Cigarettes & Peonies

26

"WHAT!!! DID HE REALLY DO THAT!!!!" vaishali yelled on the phone. Maahi bit her lip and nodded.
"Yes. I don't know what's wrong with him." whispered maahi nervously. Vaishali drew in a breath.
"Oh God!!! What is his problem!!! Look babes, you better stay clear of him. Meanwhile I'll talk to him and ask him if he needs a good mental health treatment." vaishali said. Maahi's phone pinged abruptly. She looked at the screen and saw a whatsapp notification floating on the screen.
"Vaishu, I'll call you back ok. I have a message from someone." maahi told vaishali. The latter uttered a quick goodbye and hung up. Maahi huffed as she tapped on the notification. The message opened and it read
9********0- Hi Maahi, it's KV here.
Maahi's brows furrowed. KV!!! What on earth does that mean. Out of the blue there popped something in her head.
"KV. Karanvir." she gasped as she looked into the screen in horror. Her fingers quivered as she typed on her phone.
Are you Karanvir??
Instantly there popped up a response from his side.
KV- Oh Hi, I am glad that you responded 🥰🥰
Maahi's blood froze. Firstly from where the hell did he get her number and secondly, why was he texting her in the first place?? She's not his classmate, his batchmate or even his friend, than why was he so much weird with her.
Where did you get my number from?? She typed shakily. The reply was instant.
KV- That's no big deal. How are you btw??
Her face contorted into a frown.
M- It is important. Please tell me who gave you my number. My brothers??
KV- No brother will do that you know it well. And as I mentioned earlier, this is not important. What is important is how are you?? Enjoying Sunday??
M- You don't get to decide what is important for me or not. All I want to know is how did you get my number. I am pretty sure nobody else has my number besides for my best friend and my teachers.
KV- Aren't you just too stubborn sometimes?? But that's fine, I find it cute though. Ok!! I have other ways to get my stuff done and please don't ask me again and again the same annoying question. I have your number and that's the end of it. Now my cutie, will you tell me whatcha doing??☺️☺️
M- I am reading a book.
KV- Ok!! Which one??
M- Every creature has a story by Janaki Lenin.
KV- That's cool. I suck at English you know. But I know you're quite good at it. Would you mind teaching me a bit?? Pretty please.
M- I am average honestly. I don't know that much English.
KV- Well you know better than people in my family. I mean we are absolutely trash when it comes to English. If there's only person who can compete with you in the language of outsiders than it's my auntie, my uncle's wife. Viraj Ranawat is my uncle you know.
M- Hm. Will you tell me why did you texted me??
KV- Because I wanted to talk to you. Not always you need a solid reason for every of your action. Had your breakfast??
M- Yes. But why do you want to talk to me?? We're not even friends.
KV- We can be more than that😅😅
M- I don't understand.
KV- Huh!!! Never mind. Any plans for today??
M- Um, I guess if you have no business with me than I should just go.
KV- I won't ever let you go.
M- Huh!!
KV- Yeah. I won't ever let you go away from me, I promise.
Maahi was flummoxed. What was he trying to say?? Quickly she switched off her phone and threw it on her bed.
"Vaishali calls him a dork for all right reasons. Huh dork." she muttered under her breath as she marched off to her bed for a quick pre-afternoon nap.

Maahi woke up in three indefinite intervals. First one was soon after she fell asleep but quickly she covered up and dozed off again. Second she woke up during the lunch hours, stuffed her lunch into her tummy and ran back to the bed. Perks of peaceful Sundays you know. Third time she woke up in the evening, around 5-5:30 pm. A chilly draught of air was swaying in through the wide open windows and she actually did felt a shiver. She yawned and climbed off the bed. Her eyes squiz at the phone lying on the bed. She picked it up and unlocked it, totally forgetting that now there's a man called Karanvir who has her number on his contact list. No sooner had she unlocked her phone, countless of messages started flooding her screen. Her mouth fell open at the sight of it as all messages were coming from one single number, Karanvir Roy's personal number. She shuddered as she opened the messages and started peering over them hurriedly.
Why aren't you responding maahi??
Are you mad at me??
Did I do something??
Now suddenly the tone changes and there was an apparent lack of sweetness in his messages.
You better talk to me maahi.
I don't appreciate it when you ignore me.
Maahi, for god's sake you're gonna madden me in a minute. Just talk to me dammit.
Fear settled inside her body. Her legs felt jelly after looking into those scary messages. She didn't had the courage to read every single one of them, therefore she skipped down to the last and read the latest one from him.
I'm around you gorgeous.
Her breath stuck in her throat. Cold sweat broke on her forehead. Fearfully she peered around her room, in case he was around waiting to strike her from behind. But the room was empty. She sighed in relief, though she still had this nagging feeling that he was around as he promised. To ease her mind, she plodded towards the window and looked outside. The undulating mountains were the first thing to catch her attention, the second was the evening sky and third was KARANVIR. What the hell!!! She looked down closely and saw his big figure mounted on a sleek Harley Davidson, surrounded by his own friends plus few blokes from across the block. He was seemingly talking to them randomly and laughing like most boys do. Her figure was shaking. She wished him not to see her and she even tried to make a dash for downstairs but only if her feet agree to move. And because Karanvir is the universe's most favourite kid, he gets what he wants. His eyes crawled up to her window and there she was, face pallid and lips quivering. He tightened his fists and tried to shut off his surging libido from storming up to her bedroom and kissing her senselessly, he might do other things as well you know. She saw how his face brightened when he caught her standing behind the window, but in some ways he looked so vice and cunning. He smiled at her and waved her hi. She gasped and quickly ran inside her room. Karanvir chuckled.
"The girl here is pretty cute you know." said the guy from the round the corner, Karanvir hardly knew him as he was a casual friend of Akhil. Karanvir glared at him.
"Hm and her boyfriend is a serial murderer you know. Very possessive about her. Kills guys who stare at her in a wrong way." karanvir snapped at him. Akhil and bhalla looked nervously at Karanvir as the latter was fuming. The guy laughed it off.
"Really. She doesn't look like one to keep boyfriends. However, if the chap's a homicidal freak than he must be in jail right now." the guy laughed and said casually. Karanvir's expressions hardened.
"Ah Uh!! He's not. He's right here." said Karanvir darkly. The guy looked confused.
"Um, I don't see him." he said nervously. Karanvir planted his hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye.
"He's right in front of you." he said cruelly. The guy stopped laughing. His face now taut in fear.
"Y-Yo....."
"Yeah, that's me. I'm her boyfriend and she belongs to me." *grabs him by the scruff of his neck and continues* " And I don't appreciate when other guys look at what's mine. You better keep your eyes to yourself ok. Maahi khandelwal belongs to Karanvir Roy and she is going to be the daughter-in-law of the mafia king Roys. Am I clear??" Karanvir spat darkly. The guy couldn't even find his voice. He merely nodded and the big bad guy set him free.

