Turning away from the window I ring the bell beside the door of my house.

Opening the door my mom tells me with a grin, "Ved and his parents are here.", and winks subtly before letting me in.

Holding back an eye roll, I go inside and see Ved, his mother and his father sitting on a couch in our living room.

I greet them with a 'Hi' and 'How are you?' without meeting Ved's eyes even once.

I make my way near my mom and whisper, "Ma, I'm sweaty and stinky. I'll go shower and be back."

"Yeah probably a good idea if you don't want anyone to die here." She teases as I make my way to my room.

After a shower I change into sweats and t-shirt—I've never been one to care about dressing—and get out of my room when I bump into someone.

Rubbing my forehead I look up to see Ved looking down at me.

"We really should stop doing this." He muses.

"Yeah. What are you doing here anyway?"

"You're mom told me to check on you and call you if you were ready."

"Okay, but what are you doing in my house in the first place?"

"I didn't change my school just for the JEE program. It was partially because we were moving to a new place too, so..."

"But that doesn't explain why you are in my house..." I urge.

"Well, my new place is right on this floor, three houses down..." He trails away expecting me to understand.

And understand I did.

"We should probably go." He stated smugly at my speechless expression.

Without a word I made my way with him to the living room.

I found my mom and his parents laughing at something when we reached the living room.

"Hey, I'm going to head out with them, show around the apartment and the Owner's Association members and I've kept the foo—"

"Yeah, yeah Ma. I know where you keep the food. I'll take care." I interrupt my mom as she stood up with Ved's parents to 'head out'.

"Okay then. Have fun you two!"

"Oka— wait, 'you two'?"

"Yeah, since Ved's house is not yet completely unpacked he'll stay here for dinner. We already had the dinner since we gotta go now. Anyways, bye. Be safe." My mom elaborates and leaves before I could speak something.

"Mind if I look around?" Ved asks me after a few seconds of silence.

"No. Not at all." I reply back and he goes to one of the shelves on the walls that held my mother's achievements and mine.

"You're mom got the black belt?" He asks, surprised.

"Yeah. Those days are over though. But she can beat me up real well, I'll give her that." I tell him, chuckling as I remember one of the many moments when I made a very big mistake that made her very angry and she beat me up.

After that she went to her room and cried to herself for doing it.

"Wow! I never took her for the strict type."

"Nah. She isn't strict. Just...how do I say this? She puts me in my place if I do something really really wrong. Otherwise it's just friendly bickering between both of us." I explain.

He hummed and started looking at my General Proficiency and All-rounder awards.

"Why am I surprised?" he mutters and continues, "Are there any more showcases that I might be allowed to see?"

After thinking I tell him, "There're some in my bedroom that you can see. And I don't know if Ma will let you see what's in her and Pa's room."

"Lead the way then, please."

I then take him to my bedroom which looked neat but actually the insides of my cupboards would look like shit.

But he doesn't need to know that.

No thank you.

He looks around and walks towards the shelves that held many photos of me—alone, with my parents, with Nikhil and some group photos.

He wordlessly looks at the photos and when he sees one with me and Nikhil in a water ride, wearing identical RHCP hoodies during a trip to a theme park, he asks me, "He's the one who was with you in school the day you slammed into me right?"

"Yep."

"Who's he?"

"That's my best friend Nikhil."

He doesn't say a word and moves on, coming to stop at a group photo of my level of students in my music class, taken long back during a group performance—on the year I joined music class—which was my first one.

"You still have this photo, that was your first performance right?" He said pointing out to it.

"I...y— yeah, how do you know?"

"I just...know." He shrugs.

I don't question him anymore as he continued to another shelf that had all my books, both academic and non-academic.

He then reaches out, pulling out Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows book.

"Do you have this movie?" He asks, his face lighting up with hopefulness.

"Yeah I think I do."

Opening my PC, I search for movies and voila! I've got it.

"I have it. Both Part 1 and 2." I confirm.

"Can we watch it? Please?" He begs, dragging the 'e' in the 'please'.

"Okay, okay." I say, chuckling, and set it up.

We both settle on my bed after switching off the lights.

During the movie, I kept speaking the dialogues that I had known by heart from watching it so many times and this irritated Ved earning me a poke on my cheek or a 'Shh!' from him occasionally.

