"Pass me the bottle of water please!" Rey said half-asleep.
Sharon throwed the botrle of Hydrogen oxide to Rey and smiled in reply.
They were sitting in the bus and all set to go back to their college from the National Dance Camp.
Everybody in the bus slept except for Vicky and Neha.
Neha was busy looking outside and listenning to songs, whereas Vicky was busy in staring at her.
"She looks so pretty when she smiles." Vicky thought to himself.
"Hi Neha!" Vicky said as he came near her seat.
Neha jerked up to see who called her, and when she turned and saw Vicky, she went into his dreamland with the long eye-lock they shared.
Neha was the first to come into senses and she fidgeted a little.
"Um. Er. I er need to talk to you!" Vicky stated hesitantly.
Neha just shifted her place a little and replied "Um, Neha not wanting to talk now. Talking later please!"
Disappointment and Denial was evident on Vicky's face, yet he just passed her a smile and went back to his place with a snoring Nilesh.
He knew he loved her and did not want to risk her comfort for any of his own stupid tactics or behaviours.
He thought about how bravely Neha had tried to handle the situation, the stupid awkward situation he had very conveniently added between their love.
For him, Neha was the epitome of beauty, Aprohodite on earth.
He loved Neha not because of her beauty but solely because of her crystalline heart and those innocent eyes screaming for love and attention.
And he knew she had loved him back, but just one loss of her team and he had become Vicky for her instead of the cute name Babu she had given him.
As much as he tried to, he just couldn't forgive her, and Nilesh hadn't been much of help either!
Vicky mentally made a note to himself that he should talk to Swayam about it.
True, he should either approach Rey or Nilesh since they were his best buddies, but forgiveness and optimism was what only Swayam possessed in their gang.
If here Vicky was all restless and sleep-depriven, so was Taani.
She kept thinking about the little moment she and Reyaansh experienced when the bus had jerked started and she fell directly on his lap and shared an intense eye-lock.
Sometimes, she thought Rey loved her back, but she knew, this was far away to be possible.
She remembered his denial towards her when she had tried to confess her feelings by taking a bold step of stepping into the shoes of his first love.
He had screamed and shouted at her, told her she had lost her senses and then said he was concerned about her only because she was Swayam's sister.
Sometimes she just cursed God for making her Swayam's sister because if not for that, she wouldn't have had to face the brute Reyaansh in the Fire Exit and nor would she have the wrong impression that Rey had a soft corner towards her.
Taani simply sighed and reclined in her seat, she felt bad as she remembered that Rey thought of her only as an immature, childish girl.
She so wanted to go and scream at him, tell him he was wrong, but whatever it may be, she was and will always be after all Swayam's cousin.
She smiled at the thought that she had the traits of her brother in her, because she truly did not want to be like her real brother and / or her parents.
Her parents were simple yet orthodox people who did not want a girl child.
She heard stories from her Maami, Swayam's mother on how she had fooled her mother saying it's a boy during her ultra-scan.
On the mention of her maami, she just loved her.
Her maami gave her the love her parents never gave her solely because she was a girl child and a so-called "burden".
And her Mama-Jee was no less, he loved her dearly like a father, and unlike her dad, he was very open and broad minded with great sense of humor and responsibilty.
For Taani, denial was nothing new, and that is why it did not effect her much when Rey said he never loved her and wanted her to go away from him.
But somewhere in her heart, she wanted Rey to come to her, love her, make her feel special and wanted just the way her brother made Sharon feel.
She wanted, infact she yearned to be loved dearily by somebody, and when she thought Shivam was her friend, she got to know she was just a tissue paper for him, evident from the way he "Man-Handled" her.
It was really shocking for her, yet she thought it was the after-math of the bottle of beer he was drinking when Shivam had tried to touch her when she was coming back from the mission assigned to her to bring Sharon out by Rey.
How she wished she could just wash away those bad memories and just be happy and chirpy she was, or may be pretended to be.
The only thing, the only person that made her feel special, loved, wanted and worthy was her brother Swayam.
She was not his real sister, but he loved her dearly and was really possessive and protective in a positive way about her.
When she had told him that she and Shivam were a couple and dating each other, he did not care about the after-math and simply supported her going against his Friends, Sharon and also his personal hatred towards Shivam.
Now she understood why Swayam, Rey, Sharon and all others had warned her to stay away from Shivam and maintain a distance.
How she wished she would have listenned to them, at least she would have not felt hurt, agonised and most importantly disgusted at herself.
She felt disgusted only because she let Shivam be friends with her, pretend to be a couple, let him kiss her in front of Reyaansh and most importantly get wrong signals from her and touch her when she was alone.
She felt bad that she had indirectly hurt and betrayed her brother, he had made her promise him that he would not let Shivam, infact anybody hurt her, but by her stupid antics, she let him, she let him hurt her and now she could not even make eye contact with Swayam.
Had she heard the warnings, she wouldn't have been this way right now.
Taani sighed and got up as she realized, sleep was nautical miles away from her eyes just like Rey was right now.
She looked around to see if anybody was awake, and she saw him awake, he was looking out of the window and his hair blowing with the cool breeze that fell on his face.
Taani avoided to talk to him, what would she say to him, that despite his warnings, she let Shivam hurt her even though they were just Pretending to be To-gether?
No, she just couldn't face him, she could not face him even though she knew he would always support her and keep on loving her the way he has been up till now, but no she just couldn't.
She could not tell him that she had stooped herself low, beyond her imagination by letting a guy come near her, and also betrayed him and his ineroxable trust on her.
But she knew, she some day or the other will have to talk to him about this, after all they stayed together and most importantly, he was her brother, her guide, her ideal.
She had felt very proud when his name had been announced as the National Level Winner of the Dance Camp in Freestyle Boys.
She loved his passion for dance, his devotion and his immense love for it.
There was this one thing he had which she didn't and lacked, passion and most importantly a set goal in life.
How she wished she could be like him, like her ideal, like her role model, like her elder brother.
If anything she thanked God for, was for giving him her brother, Swayam, a true friend, a true guide and her perfect role model.
How she wished she could be like him, selfless and passionate, and when she had tried being the same for Rey, all she faced was denial, but she never had the strength to keep telling him how much she loved him just the way Swayam did to Sharon.
And here, not only Taani, but also Sharon was thinking about Swayam, the way he looked, innocent when he started out the window aimlessly at the every passing thing in their excurtion.
Sharon was happy to know that Swayam was still there, loving her, making her feel special and most importantly, making her fall in love with him.
How much she wished that she could reciprocate only 1% of his intense love and admiration towards her.
But, nevertheless, she longed to be in his arms forever, mixing their breaths and finding solace.
She looked at him, he looked tensed which increased her stress.
She did not want him to be tensed, and most importantly be the reason for tension!
His calm and serene face gave her strength to fight every problem, but his tensed face gave her more stress and she would worry about all day as to why he was tensed.
And that is exactly what she felt now.
Why was he looking so tensed and stressed out, was he okay, what's the problem?
Where the questions which came across her, but she knew, even if she asked him, he wouldn't tell her, because he did not want her to take any tension as he would not bear it, after all he loved her!
*End of Chapter