Hello everyone :3
Missed me?

Yes? No? Well, I surely did miss y'all

Here it is
Enjoy :3

P.S. excuse the typos :*

~Kritika~

I made my way down the last aisle on the left, my sneakers squeaking against the linoleum floor.

I let my eyes travel around until they finally landed on what I was looking for. It was perched on the shelf in front of me.

"These will have to do." I muttered to myself, as I grabbed and examined a large roll of beautiful, blue fairy lights nestled in the box in my hands.

The month had flown by pretty fast and before I knew it, Christmas was right around the corner.

Christmas.

The cold, dull atmosphere from a few days ago wasn't there anymore. People were in their happiest and cheerful best and the bad weather was doing nothing to dampen their moods. In fact, they were even more happy if possible.

I wasnt a huge supporter of last minute shopping but this was an emergency.

Earlier today, we had been decorating the exterior of our house with strings of red fairy lights. We had draped them strategically.

Everything was going alright, except the time when my uncle almost fell off the ladder. But still, everything was okay.

As soon as my aunt plugged them on, the unthinkable happened. None of them worked. None. Well, except a few bulbs here and there.

So we had decided to do something we never would've done otherwise.

Last minute shopping. The horror.

We weren't really huge fans of last minute shopping so we had a huge debate regarding who would really do the deed.

In the end, I had volunteered to do it as they'd said that they would finish the rest of the decorating work by themselves.

That, and my aunt said she'd make chocolate mousse for me. It was a done deal for me then. Besides, I got to choose whatever I wanted to buy. Which was good, because I wasn't exactly a huge fan of red fairy lights.

But it looks like I wasn't the only one out for some last minute shopping. The shop I was in was abuzz with people who were chattering and giggling amongst themselves excitedly.

I gave the box in my hands one last look before nodding to myself. Mission accomplished. Now time to go home.

I tucked the box of decorations in the juncture between my arm and hip, and I made my way out of the aisle.

The shop was fairly crowded so I was having a hard time making my way to the main, billing counter.

I heard myself politely muttering 'excuse me' over and over as I manoeuvred through a stream of people.

As I passed the aisle containing stuffed animals and toys, I spotted a very familiar figure examining a large, pink teddy bear.

I found myself walking towards them and patting their shoulder lightly. As they turned towards me my suspicions were confirmed.

"Liam!" I exclaimed "didn't really think it could be you. What are the odds?" I joked "So.. what are you doing here?"

He didn't reply but he hid the teddy bear in his hand behind his back but failed terribly. I rolled my eyes inwardly.

"What is that thing you're hiding behind your back?" I asked, feigning curiosity. He looked like I had just caught him red handed, in the process of committing a crime.

Oh something's definitely fishy.

"Oh t-this?" he stuttered "I'm not hiding it. it's for my... Uhh.. neice?"

Wow, someone tell him how horrible at lying he is. I decided to poke a little more fun at him.

"Oh? Your niece, you say?" I smiled "that's so cute! what's her name?"

"Her name?" he repeated, like I'd just asked him the square root of pi or something "it's.. Katniss."

I gave him a long look "Katniss?" I repeated "like.. Katniss Everdeen?"

"Yes.. I mean, no! I mean.." he reasoned in vain.

I burst out laughing at him, causing a woman standing behind him to give me a strange look.

"You're such a horrible liar.." I laughed, wiping away a tear "has anybody ever told you that?"

He groaned "Damn it! This is embarassing.."

"You can tell me.." I reassured ".. Seriously, no more lying. Who is it really for?"

"Anna." he muttered so quickly I almost didn't catch it.

"Brianna?" I repeated, loudly than intended

"Shhh!" he scolded "not so loud. This is embarassing enough already."

"Sorry." I apologized halfheartedly "but wow.. for Bri? But you said, and I quote, 'this is so not my thing'? Whatever happened to that.."

"Well, I'm.. I'm new to all this, okay? You said she liked them, so I decided to buy her one. Big deal." he shrugged

"No, no." I wagged my finger at him "the cool façade won't work with me. If you're buying it, be a man about it."

