The breakfast around the table was awkward, Kiyansh was stiff and closed off and eating carrot cheese cake off my plate like he was taking his anger off my plate. I stuffed my mouth with methi cheese paranthe, and French toast with mouthful of peanut butter and ignored the fact that everyone kept glancing between me and Kiyansh, as if to ask, what is up with you two?

Kiyansh parks his Range Rover and my dad gets excitedly out of the car. I take a bite of carrot cake wrapped in the paper and put it in my bag for later. Kiyansh gets out and opens the car door for me. I roll my eyes and say "I can open it for myself."

He shakes his head and passes the key to the guard. A man in a hefty charcoal coloured suit with blue tie comes towards us, he looks considerably young with his short hair and kind of adorable face like a kid. "Hello Sir, Hello Mam, I am Ashish, the manager of the stadium." He looks at me and smiles, it's an innocent and excited kind of smile, I smile back.

Kiyansh stiffens beside me and glares at the man so hard that he takes a step back. The man pales and stammers, "F..Follow me sir, mam." This time he says all this to my dad who is literally bouncing up and down on his feet. My father nods excitedly and goes beside the manager, making the manager somewhat relieved.

"Why are you scaring people away?" I whisper yell at Kiyansh while we walk towards the VIP box. He totally ignores me and keeps walking as if he's here to parade I am the most prudent man here.

I huff annoyingly and decide to ignore him too. I am not going to entertain him if he is going to behave like a jerk.

I hear the people before entering the VIP box and to my suspicion the stadium is filled with cricket fans. The blue colour of the Indian jersey shining more than the yellow jersey of Australia, which was natural, since India was hosting the match, my dad picks up the same jersey which thousands of cricket fans wore, from a table full of them, and downs one himself.

He turns and points to himself grinning, "How is it?" he asks like a capacious devoted fan he was. "Look at the name, I am wearing Vikrant's name jersey, the one you introduced to your IPL team last year." My father glees pointing towards Kiyansh smugly, "Because of you the Indian team found such an awesome all rounder. I am sure we are going to bugger off the Aussie's with their tales between their legs today."

"Dad" I shriek, "Language!"

"What language, everything is fair in love and war."

"Yeah but it's not a war."

"It is." Kiyansh's deep voice interrupts. "There are lots of wars in the world you don't know about."

My dad flicks his hand as if to say, see that's what I am saying. I narrow my eyes at Kiyansh, my dad doesn't have any idea what Kiyansh is talking about.

"That's why your IPL team lost in finals, for two consecutive years?" I say sarcastically and blink innocently.

Apparently Kiyansh brown gold eyes turn dark and he irritatingly moves his hand through his vegas brown hair, which looks hot and it irritates me more. "That's because...." His eyes glide behind me and his eyes turn rock.

I turn to find the source and find Ayan smiling at me from the entrance door, with four people in tow. One is the actress he mentioned earlier. I try to remember her name, ahhh yes, Kritika. And other three people, all men, which must be Ayan's friends.

I smile and wave at them.

Ayan starts to move and makes his way towards us, his friends following him in tow.

"Hello, Hello." He whistles and he smiles from his Michael-Angelo angle.

I laugh and shake my head at him. "Dad," I turn towards my dad who is eyeing Ayan curiously, "this is Ayan. Ayan this is my Dad. "

"Nice to meet you Mr. Sharma" he extends his hands towards Dad giving his goofy smile.

My father looks at Kiyansh, as if to assure himself he is not committing a sin, what? I pinch my father and he stumbles forward taking Ayan's hand.

The smile doesn't disappear from Ayan's face and he turns towards Kiyansh, offering him a handshake, "Last time we were in hurry weren't we?"

I don't know if Ayan doesn't notices Kiyansh's eyes throwing daggers at him or he ignores it, whatever it is, it's a valiant task that he doesn't budge from his position.

Kiyansh tilts his head and looks at the offered hands as if he is planning to bisect them. Then his eyes move towards mine, and I give him a pleading look, his eyes narrows at me, but he instantly moves his hand towards Ayan, shaking it.

I smile relieved.

"This is my co-actor" Ayan introduces us to Kritika, she was a brunette wearing a mini black and pink flower dress. Her eyes were vigil on Kiyansh, she was so busy in checking him out that she didn't even notice that Ayan was introducing her to everyone.

I felt a surge of heat recoiling in my stomach when she sprightly moved towards Kiyansh gawking, and gave him an over bright smile with her flashy white teeth.

I cogitate and without a second thought move towards Kiyansh, standing close to him like a defensive piranha.

Kiyansh turns to me with his brows up, ignoring Kritika's alluring smile, amusement clear on his face.

I blush and realise shamefully what I was doing in front of so many people and start to move away from him. But Kiyansh keeps a firm hand on my arm, and holds me back, smiling at me with those dimples on his face, which would have stuttered up my heart if not for everyone staring strangely at us, including my dad.

I fluster and look at Ayan, who was narrowing his eyes at me. I bite the inside of my cheeks, and say "Hey!" to his friends standing beside him.

Ayan introduces us to his friends one by one, "Aditya, Reyansh and Veer." To be honest they all seemed pretty genuine and cool.

