Cigarettes & Peonies

08

Last chapter's best comment award goes to Babu-Rao-420, let's see who wins the award in this chapter. All the best.
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"Did you met Karanvir the day before????" Luv asked his twin. Maahi stiffened after hearing his name. She still hadn't forgotten what had happened last night in the restaurant. Kush clicked his tongue.
"No way. I was busy with the assignment." replied kush, yawning. Luv frowned upon him.
"If we won't approach him than how are we gonna find our way into the soccer team. C'mon kush, you need to be a bit more energetic." said luv disapprovingly. Kush was half dozing and had hardly heard anything. Meanwhile the honking of the bus was heard and the siblings turned to look at the approaching bus. The bus rolled stop close to them and they embarked the bus. Maahi sat near the vaishali, the girl who was slowly becoming her good friend. They both smiled at each other and the bus sped off to the bus stop. As the driver killed the engine in the bus stop, the first thing Maahi observed was the creepy Karanvir who stood wreathed in by his imbecile pals. His lips curled up into a sordid smirk upon catching sight of her. She forthwith looked down into her phone just to avoid his piercing gaze.
"Karanvir bhaiya ji!!!!" the boys in the back roared and for a second maahi felt that the bus was shaking. Maahi lifted up her gaze warily and stiffened on watching Karanvir occupying the very first seat of the bus, close to the driver. Fear spread inside her. She could feel his piercing stare hooked on her which kinda made her uncomfortable.
"Bhaiya ji are you ok there or should I join you!!!!" the cute guy who is always sticking around Karanvir, cackled. Karanvir smirked and eyed maahi creepily.
"Never felt better in my entire life." his husky voice boomed inside the bus as the boys in the bus had curiously went silent after his arrival. Maahi was restless and uneasy. Due to this creepy Karanvir she couldn't even look up, she felt like a prisoner for some reason.
"Vaishali I'm in the back ok." she whispered timidly to her bus friend who looked equally annoyed with karanvir's presence. She nodded and Maahi quickly stood up and sprinted towards her brothers.
"Got worked up!!!" she heard one of his friends whisper as she sat beside her brothers.
"What happened!!!!" Kush asked confused. Maahi clicked her tongue.
"I was getting bored there." she lied. Her brothers smiled. Luv began showing her his assignments. Maahi was fairly good in English which is why her brothers always made sure to have their assignments corrected by her, especially the acknowledgements. She deliberately delayed the correction by taking long time in reading every single line, which was unnecessary, but she had to delay in order to ignore the creepy Karanvir. But the creepy Karanvir wasn't creepy for no reason. While she was looking closely at those assignments, she heard a shuffle of feet closeby. Impulsively lifting up her gaze she found the creepy Karanvir sitting right in front of her, well obliquely. She was sitting on a vacant two seater, the boys occupying the seats were out, and Karanvir had sat on the last seat where they both were facing at each other obliquely. She shudders.
"Bhaiya ji, today we'll walk into the sciences department." a guy said to Karanvir who was staring squarely at maahi while Maahi was busy in correcting her brothers assignment. But maahi heard it and she had all reasons to fret. Sciences department was where she studied and them rambling inside her building wasn't a good sign, at least not for her. However, she kept on ignoring him and fixed her gaze onto the assignment.
"You should've mentioned the HOD's name as well." Maahi said to her brother, making sure that her eyes were solely on the papers. Luv gasped.
"Oh God. I'll have to write another one now. Thanks for letting me know, I mean that cranky professor of mine would've killed me had I shown this to him first." Luv said and rummaged inside his bag for an extra paper.
"Bhaiya ji, I am pretty sure your assignment will have tons of mistakes, after all jeet made it for you. Why don't you have it checked????" the cute guy once again cackled. Maahi gulped. She was trying hard to not pay heed to them but it just was becoming more and more difficult. Now this time she heard karanvir's faint chuckle.
"I would love to." he said this much but that's another thing that whistles and screams rumbled inside the bus. Maahi couldn't understand why were they going bananas over that. He said nothing particularly special after all.
"Ofcourse. Maahi can do this for you sir. I mean she is really good in English. Right maahi???" Kush said excitedly. Maahi gasped. Has her brother went mad???? She fearfully peeked at Karanvir to find him staring at her sinisterly. His lips had a sly smirk playing on them. She quickly withdrew her eyes off him and turned to her brother.
"The bus driver has come......I should leave for my seat." she whispered nervously and stood up, ignoring Karanvir. She started walking to her seat in the front. Behind her she could feel Karanvir on her heels, her unsteady breathing was enough to show how afraid she was at the moment. The driver was starting the bus, he jammed hard on the accelerator and Maahi lunged forward, thankfully her firm hold on the seat had prevented her from falling headlong on the bus floor. However, while her hand was still planted over the seat she felt something warm and fleshy brushing over her hand. She casually looked on her hand and gasped. Karanvir's fingers were skimming her hand, he might've also took to the seat for support when the bus gave a sudden jolt. She quickly retreated her hand and darted off to her seat.