"Okay, okay." he hissed "I'm buying her a teddy bear because I want it to be perfect, okay? My proposal."

I was pretty taken aback my his sudden outburst. But I felt a smile bloom onto my face.

"Aww, would you look at that" I cooed, pinching his cheeks "little Lily wants his little proposal to be like a fairytale. Beautiful, and perfect!"

He swatted my hand away "Shut your mouth or I'll change my mind."

"Sorry." I said, making a motion of zipping my mouth shut.

"Okay, so I'm gonna go get a bill for this." he said, patting the teddy bear in his hand.

I shook my head and rapidly and he shot me a confused look.

"What?"

I pointed at my mouth and shrugged.

He shot me a clearly irritated look and sighed "You may speak."

I made a motion of unzipping my mouth. It was unnecessary, but I was getting an odd rush of satisfaction by pushing his buttons "Bri hates, and by hates.. I mean loathes, despises the color pink with passion."

"What? But.. she used to love it when we were little."

I shook my head "Well, not anymore. Let's just say that pink is to Brianna as to what red is to a bull. And that teddy bear.." I trailed, looking at it.

He sighed and all but threw it back onto the shelf behind him. He turned to me with an agitated expression "Now what? This shop clearly bought all its stuffed toys from.. Barbie or something." he sounded almost hysterical.

"Relax. Breathe." I ordered and he surprisingly complied "this isn't the only shop around, okay? You could find a perfectly nice teddy bear somewhere else too."

He seemed to think for a while before nodding "Alright. Okay. That works."

"Duh." I snorted "now come one, let's go."

"What do you mean let's go?"

"Well, I'm coming with you, of course!"

He seemed to think for a while "Okay. But you're not allowed to pass comments or tease me about Anna okay?"

"Can I--"

"No you cannot call me Lily either." he cut in and I pouted indignantly

"I was saying if I could choose the teddy bear for you, but okay." I muttered

"You can do that. But just don't call me.." he paused looking rather uncomfortable "..Lily."

I tried my level best to not crack a smile "Okay." I said

"Okay, then." he agreed "now let's go find ourselves a bloody teddy bear."

"Which is not pink." I reminded him

I saw him crack the smallest smile at that as he nodded "Which is not pink."

*******

"This is ridiculous." he muttered, as we exited the third shop "bloody ridiculous."

After I had gotten a bill made for my box of decorations, we had both officially set out on our teddy bear hunting.

The condition next shop we entered was even worse than the previous one's. And by worse, I mean all it had was bright pink teddy bears. So bright, that my eyes hurt to even look at them. One even had a sparkly pink bow tie around it's neck.

I all but dragged him out of there before he could explode, again.

The shop we entered after that had the perfect looking teddy bear in it. Beautiful, super soft, large, plush, you name it. It was the definition of perfection.

There was, however, just one tiny problem in it.

It held a large red heart which read
I ❤ MY SISTER

When he had seen that, he had thrown it at the shop wall in frustration. After seeing that the shop owner, very politely, kicked us out.

So safe to say, we hadn't had any success so far.

"This is absolutely ridiculous." he repeated probably for the nth time "aren't teddy bears supposed to be brown. Isn't that, like a universal rule? Fundamental principle of stuffed toys or something?"

I shot him a wry smile "Universal rule? Fundamental principle?"

He blinked "Great. Now I'm going mad." he sighed "might as well give up looking."

"Relax." I laughed "you're not. And it's just a teddy bear. How hard could it be?"

"Yeah well, considering the success we've had so far." he said sarcastically "very."

I peered through the traffic and spotted another gift shop across the street.

"There.." I pointed "I bet our search will end there."

"I hope it does." he muttered

"Oh shut it, you pessimist." I said, dragging him towards the pedestrian crossing "now come on, we need to cross the road."

As soon as we got to the pedestrian walking, the light turned green.

"Oh great." I muttered to myself, pushing the button to the cross walk light.

