Serendipity {Complete}

Chapter 13 - Miraya

"I really d-do have to p-pee." Miraya continues to stare somewhere off to Veer's shoulder.

"Want me to come with you?"

His offer startles her, though she still refuses to look at him. "No, t-thank you." Feeling compelled to soften her rejection, she adds, "T-There is enough l-light outside."

Veer lifts himself off of her, kneeling back on his haunches, watching her as she scrambles to her feet. Keeping her gaze averted, she quickly escapes to the toilet outside.

The small facility is tucked in the corner of the corridor, next to the stairs leading to the terrace, a few steps away from the bedroom. Inside the small, dank-smelling room, she does her business quickly but is reluctant to leave the smelly sanctuary.

She badly needed some time to process everything that had happened. And some distance from Veer. It was hard to focus on any one thought with him plastered against her. That was one of the things she was quite surprised about—he seemed to like physical intimacy. With all the kisses and petting, he had not once tried to extricate himself from her. In fact, he had pulled her closer every time.

Why couldn't Utsav have been this way?

She had craved his hugs and kisses. Just to be near him. It was still painful to recall how he would slither his hand out from hers, lean forward to sit away from her, and turn sideways when she would try to hug him. In contrast, Veer did not seem to mind holding her hand, holding her close, or kissing her. In fact, he had rubbed her raw with his mouth and hands. She could feel patches of skin warming and stinging where his stubble had razed her skin. Her nipples hurt the most, even as they still stood up, begging for his attention.

Her emotions were still roiling close to the surface, and her head was throbbing from all the crying. How had she gone from feeling so wonderfully relaxed to achingly aroused to so horribly emotional?

Exhausted to the point of collapse and craving sleep, Miraya eventually steps out of the toilet. As she twists the leaky tap to wash up at the basin installed just outside, a small movement at the staircase's entrance catches her off-guard, making her jump.

"Oh, sorry, bhabhiji. Did not mean to scare you." In the dimly lit stairwell, she makes out the large form of Jaggi leaning against the wall, smoking a cigarette. The red dot from the lit end of the cigarette glows brighter as he takes a deep drag.

"N-No p-problem, Jaggiji." She tries to hurry up rinsing her soapy hands, but the water flow is a trickle at best. During dinner, she had not had any conversations with either of Veer's friends, although Jaggi had tried his best to draw her into one. Veer had deflected all his questions by answering on her behalf.

"How come you haven't slept? Is Veer keeping you awake?" Jaggi takes a step closer to her, his clean-cut features creasing into a mischievous smile. His eyes drag over her, stopping short at her chest as Miraya remembers that her bra was still undone, the cups jutting obscenely under Veer's loose t-shirt.

Great.

"Um... n-no, no. He's been t-trying to... get m-me to sleep." She clarifies lamely, hunching over and trying her best to minimize any evidence of her having breasts, rubbing her hands faster under the tap, hoping it would speed up the rinsing.

"Arre, he's not trying very hard then." Jaggi chuckles as he shuffles closer; the smoke from his cigarette curls around her. "You should come sleep out in the open. Best way to sleep, bhabhiji. Nothing between you and the night. Have you ever slept on the terrace?" He leans towards her, his roving eyes glued to the gaping collar of the t-shirt as it sags low, exposing her shoulder.

"Um... n-no. I have never." Miraya abandons washing her hands and tries to shut off the faucet, but the knob on the tap is loose, and no matter how hard she turns it, water keeps leaking from its joints.