. His eyes darted to my wide smile before he backed away and followed Jeremy.

But not before I saw him biting in a smile.

I was oddly excited. Either for the match or for something else.

And I didn't want to find out about the latter.

~*~

(Notice valid till 15th August, 2020: Hi, help me out?

I have participated in a contest which requires maximum likes to win, so please hit the like button in the link on my message board (will take two seconds, you dont even have to watch it) and share it with as many people as you can and ask them to hit the like button too, its super important for me, so thank you so much in advance and hope you have or had a great day xo)

Who's back??

Me-uh!

Hehehe, how did you like the first chapter? *Breathes in and out*

I have so much in store for this one that I am literally overwhelmed. Hopefully, now I can put peace to the statement, "When will you start uploading?"

Dedicated to Jovi, because she is awesome and I don't have to say anything further.

Also, special mention goes to Radhika for whining at me ( in a local train while ladies stared at us weirdly) because Soham was left heart broken in On Mumbai Street.

Speaking about OMS, thank you so much for the enormous amount of support. We are little close to 18k now. Wowowow.

And as one of my real life friends pointed out that its bitchy of me to not reply to comments, I've decided that I am gonna reply to most of them. So no matter when you typed it in, don't be surprised if you get a reply now.

I do read comments, but I've always felt it unfair if I reply to some and forget to reply to others. Also don't worry I'm worse at replying to text messages from my real life friends too.

Random question of the chapter: (this one is kinda related to the chapter)

Have you guys had a crush (other than celebrity please)/ do you'll have a crush right now?

Comment below and don't worry I wont blackmail you guys with it. I am not that evil xD

Do I? Yes ;) He is in Bangalore right now. Enough said.

Until next time,

anamika~

Also, you can now follow me on:

IG: everyshadeofbluee