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The Reason
18 years, it had been 18 years since I had acknowledged her existence -Riddhima Gupta, daughter of renounced Dr. Shashank Gupta-and not even once did I attempt to know her. What did I know, she'd be the girl I would end up falling for. Now that I've broken her heart and shattered her soul, I know that I'm madly in love with her.
"Dare."
"That is the spirit, my friend."
"Yeah, baby!" Everyone in the room cheered and clapped for him. In response, he jumped up from his seat and gave his audience a bow. The room echoed with a roar of laughter.
"Dare? Dude, you're so paying for this." Done gulping the very last bit of beer left, he slumped the bottle across the room and shouted, drunk.
"Bring it on." Said an arrogant Armaan, which was followed by cheering and clap again.
"Are you sure, Armaan?" Clearly, Nikita Malhotra, his ex-girlfriend, had something in mind. Whatever it was, he was going to do it.
"Ah, all the drama, Niks." Amused, he shot her an amused glance.
"Okay, then." She exchanged glances with Armaan and then looked at her boyfriend, Abhimanyu Modi, who had no clue of what she was going say.
"Babe, what is churning in there, huh?" Abhi leaned in, whispering in her ears in his half-drunked state.
"So, Armaan." Ignoring her boyfriend, she stood up, swaying from side-to-side.
"You-will-date-the-dorkiest-girl-in-our-college" Everyone's eyes widened, as she spoke slowly.
"What?" Muskaan Chadda and Abhi spoke in unison, while her boyfriend, Rahul Gahrewal could only laugh.
"Riddhima Gupta." She raised her brows, as she spoke, a twinkle to triumph visible in her green haze.
"For-A-MONTH!"
"Screwed." Rahul mocked him. Everyone in the room but Armaan had shown their reactions. Had it been anyone else, would have easily given up. But it was Armaan Malik who had been challenged, and he wasn't going to give up without trying and winning!
Slowly, he got on his feet and stood in front of Nikki, standing face-to-face.
"Done."
"Haha, wait, what?" Rahul, who was busy laughing, paused to throw him a glance.
"Dude, you serious?" Abhi was suddenly in his most serious moods, and so were the others, except Armaan and Nikita, who continued staring each other.
"Oh, she is a really sweet girl, Armaan. Don't do that to her. Nikita doesn't know what she's saying, she's drunk dammit!" Rahul spoke, while Muskaan sided him.
"Don't be such a wimp Rahul. Relax, no one's gonna get hurt.'Tis just a dare, okay?" Armaan turned around to shout back at him in his slurred voice.
"You'll end up hurting her." Muskaan said quietly, but was ignored.
"So, should I consider it on?"
"It IS ON!" The two shook hands, with wide grins on their faces.
~0o0~0o0~0o0~
Waking up with terrible headaches and dragging your asses to the colleges, followed by the boring lectures.. 'Oh, how I hate Mondays', he thought, slumping his head on the table.
"Ugh, I hate Mondays" He lifted his heavy head on hearing Muskaan's voice, as if his mind was being read.
"Tell me about it." Muskaan noticed his read swollen eyes and was taken aback.
"Armaan" She eyed him angrily, "how much did you drink yesterday?"
"Just enough to get wasted." He winked at her, with a smirk on his face. But his smirk wiped off immediately, as he saw her entering the class.
Light pink churridaar with white embroidery and dupatta.. 'what a dork' smirking, he shook his head. She seemed tensed and in a hurry and he knew the reason to it.
'The dork was 5 minutes late to class' He nodded his head in an agreement, as he eyed the nerd, who is usually arrives an hour before the class start. As he was busy wondering how do people wake up so early in the morning, he heard the professor call his name and shut his eyes.
"Armaan Malik!" Lazily, he stood up and looked at the professor, who hated him with all his guts.
"Yes, phur (sir)!" And the class broke into fits of laughter. The professor, Prof. Sharma, somehow couldn't pronounce 'S'. Hence was invented 'ph', which always came out instead of 's'. The professor only glared at him in return.
"In caphe (case) you don't know, let me tell you, we had to submit the rough draft to the report today." He stretched his hands behind his back proudly, and smirked at him. 'Oh, shit! The report! How could you forget, Armaan? How could you?' He smacked his head mentally.
"Yeph (yes) phur!" He smirked arrogantly again.
"Mr. Malik, do not cross your limit."
"What did I do phur?" He batted his eyelashes innocently, while the class giggled away. Obviously, the poor professor couldn't point anything out, since he had no proof. The brat Armaan Malik had managed to save his ass again, he thought. After his early morning banter with another professor, he settled back to his back bench, only to receive a glare from Riddhima. As Armaan raised his curious gaze to meet hers, nervously, she shied away. Smirking, Armaan shook his thoughts away.
~0o0~0o0~0o0~
"Kh-kh-kh-Khoo-nal!" Armaan shouted loudly, settling himself in the common room comfortably. Apart from the loud roar of laughter, there was only one who turned around nervously and began walking again. His name was Kunal Mathur, the shy guy who stammers, named 'Khoonal' by Armaan Malik.
"Oye Khoonal!" Armaan literally had to run, to catch up with him. Yet, he managed to catch up, because of his athletic built and the guys extreme dorky attitude. He would swear that the guy would pee in his pants, when he saw Armaan approaching him, not that it bothered Armaan.
