Loving You

Chapter 20 - Akshara - Arrow to the Heart

I sat up straight, trying to unfurl the knots in my stomach and irrational anger I was feeling when Abhimanyu grabbed a glass beer and pizza and seated himself beside me.

"You good?" He asked, clinking his beer glass with mine before taking a swig.

No, I'm not. I had to see you flirting with Reet all night. Of course I'm not good. I'm bitter. Even though I had no right to be. "Yes. Of course. Why'd you ask?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. For someone who was very excited to hang out and go bowling, you have been pretty quite the entire night."

He had noticed? Had I been that obvious? Oh crap! "Oh no, I'm just chilling you know." Really? Chilling? Even I was appalled at my own pathetic excuses.

He glanced at me suspiciously, clearly not convinced by my answers but he was smart enough to not push the topic further.

I don't even know what have overcome me when I had seen him talking to Reet. And ignoring you, my brain added. Shouldn't I be happy for him? Reet, my friend Reet, the one I had known for the last 4 years since undergrad was a great girl. Rather then be annoyed and grumpy about Abhimanyu and Reet getting, I should instead be elated!

Isn't this what I wanted? For Abhimanyu to spread his wings, make friends, be more extroverted? And Reet was perfect for him too! She was smart, kind and even studying to be an ophthalmologist. In fact I should be thrilled that two of my friends could potentially start dating —and I was the one responsible for bringing them together.

But I wasn't. Thrilled that is. I wasn't happy that Abhimanyu and Reet could potentially start dating and the reason was me. My stomach churned and I felt like regurgitating knowing that I was the one to have brought them together. Would it be selfish of me to say that I didn't want Reet and Abhimanyu to start dating? Because on paper they were perfect for each other. But...

Stop it Akshara! You and Abhimanyu are just friends. And if he is interested in Reet, you need to be happy for him. You cannot control who he likes and loves.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Abhimanyu questioned, snapping me out of my self created nightmare.

"Oh sorry, I'm back." I replied, forcing myself to smile.

"For the first time there is someone whose equally good as Akshara is at bowling." Nia broke the awkward silence that has been looming around the 5 of us.

"And I may not come in last this time! All thanks to Abhimanyu." Reet was shooting heart eyes at Abhimanyu's direction who —bless his heart seemed oblivious to Reet's shameless flirting just as I was seconds away from smacking the broad teasing smile off of Reet's stupid, dumb, face. Control Akshara, control!

"Oh no, I did nothing. It was all you." Abhimanyu replied, refusing to take any credit. And why did he have to be so effortlessly charming?! Gosh! Calm, Akshu, calm.

"So how does it feel to know that you may be beaten this time, Aksh?" Nia asked, eying me curiously, skipping over Reet and Abhimanyu's conversation completely.

Normal, Akshara. You have to be normal. I rolled my eyes, "Oh please. Abhimanyu's got nothing on me. In the end, there will only be one winner, and that'll be me." I replied without hesitation.

"But what if it ends up in a tie? It could happen you know." Abhimanyu retorted.

"It won't."

"What if it does?"

"It won't." I replied, glaring at Abhimanyu.

"We'll see about that." He responded, calmly, taking it up as a challenge.

"You're turn Nia." Armaan announced as he switched spots with Nia.

While we waited to Armaan to come back, we all dug in to the food and satiated our empty stomachs. If you had asked me an hour ago if I was hungry, I would have told you that I was starving to the point where I could eat a horse. But now that the food was here, I wasn't hungry anymore. I had seen more than I could stomach tonight so food was the last thing on my mind.

I took a large swig of beer, gulping down whatever was remaining in the glass. Enough Akshara, stop thinking about it —them. You are here to enjoy with your friends and that is exactly what you're going to do. Once I put aside any intrusive thoughts of Abhimanyu and Reet, the night became pretty entertaining. We were loud and brash and found reasons to laugh on the even the most bizarrest of things.

Once I pushed aside the thought of Abhimanyu and Reet, I actually started to get my groove back. I even gave Abhimanyu a high-five when I knocked over the pins for my third strike in a row. The night was good. Life was good. Only once I stopped thinking of Abhimanyu and Reet, together, as a couple that is.

~*~

"And Abhimanyu and Akshara are the winners for the night with 200 points each. Nia is third with 160 points. I'm fourth with 140 and surprisingly, Reet managed to accumulate more than 80 points this time."

"See told you we'd tie." Abhimanyu informed me, glancing from the screen back at me.

"It's a coincidence." I quipped, still slightly annoyed about the Reet and him.

"Is it though? Weren't you the one to claim that coincidences rarely occurred?" His question came out more as a statement as he threw our earlier conversation from my apartment back at me.

"Guys let's go?" Nia asked, interrupting what would probably end up being our third argument of the night, not counting the continuous argument i was currently dealing between my emotional and rational side.

Once we reached the parking lot, we all said our goodbyes and made plans to hopefully get together for another round of bowling soon.

"I'll get the car." Armaan excused himself from the group.

"Does anyone need a ride?" Abhimanyu asked, looking directly at me.

"No. We came with Armaan, and he's more than happy to drop us back." I declined politely.

I would have accepted his offer had I not been feeling petty, and also needing the time to put some distance in between us. I convinced myself that Abhimanyu —or well worrying about seeing him with other girls was going to be cause me to have a mental breakdown and thus why, I needed to draw up some imaginary boundaries.

"You can give me a ride if you'd like?" Reet interjected, leaning on Abhimanyu's shoulders for support.

Crap! I should have accepted his offer. Was it too late to revert my no to a yes? I looked over at Reet leaning in on Abhimanyu's shoulders while he looked more than happy to help support her by wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Clearly she did not handle her alcohol well and had become tipsy on a mere 2 glasses of beer.

Armaan brought the car around and I gestured for Nia to sit on the passenger seat while I flung the back doors with a jolt and slammed the door shut once I was seated inside.

I lowered the window, maintaining unwavering eye contact with Abhimanyu. "You can drop her home." I sneered.

And began to roll the window up just as Abhimanyu began to say, "But I don't even know her address..."

Too bad. "Let's go." I nodded at Armaan angrily, giving Abhimanyu one last glance as he stood there, shocked, frozen in the exact place, holding onto a tipsy Reet in his arms. Good. Serves him right.