Let's Fall Together

37. What's cooking between you two?

Rivaah's POV

I have always preferred quiet mornings.

Waking up to the soft chirping of the birds, as the windows are drawn to reveal the rising sun peaking from behind the clouds, it's rays grazing my face with a gentle caress-

Rrrhhhhh....rhhh

The sound of the soft snores interrupted my morning fantasy, followed by the blaring noise of my rooster alarm.

Kukdu koooo- kukdu kooooo

Nevermind.

Guess quiet mornings are not for me.

I glanced at Vedika for one last time, she was sleeping face-front, her one leg hanging from the bed while the other was sprawled across the length of my bed as she continued snoring softly at small intervals, her mouth agape. She had stayed over because she had practically collapsed on our couch last night. I clicked a quick picture of her, before leaving the room.

I went downstairs to find my mother sitting on the couch, with my brother's head in her lap and something irked me. Swiftly knocking his head down, I placed mine on her lap instead, while sitting down beside him.

"Hey!" Rishi glared at me. "I was here before you."

"You're wrong, I was here wayy before you. I've been her daughter way before she had a son. So the first right is and will always be mine." I struck my tongue out at him.

An elder sister's gotta establish her dominance in the house!

My mother chuckled at us, before gently caressing my hair with her hand. My eyes closed on their own, as I let myself loose in her hands. I felt free, in true sense.

"Guess you weren't enough for her, and my birth is the proof of that." He smirked, already getting up from beside me because he knew what was coming his way.

I chucked the pillow at him and it hit his head.

"Why don't you go exactly where you were brought from? The trash can!" I yelled as he attempted to flee the sight of incident like a guilty criminal.

"Nice aim."

The voice startled us, as a just-out-of-shower Kartik walked into the living room. He was wearing a white t-shirt paired with light brown sweatpants, and I will definitely hate myself for saying this but he looked FINEE!

And don't even get me started on the water dripping from his soaked hair!

Or how those drops of water traced a path across his forehead, down his neck onto his shoulders, like beads stringing down from a thread. And the way it soaked the hem of his t-shirt, and-

What the hell?

It's official, I've turned mad!!

"Good morning, Beta." Mumma greeted him, making space for him to sit, forgetting all about me as she retracted her hand from my head.

Rude much.

"Good morning aunty, you look beautiful as always." He offered her a dimpled smile and for a second, I couldn't even recognise this man!! Was he the same Kartik that called me names and glared at me like he would burn me with his laser eyes?

And if you're wondering what Kartik was doing at my house... you'll have to go in the flashback when he had come home last night to drop me and Vedika home. My mother being herself, insisted on him staying over but that wasn't even the element of surprise. I received the real shock when Kartik agreed with her instantly.