Chapter 17

Author's Pov

Aditya had never been as thankful for Mother Nature as he is now. Like, Look at the lake in front of him glowing and shining in the moonlight, while his girl said beside him humming a song to herself .rocking her body sideways.

He looked at her keenly taking puffs from his cigarette, like always managed to take his breath away but today she did something else, her cheeks were glowing with the tiniest tink of pinkness while her eyes looked different, the light in her soul so bright it made Aditya just keep looking at her.

Shreya who was aware of his glance at her looked away to hide her smile, its been 2 weeks since the kiss and now she was very used to his glance, a lot of talking and becoming an expert in sneaking around her house behind amurtha aunty.

Right now she sat there trying to concentrate on anything else other than him and his cigarette in his hand.
As someone who risked her life every day, the cigarette in his hand was tempting her but Shreya would do anything but smoke especially with her lungs.
And right now she had left her inhaler god knows where. (Her brother would kill her before her asthma does)

Now that Aditya felt her eyes on him, he smirked taking another puff from his cigarette and looked at her

"Adhi" she asked her voice soft yet loud enough for him to hear and he hummed in response looking at her.

"Don't smoke now" she said looking at him with no expression on her face.

Adhi chuckled knowing what was gone come up, like every other human Shreya was going to advise him to stop smoking cause he would die soon.

"Why? Are you planning to lecture me ?" He asked throwing away the cigarette

"No! I am planning to kiss you" she said leaning in near his face.

Aditya legit felt his heart skip a beat as her floral scent surrounded him, she slowly touched his nose tracing from his nose to lips, making him close his eyes, her other hand on the mud while her soft warm body almost touched his body he anxiously waited for her soft lips on his but instead, he felt a tiny peak on his left cheek. And soon the warmth of her body disappeared.

He opened his eyes and looked at her while she now comfortably sat back in her normal position.

"What was that?" he asked in disbelief

"Kiss" She answered back immediately and he shook his head seeing her answer innocently.

He had this sudden urge to hold her tight seeing her this adorable.
He lifted his arms as if like stretching and slowly brought his left arm around her waist and pulled her close to him.

Shreya was not taken aback by this cause the moment she saw him stretching his arms she somehow knew he was going a do this. So she gave in and sat looking at the lake sparkle in the moon while staying in her favourite man's arms.

After a moment of silence, he asked

"Why do you want me to stop?" He asked to which she immediately nodded as if no

"I didn't tell you to stop, smoking and dying of cancer is your fate then nothing can stop that but in the process, you'll kill me too," she said a bit boldly and loudly for the first time around him.

He immediately turned facing her completely!

"I watched my dad quit for me! The man who left everything for me, Because I believe he loved me enough to never want to see me  fight for every breath."Shreya said
What the fuck was wrong with her? Why was she telling something only her people know to Aditya?

"But I never forced him to stop nor will I stop you! Amurtha Aunty has always said to never force people to change" Shreya ranted

Adithya gave zero fucks about what amurtha aunty had said cause all he did was stare at the woman in front of him cause Aditya understood it in a minute!

"What's wrong Shreya?" he asked softly so soft that Shreya would have missed him talking if her concentration was somewhere else

"I guess my family is a bit more protective of me because I have this asthma thing which made me go breathless when I was in school grade three" Shreya said knowing very well she was saying the information in a very twisted way, she wanted him to know but saying it felt weird.

This was one of her scary secrets which she never dared to open up about fearing people would misuse it but somewhere she felt if something went wrong Aditya would help her, she felt he would do anything for her.

Call her delusional or stupid but deep down she had already started trusting him.

Aditya sighed as he pulled her to his chest, kissed the top of her head and patted her shoulders

. "I promise. No more cigarettes. Ever," he said

"You don't have to quit for me-" Shreya said

"I'll give you the world, Shreya, The moon.
The fucking stars. Anything you ask, and letting going something like this doesn't matter" Aditya said

A few minutes of silence later, Shreya nodded as she stood up collecting her things, dusting her dress to leave while Aditya followed her.

On the way back to their bike, Shreya stopped seeing a lady sitting on the roadside with a bucket full of coloured chicks looking and chirping as loud as possible.

She always loved it, she had so many grown-ups at their house when she was young but sadly those chickens died in a very months.

"I always wanted a pet," Shreya said dreamily looking at the basket

"You realise you can't keep this thing, right?"Aditya asked

"Why not? It's cute."

"It's a chicken ."

"So?" Shreya asked now looking offended
And Aditya immediately nodded as if nothing

"Nope! Absolutely nothing it looks very cuteeeeee" he said stressing the word cute and looking at the basket with disinterest.

"Fine let's go! Amrutha Aunty will kill me if I am late, and so will Sri, she is probably waiting for me in the mall" Shreya said

She had lied to amurtha aunty saying she was going out with sri to the mall while she was with her boyfriend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here Sri stood in the billing line waiting for her chance, clutching that one tee she had managed to grab from the discount corner.
There was some huge sale going on and it was crowded.

All the while she had no idea someone looked more interested in watching her than the sales, she casually turned back and saw Vineeth in the line behind a few people.

And just with the sight of her, he waved so brightly at her making her smile at his enjoyment.

Within a few minutes, she found him breaking the line, pushing people away and eventually throwing away all his items in his cart and standing next to her.

"Vineeth...you didn't have to" sri said looking around and noticing that the people let him cut the line only because he didn't have anything to bill in his hand

"What if I lose sight of you in this crowd? That would be a tragedy."Vineeth said. And sri uttered a shock. What immediately and looked at him.

"I mean look at the crowd! With your height you'll just disappear like you know-" Vineeth tried to talk while sri stopped him and nodded

"Gotcha! I am short" she said folding her hands across her chest

"Alright alright! I am here for a different business" he said and sri looked around

"Shreya and Aditya are not yet here?" she asked

"Oh, they went out?" Vineeth asked surprised to which sri nodded

"Oh! News to me but then I was wondering if you are free this Sunday so that you know we can like- go out? " Vineeth asked the last part scratching the back of his neck nervously

"Huh?" Sri gasped looking around as if magically people would understand what was happening and help her out

"I've been wanting to ask you for a while, "But you're always so... I didn't want to make you uncomfortable," Vineeth said

"But then I saw you here, and it just felt like... my chance," he added, to which sri nodded clutching the tee in her hand tightly

"Can I let you know tomorrow ?"  She asked. To which he nodded immediately

"Sure!"

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