His Little Neighbour

three

It felt amazing to be pampered. And to be loved almost by everyone. Mashal has grown up in that kind of environment where whatever she did was praised and admired. She was truly loved, even in school and College. She was the ideal example of goody two shoes, she did have her moments of rebelling, a lot actually and being mischievous. But she was a good girl in all senses.

She has always listened to her parents, respected them and they loved her back like she was their whole world. This is why Mashal never knew what it feels to be not liked. At all.

And to experience that feeling for the first time in life was such a heartbreaking moment. It made her feel so damn vulnerable. She couldn't fathom why would anyone ever not like her. What did she ever do to that guy? Mashal wondered with a frown as she stood in front of the mirror at The Berries' restroom.

"It's your fault, we shouldn't be here at all, I didn't even get selected in the interview, yet. What was the need for celebrating?" Mashal whined to Meher.

Meher stared at her with uncertainty, "aapi, it's okay. Let's get back home, please. Mama and Papa are almost on the way."

"I swear, Meher. You get so unreasonable and bratty with your needs. We shouldn't have come here in the first place. I wouldn't have had to listen to all those awful words from that jerk. It's all your fault." Mashal snapped, being totally annoyed.

Their parents had gone to visit an old friend, while Meher was annoyingly persistent that they visit The Berries in their absence and just take out some smoothies. She was reluctant at first and her intuition said something definitely was going to go wrong. But boy, did her sister listen? Sure breaking rules and rebelling was fun, but at what cost?

"Appi, let's get back, please. I don't want mama and papa to know about this incident, he'll take my phone and PlayStation," her sister pleaded with her.

Mashal rolled her eyes at the hypocrisy. Whose plan was it to visit this place again?

"I'm not sure, papa will notice my change in mood automatically. He just does. I can't lie to him." She replied adamantly.

"You're being ridiculous," Meher groaned.

"Watch it, I'm your elder sister." She told her off and clutched her purse tightly, controlling her tears. Mashal hated to cry. Particularly in public places.

She felt frustrated at the fact that exactly when the mishap happened the music has stopped playing for a brief minute and exactly at that time she heard his insulting words crystal and clear.

They were in a hurry to order the smoothies quickly and get out of here. As their parents had no idea about this little rendezvous, Mashal was scared. Enough said.

They were almost done with grabbing their orders and running back home, but in nervousness, she tripped on her heels and poured her whole mango smoothie on some girl, who began to scream at her.

"I'm really and truly sorry, I'll- I'll get you some tissues," quickly she walked towards a waiter and grabbed the tissues he gave her and for a brief minute the music stopped playing. As she turned around, she came in eye contact with a guy, who passed her a flirty smile, and spoke with another guy, whilst still maintaining eye contact with her, "But both are hot nevertheless, I should probably find out if she's single. Do you think she'll agree if I ask her out?"

Mashal had no idea who the other one was, but her gut feeling said one of both was her. She honestly didn't know how to feel about that line before an oddly familiar voice interrupted her chain of thoughts.

It was her neighbour. His back was facing her but she can just tell it was him. Her blood rushed to her cheeks, feeling suddenly angry.

"No, look at her and look at you." Murat chuckled dryly, "you can do much better. She looks boring," Hearing each of his words felt like a stab in her soul. She didn't know why it hurt so bad, the other guy looked pretty shocked. And that's when Murat turned around to look at her and winced slightly.