Clouded Crossroads

15: The Bus Ride

Vihaan

Things ran - oddly - decent. Jiya made sure to keep a fair distance between me and that jerk by sitting in between. As much as I didn't want to admit it, Jiya's tutoring seemed to pay off, seeing how collaborative he grew. It was when we were almost finished with the project, Jiya had to use the bathroom. And as soon as the door clicked closed, it was we, the boys, alone now. I watched his clenched jaw through the corners of my eye. I'm not in the mood to fight him. And how long are those idiots going to play video games?

Grabbing the remote beside me, I switched on the flat screen TV, changing to the sports channel. An old Barcelona vs Madrid football match. Perfect distraction.

Yet, even with that thought, my focus was instilled on Varun next to me. It took a total of 4 minutes until his eyes drifted to the TV. And with a distance of 6 feet between us, we sat there watching.

"Sh*t! He should have passed the ball," Varun suddenly exclaimed.

"I know right. Such a duffer."

"You do that sometime on the field too. Who are you calling duffer?"

"At least I don't miss a goal."

He smirked next to me, but remained silent. That's unusual.

"At least I'm not like that doofus Arun on the team." he finally said.

This time I'm the one with the smirk. "Man he's a real doof."

"Remember that one time you..."

And just like that, we engaged in a sarcastic conversation. Insults thrown back and forth; yet this argument was different. Like it wasn't full of hatred. And we only stopped when Jiya returned back.

"That was long." Varun muttered under his breath.

"Shut up, jerk. She's a lady."

"Why are you guys watching TV?" Jiya inquired, breaking our whisper battle.

"We've lost the mood. Come sit and watch, I'll finish this project later."

Jiya

A while later, I glanced up from the TV to look at the clock. 7:30!? Ma said to be home by 8. Time flew with these two! I quickly got up and walked over to my stuff.

"Wait, where are you going?" Vihaan looked away from the TV.

"I need to be home by 8 or else my mother will..." The words trailed off as I grabbed my phone, quickly texting my mom that I was coming.

"It's almost going to be dark - no - it's practically dark."

"Thanks for stating the obvious, Vihaan," I sarcastically replied back, brushing past him to go through the door.

"Umm, so how do you plan on getting home?"

I turned around to face him. "Really Vihaan? Topper, but you can't even figure this much out? I'll be taking the bus, of course. Auto is a bit risky now."

"The bus!? At this time?" he asked.

"I can drop you home Jiya." Varun replied, getting up. "It's about time I leave anyway."

"Hey hey hey! Let the hosts do their job." Vihaan interjected. "You're a guest, everyone's leaving, so you leave too. I'll handle providing comfort to the other guests, understand?"

"Bro chill out. I was just trying to make things easier. Besides, I don't think she's very comfortable with you."

Why are these two always arguing?!