If This Feelin' Flows Both Ways | ShubIsh

I

The club was loud, hot, and smelled like sweat. Pretty much exactly like what Shubman remembered from the last time he went clubbing hoping to hook up with someone.

The girl beside him, Rithika, was it? Or was it Rishika? He wasn't even sure, because he wasn't properly concentrating on her words, taken over by the alcohol and disappointment with his performance in the match.

Despite sensing his gradual disinterest, she looked at him with a hopeful expression. She was the girl who was hanging out at the bar alone, and then decided to join him and Ishan for drinks hoping for some company, and introduced herself as an influencer. Shubman didn't care, but after hearing that she was a huge fan of theirs, Ishan had bought her drinks and they ended up chatting casually.

Shubman wasn't having it though. She was inching uncomfortably closer to his personal space.

She touched his arm, leaned closer to him, laughed at his half-assed jokes. Sure, she was really pretty, and Shubman felt the slightest spark of attraction towards her at first glance.

Her long black hair, fair skin, glossy lips and slim figure were absolutely mesmerizing and with the red dress worn by her that hugged her curves perfectly, he would've totally hit if he was in the right mood.

Yeah, he did wonder at first if they would be having something that night. Perhaps a messy makeout in some corner of the bar or a one-night stand at her place, nothing too serious. But she rather seemed overly enthusiastic about the whole thing in a way that Shubman would almost describe as obsessive, and that kind of threw him off.

She tried to continuously converse with him, though it was Ishan who had bought the drinks. She murmured something in Shubman's ear and placed her hand on his thigh, to which he simply coughed and pushed it away. He hoped that she'd back off before sooner or later before he filed a harassment case against her because he was not enjoying the way her hands kept squeezing him biceps everytime she laughed at one of Ishan's jokes.

"So, Ishan here, looks quite handsome tonight, doesn't he? Nice shirt you've got there, sexy." She says suddenly, turning to Ishan, smiling. Finally, he thinks, glad to have her attention diverted from him.

Shubman's eyes move from the glass in his hand to Ishan, who just laughs and thanks her, telling her that he's always handsome.

He felt his throat go dry when his gaze fell on Ishan because she was right, she totally was. Ishan was looking good, especially in that shirt. It was a dark blue satin button-down which contrasted with his olive skin a bit too perfectly.

Shubman could see the outlines of the tattoos on his chest, peeking from the opened buttons below the collar. He wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or just him thinking, but Ishan- he looked good in a way that made Shubman feel something he wasn't sure he had properly felt for any man before.

Good in a way he almost wanted to pull him by his collar and kiss him right there like he had drunkenly kissed that one handsome guy at a club when he had turned twenty-one.

Feeling his face heat up, he looked away immediately, hoping Ishan didn't notice him staring. He tried to focus on the girl again, but she had already turned to Ishan, leaning closer to the other man, batting her eyelashes at him.

The relief he felt when she turned over to Ishan was replaced by annoyance, because she was talking to Ishan.

She was talking to him till then and when she realised she had no chance with him, she had turned to his best friend. He doesn't even care because it's not even that big of a deal, but again– Ishan is his bestfriend.