|Chapter Eighteen|

It's a Friday and the group of four friends are settled over a table in the café at the L'Oreal Hairstyling Harmony's complex, celebrating the day's victory. Apparently, Aisha's idea of creating an eighties vibe with her hairstyle left the judges beyond impressed, making them declare her work as the finest one for the day's contest.

"Okay, shush, Tarika's coming," Payal hushes everyone, turning the table silent as they watch the strawberry-blonde haired girl waltz her way in with her group of friends, Jayden tagging with them in his usual breezy stance.

"Cheers to the stylist of the day!" Payal yells at the top of her voice challengingly, her eyes glinting brightly, "Aisha Medhi!" she yells even louder, causing the group at the far end to flit their attention over to them.

Aisha can't help but feel giddy with the amount of support her friends have been showing. In fact, Payal keeps gushing about Aisha's achievements every damn second, proudly displaying her feats with exhilaration. The other day, the spectacled girl asked of Aisha to give her a signature, saying, "Who knows? In the near future you'd be the leading stylist of the country and I'd get to frame that autograph of yours in my living room with pride."

"Oof, she's pissed," Veer comments with a snicker when he spots the flaring rage in Tarika's face. If looks could kill, Payal would've been six feet below already. But considering the zeal of a girl that she is, she'd probably rise from the coffins, ready to unleash her next attack with unfazed fervour.

Smiling, Aisha feels a tug at her heart. Veer hasn't since talked to her, barely acknowledging her presence every day. Vivek keeps telling her that he'd come around but it's been three days now since her outburst and Aisha's running out of patience eventually.

"Now, ignoring the pink phony," Payal speaks, turning to address the group. "You all are coming to my birthday party tomorrow, no excuses."

"Can't come," Vivek shakes his head with affirmation, earning a scowl from Payal.

"There are no classes on Saturday! What on earth is gonna keep you occupied?" she asks him.

"There's a sprinting session tomorrow," he speaks, as if that explains everything already.

"Don't be a bore, Vi!" Payal whines, "I've already invited our batch and Yash's friends will be coming as well."

Aisha raises her brows as she calculates the amount of people that will flock Payal's place tomorrow. These two siblings are sure as hell sociable creatures.

"But-"

"You should come," Aisha interrupts Vivek's protests, earning a cheer from Payal.

Vivek glances at her wearily, losing all the motivation to object. Sighing with a smile, he shrugs with a, "You all leave me no choice." Grinning, Aisha and Payal high five, while Veer smacks a hand on his brother's back excitedly.

"Don't you worry, son," Veer tells his twin with a smirk, "I'll teach you what parties are."

_____________

It's been three days and eleven hours and Veer still hasn't spoken to Aisha. And she's cool about it. Vivek has told her over and over again that Veer sulks like a child and would be back to his spirits in time, and Aisha's repeated these words to herself every single damn minute. But what's more is that Veer won't even acknowledge her presence, let alone glance at her. He'd simply look through her, as if she were not even there.

And Aisha's breezy about it.

She won't admit if someone pointed out the fact that she frowns every time Veer overlooks her, or that she throws a frenzied look at Vivek whenever she gets ignored upfront, only to receive a comforting nod from the hazel-eyed boy. Because Veer's being a child, and it's all breezy.

And that's why after she's done with her tuition session with Vivek, Aisha's prepared some chocolate and cashew cookies as per Vivek's advice who knows for a fact that Veer's a sucker for freshly baked cookies.

"You think it'd work?" she can't help but ask as the duo stands facing the door to Veer's room in the evening.

"I'm affirmative," Vivek smiles at her, somehow calming her nerves down. Nodding, Aisha turns back to face the door and knock her knuckles over the wooden surface, the platter balanced in one hand.

"Who's there?" a muffled voice responds and Aisha resists the urge to play knock-knock jokes for now. It was a perfect situation after all!

"Me," she mumbles, not sure if Veer will further speak after realizing it is her.

There's a brief pause after which the door clicks open, and before Aisha processes it, Vivek's already zoomed off the place, leaving her at the doorway. She puts on a small smile as those fawn eyes stare at her quizzically before roaming off to the plate in her hands.

"I baked some cookies," Aisha rambles dumbly, as if that wasn't obvious already.

"You should've just handed them to Vivek," Veer shrugs; crossing his arms uncertainly, the air around them lacing an awkward silence.

"I got them for you, though," Aisha explains, "so am I allowed in?"

Biting his lip with contemplation, Veer nods before stepping aside, holding the door open as Aisha strolls in, the warm waft of baked dough and melting chocolate filling the air. It's the first time Aisha's entered Veer's room which Payal ever-so blatantly likes to call a 'pig-sty' but, surprisingly, it's tidy. Well, to some extent.

