Sanvi's POV

"Rishabh..." I inhaled sharply as the icy bonnet of the car came in touch with the warm skin of my back.

"What the hell do you think of yourself?" Out of all the things in the world, that question was perhaps the least expected one after I had given up on my own partnership and risked my postion in the team while defending the jerk rebuking me right then.
I was entirely baffled.

"What the hell are YOU doing? Didn't you leave a while ago?"

Rishabh gritted his teeth in response as he held me close to his body such that not even a slither of air could pass through us. My chest was pressed up against his body as my hands automatically gripped his shoulder for support. The compromising position had already turned on all the red sirens in my mind. Evening had fully engulfed the silent empty school campus and if anyone remaining in the campus had to spot us in such a position, they'd definitely misinterpret the whole situation. But what confused me in that situation was how his eyes appeared entirely erratic, much different than any other expression I'd ever seen on his face.

"Hah, of course, you'd want me to scram early! The Good Girl would surely want to conspire some more with all those other baboons in the team."

"Whaa..baboons? What the hell are you talking about?" I pulled my hand out of his hold and tried to push the cement wall off of my body.

"wHaT?" Rishabh spat sarcastically, tugging me even closer to his warm body.

"Don't even try to deny that you want me out of the picture in the context of the Championship. I know you out of all those people will have the most to gain out of this if I am indeed kicked out. Didn't you enjoy the little show your partner put up in the cafeteria a few minutes ago?" His words made me shoot my gaze up to his face. I didn't know why I was rather softened at his insinuation. I bit back my immediate retort against the blatant insult considering the fact that it was not a good day for the Great Rathore's ego.

"Rathore... I didn't mean that when I asked why you haven't left yet. It wasn't even close to what I was implying!" I gasped when his grip around my waist tightened almost immediately.

"And no. I didn't enjoy any of Aakash's vindictive speeches." I mumbled under my breath, fighting against my inbuilt restraint from admitting that to his face.

"Hah! Dixit didn't enjoy my humiliation? Her own enemy being insulted in that manner? Oh, come on." His tone was of a genuinely surprised one. He dipped his face down to my neck making me gasp yet again.

"Liar..." He whispered in my ear, making me squirm against his body. His breath felt ticklish on my skin and I almost felt my knees buckle.

"I don't care if you do or don't believe me. All I have to say in this matter is that Aakash is not me. What he says or how he acts has nothing to do with me. And I don't agree with him here."

"Wow, Sanvi Dixit. What has gotten into you? Aakash is your partner. At least stay loyal to him.." I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm as he feigned shock at my words.

"He's not!" My hurried admittance seemingly puzzled him. It puzzled me too.

"He's not your partner?" I shrugged as Rishabh's eyes began sparkling all of a sudden, making me feel quite uncomfortable being under his hold at that particular moment.

"Release me now if you don't have anything better to say." I uttered in frustration. But what even was his need to hold me like that in the first place? I was extremely conscious of every touch and every brush and every point where my body came in contact with his. It felt weirdly hot being in his warm arms like that.

"No. I won't. You need to answer to me first. Why have you been blatantly ignoring my presence since the past month?" Rishabh looked right in my eyes and asked the question I was truly dreading, making me gulp visibly.

I had been deliberately slipping out of every occasion in which we had to face each other. The busy mid-terms and the whole Championship scenario helped a lot in that context. I had ardently hoped not be in another compromising situation with him and thereby fling mud at the little self respect I had managed to keep untainted. But it was eventually a futile attempt on my part. I wouldn't be able to escape for long and I kind of knew that deep down. And he had yet again managed to pull me in a compromising position right then. His actions surely angered me but the prospect of explaining the need to stay away from each other truly agitated me to a whole another level. For a genius, he was rather short-sighted.

"Are you for real, Rathore? Why does it matter to you that I am ignoring you? Which of course, I am. I won't deny it. At the very least, we could save some energy rather than arguing or fighting every second we cross paths. Besides, I don't like your stupid face." I tried to push him back by his arms, veiling my utter discomfort talking about these stuff with a rather ironic statement. I didn't even care to notice his rather handsome features...untill that weird accidental kiss we shared that night. I was frustrated. What on the earth changed within a night? I felt like my consciousness had been replaced with an absurd version of Sanvi Dixit from a weird parallel universe.

