Make Me Your Villain

Chapter Twenty One

Third Person's POV

The faint sound of shoes hitting the asphalt echoed nearby. Traffic was low at night around this part of the town as usual.

Sensing his friend's glare on him from the time they'd left the convenience store after ironically paying for their drinks, Shazain allowed the corner of his mouth to lift in amusement.

"What?" He finally broke the silence with his smooth voice. "You got a staring problem?"

Jalal narrowed his eyes. "I'm trynna figure out what happened to your standards."

"My standards?" Shazain cocked his head to the side.

Jalal nodded, turning to look at the road ahead. "I always thought the reason why you never catch feelings for any girl despite how remarkable she seems is because your standards are too high for anyone to meet. But now it's like your standards dropped so low, they're basically nonexistent."

Shazain quirked a brow as Jalal continued his speculation, "the only remarkable thing about this girl is that she actually managed to interfere with our work and got you shot in the arm. Other than that? Nada. She's too average, man."

Shazain let out a breath—in all honesty, he didn't know he would end up catching feelings either, and that too for a girl like Hayat Azhar, especially not in the way or for the reason that he did.

He couldn't understand how the thing he never bothered about ended up becoming the reason for his heart to get entangled with the wrong person at the wrong time.

However, Shazain Sardar had control over his feelings and emotions. He knew how to manipulate them and refused to let them get out of control—it was the one thing he was sure would never make him vulnerable.

Until that night.

Until that moment.

That one darned moment in that bus that had flipped a switch in him.

"I give it a max of two weeks." Jalal's voice cut through Shazain's thoughts as he opened his can of cola. "A max of two weeks and you're gonna get over this girl like all the other ones you ever felt a tad of attraction for."

Shazain stuffed one hand in the pocket of his jacket and sighed. He'll get over her too?

Her soft voice echoed in his ears from some nights ago and he smiled lightly. "Maybe you'd be right if you'd said this a few days back. After all, as you're saying, there's nothing remarkable about her. But yet, tonight? Tonight you've become wrong."

Jalal passed Shazain a dubious look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I've already made up my mind."

"And what's your decision?" Jalal prodded, scrutinizing his friend's face to read through him.

Shazain shook his head. "I don't want to get over her."

Jalal stopped walking. "What?"

"You were right." Shazain started, stopping beside Jalal. "You said if I didn't get rid of that restlessness from that night, things will get complicated. But I let it consume me and she'd always be on my mind. It was messing with my head. So at last, I contacted her."

"Hold on..." Jalal whispered, slightly confused. "You contacted her how?"

"I spoke to her on the phone."

"You did what?!" Jalal burst out. He nearly threw his drink on the road. "You spoke to her as Shazain Sardar? Are you out of your mind? You might as well just walk up to her house and expose yourself!"