Back to You

Lines Crossed

Hearing those words he grabs my wrists in his hands and with his face inches away from mine whispers "I wish I could hate you."

Seconds pass by with both of us staring at each other. Our eyes shift to look at each other's lips and I can feel his breath on mine.

Karan's POV:

I walk up the stairs and lean against the wall. I force myself to take a breath as I rake my hands through my hair in frustration. Fuck what am I doing? We're over but here I am looking for any crumb to validate what she feels for me. Back to being that guy I vowed to never become again. The one that invests so much in a relationship and always gets left behind picking up the pieces. Here I am once again picking up the pieces and convincing myself one of them says that she still feels something.

I shouldn't care what she does, I don't have any right to care, but the sight of them together made my blood boil. All I wanted to do was pull him away from her and drag her out of the club. The worst part is I know she was just doing this to make me jealous and there I was falling right into the trap.

I don't know what type of hold she has over me that five months after our breakup I'm still here feeling possessive. I've seen exs move on before and it never hurt like the possibility of Teja moving on. This is the problem. She's always brought out the worst and best emotions in me and on such extreme levels. I've never loved someone the way I love her, leaving me completely unable to move on.

I go to the bar and order a scotch on the rocks. The bartender brings it to me and I swallow it down in one go. I put my head into my hands and force myself to calm down. I close my eyes but the image of them is imprinted in my mind. As much as I didn't want to admit it to her, I still care... I care so much. There's no point in admitting it to her though. She's so deep in denial that all it would do is widen the gap between us. She would just go back to being awkward around me. I just wish she would get out of my mind but ever since this show started she's been on my mind 24/7.

I'm broken out of my thoughts with someone's hand rubbing my back. I quickly lift my head and feel a pang of disappointment when I realize it's the girl I was talking to earlier and not Teja. Another girl my friends have tried to set me up with. They're tired of seeing me like this but no matter how many times they try to spring these girls on me, I don't feel anything.

I take her hand off my back and give her a small smile. "Hi Ankita. What are you doing here?"

She bats her eyelashes at me in the most unsubtle way. "I missed you. We never got to finish our conversation."

My friends really need to stop doing this. "I'm just not in the right mood. Uh, my friends are calling me over. I'll talk to you later."

I go to stand up but so does she. It's clear she's pretty drunk with the way she wobbles when she stands. I grab her hips to steady her and when she looks fine I take my hands off her.

She narrows her eyes at me and drops one hand on my thigh. She starts trailing it up and says "I can get you in the mood baby."

I immediately take her hand off me and stand up. "Uh, Ankita no. Where are your friends?"

I look around and spot them in the other corner dancing. I grab her hand and start walking her over to her friends. She's clearly way too gone. Her friends should be keeping a better watch on her. I already had to do this earlier in the night as well. Halfway to her friend group, I see Teja from the corner of my eye. Our eyes meet and she raises her glass at me as if she's congratulating me. I roll my eyes and ignore that.

I'm so tired of trying to explain myself to her. She's decided I'm some player and looks at everything I do in that way. No matter what I say she doesn't listen. She acts like a fucking jealous girlfriend but still won't admit she cares. Instead, all she does is throw passive-aggressive comments at me and judge me. I'm just so sick of it.