Early in the night maahi was piling up her books on her study table and also setting up her bag for tomorrow morning. Suddenly she heard a ping on her phone. Casually she grabbed her phone and looked into it. It was a message from one and only bad boy, The Karanvir Roy. She gasped as warily she tapped on the message to read it.
KV- Come to your window.
She hiccuped as she fearfully walked to her window. Looking down she found him standing right behind the gate of her property. He was grinning broadly.
"Hi maahi." he said in a breathless whisper, too preoccupied in admiring her. Her fingers digged into the fabric of her clothes as she looked at him with fear.
"What are you doing here??" she asked bluntly. He pouted.
"You didn't even say Hello. That's not good." he complained. She bit her lip and that rascal saw it from more than 15 feet down. Explains why he was actually opening and closing his fists.
"Hello. Now tell me what are you doing here??" she asked softly. His smile widened.
"Just came to see you. I was just going back to home, thought to see you before I leave." he replied honestly. She felt weird and even scared too. Why did he wanted to see her?? She even don't know why was he acting so weirdly lately.
"You don't need to do that." she said nervously. His smile faded off and was replaced by a hard frown.
"I do need to do that maahi. You just don't understand it. You don't understand anything yet. But I'll make you realise everything I promise, sooner or later. Goodnight. Let's meet tomorrow." and with that he mounted his Harley Davidson and sped off to his home. Maahi was bewildered.
"He has some serious issues." she whispered and went inside her room.

Around 1:00 am in the night, Karanvir was lying on his huge king sized bed in his room. The windows were open and the cool night wind from the mountains was coming inside the room, yet the buck head was stark from above his waist. There was a notebook on his side on the bed and he was inking something on it. On a closer look it reveals three words written in bold letters on the paper 'I LOVE MAAHI'. He smiled to himself as he thought about her. Her cute innocent face, those little chubby cheeks he badly wanted to squeeze the life out of, long silky hairs through which he can just run his fingers all his life and that sweet peony fragrance of her; he indeed was going crazy after her. He grabbed his phone from the bed side table, kissed her picture on the screen and unlocked his Instagram. He does have to lock everything as kavyansh is getting more inquisitive day by day as he's growing up. It's not like that he has any bad things stowed inside his phone yet few things are just not for kids of his age, especially the conversations he has with his friends which mostly are centred on cuss words and illogical swearings. Anyways, straight he went to her Instagram, clicked on the follow button and smiled. With nearly 14k followers bombarding his Instagram, he was only interested in following his little maahi. He started scrolling through her following list randomly. Initially it was ok but as he progressed down he caught something which pricked his eyes. She was following Kunal Dhawan, the guy from the college. He had a charming smile which Karanvir loathed wholeheartedly. Indeed he was insecure. That charming smile threatened to woo the girl he's crazy for. His blood boiled. Quickly he rang bhalla's number. Bhalla picked up in first ring itself.
"Yes Bhaiya ji, everything ok??" he asked half asleep. Karanvir's eyes were dark.
"Find out about this Kunal Dhawan. He's a guy from the college." Karanvir ordered fiercely. Bhalla assented and Karanvir disconnected the call. After that he looked up in his profile and discovered a picture of him and maahi together in their classroom. There were pictures with other people as well which he didn't notice or didn't felt the need to. He picked up the pen from the notebook and drew a cross on his picture. He kissed maahi's picture before throwing a deadly glare at his crossed picture.
"Maahi is mine alone you rat face. You will pay the price for standing next to what's mine." he hissed as he looked lethally at his picture.
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