The walls are probably ivory, like Vivek's room, but it's difficult to spot any space on them with the endless number of papers stuck up randomly with tape, making them resemble notice boards rather than someone's bedroom. The room is cluttered with furniture, placed randomly with a bed pushed over to the windows, and the closet and laundry baskets on the side. A lamp, which doesn't really go with the modern look of the room, but whatever, is perched on the bedside drawer and an electrical keyboard lies on the far right of the room.

"Take a seat," Veer mumbles, clearing his throat and causing Aisha to avert her eyes from the room which is both flamboyant and cagey at the same time. Unlike Vivek's room which breathes stillness and harmony, a sort of welcoming vibe encasing it, Veer's room expresses a standoffish aura; probably because it's something which solely relishes Veer's presence and nobody else's.

Putting a smile back on her face, Aisha holds out the plate which Veer accepts with silent movements. He settles over the bamboo chair next to the keyboard, assessing the cookies with suppressed excitement and Aisha nearly rolls her eyes at his obstinacy to remain stoic and inexpressive in front of her.

"You know, I already apologised for my behaviour," Aisha says, hoping that it'd spark off a conversation and bury this silence away.

"Did you, now?" Veer raise a brow at her, biting into one of the cookies with his eyes trained on her face.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Aisha strolls over to his bed, settling over it and feeling a certain pair of brown hues trail her every step. "I mean I did," she repeats, fidgeting with the sleeves of her maroon sweatshirt.

"When?" Veer asks, furrowing his brows.

"In my head," Aisha mumbles even lower now. And the next moment a cushion comes flying her way. "Oi!" she yelps when the soft pillow collides with her face and lands over her lap softly.

"Was I there to hear you, you idiot!?" Veer scowls, grabbing hold of another pillow from the seat adjacent to him.

"Yes you were!" Aisha protests, "And as far as I remember, you smilingly accepted the apology and all was well."

"That was in your head!" Veer exclaims, feeling ridiculous with this conversation now.

"Yeah, okay..." Aisha admits it with a sigh, "I'm sorry Veer."

"For what?"

"What?" Aisha blinks at his question, watching Veer nibble on a cookie with smugness.

"I need to hear it as a whole."

"Don't push your luck, Deshmukh," Aisha warns.

"I do deserve a good apology, okay?"

Sighing and mumbling a few obscenities incoherently, Aisha looks up at the boy. "I'm sorry for snapping at you the other day," she speaks, her shoulders drooping with genuine guilt and dejection, "I shouldn't have said that to you." As the words roll out of her mouth, Aisha averts her gaze over to her lap, watching her fingers clasped together, wringing them with remorse.

The next moment a blur of blue and grey swoops over her, and it's Veer. Aisha blinks perplexedly when a pair of hands wrap around her, crushing her into a strong embrace and a giggle finally escapes her lips as Veer hugs her stronger, swaying her from side to side softly and burying his face into her shoulder. "Do you know how hard it is to spend even a day without hugging you?" his muffled voice reaches her ear, causing a wave of aid to wash over her, relieving her of the burden which had been drowning her heart down.

"I'm really sorry, Teddy," she mutters again as he pulls away, disengaging himself from her arms as he grins down at her.

"That nickname sounds heavenly," Veer admits it with a sheepish look. "When did I get so used to you, Ash?" he asks, scratching his head with genuine musing.

"That's the affect I have on people," Aisha shrugs with a smug smirk, feeling at ease now.

"Flying too high too soon," Veer sings as he heads back to the chair, resuming to the cookies which he had fleetingly abandoned to reconcile with Aisha.

"So what're you doing?" she asks, averting her eyes over to the ivory laptop placed beside her on the bed, wide open and brightly alight, displaying a Facebook profile.

"Was surfing through social media and a chord just struck my head so I was trying it," Veer explains, gliding his free hand over the instrument, tinkling out a soft melody.

"Ah," Aisha mumbles before turning back to look at the Lenovo device beside her. Once she spots the profile picture of the user, her curiosity spikes up and she leans in, squinting at the screen with a smirk.

"Jayden's Facebook profile, huh?"

And the question leaves Veer resembling a reindeer in the headlights, completely thrown off as he gapes at Aisha, a cookie frozen in his hand. "Snooping is rude!" he manages a pathetic scowl, placing the baked biscuit back on the platter.

"I'm just saying," Aisha shrugs, grinning wide. "I mean of all possible accounts, here is Jayden's one on your screen."

"He had sent me a friend request!" Veer explains defensively, squirming in his seat with a sullen expression. "I hate you."

"But you love him."

And a second pillow comes flying Aisha's way, its trajectory causing her to duck and dodge it with agility. Grinning, she raises her hands in mock-surrender, earning a few more dirty glares from her friend who resumes to the cookies sulkily, eventually recommencing to his good-natured humour and easily conversational stance.

And Aisha's happy that the Veer she knows is back.

__________

Author's Note:

Who else agrees that Vivek is smitten over Aisha? *smirks*

Oh, and await Payal's birthday party in the upcoming chapter! Loads of craziness is gonna come, *winks*

See y'all at the next update!
*Muah*