We all start to take our seat and Kiyansh sits beside me, taking not less than ten second to bend down and whisper in my ear. "Someone got jealous huh?"

His breath raise goose bumps on my skin and I try to say casually, but feel the flow of blood on my face, "You wish, I was saving you."

Kiyansh smiles at me. As if he knows and now, he will never stop bothering me about it.

My father is sitting on my right and Kiyansh is sitting on my left so every time I want to talk to Ayan I have to tilt forward which is forestalled by Kiyansh's body intentionally, I glare at him but he doesn't even look at me and keeps on smiling like a lunatic.

*****

There's a sort of weird silence in the stadium all of a sudden, everyone is biting their nails and waiting for the game deciding, third umpire decision, Vikrant the player dad mentioned might be run out. He's already scored 73 runs and even though I am not a cricket fan, I find myself chanting Don't be out, please.

The decision flashes Not Out across the screens and people dressed in blue jersey show their appreciation and happiness by flailing up and down.

Well, I and Kritika are one of them now. We both have confiscated jersey's from the table and we both are screaming out like there's no tomorrow, and, ahem we have somehow become friends. I liked the way she cursed, like she was carrying a dictionary with curses on array. Ayan's friend Veer clears his throat, puffs out his chest comically and says in an Australian accent, "Yo mate that decision was pathetic."

We all burst out laughing, "You are so funny." I say between the cusps of laughing and high five Veer. My dad joins us, his face half red in happiness.

"There's nothing funny about it." I turn to find the only person who could say that. As expected his nostrils are flaring, and he's got that look when he is annoyed.

"Oh but he is." Kritika says in sing song voice and is rewarded with another glare from Kiyansh, her hands fiddle nervously by my side and I watch her involuntary moving close towards me. I glare back at Kiyansh and his eyes instantly escape towards the pitch, as if two seconds before, nothing happened.

I shake my head and make my way towards him. I tiptoe and whisper in his ear, "Stop being so tense, it's okay to loosen up sometimes. Have fun." He looks at me and I realise I am half leaning on him. Suddenly the smell of aftershave mixed with the smell of him fills my nostrils a blissful combination.

I feel his arm reaching to my waist and my breath loosens. All the words get lost inside my throat when he bends down close to my face and purrs like a cat, "I am having fun right now."

There's sudden shout in the box, I gasp and realise that anyone could be looking and thinking anything about us, I disperse away from him with wide eyes and he looks at the screen smiling like he is amused and doesn't give a damn in the world, it takes five minutes for me to comprehend that anyone was not looking and Ashish, Vikrant's partner at the pitch just hit a six and the first phase of the 20th over was complete. Our total score was 253 with four wickets. Kritika turns to me with a beaming grin, pointing at the screen. I huff in relief and pace to Kritika ignoring Kiyansh's eyes on me.

******

It's the eighteenth over and everyone is holding their breath, we all have officially abandoned the VIP BOX and made the balcony our accomplice. Rathi Vagera( I just learned his name) , a fantastic bowler takes the 8th wicket as the majority of the stadium scream their heads off. Without thinking I ebulliently turn towards Kiyansh and excitedly bump my waist into his, our childhood bumping style. He smiles at me so hard my stomach flips.

"Hey watch there." My father claps his hand to get our attention and points at the screen. And there it is, on the national television I am bumping my waist into Kiyansh's and Kiyansh is smiling at me. And in the background, Ayan is high fiving Kritika. I groan and apologetically look towards Ayan and Kritika who shake their head together and laugh gleefully.

Kiyansh smiles at the screen as if it is some dog advertisement and not another news which media will not fail to print.

Ayan is busy talking to Kritika and Reyansh while the cameraman keeps repeating the scene on the screen I blush and roll my eyes, am I the only one who remembers that we didn't want media attention.

****

The final over is here and I am biting my nails off, and there it is, Rathi Vagera bowls a Yorker and OUT, the last wicket goes. The screams of the people are so loud, I literally feel it reverberate through me, the moment my eyes meet his, I feel an energized zip of electricity pass through me, maybe it was his hands in my waist earlier or the way he is looking at me right now, like I am the only person here in this thousands of crowd.

"We made you a fan" my father flaps his hand towards my jersey.

I roll my eyes, albeit smiling at him, "You did."

"Do you want to meet them?" Kiyansh's voice rakes through the excited voice of crowd.

"Oh I want to meet them!" Ayan chirps and makes his way from behind me.

Kiyansh's face goes to that indignant angle and he says rudely, "I was not asking you!"

"Can we go now please!? Why didn't I know about these friends earlier, I want to meet Vikrant first!" I interject excitedly.

"Oh my god yes," Kritika sighs dragging Aditya beside her, "I am totally into him."

Both Kiyansh and Ahan look as if they had been told the worst news of all, their faces turn stone cold, clear childish jealousy seeping through them.

"No he is not." Kiyansh grunts.

"I am more hot!" Ayan steps beside Kiyansh as if he is joining his team then takes two steps away when Kiyansh passes him a daggering glare.

"Ahem." My father clears his throat.