"What are you doing?" Liam asked me

"Following traffic rules." I said sardonically

"Look at them!" he exclaimed, pointing at the people hurriedly making their way across the pedestrian walking, vehicles agrily honking in their wake "if they can do it, why can't we?"

"It's just two minutes for the light to turn green. Can you not wait?" I argued back

He gave me a look "You leave me with no other option." he muttered

"Wha-- Hey!" I protested as he grabbed my hand and practically dragged me with him across the road. We narrowly missed being hit by a cyclist.

"There, wasn't so tough now was it?" he huffed as I came to a stop a little ahead of him

"Are you crazy? You could've gotten ourselves killed!" I yelled, looking back at him.

"Yeah, but I didn't. So I don't see any problem anywhere. Lets go."

Whatever happened next was so sudden, it was almost... like it never happened.

His foot landed on a puddle of snow causing him to slip and fall backwards into the ongoing heavy traffic beside us.

But since I was holding onto his hand the entire time, I gave him an uncharacteristically strong pull and he regained his footing just a motorbike whizzed right past him, the driver shooting an array of colorful words in his wake.

We both stood in silence, the only sound being the chattering people on the street, honking cars and his heavy breathing.

It was like we were dancing and I had suddenly dipped him in the most ungraceful way. If it weren't for the expression on his face, I would've been in splits right then and there.

He was clutching his chest so tightly I was afraid he would rip his coat button.

"That was.. scary." he finally breathed out "Shit."

Instead of scolding him I shot him another wry smile "What was it like being the damsel-in-distress yourself for once?"

"Not cool. F*cking scary." he admitted, looking shaken up "damn this snow."

"God punished you, since you didn't follow the traffic rules." I reminded him.

"Punished me? Your level of immaturity increased another few notches higher, if that's even possible." he said dryly, shaking his head

I didn't argue back, since he still didn't quite look like himself. I would'nt blame him though, it was a near-death kind if experience.

As we made way to the gift shop, we passed a group of boys smoking cigarettes.

"Ew." I muttered, wrinkling my nose at the smell. They were teenagers, a little younger than me I presumed. One of the boys slapped another's head playfully as he blew away at the cigarette in his mouth.

As I looked at them, I felt an odd feeling wash over me.

"What?" Liam asked me and that's when I realized that I had stopped walking and was staring at them like an idiot the entire time.

"Nothing.." I trailed as I walked up to him "they just sounded really.."

"That was a horrible dare you gave me. You suck." I heard one of the boys say and I froze mid-sentence. I saw a flash of red hair and suddenly everything fell into place.

"Really what?" Liam asked but I didn't reply as felt one of the boys walk past us, flicking the stub of his burnt out cigarette on the road.

"Familiar.." I said, in a whisper.

"Hey, something wrong?" I felt him touch my shoulder in concern.

"Liam.." I looked at him, still not quite believing it all "..it was him."

"Who?"

I pointed a shaky finger at the boy walking ahead of us "I think.. No.. I know that he's the guy.. from the beach.."

"Beach?"

"Yes" I whispered, feeling my breath quicken

He shot me a confused look for realisation seemingly dawned upon him "You mean..?"

I nodded, almost in a daze "he was the one. The guy who almost had me killed."

XXXXXXXXXXX

Dan dan duuuuuuuuuuuun

I wish I could add a Dramatic Chipmunk gif after that. For the extra effect xD

Anyway

I hope y'all remember the blonde idiot from chapter 4. Yep, that's him. Ya know, that bloke who casually tossed her into the ocean. No biggie.

-.-
<insert choicest swear word here>

What do you think she should do to get revenge?

If I were her I'll kick him in his tralala and run off
(because I'm too chicken to do anything else )

Sigh. Sad life.

Sooooooo

Next update - probably tomorrow
Latest, by Monday :)

And watch out, for you haven't seen the last of Kiam yet ;D

Cote❤

Stay beautiful❤

Kay❤

P.S. Happy 15th of August to my Indian readers :)
Indian swag at its peak