Chapter 4

Falling in love is a slow and gradual process….

But the best thing is you don’t realize it is happening!!!!

He cupped my face in his hands and looked into my eyes and had a naughty tingle in them .

With a mused look he said aloud ,"PAYBACK".

I felt something sticky on my face and as I swiped my fingers on my cheeks, furiosity tagged into me but I was calm as smiled to him,” Happy now .Lets get over it .No more payback . I surrender."

"Defeat accepted," Joshan exclaimed.

"OK can I go and wash now?" I asked as I headed towards the wash room.

Silence....

After few steps I turned back and with pressed feet I turned back to Joshan silently and reached his back. I bent a little and stepped very close to him and hugged my cheeks to him, rubbing a bit and saying,” I like your company"

He started breathing as I felt some tension and hugged other side of his cheeks to mine, “I really have fun with you." and bursted into laughter, pointing my finger at his stained face.

He was so lost and transient that it took him some extra seconds to realize the prank. He simply smiled and blushed.

"Lets wash it over." and he pulled me towards the basin for a clean up.

We washed and laughed but we realized it was difficult to remove it as cheeks were sore red with burning sensation.

"Here this is for you."  he said as he handed me a bottle of cleansing milk, cotton and anti allergic lotion .

I thankfully smiled at him "How thoughtful of you! I am pleased."

"Friends you see", he said as he applied the lotion to himself.

Then we resumed studying. He was so distracted all the while. He kept busy on his mobile either texting or calling somebody. It was serious I could make out.

I was working on the equation when he asked me to come along with him at the main gate. His hands were around my waist securing me as if I was about to flinch away.

Seeing the tension in the atmosphere, I quietly obeyed him.

As we reached the main door Deren was waiting there with the same NEW, Joshan was making out with at the Physics department with a thick statured dark man in his mid forties.

"I am sorry” Mincy as the New's name goes said.

"I can not understand a bit" I said with a questioning look on my face.

"She was behind your half day kidnapping and the fellow besides was the one you helped her." Joshan exlplained.

I raged and with a big "smaaack " on his face. "Dare you do it to anybody ever again!" Joshan hugged me to calm me down as tears were dripping down my eyes.

 Deren offered water and tissues to me.

Mincy and the male. He was her driver and with his look you can judge he was a loyal and a very senior worker to the family. They offered their apologies once again and left. I immediately forgave them as I cannot keep grudges. I also shook hands of friendship with Mincy.

"I am so thankful to you guys .This means a lot to me or I would have lived with fear of vacant areas. But how did you come to know who was behind this?" I asked with gratitude.

They explained how they calculated speed, distance and time in correspondence to girl friends of Joshan and located the culprit. He is actually too good in physics.

"So time to celebrate or the baby still has some excuses", Deren tried to mock me.

"I am not a baby!" I yelled.

"We can then go to Bowling today if you are okay" Joshan offered.

I agreed and also invited Cairo and Stacie with us .

Cairo and Stacie came over to Deren's with a pair of dress for me too.

Cairo was wearing a white Lee top paired with hotshots and Stacie looked hot in her extreme tight jeans and blue T back top. I wore my floral middie with lip gloss and we were waiting for guys who were taking extra time.

Suddenly lights went off as if there was a technical power failure. There was pin drop silence and after some time we could here the title music piece of "Invincible" and two fluorescent skeleton bodies jumped on us .

We shrieked with fear and the lights immediately lighted up with Deren and Joshan shouting with mock laughter "PRANK"

They apologized immediately, "Sorry just a warm up. We will have fun." Deren said putting his arm assuringly around my shoulders.

We excused them planning for a payback sometime later, not disclosing to them and went for Bowling.

It was a distance away and we had lot of fun in his Endeavour singing and laughing all the way.

It was 7:00 when we reached there and the place was loaded with people mostly youngsters and teens eating, drinking and playing, having fun.

We were not aloof from them as we were also making the most of it. Me, Stacie and Cairo were admiring the hot guys present there and commenting as we decided upon the rules and regulations for the match giggling with each other.

 A couple of guys did approach us assuming us to be single but Joshan immediately gave us as backup keeping us in security check.

We then went to the alley after Deren arranged for an empty one.  I wonder he comes here quite often to manage one of the alleys inspite of the place being fully crowded.

I knew nothing about it and Joshan did guide and train me which was a little help. I could atleast manage to blow two bottles at a time.

Stacie and Cairo were quiet better than me. But Joshan, Deren and Mike ,their friend who joined us here at alley were nothing less than pros of the game.

The guys who approached us before now put forth a challenge game to us. Joshan was a little hesitant initially but after some uncanny remarks by them to Joshan and his friends ,I stepped forward to accept the challenge.

The challenge was that the loser team would French kiss each other. The gayism thing you see which both the teams reluctantly agreed.

"How dare you accept such a bet? I swear if I win I am gonna kiss you Pearly" Joshan snorted at me.