What a conundrum. It appeared as if you ignored him, he would immediately come back pestering you and then if you did acknowledge his existence, he'd be all up your nose, messing with you for being too defensive about it. Ignoring him was the best option to avoid any sort of mishaps between us. I just thought that it would be the best way to keep away from him by not engaging in our regular disputes. It would do him good as well. I couldn't afford incurring Father's wrath again when the Championship was still at stake. Havocs followed everywhere we went together, so a bit of distance was much essential in our case. Perhaps a little bit too much, especially after that unexpected kiss (for which I surely hadn't been having nightmares about every single night for the past month). I just simply couldn't figure out which screw had come loose in my biological composition that night for me to be daydreaming about my enemy and his luscious lips all day long.

"Hah!" He scoffed derisively. I twisted my lips, attempting to keep my eyes away from his lips which were really close to my own face.

"Did you already forget about the supposed punishment you have managed to bring upon both of us? Do you think ignoring me would help you get on the right side of Father after the two of us had specifically been reprimanded by him? I wasn't even the one to begin all these! It's always you. You're always the one who initiates the fights between us." He was seemingly agitated at my reluctance, spewing quite a stupid comment on his part.

Oh he just did not blame me for our enmity! It takes two to tango. His words took me by anger. I flared my nose while charging at him.

"It seems that you don't know your own self Rathore. You should be grateful that I haven't yet complained to the teachers about how you go around taunting me about every damn thing. Do you expect me to digest your indolence without retaliating? I never begin our disputes. Don't even dare to put all the blame on me. Hadn't you punctured my tire that day while I was already strained with my own problems, I wouldn't have beaten you up. I simply fought back because YOU acted against me on the first place. You're nothing but a bully to me. And honestly, I should say tit for tat because you're getting a good taste of your own medicine with Aakash's pettiness. Karma might just be finally catching up to you for what you've done to me all these years. But I am not a scumbag like Aakash to kick a person at their lowest." What the hell was the guy's problem? I almost felt like ripping my hairs out for defending that jerk back in the Cafeteria. He clearly didn't deserve my pity.

"And stop freaking manhandling me everytime. You've no right to touch me." I pushed him with all my force and he stumbled back a few steps. He simply looked down at his shoes with an evil smirk. Knowing his reactions so very well over the years, I should've been ready for what was coming next.

"A bully, you say?" Rishabh pinned me down with his raspy voice, dangerously lowered down an octave. I was transfixed all of a sudden. His eyes turned dark, like the ones back in the Cafeteria. I was truly a wimp to shudder at that but I did do it internally, not showing it outright. There was just something about the gaze that had always intimidated me. But I would bury myself before exposing a tad of that effect in front of him.

"If I am a bully, then what does that make you, Sanvi?" I gulped in fear and immediately shut my eyes as he pulled my face extremely close to his, such that the tips of noses brushed against each other. My stomach tightened and I deeply breathed in his intoxicating fragrance. Did the guy bathe in the Heaven's personally customised cologne? Why did he smell so damn delicious? What?

"An extremely peculiar creature that liked kissing her bully?" My eyes shot open. Why was he bringing the kiss into this? He knew it was his fault in the first place. I absolutely loathed his fixation on that accidental, and mind you, a rather non-consensual act. Why was he so hell bent on exposing the effect he had on me after that kiss? Did he want to inflate his ego even more with that information? Of course, he did. He was a self-centered jerk afterall. And yet, I couldn't figure if I too had the same effect on him. The thought itself frustrated me. He wasn't affected in anyway in my presence, was he? He didn't feel that hollowness in his stomach. He didn't feel squeamish when our eyes locked. He didn't sweat like a pig whenever our hands brushed against each other. He was such a pig for intending to extract that effect out of me in that manner when he himself wasn't a tad bit moved by our closeness. Blatantly unfair.

"Shut up." I barked angrily and distanced myself from him with an elbow jab on his chest.

"Ow." He winced but didn't entirely loosen his grip on my waist. "Not ready to talk about it yet, Dixit?" He joked, massaging the hit area of his chest. I scoffed.

"But you're ready to take on the greatest Championship of our school with a worthless stranger like Aakash? Tch, gotta give it you for your naivety." He added, his smirk vanishing in seconds as he locked eyes with me. Wow. The unexpected jab hit me right in the face.

"Tch, I don't expect anything better from a loser like Aakash. However, I didn't expect you'd be so eager as to register yourself into the loser club by pairing up with Aakash! I hope you two friends win the loser trophy for being the biggest suckers in the Championship." I shot him a dirty look at his sour words.

"Well? Where's your new oh-so-adorable partner? Didn't come to see off his 'love'?" His half-smile conveyed sheer bitterness. I was initially taken aback and rendered speechless at his sudden attack. I stood rooted to my spot, unable to collect words for a just reply to all of that.

