Chereads / The Academic Rivals / Chapter 22 - Shot-21

Chapter 22 - Shot-21

~Rishabh's POV~

I entered my room and slumped down on the bed with a long sigh of relief. I had dropped Sanvi off in front of her apartment building and reved my bike towards my house before she could throw a shoe at me from up there for standing there too long.

It was a pretty long distance from the school to her apartment. The street appeared to be littered around with garbage of all sorts and the neighborhood seemed rather gloomy and desolate.

She seemed least bothered with the condition in which she was living. She didn't even look back once and disappeared inside that ramshackle building without so much so as a tata.

I don't know why I felt sullen all of a sudden the moment I turned around to leave.

I had tactfully taken the long route, while driving her out there, for reasons quite unknown to me yet. Her face was almost compelling me to play around a little more. I absolutely loved messing with her.

Sanvi did protest seeing me take another route and as she was busy showing me the directions, her palms almost swelled my shoulders up, swatting on them hard with each turn I took, rebuking me to take her home safely.

I couldn't control chuckling at her antics. I would have been rolling all over the road in laughter had I not been driving, seeing her act so panicky.

Well there were very few chances for me to see her being that nervous around me and I took it very seriously to enjoy each of those moments.

I could almost feel her anger emanating through her front stuck against my back when I had jerked her to hold me properly by pushing the brake to utter her surprise.

Perhaps she truly was uncomfortable with our proximity in that position? I was sure to attest to that claim as I saw her lowering her lashes when she had caught me watching her through the rear view mirror.

I was surprised at my own inexplicable enjoyment when I saw her shying away. I was definitely enjoying the whole new effect that I was having on her since the night of the party.

The way she fought with me in the evening, the way she was almost on the edge regarding every involvement with me,—these indications clearly showed that she was indeed being effected by my presence.

However, there were things in my own mind that I was struggling with those days. When I woke up in the morning, I found myself delightfully looking forward to the prospect of seeing her again in school.

I definitely loved fussing her around but the new feeling was just purely intriguing. I felt freshly revitalized to keep bothering her for the rest of the school days.

I couldn't stop smiling since I bid her adieu the night before, albeit after sneakily planting a kiss on her cheek.

But I didn't mean to do it.

It was an involuntary leap and her extremely flustered self almost pushed me to the brink of indulgence. After that, all I could think about before falling asleep was how I could irritate her more after that incident.

The way things turned out in the day with our heated banter in the corridor and Father's capital punishment, should have had kept me in a sore mood for the rest of the night but, while lazing around in my bed right then, I couldn't help chuckle heartily while recounting her hilarious antics during the day.

My usually active mind couldn't interpret why I meant to keep up the involvements going on with her.

Hadn't she been the most annoying girl in the school for me?

Wasn't she the girl whom I never wanted to see during the school hours?

Hadn't her stupid actions brought along pains for both of us to carry for the rest of the school year?

Then why the hell was I looking for excuses to be around her?

Why the hell did my stomach flutter everytime I saw her lowering her long lashes in my presence, her cheeks adorning a pinkish hue whenever we came closer, her being all flustered whenever I jokingly flirted with her?

That night, after I had accidentally kissed her in the party, I was all set with my plan to freak her out and take revenge on her for snatching away my first kiss. I had thought that Dixit's inexperienced disposition would break her down into tears under the heat of our closeness in the balcony.

But the tables turned the moment I heard her denying my advances.

I had gone berserk seeing her, in my own clothes, under me with that reddened face and cutely scrunched up nose. I couldn't believe my own body when I felt numbing jitters throughout, having her so close to myself that night in the balcony.

We were so intimate that I could even feel the naked outline of her assets as her body shivered against my sturdy frame. Her sheer vulnerability cloaked under a thin layer of my own clothes made me back out immediately as I stepped back to a decent distance from her while she stood there, with her eyes closed in the anticipation of my lips on hers.

Honestly, I would have given anything just to kiss her senselessly then and there.

But I knew I had to back away.

I couldn't wrong her in that manner and truthfully, I wasn't proud of what I did at the party. I knew my hormones had taken the better part of me but her reaction to the act had me crazily intrigued.

All I did after that was gawk at that angelic face of hers shining under the milky moonlight with her eyes closed, lips parted and her back still propped up against the wall.

My tee and trousers hugged her petite frame perfectly and I found my eyes shamelessly dart down towards her prominent chest heaving up and down while she was breathing heavily. Her closed eyes indicated that she hadn't yet realised that I had already parted away from her frame.

She was definitely caught off guard by my action and needed a second to catch her breath.

Wasn't that because of our proximity a minute before?

It wouldn't take a genius to assume that she too was getting affected by our closeness just like I had been? I got the answer to my question today as our involvements furthered into something over which both of us had no control whatsoever.

But wasn't an accidental deed of a night a little too meagre a cause to change the equation between two sworn enemies?

I knew I still loathed her holier-than-thou nature and she hated my haughty retorts equally.

We had no amicable ground.

Perhaps it was just the raging hormones incited by our sudden unwelcomed intimacy, wasn't it?

I might be cured of my unknown ailment with a sufficient dose of that pretty soon.

But why couldn't I stop thinking about her as I laid there in my bed, hugging my pillow?

That night, my mind and heart kept battling on the same issue.

Her.

Never in my entire school life, had I ever thought about my enemy so much as I did that night.

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To Be Continued.