"You better kiss your ass man manly boy" I rolled my eyes at him. "Don't be a spoil sport. Have faith in yourself like I have in you".

He winked his eyes at me "Surely I will. Thanks yaa" and entered the alley.

"Kissing the ass was good one. I am glad that you did not suggest it for the bet. And if I turn out to be a gay you will be the first one to be blamed". Deren commented hilariously.

After lot of strikes and misses, we finally won the game . It was great fun watching guys French kissing each other. Hope they do not turn into gays after such a hot kissing session.

It was a long fun filled evening and then we had pizzas and pastas for dinner.

Mike volunteered to drop Stacie and Cairo and Joshan, me and Deren were going together.

Deren was called by his father due to some official emergency and so we dropped him to his office and Joshan was supposed to drop me home before picking his vehicle from Deren's residence.

"So did you enjoy?" Joshan asked.

'Oh I loved the kiss thing!" I tried to tease him.

 "I wish I would have enjoyed seeing you and Deren do it” I mused.

"You wanted me to loose?" he touch his heart enacting fake hurt with a dagger.

"No I never would want you to loose. You are my friend and friends are always close to me." I answered back.

"So we are friends?" he asked expectantly

"yes I guess. I do not hang around with strangers." I said working on my hair as I combed by long pony with my fingers enjoying the soft traces of my curls.

I stopped once I saw Joshan staring at them.

"Oh I see .Can I ask you a question?" he hesitatedly spoke.

"Do the honors Mr Joshan and shoot" I told.

"You are so beautiful and intelligent but why is it that you do not have a boyfriend?"

I gulped into my own saliva.  

What was this guy upto? 

Of course we are friends. And I know now that he can be a real sweet friend, sometimes pain in the ass too when he tries his stupid pranks and it takes all my goodness not to react to his silly stuff specially when he grabbed me from my waist in the alley in front of everybody. But why the hell didn't I shout at him? Why did I get lost in the valley of his browns? He surely knows some witch craft. 

I giggled internally witch craft -a term for a boy but he stopped the engine then and looked at me expectantly. 

The sudden noise of insects in the night and the stifle of wind as it knocked softly on the windows of the car was heard as the roaring noise of the engine paused. 

"You are not going to give up on it?", I asked mentally thinking of something that could change the topic. 

"Quitters are losers and I am not the one.", He smirked and then pleaded "Please tell but only if you trust me with it." 

I took a deep breath. This boy was one stubborn thing and narrated. 

"Well that is due to some silly past incidence that I have trust issues.", I said as I tilted my eyes towards him trying to gauge the reason behind his question. What was cooking in his head? I actually did not want to discuss about this to him. 

"We enjoyed the evening huh." I tried to change the topic finally not wanting to continue further. 

He casually held my hand saying,"Speak up. We are friends. May be sharing can help". Genuineness was clearly visible in his eyes. 

"Start driving I want to reach home on time and safe." I said removing my hand from his grasp politely. 

"You can trust me. My driving's good." he said. I did not miss the double meaning in his words.

I understood he was not going to give up on it so I continued with a  warning. "See this is my past and I don't want you to make fun of it anytime ever. My friends don't ever discuss this with me. Infact they don't even know about this." I hesitated. 

"Can I expect you to trust me? Are you sure? I promise you my honesty to maintain your secret.", he tried to comfort me. 

I do not know why, but I was comfortable sharing it with him. I did not have a stray of doubt on his friendship. It felt as if it was the most natural thing that happened between us.

I continued, "It was during the last year of our primary school. I had a friend Gimmy in our neighbourhood. He was also my classmate. He proposed me on Valentine's. It was since childhood when my dad used to get roses for my mom on Valentine's I had a fantasy for Valentine's day and always wanted to have a valentine of my own who would bring me at least one rose on the lover's day."

"So when Gimmy brought a small chinese rose wrapped in silver paper and red ribbon attached. It was also tagged with 'Be my valentine!!' I blushed and accepted immediately forgetting that it needs more than a rose or a day to love someone and we were together since then. We had a 3 month relationship and were very loving and caring towards each other. We were very young too. I was only 14. However people around specially girls were jealous of us and it affected our relationship. Gimmy was one handsome lad of the neighbourhood and girls would drool over him. So they tried to create misunderstandings between me and him which we always succeeded to duct easily." I narrated slowly absorbing his calm reactions and a straight face.

When I stopped he looked at me urging me to continue so I did "One fine day me and Gimmy had a heated argument and he ended up slapping me in front of entire class. I was heartfelt and broken"

I paused as tears were about to swell in my eyes and I suppressed them up filling in the remaining parts "But I too slapped him back with equal pace. You see I am a bitch at payback.", And I giggled to lighten up the mood. 

Joshan only patiently listened and giggled with me in the end part but did not utter a word about it. May be he was trying to figure out whether it was my stupidity or my phobia. 

"Wasn't it quite a stupid reason to break up the relationship?" He asked after some time.