When Love Bites (published)

Chapter-3

I walked into my apartment and found Abhishek with some random girl draped around him, watching some romantic film. I sighed.
"Hey" Abhishek exclaimed, looking up and I gave him a look.
"Come on Diksha, we are not welcome here" he purred rolling his eyes.
"You know what, I am just gonna go and leave you two to your sappy romance" I said and walked into my room.
Two hours later, they said goodbye to each other with their lips while I ordered a pizza in the living room. I turned away to give them some privacy, but can't help noticing the devilish smile Abhishek gave me.
When Diksha finally left, I started laughing at the puppy-face look he gave her.
"Is the devil in love?" I asked.
"Shut up" he hissed.
"She is going to want you to meet her friends soon, her parents, announce that you are together, and announce your impending wedding...."
Abhishek walked over and gave me a noogie. I laughed, escaping easily.
He came back from the kitchen while I was flipping channels on TV.
"Hey can I have the remote please?" he asked.
"That's my TV" I rolled my eyes at him, which I seemed to do often.
He tackled me and managed to wrestle the remote away from me, pinning me to the ground. I pushed him off and growled playfully.
I looked up and saw that the TV landed on a channel with some weird commercial about getting killed by nature and laughed as some women got impaled by a rhino.
"That's a weird commercial" I remarked.
"Seen it" Abhishek said, his voice bored. He flipped another channel to land on a showing of Twilight. I gave a loud scream and yelled "Change it!" tackling him for the remote.
He kept it out of my reach but changed the channel anyway smirking up at me as I realized I was basically on the top of him. It was awkward. I pushed myself off him, laughing a bit forced. I liked living with him.
Suddenly my phone beeped. It was a message from the one I never expected. It was Kriti.
"Hi" I replied.
"Busy" came her reply.
"Nope"
....and the chat went on for three hours, starting from the studies to my football game and finally landing up on a bit flirting with each other.
We started talking for hours on messages but whenever it came to have a talk with her in person, I messed everything up. I always stammered whenever she appeared right in front my eyes. I felt butterflies in my stomach, every time I saw her.
Soon our chats turned into long phone calls and we started wasting our nights talking non-sense over the phone.
We shared the memories of our past, our childhood, our families and anything and everything one can talk about. My stammering habit while talking with her also came to a halt after sometime.
Listening to her was like listening to a song for the first time and knowing it would be my favorite.
I liked her. Although I liked her from the day I saw her but now it was different. That feeling was different. I honestly don't know why I liked her. I guess there were just pieces that connected her to my heart and those pieces grew into something that made me like her so much.
I started questioning myself... am I what she seeks? Are these messages worth sending? Are they worth reading? Are they worth editing? Does she want my voice in her ears?
I was lost but I hadn't gone anywhere. I simply didn't know what I was going to do. I was all over the place and nowhere at all.
The doorbell rang turning me back to reality from Kriti's dreams. I turned around and stood up to open the door.
"Oh, it's you!" I exclaimed.
"Well, I was just passing by and I thought that I should see your apartment once" Nikita said, smilingly.
"Why not? Come in please" I welcomed her.
"Hi, Abhishek" she said faking a smile towards him.
"Welcome to our home Nikita" Abhishek greeted her.
Abhishek made coffee for all of us while we sat on the bean bags.
"I was wondering for an outing" Abhishek said.
"Who all will join? And where?" I asked.
"You guys, me and you know...Kriti" Abhishek teased. I started to blush while Nikita and Abhishek chuckled.
"Don't be shy to tell us, dude" Nikita said.
"Come on, I won't tell anyone" Abhishek insisted.
"Okay...I have a crush on..." I said, blushing.
"...on Kriti" Nikita interrupted and I blushed some more.
"They talk for hours on phone. It's been 2 months now. I knew it!" Abhishek told Nikita while he gave a devilish look at me.
"Oh...that long. So do you want to come with us or what? Nikita asked.
"Where?" I asked.
"At McDonald's, where else" she replied.
"Hmm...I am a bit hungry from 3 days. So...we are going. Even though I should be practicing for football but I can take a break and hang out with you guys" I answered.
"With us or with her?" Abhishek broke in and we all laughed in unison.
***
We arrived at McDonald's and I parked my car.
While we were looking for a table, I turned to look for Kriti and saw her by the counter. She looked beautiful.
"Um, reality to Karan, are you okay?" Abhishek asked with a suspicious tone.
"What? Oh, I'm fine" I replied.
"Yeah, sure you are" he fired back at me, knowing who I was looking at.
We found a table and we sat down.
"Don't you think you should sit here, Karan?" Nikita asked, pointing on the chair next to Kriti.
"Come on, man. Really?" I said, jokingly.
"Come on! At least you are next to her" Abhishek spoke with a serious tone.
"Fine" I said and sat down.
"Do you want some fries?" Kriti asked me.
"Um..." I tried to say something but everyone looked at us and quietly giggled. Kriti also giggled when she saw that I was blushing.
"It's okay, Karan" Kriti said and gave me a few of her fries.
"Is there something going on between you two?" Nikita asked us, sipping her cold drink.
"No, there's nothing going on between us" I said immediately.
After we ate, we got to our cars and before we left, I looked back and Kriti was heading to Nikita's car. She saw me looking at her and winked at me. My mind shut down as that happened.
"Did she just wink at me?" I asked myself.
"Dude, I saw the entire thing" Abhishek said and laughed behind me.
"Oh shut up" I tackled and got into the car.
"Look, I know you like her but I want to know that why do you like her?" Abhishek questioned me.
"I don't know, I honestly don't know" I leaned back on the seat and sighed.
How could I explain that her eyes reminded me of new beginnings? Or how it feels when she smiles and her cheeks make a little mountain just below her eyes. How could I explain that it felt like my heart could give up at any minute? She was different but how could I explain that just in words?