What exactly was he agitated about? Me being with him in the team? Ignoring him for the past month? Or pairing up with Aakash, another infamous enemy of his?

It took me a couple of minutes to stumbled upon a possible conclusion.

Was the great Rishabh Singh Rathore jealous?

I was rather puzzled at the conclusion I came onto. And needless to say, it was rather unbecoming of his personality. But after the humiliation of being the only one left from being approached for a partnership, it didn't seem like a baseless conjecture. But there was his best friend, Dhruv, as well. Why didn't he act the same way towards him when he strutted away with Sanaya?

Was his jealousy only towards my partnership? His two enemies huddling together in a partnership conjured his sudden envy, then? I rolled my eyes when I perceived the pettiness in his own disposition, if that indeed was true.

I stood there, analysing the issue thoroughly. My eyes were almost bulging with surprise, deep in my thoughts, until Rishabh shook me out of my trance. I shot him an incredulous look.

"Do you really have to be this petty, Rishabh? What's with you if I pair up with anyone? Why are you clogging your brain with this?" I narrowed my eyes, cocking my eyebrows at him as he stared at me with a poker face. I could depict from the change in his demeanor that he was surely taken aback at my charging question. He scratched the back of his neck and looked away from me.

"I am not being petty. I have a rational standpoint on this,- a thing that all of you baboons lack."

"Does your rational standpoint encourage you to insult me when I had absolutely nothing to do with Aakash's spiteful behaviour?"

"Look who's talking! You literally fed him the fuel that elongated that jerk's tongue!" He spat angrily, pulling me behind the car upon hearing loud cackling voices in the school courtyard.

"What the hell did I do that would vouch for Aakash's pettiness against you?" I whisper-yelled as we ducked behind the car.

"Shh..." He peeked to make sure that the voices had retracted back to the building. Looking down at our hands entangled together as I crouched on the ground behind the rusty car, Rishabh sighed exasperatedly.

"You literally took a stupid online compatibility test to form your partnership. Dixit, tell me, are you really that dumb? How can you rely on that random thing for such a significant decision? Of course, you've always lacked that analytical mind. But I didn't think you'd be this dumb." Alright. So I wasn't the only one who found the idea so so stupid. Rishabh often astonished me with the similarities in our perceptions. My lips curved up slightly at his words, completely ignoring the fact that my nemesis was calling me dumb to my face.

"Why the hell are you smiling now? You handed him the stick to beat me with. He saw that the Good Girl Sanvi Dixit is siding with him so why shouldn't he go all out against me... basing the entire thing on your mutual hatred towards me? Why shouldn't I hold you accountable for it then? Don't you hate me equally?" He stood up and placed his hand on the roof of the car, behind my shoulder. I looked away from him at our rather intimate position.

"I didn't want to take that stupid test!" I admitted through my teeth and groaned loudly at my own stupidity with handling Aakash.
"Aakash's persistence wearied me down. And yes, our mutual hatred might be equal for you but I would never stoop to the level of Aakash's petty maliciousness." Rishabh scoffed expressively at my words making me shoot him a stink eye.

"I don't care how you hate me personally. But I cannot tolerate you going around making clubs with your friends just to hate me together." A sudden silence engulfed the atmosphere as I tried to interpret his words. The softness at the end of his speech almost amazed me.

"He's not my friend!" I was almost too eager to clear that out in front of Rishabh. But the intent was rather unknown to me then.

"I don't care." And he was back with his cold voice. "The Championship is a very important engagement for me. And I won't let you baboons ruin our chances of winning it this year, for the sake of my own as well as our school." My eyes were strained from rolling back and forth at his consistent dramatic declarations. He truly was a drama king.

"I would have been the sole representative had the Committee not dropped that stupid clause for this year. If I had participated alone, there wouldn't have been any of such issues that we're facing right now and on top of that, the school would've had a sure shot at victory, relying only on me. Me!" He carelessly leaned against the car beside me with his fists in his pant-pockets. His words made me scoff outloud as I stared at his face, in disbelief of his arrogance.

"Wow. Do you even listen to these selfish words in your mind before you just spew them out?" I nodded my head to and fro in passive exhaustion. The jerk simply shrugged at my sarcastic remark. He stared straight-on, looking at nothing in particular while I couldn't help but admire his beautifully structured side-profile. That jaw could cut through a chunk of butter in a smooth swipe. He might have been lamenting over the loss of his dream regarding the Championship and although I absolutely hated how selfish his desire was, I couldn't help but feel a teensy bit of pity for him right then. I would've been devastated too had I been in his place but I wasn't an egotistical hypercompetitor like him. I shook my head to bring myself back to address the subject at hand.

