Touching Boundaries

CHAPTER 6 : KEERTI

Keerti glowed as she laughed. 

Her friends that all sat in a small circle around her watched her wiping the corners of her eyes and continuing. 

"And then .... and then..." she said in between breaths, "You should've seen the look on his face when my mother found out her glass vase was no longer 'fragile'"

She doubled over and her friends peered at her with their own amusing smiles. Finally Maya spoke up what was going on in all their mind. 

"One terrific sadist you are, Keerti Verma"

Keerti spurted out a laugh before straightening her back and pursing her lips. 

"I would've liked to see the looks on your faces when you saw what I saw," she replied haughtily. "Also the satisfaction it gives you when the person your parents look up to does what is least expected of him!"

"Poor boy," Maya pouted. 

Others chimed in their agreements and Keerti looked at them with a tilted eyebrow. 

"You guys are acting saints now but let one girl slip in her heels as she passes from here, it won't take a second for you girls to turn into laughing hyenas," Keerti said. 

The entire circle looked at each other with guilty eyes and covered their smiles. 

"But honestly speaking, my brother and his friend are like the pair of Aishwarya and Madhuri. They're truly entertaining," Keerti said as she removed her drawing book and pencil case. 

"So, who's the Aishwarya between the two?" Rikita asked as she wiggled her eyebrows.

"You mean the who is taller, right? Because definitely Madhuri is more beautiful," Maya defended. 

Keerti watched their banter before raising her hands, "If you're asking me who's more handsome then Ew. One is my brother and the other is just.... "

A flash of Siddharth's face appeared before Keerti. She had never tried to look at him in that way. He was..... Siddharth.... the guy who stood up to help before help was even asked .. the guy who's head turned around when a sports bike passed. 

"Are these the two?" Ritika held up her phone with a picture of two boys posing with matching smug smiles. 

"How did you get this picture?" Keerti asked surprised. 

"I stalked your socials," Ritika replied replied in a duh tone. 

"But I don't have that picture in my feed"

"Your brother does and it's not hard to find his handle, is it??" She inspected the photo again and all girls looked intently in it. 

"Your brother is the cuter one, no doubt in that," Ritika smiled. 

"Um, thanks?" Keerti was beyond confused and grossed out. She didn't need to hear her friends fanning over her brother. 

"Siddharth is the leaner one, right? Wow, he is..... tall," Maya spoke her thoughts as she looked at the screen, "He's definitely the Aishwarya of the pair"

Keerti gaped at her friends. Sure, if they were talking about some other pair of boys, she would join in on the conversation and feast her eyes but this was definitely not happening right now. 

"You guys need to stop ogling at them. It's making me uncomfortable" She spoke up. 

Ritika snorted at that. 

"Also, we were supposed to be laughing at Aishwarya not stalking him," Keerti reminded. 

"He seems like a nice guy," Ritika commented.