RosesHaveThorns#2(AR) Note: Page128 24th September - Page 15

Originally posted by: -Aliya-

Originally posted by: -Aliya-

You should be 🤣 Aw poor them, they suffered so much🤣

Originally posted by: zARqaa_X

Your comments are short, they don't deserve a reply.

I know same here! :D Apparently it's going to be gone by tomorrow because of the rain :| Plus i'm ill yet again so i can't enjoy it :/

Originally posted by: kajen_hamesha

HAAAW 😲 my comments for the intro and chapters 1-5 were long okay :| and anyway you reply to comments shorter than mine. just admit that you cba 🤣

NO NO NO NO NO. i'm hoping that it'll only rain where you are. Leicester? awww GET WELL SOON! find lemsip and drink it woman 🤣

and now seriously don't reply. because i DON'T want you to get another warning 🤣 RHT is like my niece :P she can't be my baby cos you made her, so she's my niece :) and i love HER 😍 if you wanna talk then come on the DMG AT 🤣

Chapter 7

"What's up Atti?" Riddhima jumped hearing the voice whisper into her ear, she didn't need to be Einstein to know who it was, her normal sized brain could figure it out ' Armaan Mallik. She spun around to see him leaning against the lockers with a grin, trying to hold in his laughter. She frowned on realising what he had called her, 'Atti' was his nickname for her which was short for 'attitude', she didn't understand why he couldn't call her by her real name since he was the only one in school who could actually pronounce it with any errors, but he said he called her 'Atti' because it summed her up for him.

"What do you want Mallik?" she slammed the locker shut, hinting how irritated she was with him.

"Ooh, Atti angry huh? Hm I think I should come up with a new nickname for you, like maybe AngAtti? You get it? Anger-Attitude, Ang-Atti!" He burst out laughing at his own joke, but got a hold of himself quick enough to spot Riddhima walking in the opposite direction.

He ran towards her, trying to catch to her, "Don't you get it? You know AngAtti -"

"Yes I get it Armaan, it's very funny. Ha-ha, your jokes get better day by day." She snapped, making sure the foul anger was easily spotted in her tone. And like she hoped for it didn't go unspotted by Armaan, but sadly he paid no heed to it, it was so much fun to see her annoyed.

"Thank you, at least you laughed at something." She stopped halfway to glare at him.

"Buzz off Mallik. I mean it." But Armaan chose to ignore it as usual, he was used to it since the past few weeks.

"Why are you always moody with me? You are always happy and laughing with everyone else." he asked innocently, he really wanted to know this answer.

"Because you get a pleasure out of irritating me, which I don't approve of. Unlike others, who are kind to me and like to make me feel comfortable around here, not the opposite." She started to walk off again unfortunately with Armaan tagging along.

"Hey I'm kind to you, I tell you jokes." He said harmlessly, suddenly scared to see murder written in Riddhima's eyes. "It's not my fault you don't get them." He mumbled.

"Oh I get them, but when you make jokes about a person they tend not to laugh at them since it's insulting them." She snapped. Suddenly a young boy bumped in to her causing her to drop her books. The boy mumbled a sorry and ran off seeing her go red with fury. The sight made Armaan want to burst out laughing but he held it in as it wasn't the right time.

Riddhima bent down to pick up her books cursing the boy, he tried to help her but she slapped his hand away when he picked up a book. Frowning, Armaan tried again and moved his hand back quick enough so Riddhima couldn't hit him again.

"Thanks." He handed her the books smiling listening to her soft tone.

"No worries Atti." Wrong move. The frown reappeared on her face and she was about to walk off when he held her arm.

"Okay, sorry. It just came out." He pouted.

Riddhima tried hard not to smile, and decided to turn the cards and tease him a little, "Is Armaan Mallik saying sorry to me? Where's the video camera when you need one?"

Armaan pouted more, "Fine, it's okay." She sighed. Armaan grinned widely, that was easier than he thought it would be.

"Cool! See you later friend." He waved her bye and heard Riddhima running behind him. This was going just as he planned.

"Wait, what? Friends? Since when?" she asked.

"Since now." He said simply shrugging his shoulders.

"And what tells you I want to be your friend?"

"Why wouldn't you want to be my friend?" He gloated.

"I can think of a few." She mumbled quietly but he heard her.

"Then please name some." He stopped and leaned back on a locker.

"Well, you're rude, flirty, you annoy me too much. You are too self-centred. And you call me that irritating name." Armaan looked at her blankly for a second and frowned.

"That all?" He said coldly.