"Why are you ignoring me, buddy?" He spread his arms around the guys shoulder. The guy looked as if he would crush under the heavy weight.
"Please let me go." The begged him literally, scared of anything that Armaan'd make him do. At that, Armaan couldn't himself but laugh out loud.
"Oh, dude! You're so entertaining." Armaan smirked, while the guy wiped the sweat of his forehead.
"Chal, I'll let you go if you answer my question." Hesitant, Kunal nodded nervously at him.
"Do you know where will I find Riddhima Gupta?" They stopped amidst a crowded corridor. Kunal finally lifted his gaze, shocked. It took him a moment to digest the fact, when Armaan clicked his fingers, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Helloo? Khoonal Mathood?" Kunal looked away with disgust. No, not the most innocent girl in the campus, not Riddhima, he thought. Armaan could toy around with any one for that mattered, but it he couldn't possibly play with her feelings!
"Why?" Armaan was surprised at the amount of courage the guy had mustered on hearing Riddhima's name, though it was very little.
"Ooh, Khoonal does reasoning, huh? Nice, I like it." He smirked, breaking all his confidence. Kunal knew very well, that he'd be bullied, hadn't he not revealed the information. His heart was breaking into pieces, on thinking about the series of incident that was going to follow. It'd kill her.
"In the library." He mumbled.
"That's like a good boy" Armaan ruffled his hair, but Kunal moved away.
"Thanks yaar." He smiled at first, trying his best to be polite, "Now get lost." Armaan stopped smiling immediately and nearly shouted. Kunal immediately left the spot, without any argument.
"Library at 6 in the evening, when the classes get over at 4, huh? Interesting." Armaan stared nothing, momentarily, pondering over something. A moment later a smirk formed on his lips, after which he made his way towards the library.
~0o0~0o0~0o0~
Although it was a routine for her to sit here and do some homework, Riddhima wanted to sit in the library and complete her novel today. Why did she like the library so much? Because it was peaceful, away from all the noise. It gave her time to find and arrange her thoughts. She liked living in solace, away from the normal college going students, except one.
"Ta- dah!" A book magically appeared in front of her, she smiled. In front of her was another classic novel she loved- Gone With The Wind. She looked up and smiled at her best friend, Atul Joshi, who was currently busy patting himself.
"Told you I'd find one." Dramatically, he pulled his collars, making her smile widen.
"Never underestimate my talent, miss." Atul loved drama, she knew, since he pose triumphantly.
"I guess I have been proven wrong again, then?"
"Fourth time"
"Third" She interjected him.
"Whatever. The point is, you owe me a coffee." He looked at her, adamant. In response, she could only smile and nod.
"So, what are we waiting for? The delicious vada pav and coffee awaits us. Let us proceed, madame." He spoke dramatically, making her giggle. People lifted their heads to eye them, as he presented her his arms.
"Sure, but not today." She showed him the book, she had been reading. A single look and he knew why she had been reading it today. He smiled at her in understanding.
"Hm, I guess I can pardon you for today, but mind you, tomorrow is my day!"
"Sure." She blinked meaningfully, and returned back to her reading, as soon as Atul was out of sight.
So lost in her book-reading that she didn't realize that someone had just slipped into the chair near her and taken her Gone With The Wind book away.
"So, Gone With The Wind, huh?" Riddhima nearly jumped up from her chair. Armaan smirked at her.
"Oh, sorry. I scared you."
"Uh, you should be." Riddhima settled back to her place, uninterested in whatever he was about to say.
'Wow, Riddhima and attitude? Interesting.' He shook his head, cutely and looked at her. It was his trademark in the college, which every girl fell over- the cutest pout in the college.
"What are you doing here, Malik?" She broke his chain of thoughts, surprising him with her tone.
"I think people come to read here, Basket." Said Mr. Malik sardonically, smirking away to glory. The nickname he had kept for her, since the time he had caught her playing basketball early in the morning. And he had to accept, she was pretty awesome at it, unlike the other girls, who just came to the court to ogle him.
"People, Mallik, not you." She spoke sternly, her eyes still on the books. It amused him, how he could challenge him.
"If that satisfies your curiosity.. Um, I came here to.. to ask you something?" At this Riddhima shut the book and turned to look at him.
"What.do.you.need.Malik?" She managed to spit out through her teeth. After a moment, Riddhima realized that she had spoke a little bit to loudly and bit her lips, since people eyed her warily. Her reaction amused Armaan, who could grin.
"Shh, basket. What are you doing?" He mused at her expensive.
"Shut it, Mallik. Just get it over with so that we both can rest in peace." She stood up and began walking, keeping the books in her bag.
"I needed to ask you something." He stammered, thinking of a line, scratching his head and pouting (trademark Armaan, again!)
"What?" She eyed him suspiciously at first, but then her eyes widened, horror-stricken. She realized that she had forgotten her book in the library.
Armaan realized the possible reason of this reaction and immediately lifted his hand, to left her see what he was holding. It was the book, which she had left back in the library when she began walking away angrily. Armaan picked it up in a hurry, following her out of the library.
"Will you go out on a date with me?" His light blue eyes bore into hers as he spoke, handing her over the book which meant so much to her.
Song suggestion for this O.S:
The Reason by Hoobastank.
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