"Tell me, Rathore. What does your brilliant mind suggest we do in this sticky situation?" He almost leaped up at my question, as if he had been waiting for this turn in the conversation for a long time.

"Uhm.. For the starters, I think both of us should stick to obeying Father's punishment. I don't wanna risk my graduation due to your mistake." Whaaaat? How did he manage to make it all my fault when he was equally responsible?
He stood there, scratching the back of neck, almost making me feel like a stupid bimbo for feeling pity for him on two whole occasions. He deserved what he got.

I knew what he was indicating at. But his tone wasn't one with his proposal. I attempted to pry at his weak nerve a bit more.

"Whatever do you mean, Rathore? We are talking about the Championship here. Father didn't direct us to carry out our punishment alongwith the Championship, did he? We're already so busy."

He turned to look at me with a frown. Hehe.

"That doesn't mean that he won't be expecting our utter diligence towards his order. This includes the Championship as well. Don't tell me that you've not noticed the way he looked at us during his speech in the Cafeteria? You've been going around ignoring me throughout the past month and we've barely interacted, let alone participate in something together. Don't you think Father would have noticed that, especially when he had clearly specified that he'd be watching us for the entire session?"

I twisted my lips while pondering over his words. Quite honestly, I was too worried about Father's punishment. Father was a man of his words, and his strictness would surely push him to expel us in the end of the session if Rishabh and I didn't recover from the detrimental consequences of our disputes by then. He had directed us to participate in everything together and the word 'together' itself was a big threat to my unstable mind back then when I was fresh out of the trauma of losing my first kiss to Rishabh. Right then, Rishabh's argument seemed fairly justified.
However, just for the fun of it, I tried to probe a bit further into his standpoint.

"Then what are you suggesting, Rathore?" I was clearly enjoying the frustration in his demeanor right then.

"Bimbo! Which part of my speech can't you comprehend? I am... propo...saying.. that we should pair up together..." I almost couldn't decipher the last part of his speech because he was rather fumbling with his words, almost making it seem that he was having a good deal of difficulty in choosing his words.

"I am sorry, come again?" I poked my right ear out towards him in mockery.

"I SAID I WANT US TO BE PARTNERS." Advancing my ear towards him was honestly a bad action on my part. I flinched away from him and massaged my ear while looking at his annoyed face with an even more annoyed expression.

There was an awkward silence between us after that until he spoke out while clearing his throat.

"For the sake of our final exams... For Father. We should obey his orders right? Other than that, I would've stayed as far away from you as possible." He twisted his lips and led out a sigh, folding his hands against his chest, making my eyes dart down to his body, following his movements. I gulped whilst shooing those unwanted thoughts away at that moment.

I raised my eyebrows in a questioning gaze. Did he absolutely have to clarify his intention behind the proposal in that way? Quite unknowingly, my lips curved up into a bizzare smile at the bizzare situation. Never in my lifetime had I imagined to be in such a situation with Rishabh Rathore. But then again, I didn't have a zilch of idea that I'd go on to lose my first kiss to him, so what did I even know?

"Rishabh?" I called out his name softly, making him shoot his gaze towards me in surprise.

"What?" He furrowed his brows upon seeing my bewildering smile.

"You're..well, aren't you? I mean, mentally?" He scoffed loudly at my animated gestures towards his head. "You're proposing that we undertake the Championship,- your biggest dream and mine as well,-as a pair in tasks that would require a strong bond and cooperation when in reality we can't even stand being in the same room together! Don't you remember what blithering piles of disaster we stir up whenever we come together?" I was shocked at my own disposition when I pressed my lips together, muffling a fit of giggles while questioning him about the absurd idea. It was just something about seeing Rishabh Rathore stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Stop that." He swatted away at my palm that was clutching my mouth. "We're not kids. It's not something we can't work out. And even if we can't work out our differences, we simply have to adjust and keep our hatred aside because right now, we lack any other feasible option." His frustrated frown deepened as I couldn't control laughing out loud while banging on the roof of the car with my hand.

"We'll work it out? Hahaha" I clutched my stomach as it was beginning to hurt. He narrowed his eyes at me with a murderous look.

"Alright..okay. Go away. I can't tolerate your merriment anymore." He repeatedly pushed my shoulder in frustration, urging me to walk away. I immediately ceased my maniacal laughter, gasping along as he partially surrendered himself to the outlandish situation. I poised my breath and turned around with a smirk.