"No, I just thought not to make you upset too much." She said staring back at him. They both stared at each for a few more seconds and then hauled in to laughter. People who passed by gave them weird looks but they ignored it. Their laughter finally seemed to die out and Riddhima leaned against the locker beside Armaan, sighing. Both got their breathing to normal before grinning at each other.

"So friends?" Armaan brought his hand forward.

Riddhima looked at it before replying, "I guess so. There's no harm in it, Mallik." She shook his lightly smiling at him.

"Great! Finally, Atti took you long enough. I knew you couldn't resist my charm." He said cheekily.

"Stop calling me Atti." She frowned.

"Only if you stop calling me Mallik." He requested.

"Okay fine."

"Promise?"

"Promise, Armaan." She replied.

"Good then let's go to class Atti."

"Armaan!" she said in disbelief.

"What?" Armaan asked innocently. Riddhima raised her eyebrows, "I didn't actually promise I would stop calling you that, did I?" He winked cheekily making Riddhima open her mouth in shock.

"Armaan!" He ran laughing before she could hit him with her books. She chased him around the corridors to their classroom, screaming "I'm going to kill you." in response to his "Only if you catch me Atti."

Their friendship started that day with their own little Tom-Jerry chase. Armaan and Riddhima had become closer friends than they thought they would have become. They had most of their lessons together since they were doing the same course, Psychology, and helped each other out with projects, tests etc. They hung out with their own groups but that didn't stop them from being together. They always met up during classes, after-school and even before school started. Armaan still did his favourite hobby ' Annoy Riddhima, but instead of being irritated with him, at the end of the arguments she smiled at it all, enjoying their bickering. People started to misinterpret their friendship as a relationship, but they set them straight by saying they were just good friends.

"Actually she's one of my best friends." Armaan answered his friends question, grinning down at Riddhima, who rolled her eyes and carried on reading her book, smiling.

Months flew by and Armaan felt more closer to her than he ever had with a friend, he started to really rely on her for everything, tell her everything about him. Riddhima listened to him when he was telling about his day, his life, laughing when needed, smiling, and hugging him when necessary. She felt almost complete with Armaan there. She never thought she would be such good friends with him, she was glad she had a friend who didn't judge her because of her class or family relations, but just liked her for her...

Hearing a loud howl, both of them turned to face the window, it had already started to rain heavily, how long were they lost in the past for? Both looked at each for a moment but turned away feeling awkward.

"Er I'm just going to read my essay again, to see if I made any mistakes or not." She quietly escaped to the table away from Armaan. She started looking through her pages, not actually reading to pass time. She felt his gaze on her but chose to stay oblivious to it, she knew what he was thinking about before, it was the same thing that she was thinking about. Finally she heard him stand up and walk towards the shelves of books. She sighed in relief, and rested her head on the table for a few moments trying to clear her mind.

He was thinking about the past, their past. The memories they had, their memories. It all seemed like such a long time ago when it was just nearly a year ago. So much had happened since then; it almost seemed like a bad dream. Sighing, he made his way back to Riddhima but stopped half way seeing her sleeping peacefully on the table.

He walked towards her and sat on the seat next to her quietly. He stared at her, analysing her features. She was a beautiful girl, she still was but all that make-up and black clothing covered that beauty she had within herself. The girl, who was loved by everyone, now became a fear to people. He couldn't understand her one bit; she was not the Riddhima he knew. That bubbly, happy girl was gone, for good? He didn't know.

He noticed her moving uncomfortably, and pushed the books out of the way so she could have more space. He saw her face still had a frown on it, a strand of hair was on her face. He leaned on his elbow, placing his head on his hand balancing him, and used the other hand to slowly move it away from her face. He let his hand linger there for a moment, brushing the side of her face lightly; a small tug came upon her lips. He felt ray off happiness seeing her smile like that, why did she have to become like this? She didn't deserve this. He still remembered the first time when he saw her like this 3 months ago, when 2^nd year of University started'

"hey Armaan! How are you? Haven't seen you all summer dude!" They both hugged each other briefly.

"Yeah sorry man, I was busy with some things." Armaan said.

"All summer?" Ian raised his eyebrows.

"Yep." He replied innocently, not looking at him in the eye.

"Armaan Mallik don't you lie to me. So tell what's really been happening in your summer?" he said suspiciously.

"Nothing." Ian didn't budge, "Seriously, I just been busy. Er where's Atti?" He looked around the field but couldn't spot her anywhere. That's weird she's normally here before me, he thought.

"Oh, looking for Ridz huh?" He winked at him teasingly. Armaan rolled his eyes at his friends teasing.

"Shut up, we are only friends remember?" he replied simply.

"Yeah, okay. Sure you are'" Armaan rolled his eyes and blushed slightly.

