Hustle For Love |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

11. The One Where We Crossed Paths Again

A/N : Hi Peeps, as promised, its 21st March, and I am up with my next part!

Please join your hands together for THE MANIK MALHOTRA now! :D

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Happy Reading!

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S.P.A.C.E. Academy, New York circa 2012

(Football Ground, S.P.A.C.E. Campus)

Manik Malhotra

I felt a bead of sweat glide through my temple and settle on my brows, it would trickle down to my eyes any moment, but I couldn't shut my eyes if it did, it would make me lose my focus. As I gauged the football lying on the ground, I computed scores of angles and styles in which I could kick the ball; whether that could make a goal or not. I was also trying to read the goalie's body language; it would give me an understanding on what he's expecting from me - if I did the opposite, I could benefit from the element of surprise too. It was my penalty shot.

Although, it was a friendly match being played between two teams within S.P.A.C.E.; but the hostility between us were that of rivals. This hostility was mainly due to my deep seated dislike towards the kingpin of the opponent team, Aryaman Khurana. Yes, AK and I have a huge history. AK and I go long back, we were best friends in the past. AK's dad and my Mom were close friends from their younger days and so we literally grew up around each other in the formative years. All was well between us, until Aliya happened. Aliya, my long time girlfriend, we met in school, the same school where AK also studied, along with Cabir, Dhruv & Harshad - my clan, the original Fab 5.

This was around the time when we were all hitting adolescence and as broken children from broken families, we were carrying more baggages than the other children; we were laughed at, mocked and bullied too - it had happened to all of us, until we decided to stand together, because we had realised when we stood together we were not only strong, but we were stronger than everyone else! We were nothing individually, but as Fab 5 we were soon powerful and revered. Our friendship and life was flourishing, when one day an exchange student Aliya Saxena walked into our life; Aliya was Harshad's sister, but the siblings weren't raised together. Their parents had separated in their childhood - while Harshad was raised by his mother, Aliya was raised by her father in Italy. Since she was Harshad's sister, she could easily break into the Fab 5 space, and honestly none of us would mind - Aliya was not only very pretty, but also a very sweet and chirpy girl.

Days passed into months, and I found myself attracted to Aliya, her silly jokes, her heartwarming smile and her growing affection towards me - but when was I ever granted happiness? There was someone else who had his eyes on Aliya, that was AK - this disturbed me, but what I wasn't aware of was, Aliya also felt for him. Her behaviour towards me was friendly affection, that I had misinterpreted, and as you will have expected when I got to know this, I was heartbroken. I couldn't digest the fact that Aliya wouldn't be mine, I couldn't accept that I was proved unlucky yet again in relations - as if mom and dad weren't proof enough. But I was Manik Malhotra, and if there was one thing I learnt as an emotionally broken child, it was this - we would never have it easy in life, but we could still win, if we gave it a tough fight. I did just that.

The day AK was to propose to Aliya, I managed to make the news reach her ears that, AK was a maniac who, when he came to know that I loved Aliya, had had a bet with me saying he'd never let me have Aliya - not that he cared for Aliya, but he couldn't resist a good bet. She was told this devastated me, but for the sake of Aliya's sanity I had backed off. Yes, my plan worked, Aliya didn't love me, but she was a righteous person always and when Aryaman finally asked her out, she had savagely put him down. After that getting Aliya eventually was a cake walk.