Denial, Drama And A Destination Wedding

9. PHONE CALLS

"But that's not even fair!" shouted Arjun, "How can she win?"

"What a sore loser!" said Meera, giving him a thumbs-down. She was so happy internally that she had defeated him, even though it was just in laser tag. He won't forget this insult forever. I won't even let him, she chuckled to herself.

"Hey. We were tied. But you distracted me in the end!" said Arjun.

"Please explain how I distracted you!" she replied, folding her arms.

"Umm... Well... You sort of hugged me and disabled my armour. It's not fair for the other team to win by invading their personal space!" he said not meeting her eyes. Arya and Tara had come next to them and were just enjoying the scene.

"Ooh. Romance on the battlefield! How exciting!" said Arya, while Tara laughed.

"There is no romance, my dear sister. Stop bringing it up constantly. And Arjun. There are no rules like that in laser tag! I will take that as a compliment that I distracted you so much that you lost the game!" said Meera laughing. Is it possible that he is kinda into me? I need more evidence.

"No... It's not like that Meera! I mean... Don't think that I uhh... Just. Let it be" he said in an embarrassed tone and walked outside to give away his armour. The girls were still making jokes about the incident. Ohh. What fresh hell is this? Did I upset him?

After coming outside the laser tag parlour, Arjun seemed lost in thought. Meera was talking to the girls about the game and noticed him walking alone, fiddling on his phone. I hate these situations! Maybe I should stay quiet and not acknowledge it like I always do. NO! I need to be upfront this time. I need to sort this. She caught up to him walking ahead, not letting herself overthink the situation any more.

"Hey Arjun. Can we talk? Are you upset with what I said back there?" she blurted out and immediately regretted it after noticing his flustered expression.

"No Meera. I actually owe you an apology for being so flustered. I WAS a 'sore loser'" he said making air quotes.

"Actually, what I meant to say was... You looked really cute while playing laser tag. You were so invested in it! So when you sort of hugged me, I kinda forgot that we were in opposing teams. It was so sudden that I didn't get time to react. So... yeah. There is the real explanation" he completed.

"Umm. I actually don't know what to say!" said Meera. DID NOT EXPECT THIS MUCH HONESTY. How do I respond to this??

"Don't say anything. Let's just forget about it okay? I don't want to remember losing to you, anyway!" he said smirking.

"And he's back!" Meera smiled, knowing that he had defused the awkwardness. He really handled this maturely. It could've gotten really awkward. She remembered how Sid always acted horribly after he lost to her.

"But don't you think we are even now? You did defeat me in the shopping contest, even though I don't like to admit it" she said.

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot about that! I have to really brainstorm about the 'Day of Torment'" he said.

"Oh God. I forgot you had such a cheesy name for it. We should have made a bet before playing laser tag also! Why didn't I think of that?" she said, in an exasperated tone.

"Wait. Mom is calling me", she said picking up the call.

Meera: Yes Mom! Done with shopping?

Mom: Yes. Come to the parking lot. We're going home. We have so much packing to do!

Meera: Okay. When are we leaving? Did you book the flight?

Mom: Yes. We'll leave tomorrow at 1 pm. The flight is at 4:15 to Delhi.