INTRICATE

CHAPTER 15

S A M A I R A   Y A D A V

Soap Football was one of the very few sports that Samaira enjoyed. Well, there was no point in lying. It was the only sport she enjoyed, apart from running around. She never understood why people had the urge to go outside and drain themselves when they could just as easily chill inside with a movie and food. What could be better?

Nothing, but the rest didn't get that. It was a dying debate, so she wasn't going to stress too much about it. What she could stress about was the ball that came flying towards her face the moment she looked up. By some random grace of the gods, Samaira had good reflexes, so she ducked immediately like her life depended on it. In some way, it did. Who knew just how many teeth that thing could have knocked out?

"Close call." Rohan exhaled, picking up the ball. He tossed it to her, making her smile. She glared at the culprit, making him send her a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I forgot where I was for a second."

It would have been adorable if Vedan hadn't turned her into a human target. Alas, some things couldn't be changed and their circumstance fell under that category. Samaira set the ball down and rather than kicking it towards one of her teammates, she dribbled it all the way across. Getting past a bunch of thirteen-year-olds was relatively easy, but that wasn't the case with Vedan. 

She only had a second to blink before he charged towards her. With an inhumane speed, he caught up, tackling the ball from her. His only mistake? He assumed she would give up easily because she was up against a professional player. Vedan hadn't taken into account that when a situation involved him, she would go to any extent to win. 

He didn't even have the time to react because a mere millisecond later, both of them went crashing down unceremoniously. Samaira's eyes closed instinctively, a light gasp escaping her lips when she fell right on top of a hard surface. Her brain glitched as Soap Football arenas weren't supposed to be hard. That just defeated the whole purpose. 

Adding to the weirdness, the surface felt warm to the touch. Samaira opened her eyes slowly, unable to hold her curiosity back. When she noticed what it was, she blinked. Then, she blinked again. 

"Care to get up, Yadav?"

Samaira snapped out of her stupor, rushing to get up. It wasn't very fruitful because she slipped the very next second, right back on top of Vedan. He grunted at the force, making her send him a sheepish smile this time. She wasn't the lightest person around. "A little help?"

She rarely asked anyone for any sort of favour, so it was once in a blue moon that the recipient happened to be Vedan. Predictably, his shock was apparent. "Wait a second. Did you just ask me for help? Damn, how the times have changed."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, can you?"

"What do I get in return?"

She stared at him incredulously. 

"I'm not helping you otherwise."

Samaira chuckled. "I have no problem. You're the one under me."

"Why? Would you like it to be the other way?"

Red dusted her cheeks. Mortified, she covered his mouth with her palm, pressing down on his lips to make sure he couldn't utter another word. Honey-brown eyes darted up to blazing ambers. "Quiet."

Vedan smirked but didn't say anything else. When a blanket of silence settled over them, Samaira's gaze scanned the area carefully. Most of the thirteen-year-olds had teasing smiles on their faces and some were wiggling their eyebrows suggestively. The exception being her brothers. Their reactions were starkly different because of the visible disgust.