The Great Indian College Romance

9. Truce

"And you Mr Mehra have a knack for rescuing damsels in distress," I said jokingly but the gratitude I felt for this man at this moment far outweighed everything else. 

Maybe I wasn't in any real danger, maybe it was all in my head. And yet I felt all my senses relax in his presence. I really wanted to hug him but had to quash the impulse very carefully. I did not want a repeat of last time. 

"What even were you doing out here?" he said and shook his head.

"I was trying to make a call, it's really loud in there."

"Yug and Siddharth are in the car if you were trying to contact them," he said turning away.

At that moment I saw Nirav and his posse emerging out of the lounge and grabbed Angad's hand leading him farther away from its entrance. I had no wish to interact with any of those individuals ever again. 

Angad seemed taken aback by my sudden contact but followed me without comment. 

"I'm sorry it has just been a very weird evening for me, I was trying to avoid certain people," I offered a hushed explanation as they left the premises. 

Angad strained a little to get a look at the people in question.

"What happened?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. 

"Nothing," I answered. 

"Meera, is everything okay? Are you in trouble?" he asked looking at me very earnestly. 

"No, no everything is fine. I just got roped into this weird interaction... it was just stupid. A classmate of mine is friends with the union people, he introduced me around and I'd just rather not go through the ordeal of interacting with them ever again," I sighed running a hand through my hair, not meeting his eye. 

I knew I was rambling at this point. 

"Hey," he said very gently, "You can tell me."

I met his eyes and he had such a tender look that I felt myself leaning in a little. His gaze flitted to my lips and our breaths mingled. His eyes were so beautiful and he smelled heavenly. Our lips were millimetres away when I regained my senses and jumped back. 

"No," I whispered. 

Angad stepped back and groaned. 

"Meera," he sighed. 

"I am so sorry but I have to leave." 

I would say I ran away from him but let's be real, after spending hours in those four-inch heels the best I did was hobbled away as fast as I could. Angad did not attempt to stop me and I was glad for that. 

***

Hours later I lay awake in Vahni's room thinking of that moment. 

Why do I always end up this way with Angad Mehra? The score for us meeting and ending up inches from each other's mouths has been 2 for 2 so far. 

Sure he was attractive but when had that been a deciding factor for my romantic preference? It helped I guess but then again, I didn't really know him. I could count things I knew about him on one of my hands. 

Why am I so compelled to mash my mouth against his every single time?

There was the remote possibility I liked him but it was too preposterous to even consider. I shoved that thought aside. It was too early to tell and that was one thing I had to stay away from. 

I had angry texts from Yug because I hadn't stopped to meet them after I ran away from the Angad debacle. I ran inside the lounge saw Vahni right away who was actually looking for me the whole time.