"If I really am so unappealing then I would like to assume that you would want to keep as much distance from me as possible considering how disgustingly we had made out in your room last night? Right?" Rishabh scoffed at her words and shifted uncomfortably on his heels.

"Right." He spoke out in an unconvincing tone.

"Then why did the mighty Rishabh Rathore shamelessly kiss me on the cheeks in his yard while I was about to leave? What on the earth was that thanks for? Did you lose a nut or two while snogging me?" Sanvi knew she had several questions regarding that sudden flow of affection he had procured the night before. However, she did not intend her query to come up on such a turn in the discourse. She was furious at his words, yet her own voice seemed to be mellowed down at his previous accusation.

Rishabh looked up to experience one of the most weird sensations across his chest. Sanvi's eyes were blazing red. Her face held a bit of dejection and hurt? Wait? Did he just see that? But for what? She was hurt? By his words? Why on the earth would she be hurt at HIS words? It was not like they had fought or he had taunted her for the very first time. Were his eyes betraying him? Or was she actually feeling dejected by his words?

He kept on staring at her face when her voice brought him back from his trance.

"Cat got yout tongue now, genius?" She narrowed her brows at him as he kept on gawking at her face, seemingly at a loss of words.

"That.. That was nothing... I wanted to trouble you. And for the thanks, that was sarcastic." He tried to cover up the blunder he had caused last night in the flow of emotions.

Emotions? Like seriously? He WASN'T driven by any sort of emotion that too for HER!

"Then why the hell did you kiss me again!" She was definitely enraged by then as she gripped his collar.

"BECAUSE I COULD! I knew I could get under your thin skin by doing that. Didn't I succeed? Weren't you affected by me Dixit?" He glared intensely, locking their eyes in a prolonged heated stare-off.

"Oh? But you'd be heartbroken to know that it didn't irk me at all. Nothing you do is irksome to me. You're just a pathetic nobody who goes around fooling himself that he could trouble anyone by doing anything insignificant." She was shocked to find that she was indeed hurt at his non chalance. Who the hell was he to assert such strong effect on her? She was definitely not someone to bend down at the current of ANYONE doing ANYTHING to HER!

Rishabh on the other end seemed quite a bit affected by her words right then. He was beyond his wits. Extremely mad would have been an understatement for his disposition right then.

"Dare you cross my paths again! I wont wait for a second to inform the school authorities about your stupid actions. I'll ruin you, Rathore." She banged her palm on the wall beside him and turned to leave.

"Oh and for stealing away my first kiss, you are gonna definitely pay a hard price one day." She turned back before clutching his collar and pulling him dangerously close to her. Her eyes were spitting fire.

Anger rose through his veins at the audacity of that girl in front of him. Now he had to justify his actions to her? Who the hell was she?

He clutched her hands and loosened her grip over his collars before pushing her with a heavy jerk.

"Do you really thing you can have such power over me Dixit? You could never do anything! You have always been a good for nothing wimp! Go cry on your books, nerd! I LOST MY FIRST KISS TO YOU TOO AND THAT'S JUST MY DAMN BAD LUCK!" He barked at her one last time before storming off outside.

While she stood there, registering the recent confrontation, she couldn't help but curse herself for turning into such an emotional fool overnight. How could she fall so weak and get effected by his actions? He was a nobody like she had stated before. He hadn't had any effect on her all these years. He was a sadistic jerk. She was so stupid to think of him being softened towards her after the incident of the night before. She felt disgusted thinking about how she had been fantasizing about him all morning. She felt nauseous.

However, now that her fantasy reverie had broken for good, she couldn't have been surer about his position in her mind. He was an enemy. And she intended to keep the enmity intact.

She straightened her composure and walked towards the class, gulping down all those thoughts and pledging to never tread on his shadow ever again. However, she still had a packet on her baggy that needed to be returned to its rightful owner. If only she could break the despicable owner's nose with that plastic bag.

