Chereads / The Academic Rivals / Chapter 5 - Shot-4

Chapter 5 - Shot-4

Sanvi's POV

I watched him in disbelief as his eyes went wide and he hurriedly scooted away from me as if I was carrying some contagious pathogen. My own mind seemed to be in a swirl and I could barely think straight. My lips felt all tingly and that warm sensation in the pit of my stomach was long replaced by a hollow feeling.

"SANVI DIXIT? How? Why are you here? Where is...where is the other girl? Oh hell no.. Fucking hell!"

The panic in his voice reverberated throughout the ginormous room which I was noticing for the first time. The blinding lights had subdued my vision but I could see that it was definitely a guy's pad. I was standing leaning against the wall beside the king-sized bed far down from the room's door. I couldn't believe that he had hauled me down so far while I did nothing to evade him. Actually I did protest.

What the hell just happened? How could I lose my first kiss to my arch nemesis? More importantly, how could I kiss my arch nemesis and enjoy it?

"You ässhole Rathore! What the hell did you do just now?" I snarled at him angrily, wiping my plump lips vigorously. He was looking at me with an incredulous expression as I did that and then proceeded to wipe his own lips vigorously with the sleeve of his white shirt while muttering incoherent curses to himself.

Technically, he was the one to forcefully kiss me in the first place. I kissed him back so that I could catch him off guard and use the opportunity to loosen his hulk-like grip on me and I strongly stood by that belief.

Yes, I did not see him at all upon entering,—not even a teensy glimpse of his forever-beautiful hair. He was not the one that I was reminded of when I heard that raspy voice in the dark. Absolutely not. He was not on my mind when I was kissing him unknowingly.

Absolutely not.

Yes, and I put my foot down on that belief. As stupid as that sounded, at that moment, I couldn't think of any other solution. I was on the right then.

How idiotic was he to just grab anyone from anywhere and kiss them? I could never let him step all over me with that disgusted expression on his stupid face after snatching away my very first kiss.

He didn't get to deride me. This was all his fault.

The more I thought about the kiss, the more I realised how wrong it was. I felt like I had cheated on myself somehow. Had it been anyone other than him, I would not have felt that way but boy did we have some nasty history, Rathore and I.

Actually, scratch that thought. I would have reacted equally violently if any stranger had coerced my first kiss away like that.

Hell perhaps he'd be getting his ass kicked right then. And in no way was Rathore getting spared for his deed. I was also angry at myself for enjoying that kiss and that too with Rathore? Ew. Ew. Ew. I needed to sterilise my brain upon returning home.

"No. No. No. No. I refuse to believe this. Here, pinch me. It's all a dream right? Are you really standing here? Oh no, my lips!" As much angry as I was then, I couldn't help but be slightly amused at the audacity of this bitch to antagonise me in this situation.

"Stop that! Stop making it seem like you aren't at fault! Tell me, Why the hell did you do this?"

I jerked his hands away from his mouth to stop him from that condescending act of wiping his lips till red like he had kissed a cow's butt. His back collided with the wall and he slid down the wall almost too dramatically before regaining his senses in a few seconds.

"Oh give me a break, you snarky girl! I should be the one asking that. First of all, what on earth are YOU doing at MY party?" Rishabh bellowed derisively as he gripped his own hair in frustration and I felt a boiling urge of punching him square on his nose.

I was not only a classmate but his enemy and I would have rather jumped off a cliff without a parachute than stepped on his threshold. The grudge we held against each other went back to when we were in kindergarten and he had destroyed my favourite crayon set and hogged all the credit for MY drawing.

Well, technically, it was a group effort but I had the bad luck of being paired with that 4 year old devil child. The moment I turned out of the classroom with the destroyed crayon box in my hand, the brat pulled my pigtail and called me stupid before sticking his tongue out at me. And I swore, I swore hard that I was going to get back at a jerk like him.

