Beyond the Boundary (Beyond Series #1)

7 | Lapak Lapak

guys serious question: pineapple on pizza? yes or no?

{ This chapters song: lapak lapak ~ uyyala jampala}

*WARNING: the song is kinda cringe but child me loved it for some reason HAHAHAH

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Arjun's POV:

4 days. 17 hours. 34 minutes.

That's how long had passed since Meera ran out on me during the massage. That's how long it had been since I had talked to her, she had gone out of her way to avoid me since that incident.

And yet, she was the only thought that ran through my mind. Everytime I walked into the stadium, the thoughts of thousands of fans screaming my name were replaced with just one. Meera. I didn't need fans, as long as she was in the audience, wearing MY jersey. My last name on her back. That's all I needed to see.

Her long luscious hair clouded my thoughts. How long would it look braided? How long would it take to braid?

Her light brown orbs took over my mind like an infection. Fitting for a doctor. I noticed everything. The way they shone the day we watched a movie. The way they crinkled when she smiled. The way they searched my face the day I was injured. Everything about her was infectious. All she did was touch me and her affection had spread to every inch of my body faster than a virus. I wanted to be with her and away from her all at once. I wanted to play cricket for her and I wanted her to leave so I could play cricket. Her presence was intoxicating. A small amount of her was okay, but seeing her too much, thinking about her too much surely couldn't be right.

I needed to bring my focus back onto cricket. My team was counting on me this season. My fans. My family. I needed to strive. I had to. I couldn't let silly distractions get the best of me. From today onwards, Meera would be nothing to me but a team doctor.

My knuckles rapped against the office door, where Akshay, our coach, was waiting for me. He told me he had to discuss something important with me, and I hoped to god that it wasn't anything related to swapping me out of captaincy.

"Come in, Arjun." Coach's loud voice boomed against the walls of his office, resounding enough so his voice was still clear to me from beyond the office door. I opened the door and took a step inside, making sure to shoot Coach a smile, before shutting the door and taking a seat in front of his desk. "We have to talk about your role as captain..." he began, and boy was I nervous.

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I slammed the door behind me and stormed as far away from that office as my legs would take me.

Coach went off on a tangent about how my talent wasn't the only reason I was captain, and that I had to start stepping up in other areas. I retaliated with the fact that the team was doing fine in terms of skill and that we would be okay for our first match. Coach, on the other hand, reminded me that the entire team, except for Stef, was scared of me. He told me that if I didn't change the whole team dynamic by next month, he would rethink my captaincy. Fuck me.

"Yo Cap." Karthik Kulkarni's voice broke my moment of thoughts. "We have an away game this week." Shit. I completely forgot about that. Note to self. Get someone to watch Tendulkar. "I wanted to know if my wife and daughter can come, I think they are keen on watching me play in Tamil Nadu." It felt weird to me that Karthik felt he had to ask me for permission to bring his wife to his game, but to be fair, I set myself up in that position by being so tough on the boys when they brought girlfriends. But wives are so much different to the countless flings the guys bring around the stadium.