"Have you seen her or not?" He asked hoping Ian wouldn't continue on that topic.

"Ridz? Nah, not yet. It's weird she's normally here before all of us."

"I know." He started looking around the field again, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. "Well I will see you later man."

He walked towards their favourite spot ' Their tree. It was on the far right end corner of the field and hardly anyone went there, but it was a nice quiet place and he knew Riddhima loved spending time there. When he got there he saw a girl leaning against it, she had straight black just like Riddhima.

"Atti here you are. I was looking everywhere for you, where you been?" He walked up to the girl and touched her shoulder when she turned around and a frown appeared on his face.

"Oh sorry, I thought you were my friend." He fumbled. The girl smiled softly and it was okay.

Armaan made his way back when he bumped in to someone. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest seeing the person.

"Woah." His eyes were wide, in sudden shock. "Er sorry miss, I er didn't see you there." How he didn't notice her, he didn't know. That girl could scare a person from a mile away. She was dressed in all black and had piercing all over her ' Talk about bringing the dark in to the light. The girl glared at him and walked right past him, he felt like he saw her before but he just couldn't remember where. Could it be', nah that's not possible, he thought. He was about to return to the main building when he heard something that caught his attention.

"Hey Ri, where were you?"

Ri? He turned to face the school's bad boy, Vicky, and the girl he bumped in to. This time, he studied her properly, and the result shocked him. Same eyes, same hair, same figure, same skin. But different look, different aura.

"Riddhima?" hearing her name she looked at him, blankly. She turned back to Vicky and carried on her conversation with him. Armaan couldn't believe his eyes, it was actually her, what happened to her?

He walked up to them and opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out, not a sound. Vicky raised his eyebrows in question but he didn't even notice him, he just kept on looking at Riddhima, his best friend. He stared at her trying to pick out any joyous emotion telling him that this was all a joke, it wasn't real, but he got nothing.

"What do you want dude?" Armaan faced Vicky hearing his rude tone but said nothing, he once again turned back to Riddhima.

"Riddhima?" she didn't meet his gaze, but when she finally did it was cold, cold and dark.

"Ri, do you know this guy?" Vicky looked shock, she didn't seem like the type to him that would know Armaan.

"No. I mean, I do obviously, I've seen him around Uni but I don't know him except his name is Armaan Mallik." Not once did she look at Armaan saying this, she kept her gaze on Vicky or the ground whilst speaking. Her words hit Armaan hard, what did he do? She was saying all this as if she hated him. The way she said his name was like as if it were poison. "Vick come on, let's go and meet the others."

They left Armaan behind, letting him wander in his thoughts, letting him realise that that was no dream, it was reality. Bitter sweet reality, people would say how they wished it was all a dream rather than reality, but in Armaan's case if this was his dream he wouldn't chose neither. Because the dreams would haunt him forever and he would be surrounded by the reality.

He couldn't let this be true, this must be a prank for him, a cruel prank was what he told himself. He went to his first lecture hoping to see Riddhima show up. He waited minutes but those minutes went to waste, he didn't even catch a glimpse of her coming near the room. He looked outside the window, to see Riddhima running with Vicky out of the University. He was shocked, she never bunked a class ever. First the look and now this kind boldness, what was happening to her?

When the lecture finished, he ran to find her, he looked everywhere but she was nowhere in sight. He asked people if they had seen her, but all said no. He had to find her'

Armaan woke up feeling something bright hit his face. He groaned and realised he had slept whilst thinking about the first day back at University. He looked towards Riddhima and noticed she was still sleeping peacefully, with his hand still on her cheek. He leaned towards her, caressing her cheek softly. Something was wrong, heck he knew that from the start but after all that had happened it just made him see past that, and only let the hatred they had for each other be seen. He didn't have the courage to ask her anymore, he had lost that right. To him though, still somewhere deep inside, she was his Riddhima. The innocent, bright, bubbly Riddhima. He couldn't believe he let her become like this, he could've stopped her but he didn't. Why? Because of his ego. But this time, it wasn't going to stop him, she is just a vulnerable, innocent girl who doesn't need this in her life, he still thought of her that way but every time he saw her, he just felt angered by her. Something was missing from this story, something which is the reason why Riddhima is like this.

He knew somewhere deep inside of her, the real Riddhima was there. All he had to do was find it. It would take some time, but he was ready for it. And that was promise he was finally ready to keep. But how?

Here's the 7th chapter, as you can see more of the past has been revealed but don't get too happy, i'm not goingto reveal it all at once. :P

Please do press the like button and comment, it means a lot :)

PM's later, i'm too ill.

Love Zarqaa

P.S. Add me to your buddy list if you want PM's for this FF :)