Over the years, our enmity was fuelled by the competition of occupying the highest rank in class. Each year, on the result day, we would stand on either side of the bulletin board, throwing daggers at each other with eyes, till the peon hung the result sheet. And of course, almost every damn year we'd have the exact same percentage, as if the heavens were conspiring for us to lock horns.

And there began our quarterly quarrel of who was copying whom, the result of which would end in either of us being forced by a teacher to stay away from one another, for which I would be heavily relieved. We were always put in separate sections for the ruckus that he caused everytime we were together in the same room.

However, that jerk would find one way or another to rub it on my nose if and if he made it to the top position alone, which happened only like three times since elementary school.

Although our banters never turned into physical fights yet our verbal clashes, at times, formed the burning headlines of the school journal. Stupid journalism kids. Never trust a journalist. Especially not those highschool wannabes. They'd coax a mountain out of wheat despite your constant pleas for being left alone.

"Puh-lease.. BELIEVE YOU ME, I would rather have a tour of hell than step a foot in YOUR HOUSE. I had my own urgent reason for coming here. Had I known that it was your party, I would not have only broken into it, but destroyed it too!" I spat back at him distastefully.

"Yeah, like you ever could." He rolled his eyes and leaned against the wall. Woah boy, he was looking for trouble.

"Even if you were at the party, why would you be in here with me? What happened to the other girl? I knew I shouldn't have turned the lights off when the girl asked me to! Damn it." He kicked the floor with a disgusted face, making me cringe.

"What kind of an idiotic reasoning is that? Shouldn't you have CHECKED if you have the right girl before playing tonsil tennis with anyone? WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU GRAB SOMEONE AND KISS THEM LIKE THAT!"

"Stop screaming for a minute, you banshee! Let me gather my thoughts!" He hurled up towards me and pushed me on the bed making me sit down with a thud.

"How did I end up in this mess!" I grabbed my own head as he paced right and left in visible frustration.

"Exactly! How did you end up in my room? Where is the other girl?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know where is she? I was simply attempting to look into the room when I was pushed by her and you dragged me into the room, you jerk!" He gaped at me in confusion before kicking his bean bag chair with increasing irritation.

"Your stupid ass didn't even give me a chance to speak. How desperate were you to kiss a girl that you wouldn't even ask for her consent, you criminal?" His head shot towards me at the words and the vein on his forehead seemed ready to pop at my accusation.

"What do you think of me, Dixit?" He snarled at me with a heavy pace.

"I did ask for consent! She was in here for the past ten minutes, rummaging through my expensive gaming equipment and teasing me with god knows what kind of a stupid seducing scheme! And when it was the time of the deed and I obliged to decently turn off the light as I was already bored with her constantly grinding on my lap, she bolted right out like we're playing hide and seek like children! She thought I'd follow her after she probably stole a few of my consoles!" He kicked his bean bag repeatedly as my mind almost exploded with his stupidity.

"Was she even you girlfriend? Do you even know her name? What kind of childish sexual games do you guys play? Does every guy think with his penis in situations like this?" I was flabbergasted.

"Look, don't you come in here with your sparkly wisdom! It was a spur of the moment thing. Actually, you know what, I don't want to talk about it! I don't have the damn spirit to engage you right now." He was clearly out of his mind if he thought that I'd let him get away with this easily. I opened my mouth to rain down on him with insults.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Rathore? Your stupid brain couldn't decipher me squirming to be let out from that monstrous hold of yours? Wasn't that forceful? How about take responsibility for your stupid action?" I was fuming.

"What do you want me to do Dixit?" He snapped at me and stopped pacing through the room. "Time-travel back to when I mistakenly pulled you in and slap myself out from committing the biggest mistake of kissing YOU? Because bring me a time machine and I'd bet my life to retract my actions!"

He was unbelievable. Did he have a walnut for a brain? Bouts of anger surged through my veins at his nonchalance.

"You! Do you even hear yourself, you jerk? How about apologising for your mistake? Would that hurt your mountain-sized ego, big man? Or are you still thinking with your penis?"

I stood up and charged at him with my fist. I was done with everything.