The physical education class surprisingly went on without any more fuss. She didn't need a memo to steer clear of Rishabh Rathore but a few annoying classmates did whisper around her about the sudden appearance of the 'school heartthrob' outside the girl's lavatory. She almost felt like she could just rip the school's heart out before it would throb another beat for that jerk.

At the day break, it was time to return home and much sooner than she had expected. To her relief, the day went rather uneventful as she was engrossed in her studies, barely indulging in the soaring social activities around her. She had better things to do as the Class Captain and soon the morning confrontation with Rathore was boxed up in some corner of her mind. Her mid-term exams were near and she surely wasn't on the part of compromising with her studies for that sore idiot.

She packed her books and made a beeline for the locker. As she was turning out, she could hear an over-excited Veronica calling her from behind to tell her all about the new guy that had asked her out that day. Sanvi was often astonished by the need of these rich jerks going around passing the entire school day flirting around and asking people out. She could point out a handful of those people who simply had too much money to waste around for an education that they barely partook in.

Veronica was a girl from the upper-middle class society and she had plenty of those rich friends. However, while those kids wasted away their parents' money, Veronica was a rather diligent student. She was great in athletics and had the personality of a chirping nightangle which made her a favourite babe in the school circles. Sanvi being friends with the doll, as had been previously pointed out by many of the judgemental classmates, made Veronica look odd. But these kind of accusations didn't stop Veronica from hanging onto Sanvi's neck on a daily basis. Perhaps she did enjoy this aspect of Veronica's character but these over-indulgences of Veronica in the dating arena had been irking Sanvi a lot lately.

Sanvi wondered whether Veronica even she took any of those supposed relationships seriously. Being asked out by one while being in a so-called relationship with another. Then ignoring that person and going on dates with another person after a few days and then reconciling with the previous one because the new one apparently didn't work out.

Sanvi thought of all these indulgences as mere time-hoggers. She had always had a point for not indulging into such complications. But then again, she barely had a life that could allow her to indulge in any of those pleasantries.

Walking her way down the stairs, her mind drifted to the morning banter with her enemy. She sighed. Oh how she wished not to see his face again! And there she was, still tangled with those clothes in her hands and her eyes searching eagerly for him amidst the crowd of the students pouring out towards the parking space and the school gates. As it had to be, she instantly spotted him near the vehicles-stand outside the campus, sitting on his bike and engrossed in his phone. She sucked her cheeks in and began trotting towards him.

"Here.." She kept the packet on the backseat of his bike with a thud which seemingly startled him and made him turn towards her with an expressionless stare.

"Thanks.." She plastered a fake-smile on her face, evidently feeling the anger of the morning seeping in and turned to leave before they made any scene in front of the entire school population.

"Wait..." She heard him call her out. She wasn't supposed to turn but his call almost immediately made her whip towards him. She definitely was a wimp because deep down in her heart she desperately wanted him to say something after their heated argument. An apology would have been the ideal anticipatory greeting.
However, he pointed his finger at something as her eyes traced the path of his finger down to her scooty.

"Is this yours?" His face held a questioning gaze.

Okay, what was he playing at? As far as she remembered, she had already answered his query last night.

"Yes.. That's my scooty! Do you have any problem?" She crossed her arms across her chest and passed him a look of suspicion.

"Did it lose its air just like you did?"

She saw him smirk at her all of a sudden as her gaze ultimately fell on the back tire of her scooty.

Her eyes widened with shock. She had just gotten the tire aired up last week. It wasn't supposed to be out of air any sooner than she could think of. She looked at him with those widened eyes while he pursed his lips possibly muffling a giggle.

Oh the nerve of that boy!

"Youuuu pigheaded donkey!" She didn't know what came over her but she felt a seething rage overtake her senses as she pounced on him like an angry cat. He giggled out loud as he lost his balance and they both landed on his bike which eventually fell to the ground taking the fighting pair with it.

The people gathered around the scene of ruckus and watched the two supposed toppers of the school in horror bolting each other with curses and blows.

**********

TBC