PAST( 5 years ago)
Ruhaan was in lousy mood, how could he not? All his friends were behaving like idiots! They were all in the hangover of that new girl, all of them were behaving like a love sick puppies around her! And why, because she was beautiful? He, for one, at least didn't think so. He didn't think there was anything exceptional about her. She was quite plain, ugly even,if one cares to notice her abnormally large eyes and stubborn little chin that she always held high in defiance.
She was a transfer student, that's why she has come in the middle of the semester. The memory of his first interaction with her was still fresh in his mind; he and his friends were late for their economics class, as usual and Mr Sinha, their faculty, was in a bad mood ( his wife must've caught him with his girlfriend, was their guess) and hence he showered them with all the anger he'd buried till then and they ended up being suspended from his class for a week. Having nothing else to do, they decided to wander all the corridors and make someone prey of their not so innocent Pranks. And that's how they came face to face with Miss new transfer.
Mishti was 15 minutes late. Shit. It was her first day in this college and she was late for her very first class! God what impression was she going to make? She was nervous as it is and on top of that she was late too. In her haste to reach the class she crashed into a wall, and two strong hands steadied her; so it wasn't a wall she has crashed into, instead it was a boy, although there wasn't anything that was boyish about him; strong broad shoulders, bulging biceps...everything about him spoke that this wasn't a boy of 22. But a man. Only the devilish smirk on his face and and the wicked glint in his eyes belied his pretence of being a man.
"Can't you see where you're going?" Snapped Mishti
"Could say the same to you, pumpkin" replied Ruhaan, amusingly.
" Listen, back off okay. Just because I'm new here you think you can bully me? Well, guess what Mr.; Mishti Khanna hates bullies and before I report you to the principle...get the hell out of my way"
"Nuh huh...not so fast pumpkin... You think you can crash into me and then threaten me to file a complaint? Nope. Not done baby doll"
" give her a break, Ruhaan. She's new after all" interrupted Ryan, who was eying her like she was some goddess!
Hi, I'm Ryan Smith and you are?" Ryan introduced himself, giving the new girl his most innocent smile! The Sucker was one handsome boy! Ruhaan would give him that. And the new girl smiled at him too! For some reason Ruhaan didn't like it one bit.
"Mishti Khanna. Pleasure to meet you" replied the new girl, smiling cutely...WHAT? No she wasn't cute. Ruhaan convinced himself
" The pleasure is all mine" said Ryan trying to look like some macho and miserably failing in doing so, thought Ruhaan. But the new girl didn't think he was failing; on the contrary she was smiling at him and ignoring Ruhaan! No one ignores Ruhaan Sahgal!
" alright Ryan I'll see you around, I've a class to attend now and I'm already late...so gotta go. Don't wanna make a bad impression"
"Sure Mish. See ya" Replied Ryan, who'd suddenly become a smiling machine, according to Ruhaan!
"Man, did you see how beautiful she was" asked Ryan looking at the retreating form of Mishti
"She is damn hot man" agreed Varun
"I know" Nameesh gave his consent too. Only Ruhaan was left to seal the fact and he said;
"I think she's ugly" All three of them looked at him as if he'd said that the sun didn't rise from east!
" you're just saying that because she didn't give you any bhaav and didn't behave like you were a lady magnet" said Varun matter of factly. He was quite annoying when he stated facts and Ruhaan hated when annoying people had points.However he didn't show his irritation and said
" Even if she's the last girl in the world; I wouldn't want any 'bhaav' as you call it, from her"
Varun looked at Ruhaan but didn't say anything; he was his best friend and knew him better than anyone else in the world and for some reason this girl has gotten into his head but Ruhaan didn't want to let that on. Only God knows what he'll do now, thought Varun.
So guys this was the first chapter after prologue. The story will drift into past to present time to time. Do read it n lemme know how you like it
Mangal Lakshmi
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