DING.

I get up, gesturing Ved to keep watching and make my way to the front door to open it after hearing the doorbell.

I find the kid who lives next door, standing with an Artemis Fowl series book I lent him to read a few weeks back.

"Hey sis. I'm done reading this, just wanted to return it to you. Thank you so much!"

"No problem man. You want another book?"

"Nah. I'll get it later. I'm a bit busy for the next few days with homework. Anyways, gotta go sis. Bye!" He replies and goes to his house.

I close the door and get back to my room to find that Ved isn't where I left him earlier.

"Ved?" I call out, after closing the door of the room.

Silence.

"BOO!" He comes out from under the bed and the smile from his face turns into a pout, noticing me looking at him blandly with a bored expression.

"Okay wait." I say and clear my throat.

Putting up my best scared face, I shriek out, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Turning back to him, I ask, "Happy?"

"You're no fun." He kept frowning, but I noticed the upward twitch of his lips from the corner of my eyes.

Rolling my eyes I take my place on the bed and he follows suit.

We then resume watching the movie, with me speaking the dialogues along with the characters and him getting irritated again.

After the movies got over, I switch on the light and check the time.

"You wanna have dinner now?" I ask him for which he nods and we walk out of my room.

After having an awkward dinner—well it looked like only I felt it awkward because I didn't know what to talk about—we were just sitting idly when he turned to me and suddenly asked, "Do you think we can hang out a bit more often?"

Flabbergasted, I gape at him.

"I mean, we do hang out in music class but that's like we do nothing except singing there. And we are in the same school and apartment now, so I was wondering that maybe you might want to...you know." He continues to rant.

"No, I don't know." I drawl, teasing him like he does to me.

"I— I mean, we could—"

"Relax, I was just teasing you just like you tease me. And to answer your question, maybe we can." I say, putting him out of his misery.

He then relaxes, but a smirk appears on his face. "Stealing my techniques now, are we?"

"What d— do you mean?"

"Relax, I was just teasing you." He laughs as he repeats my words to me.

Before I could give a comeback the door knob jingles and my mom enters.

"Hi kids! Did you have dinner? Was it good?" She asks when she enters.

"Yes, we had dinner and it was really delicious, thank you for asking." Ved replies, flashing my mom a smile.

"Good then. You're Ma called you to help with unpacking if you're done with dinner." My mom informs.

"Well, I better get going. Thank you for the dinner!" He says getting up from the couch.

"Oh, you're welcome. Goodbye Ved!" My mom calls as she goes to her room.

"So...goodbye?" The words come out as a question from my mouth.

God, I just hope he doesn't tease me for it again.

"Yep. For now."

Before I could ask what he meant, he surprised me with a warm hug.

But it wasn't as warm as Nikhil's—

Whoa, hold the fuck on.

Why am I even comparing Ved's hug with Nikhil's?

"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Ved asks me, interrupting my thoughts.

"But we don't have music class tomorrow." I reply back confusedly.

"I ain't just talking about music class." He says with a smirk and leaves.

Closing and locking the door, I lean my back against it and collect my thoughts.

Ved moved in three houses down from mine.

He teased me.

He knew that I study sincerely. Yes, not a nerd, but a student who studies sincerely. Definitely not a nerd.

He knew the year I joined music class.

He knew my first performance.

He watched movies with me.

He tried to scare me, which went in vain.

And he hugged me.

Not a brief one but a holding-on-a-bit-tight hug.

One thing that scared me was, my heart didn't skip a beat or my breath didn't hitch or I didn't feel Goosebumps on my skin like I used to, whenever we brushed shoulders or our knees touched while sitting beside each other accidentally.

I felt like...I felt nothing actually.

But I like him, so I'm supposed to feel something when he touches right?

But why am I not feeling anything?

Does that mean I don't like like him.

No, but I have for a very long time.

Oh no. Why am I having a brain fart all of a sudden?

Sighing I rub my temples and push myself from the door and go to my room and finish the homework given by the teachers which was very little.

Seeing that it wasn't my sleeping time yet, I switch on the PC and open my stress buster.

NEED FOR SPEED: MOST WANTED.

BLACK FUCKING EDITION.

Razor, watch out man, you're goin' down you douchebag!

A/N: Thoughts? Vote and comment, please and thank you!