Can love heal?

13. Rivalry♧

The following day dawned with a clear and stunning sky, as a chill wind run through the city.
Arnav and Ishaan were on their way to university when they noticed Aanya giving cookies to puppies on the street.

Arnav's Pov

"How adorable!" I exclaimed when I saw Aanya's lovely face and bright smile.

"Hey, don't you think you're starting to like her?" Ishaan asked, and I furrowed my eyebrows at his silly words.

What!? You're silly! I'm talking about how cute the puppies are. You're just being weird" I said with an awkward laugh.

"Hey! I'm not silly. I can see what's going on with you. Just a few days ago, you didn't like that girl, and now you're giving her books and trying to be her friend," Ishaan said, raising his eyebrows at me.

" No, that's not true. I didn't give her the bouquet as a gift; it was to say sorry only. AND, I really never hated her, it was just my anger. Hehe!"
I said ignoring an eye contact with him.

"Didn't you hated her for a bit? Come on, stop this drama, Arnav" Ishaan said, feeling frustrated.

"Um...Um... No, I never hated her from my heart" I said slowly, not knowing what my heart really feel for her.

I turned my gaze away from Ishaan to look for Aanya, but she was not there. Maybe she went to university while we both were arguing.

"Dude, I can't understand you but What are you thinking Now?"Asked Ishaan..

"Nothing much, just hurry up! We are going to be late," I replied, glancing at my watch.

We ran to class, panting hard.

The room was filled with laughter and chatter until the professor arrived, and then it fell silent.

"Good morning, Professor" Everyone said as he walked into the classroom. He replied with a smile and wrote a question on the board.

"Who will answer this?" he asked the class, but no one spoke up.

"Arnav, come up and solve it," he called me by name without looking anywhere else.

I went to the board and worked on the problem.

"Is this the right answer?" he asked, looking at me with a furrowed brow, which made me a bit unsure.

"Aanya, what do you think?" he turned his gaze to Aanya.

" Umm... Sir,there's a little error.He used the wrong number for the common interest" I glanced at my answer after she spoke.

(Oh no! What a silly mistake! It's so embarrassing to mess up in front of the whole class) I thought to myself.

"Sir, I have fixed my mistake," I said as I returned to my seat after solving the problem again.

The lecture was over, and everyone headed out to the playground.

I was walking to the ground with my books when I accidentally bumped into someone at the classroom door.

Without looking, I shouted, "Don't you have eyes? Like, What the heck!?"

A familiar voice replied, "It was your fault, you were not paying attention".

I looked up as I picked up my books.

"Is that you, Aanya?" I asked.

"You need to recognize your own mistakes before blaming others," she said coldly.

"Well, you could have noticed me if I were not paying attention?" I said.

"Why would I notice you?" She raised her eyebrows at me.