Pitter Patter Of Hearts

Chapter fifteen

I frown. "But I never used a pen to do it, though. I only ever tapped Aarav's skin."

He smiles sadly. "I never liked Laya in a way you assumed that I did. When I told you that she likes Aarav, I was talking about you. I didn't have the courage to tell you that I liked you for the past three years. But then you started noticing me when I changed my appearance to your liking. All that you think is effortless? It never was."

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out of it. My eyes sting when tears pool in his eyes. He turns his face to the side. "I learned morse code to talk about you with Laya when she noticed that you were doing the same about me but on Aarav's skin. We both suspected the same thing, we both saw you falling for Aarav way before you realized your feelings for him. That's why I didn't want to date you, because I didn't want to put myself through that."

He paused for a moment, wiping his tears. "I'd never have confessed but I don't want you to suffer thinking that Laya and Aarav are a couple. Laya is fake dating him to help him make you realize your feelings for him. I thought I loved you for the longest time, but Laya told me how Aarav has been, way before he even knew what loving someone meant. It's laughable, really, to confess his feelings through mine. It's a pity. It's ridiculous because I always thought that compatibility is a choice, but it's a choice for two minds, not two hearts. I thought that damned theory would help you choose me because I always hated Aarav for completing you like a goddamn soulmate. That's why I told you I hate soulmates! Laya doesn't like earrings, you do, you idiot!"

I stand still, shock holding me down. I could barely process anything. Any of it. It felt surreal, all of it. Grabbing my shoulders, Varsh shook me. "Go to him, please, I cannot see you being this dumb."

I pick my lehnga, removing my heels and holding them in my hands, I make a run for it. I stop a few steps later, looking back at Varsh, I holler. "Varsh!"

"Yes?" He looks up at me, his face is all red, and I feel my eyes sting again.

I didn't know how to console him, but I can at least steer his heart in a different way. Because if I understood anything in his rant, there's this one thing, and I hope- no, I know that I'm not wrong about it. "Compatibility is a choice of two minds. Don't be dumb enough not to notice who's been making that choice all along."

"What does that mean?" He cried, blowing his nose into a hanky.

I roll my eyes as I turn around, but not before I yell, "You're not that smart now that I see it."

I hear a shriek of offense from him making me laugh through my tears as I make my way through the school grounds, trying to find a gleaming silver suit that stood out among these black ones like it did since the moment I realized my feelings for him a couple of weeks ago.

And there I find him sitting with his head in his hands, next to Laya who's offering him a hanky, shaking her head at him with a sad smile on her face.

I stop, catching my breath, and Laya looks up to meet my eyes. Mumbling something to herself, she gets up, heaving a sigh. I cough into my hands as I near them, "There's another man child you may want to console."

"Oh God, I-" She stops herself, handing me that hanky. She mouths, "Took you long enough."

I stop her before she goes. "Don't be a coward like me."

Her head snaps towards me with a horrified expression. "Did you-"

"I'm not that dumb!" I roll my eyes as I whisper so as to not disturb a crying manchild. "But he is. Go tell him before it's too late. Take your time, and wait for him to collect himself together. But you must let him know, though."

"Thank you." She smiles before walking away coolly, but then a jump takes to her stride, and I grin at that before sitting down next to this idiot. My idiot. I put the hanky in front of him, and he takes it a few moments later, but his breath hitches as his head snaps to me. I don't know how he recognised me just by my hand, but oh well, not the main concern.

He huffs. "Why are you here, you witch?"

"This is so cliché but," I exhale all my doubts, fears, worries and hesitations before I grab his face and giving him a quick peck because as much as I want to go with the cliché, I don't know how to kiss- this is so embarrassing, what if he wants someone who knows how to kiss? What if-

My thoughts are cut off as Aarav pulls me in for a kiss. It was surreal, because I thought I lost my best friend for good but I didn't know he would return as a lover. With the school humming in a dull, faded tone behind us, with the clouds roaring above us, it felt as if a scene straight out of a movie. And I would kiss him back if I knew how to. He laughs like a jerk after pulling away. I huff and turn my face to the side, but he cups my face, squishing it.

"I somehow knew our first kiss would go like this," He rests his forehead over mine, looking into my eyes with those goddamn eyes that screamed trouble. "I just didn't know that it would happen."

"Well, it did," I clip with a pout, and he leaves feathery kisses all over my face, with his face pulled into a grin.

"You're so adorable, and you made it so hard for me to keep my hands to myself, you dumb idiot." He says as he stops for a moment before attacking my face with those kisses, making me giggle when his hair tickles my skin.

A realization hits me because I did hear those words before making me narrow my eyes at him. "So you were the one who called me dumb!"

He bursts out laughing, and I've decided that he looks adorable when crying. I grin wickedly, rubbing my hands together like a villain, thinking of all the possible ways I could make him cry like a baby-

My thoughts are cut off when he squishes my cheeks, his laughter fading. "It's because you are."

I slap his hands away as he begins laughing again, and my own voice betrays me, joining him in his hyena laughter.