I took steps towards Danish with a glass of wine for him in one hand and for me in the other. Hearing my footsteps, he turned his head and cut his call as he saw me walking towards him.

"Hey, shorty."

I rolled my eyes at the name but then I just brushed it off. My fight mode was off for now.

"Want some?" I asked, holding out a glass.

"Yeah, sure." He took it from my hand.

As my lips touched the rim of the glass, he stopped me.

"Let's do cheers," he said.

"To what?"

"To...," he trailed off. "Truce?"

"Truce?" I looked at him confusingly. 

Why not? Andrew said he wants to be my friend. I guess I'll give it a shot then. 

"Ok, sure." I nodded. 

"To truce!" me and Danish said together as we raised and clinked our glasses. 

"Woah. This is extremely good. It's dry and smooth," I said after taking a sip of the sky-high wine. 

"Yeah, Andrew has got some selection here," Danish said.

"No one here is gonna rank you for your modesty, Danish," I sneered. 

He looked at me for sometime before saying, "Andrew can't keep his mouth shut, right?"

"Maybe, or we can put it in a way that he's not willing to take credit for something he didn't do," I said, taking another sip.

"Oh, what have we got here? Elka on Andrew's side?" He joshed me.

I rolled my eyes at him again.

"I'm just stating some reasonable facts."

"Yeah, ok." After some time he asked me, "Do you know about Andrew?"

I looked at him and nodded my head.

"He's like a family to you, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. My brother literally brought him up. And my parents see him as their own son. They know everything about him, from being an unwanted child to a runaway, everything," he said with his eyes holding pride and love for his family.

I smiled looking at him. 

Our eyes met for a few good seconds. His dark brown orbs pierced my black ones, causing that bizarre feeling to wash over me again. Shade of crimson crawling from my neck to my face, heat emanating from my skin and breath being erratic. We were having a moment until I forced myself to avert my eyes from his and then took a deep breath. 

What is this fucking feeling?

"So you're physics?" I asked to ease up the tension that was around us. 

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Why though?" I asked feebly. "I have always hated physics, chemistry and anything that involves numbers and makes my head topsy turvy."

"Isn't physics interesting? It makes us understand the world around us and satisfies our curiosity. It is a key to express our creativity, to see the world in new ways and then to change it. Isn't it amazing that every single minute particle has its own peculiarities and uniqueness that evokes thousands of questions in our mind?" he said, his eyes beaming. 

I gave him a pleased look and said, "You're talking to the wrong person."

He chuckled. "Why?"

"I'm more into writing and communication stuff. Just as you are interested in finding answers to satisfy your curiosity, I like communicating with people, building and maintaining cordial relationships with them."

"Building relationships with people? You're the one to talk," he said, earning a smack on his arm from me and laughed. The smack didn't have any effect on his brawny arms but it was my hand that was in pain. "Just joking," he said through his giggles. 

We then talked about our college and our courses and other things. We laughed and poked fun at each other also. Not gonna lie, I was enjoying his company. 

It came as a real surprise to me to find out that Danish and I were similar in many ways. We had the same music taste, we both were foodies, the things that irritated us were similar and even the color we liked, that is, black. Lily was right about him though. He was affable, funny, down to earth albeit his father being a business tycoon. And, he was hot. I found out that he had this habit of pushing his hair backwards which was so fucking sexy when he did it. I roasted him a lot to which he also snapped back but one thing that amazed me was that he didn't let any of my roastings get him and instead he just laughed it off. I was amazed thinking how could someone be this confident to not let any sort of attack get the best of him. If it was me, then...

Ok, I'm gonna be honest. I'm attracted to him. 

But I had this question nagging my mind from the moment I saw him. Gulping down the remaining wine and without thinking twice, I asked him, "You're a fuckboy, right?" 

Danish looked at me with wide eyes before saying, "Where did that come from?"

"Well, I think you are one."

"Well, what made you think like that then?"

"Because you look like one," I snapped. 

"You just had one glass of wine so don't tell me you're serious," he said. 

"No, I am sober as fuck and I am damn serious."

He was gaping at me and lightly shook his head before saying, "You really are bad at judging people, Elka. And the reason you said for what makes you think I'm a man whore is fucking illogical."

"Oh God! I have been hearing this same fucking shit a lot lately. Everyone is telling me about my judgement over and over," I yelped. 

"Yeah, people say that to your face because it is a fucking truth," he said back.

"I just asked you whether you're one. I didn't say you're one. Why are you yelling dude?"

"Yeah, now I'm the one who's yelling when you're the one who actually started it. In fact, this talk is useless." He took a deep breath. "You just ruined everything, Elka."

I was taken aback. "Ruined what?"

He signed and said, "Nevermind."

I was glaring at him when Andrew called him from inside, making us turn around. 

"Let's go, it's quite late," he said.

"Yeah, coming," Danish said and looked at me. "Thanks for the dinner though," he said with a blank face and walked past me.

I didn't say anything but followed him into my house.

Andrew and Lily were standing near the door, him holding by her waist whispering something to her which made her laugh shyly. 

"Ok. Let's go," Danish said as we approached them.

"Yeah, ok," Andrew said, looking at him.
He turned towards me. "Elka, thank you for the dinner. And I hope that you and Danish are friends by now," he said, looking back and forth between me and Danish.

"Yeah, we are," Danish said.

I just smiled.

"Ok then, let's get going. Bye guys. See you," Andrew said and stepped outside. 

Danish said bye and hugged Lily. He looked at me and smiled faintly before stepping outside.

I said good night to Lily and went to my room as soon as they left. I changed to PJs and did my night routine. I switched on my fairy lights and played some lo-fi music to calm and drift my mind from what happened before. 

I asked him whether he was one because I had a revulsion against playboys. One reason was that I had always hated them as they are just capable of playing with someone's feelings, breaking hearts, having girls wrapped around their fingers and under their sheets and then giving those girls names like slut and ho and making their life ahead a hell on earth. The second reason was that Lily's first ex was an absolute fuckboy. He was manipulative, toxic and used her like a tissue paper, like she was nothing.

I was lying down on my bed and looking at the fairy lights above the headboard of bed without blinking my eyes. 

Moments of Lily crying in my arms and asking me whether she wasn't pretty and worthy enough to be loved flooded my mind. That relationship ended a month before we met. But Lily was still shattered and broken. She loved him so much that she blamed herself when it was that asshole who went on fucking girls behind her back. That was her first breakup. 

She started her second relationship after a month the college opened. It was with a sophomore and they eventually broke up but with mutual understanding and on good terms. The second one wasn't anything serious when compared to the first but still, it made her hold on hope of love more loosely than before. If she would've let go of her hold on that hope completely, then there wouldn't have been Andrew. 

But why was Danish so triggered when I asked him that? I thought that it was some kind of kudos to say one was a playboy. But guess I was wrong. After all, not everyone was the same.

Why did I ask Danish whether he was a playboy? He looks like one but that doesn't mean he is one right? I know that there is another reason why I asked him but I can't put my finger on it.

I facepalmed myself. Thoughts were really fucking up my mind.

Maybe he's right. People tell I'm bad at judging for a fucking reason. 

I sighed. 

Me and Danish were close to being friends and I had to ruin it with my stupid and curious ass. I closed my eyes, trying to put myself into a deep slumber. 

Danish was right. I ruined everything.

Perfect, perfect timing
I start what I don't know how to end
Don't re-, don't remind me
I ruined it before it began, oh