Back And Forth

~seven~

The scooty hopped on the speed breaker at the turning for his house he absolutely hated riding through. He groaned, feeling all the contents in the storage unit of his scooty shuffle.

Needless to say, it was a fairly old and rickety scooty. One his Mum rode more than seven years ago and eventually passed onto Vedant. At that time he'd agreed simply because he was glad to get a vehicle he would be allowed to ride anywhere to.

But as the years passed and he grew up, seeing his neo rich friends get Beat-s and Polo-s for their birthdays, the scooty started to feel like more of an embarrassment.

"How many of you guys are going to say no? Is it a taxi strike or what?" a voiced yelled on the road, and Vedant watched as a black and yellow taxi zoomed past him to a different customer.

An annoyed Meera stood at the other end of the road with her arms folded before her chest. Vedant gulped.

She was even more decked up today, with tight leggings and a light pink coloured top. Even in flats, she looked quite tall and remarkably slender. He could swear she'd seemed on the chubbier side the last few times he'd met her.

And though he'd found her equally attractive even then, today she'd managed to make his heart skip a beat.

"Hi." He smiled, then realized his helmet hid half his face and she'd probably freak out at this move and quickly pulled the helmet off of his head.

"Oh." She huffed, her shoulders slumping with relief.

"What's wrong?"

"You had your helmet on and you just slowed down like that..." her voice trailed off, her cheeks flushing red.

"Sorry." He mumbled sheepishly.

"It's fine." She smiled back, fidgeting with her phone again.

"So...you're headed to some party?" he asked, trying to make conversation, also out of curiosity.

"No. Not a party. Just uh...just giving some friends a treat. Why?"

Should I compliment her?

Or will that be a bad move?

"You're quite decked up." He shrugged, and she looked away at that.

"Where to?"

"Colaba." She replied instantly, her head already focussing on the main road ahead, obviously spotting for taxis.

Vedant felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead as he mustered up the courage to ask, "Do you uh..." Why does my throat feel so dry suddenly? "...do you need a ride?"

She stopped gazing at the road abruptly, her eyes observant and calculative again.

He looked back into her eyes with earnestness.

I swear I'm not like those stalker guys.

"Did you say something?" she asked.

"Me? No!" he answered quickly.

"Oh. Um...you were headed to Colaba too?"

No. This is the only way for me to spend some time with you.

"Yeah. I have some errands to run."

"At Colaba?"

"Yes, Meera." And then, upon seeing her hesitation, "I'm in a bit of a rush actually."

"Oh. Well, carry on then. Thank you for the offer." She smiled hesitantly, and right then, Vedant felt like pulling the hair on his scalp out of frustration.

WHY CAN'T SHE GIVE ME A CHANCE?