"Okay...I'll walk away."

I whipped my pony against his face while starting on my shoes towards my scooty. I felt his burning gaze on my back.

"Wait.." As anticipated, I was pulled back with a jerk in no time and came face to face with a rather helpless looking Rathore.

"Shouldn't you inform the change in your partnership to your new friend gloating back there in the Cafeteria?" I leaned back on my scooty.

"Who said yes to your proposal?" I folded my hands against my chest and pulled my nose up in a haughty gesture. I was determined to see him beg for it after spoiling my own partnership for him.

I relished every second of the changes in his expression then. His facial expressions indicated that he must've felt like a rotisserie chicken kept over a grill for roasting since the last fifteen minutes.

"It was not a proposal!" He snarled at me, making me chuckle. "And why doesn't the simply thing go through your hard skull? We'll be doomed if you and I don't pair up together. St. Louis will lose the cup and Father will be humiliated on the very last year before his retirement. And right at the end of it all, we'll be barred from graduating. Will that make you happy, Sanvi? Huh?"
I clicked my tongue in mockery of his urgency.

"How can you possibly think that us teaming up will help the school win the Championship? Of course, I do agree that we're both well equipped with the knowledge and skills to win it but can you assure me that you'd behave and not make me lose my patience throughout the entire process? If you agree to take the responsibility for all our disputes from the past as well the ones still in the bag, then I might just give it a thought." I smirked, feeling entirely giddy with the power that I held over him right then. I knew I had to scram in order to settle the effect upon him and immediately turned to mount my scooty.

The moment I turned around, Rishabh grasped onto my arm and spinned me around. My butt hit the seat of the scooty and his angry frame hovered close over me, bending me to the extent that I felt like my heart would burst out any second at our sudden closeness.

"What are you...doing..." I felt it hard not to stammer as I felt his warm breath once again trickle the skin of my neck. He clasped my waist with one arm, pulling me up against his frame as his other hand rested beside my butt on the scooty seat.

"I am doing no such thing and you'll still have to be my partner since I know you are worried about the issue of the team as much as I am... You love your school way too much to just abandon it in such a plight. I know you a lot better to say that you love your rank a bit more than that to just throw your hardwork away at the cusp of graduation because of a stupid punishment with your biggest enemy. I know you in and out, Bimbo." He exhaled directly into my right ear in his intimidating voice, making me physically shiver at the sensation. I gulped at the proximity we shared right then but his words almost made me stumble off of the scooty. He was standing in between my legs and god forbid I moved even a little bit then because I knew a little push would turn to shove. But I knew I had to maintain my poise. I couldn't let him see my mushy demeanor under his excruciating uncomfortable hold. I straightened my head and matched our gazes in a fiery interlock. I attempted to feign my nervousness with a lopsided smirk.

"You seem to know a whole lot about your supposed enemy. One might misconstrue your hatred towards me as a creepy obsession, Rathore. Tell me honestly, are you in love with me or something?" I joked as his eyes darkened. All of a sudden, a hearty cackle erupted out of his chest as he pulled me even closer to his frame at my words. My smirk vanished instantly.

I was obviously not expecting that reaction. Our faces were inches away and I could feel his breath on my lips.
The tingles were back. And I almost felt like castrating myself for saying that to his face. His head shifted to my right ear, making me close my eyes shut at the curdling sensation bursting throughout my body.

"Shut up, Dixit." He blew into my ear and whispered in a rather toe-curling voice.

My hold on his white shirt became tighter and I was almost panting like I had run for miles. However, just when I thought he'd finally end this sweet torture, a bolt of electric surged through my spine when I felt his lips accidentally brush against my earlobe as he moved his face sideways. A helpless whimper involuntarily escaped my mouth and I felt him stiffen at the sound of that. My eyes remained close because I couldn't bear looking into his eyes after that unfortunate slip.

I gasped as his lips imprinted a soft moist peck underneath my ear, his mouth hungrily nearing my jawline. Till then, I had already lost the little sense I had in myself to rebuke him. My stomach churned with desire as I felt his smooth, tender lips imprint yet another moist kiss on my jawline. I swore I could hear both of our heartbeats reverberating and the thought that Rishabh might be feeling exactly what I have been feeling right then, made my knees give out. I was rather thankful for the cage of his hands wounded tightly around my waist.

**********

TBC

Do check out my recent shot on SanDhir.
Link- http://w.tt/1WIFIH9
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