• Eternal Night •

36

"Hey!" Mallika leaned in and pecked Shivaay's forehead. "Good morning!"

"Morning..." Shivaay smiled. "You look good!"

"Yeah?" Mallika smoothened her shirt. "I have an important meeting today. I better look good."

Shivaay raised his brow. "Yeah? So you thought of coming here to seek my blessings?"

Mallika laughed. "Yes, King!"

"Ah, I see..." Shivaay languidly looked at Annika and said, "Annika washed this king's butt today and then put it back on this white throne."

"Ew, yuck..." Annika shuddered. She looked at Mallika and remarked, "Tell me, has he always been this dirty or do I need to have a word with Paul? Maybe they are giving him something new in the medicines?"

"Oh trust me," Mallika grinned. "Once you get to know this one better, there is no difference between him and Rudra."

"I think there is," Annika shook her head and kept her laptop aside. "Rudra is actually funny. Shivaay just uses self-deprecating humour. It's not exactly that enjoyable for others."

"I hear you..." Mallika nodded in understanding and laughed.

"So what? You two are friends now? And also, do you guys realize that I am sitting right here?" asked Shivaay. "Please don't bitch about me in front of me. Do that after I die."

Mallika and Annika looked at each other in annoyance and then Mallika got up abruptly. "Okay, Annika. I don't think I will be coming here tonight."

"Whoa Mallika..." Shivaay tried to stop her. "Wait!"

"Yeah," Annika ignored Shivaay and talked with Mallika. "That's alright. I will see you tomorrow."

"Guys?" Shivaay scrunched his nose. "Mallika? What happened?"

Mallika also ignored him and picked up her purse. "Okay, cool."

"I can't run after you Malli..." Shivaay started but she was out of the door before he could even complete it. Slightly baffled, Shivaay looked at Annika but even she ignored him and sat down with her laptop again. Shivaay threw his head back.

At that moment, Om walked in with coffee for him and Annika. Eyeing Annika and Shivaay's face, Om asked, "Okay, what is wrong now?"

Annika took the cup of coffee from Om's hands and rolled her eyes. "Your dear brother was talking about death again."

As Om heard that, he threw his hands up in the air and plopped down beside Annika. "I wish I could throw the hot coffee on your fucked up face, Shivaay."

Shivaay closed his eyes. "Great. Now I have pissed off three people with long hair."

Om threw a small cushion at Shivaay making him shriek. "Hey! This could have hurt me."

"It's foam!" Om argued. "The only way this could have hurt you was if they had stones in it."

"Yeah so maybe they could have done a kidney stone surgery and forgot the stones in there..." answered Shivaay.

"In a cushion? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Om said.

Suppressing a smile, Annika glared at Shivaay. "Try not to speak shit. Keep your hole shut and no one will throw things at you."

"Ah haan!" Shivaay said seriously. "Why does that sound like patriarchial sexual advice to girls from the last decade?"

"Shivaay!" Annika threatened. "Shut up!"

Then she turned to look at Om. "You handle him. He is just on a roll with bad jokes for some odd reason."

"Yeah, handle me Om just like how Annika did this morning..." Shivaay mumbled. "I bet you will get more turned on by my naked ass than Annika. Roll me here and there and see if it gets out more jokes from me or just good old vomit."