"I lost my first damn kiss to a forceful encounter and that too to you, you mindless dumbwit!"  He resisted my attack at first but let go of his hold on my arm as he stood there with a resigned face, ready to take anything from me.

The red print of my palm glistened on his cheek as the room echoed with the sound of the slap. He looked up to the ceiling. The severity of his actions seemed to be dawning on him when he sighed deeply. I stood face to face with him with a fuming face and an itching hand to strike him again.

"Look, I don't know how things happened the way they happened and I don't care. I know I shouldn't have kissed you like that. Heck! I wouldn't even kiss you in broad daylight, even in my drunkest stupor. I am already done with this night!" He said in the most tired tone.

I don't know how but the honesty in his tone pinched me right in the chest. I felt like I hadn't ever been insulted by him as the venomous words spoken by him right then.

Was I that repulsive?

"What do you mean by that, you jerk? I WOULDN'T LIKE TO KISS YOU EVEN IF I AM GIVEN THE BIGGEST OF THE HONOURS!" His eyes shot right at me with a jerk as he stared at me with an amused expression.

"Yeah, yeah sure. That's why you didn't even try your hardest to stop me even when you knew my identity." I stiffened in shock at his words.

And it was at that  moment that I realised that I did catch a glimpse of him for a microsecond. All the lies, all the coaxing that I had moulded my mind with crumbled down the instant I looked up at him at his accusation.

I did see him!

Oh no, I did know it was him.

Why didn't I call out?

Why didn't I knead him in the nuts and blast him off?

I forced my brain to think that I had no idea who the guy was and that I couldn't just push him off. While in reality, I could have?

Why the hell did I like the idea of being kissed by him? I wasn't touch deprived, nor had I ever had fantasies of Rathore.

Ew.

My brain was so rattled with the kiss that I couldn't believe the truth. Rather, I couldn't accept the truth.

However, there was no need to torment my mind right then. I could give the situation any amount of thought when I am safely home. Right then, I had to prove a strong front against the jerk standing before me with a smug face. He knew I was hesitating with the answer, that brat!

"I..I didn't know! Hell, why would I kiss you out of my own will when I know that it was you?! Have you seen your face? I bet the girl ran away because she didn't want to kiss you!" I evaded the situation by making a retching noise right after.

Happy with my quick response, I looked at him and saw him staring back at me with that unusual glint in his eyes.

"Really? Were those moans of pain that I heard when you bit me while we were so very passionately sucking face, Dixit?" I couldn't help but look away for a second since his words stung me with every bit of sarcasm that he had intended on them. He knew.

"Tha..that. I was trying to speak through your stupid duckface!" He tilted his head down, burning me with his sharp mocking gaze.

"Dixit...what do you take me for? I clearly heard you moan my name out loud. Was that a coincidence if you actually didn't know I was the person kissing you right then?" He uttered with a poker face in a matter-of-fact tone before flashing me a knowing smug look, making me flush all of a sudden.

I did do that, didn't I? Why didn't the earth just split up and gobble me up then and there?

I had to change the subject before I could embarrass myself more.

"Grow up Rathore. Of course you'll hear your name reverberating everywhere, you narcissistic dog. But do you know what? There's not a single creature in this world that'll like to be associated with you in anyway. Besides, now that I have learnt what happens in your so called house parties, I am more than keen to call Father and inform him about this. That being said, don't ever try to cross path with me again." I remarked haughtily.

"Woah, big talk coming from you. I am so scared." He flailed his arms mocking fear but I knew he could realise that I was capable of anything that was even remotely related to destroying his mountain-sized ego.

"Try me.." I smirked at him and pushed him away before pacing speedily towards the door.

My heart was beating like a drum against my chest but the adrenaline rush almost seemed to be wearing off. I was embarrassed and angry.

"Filthy bastard." I muttered under my breath and hurried my pace.

Before I could realise what was happening, I was pulled back with a strong jerk and Rishabh's palm caged my mouth.

"What did you just call me?" His voice reverberated dangerously and my eyes widened at our closeness.

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To Be Continued.