Around You

Chapter 11

As promised, here it is! 

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I found his hazel green orbs quickly drain out of color as he acknowledged my presence. Fighting back the unusual stings of pain pooling in my eyes, I took steps towards him to meet his eye. He looked away for a second, hiding away from me when I cleared my throat and grabbed his attention again.

A swirl of emotions raced in my mind, my heart constricting with every feeling. I felt anger towards the man in front of me, for hurting me without my permission. For betraying me without reason. I felt pain from his hurtful words directed towards me. I shouldn't be, but my heart had given him too much importance to feel every word pierce through me. I felt resentment for being treated this way. I had only been good to him, only given him a friendly shoulder. I did not deserve this.

I did not deserve pain from a friendship he considered irrelevant.

And so I blinked back the tears and finally spoke with a tight voice, "Basant, could you give us a moment?"

My eyes refused to waver from Sumedh's when Basant nodded in understanding. He gave a sympathetic pat to my shoulder before closing the door behind us.

"I wanted to rehearse our lines before our shoot. But I guess that won't be necessary." I finally spoke, receiving nothing but callous silence from his end.

My eyes traveled over his golden dhoti and red scarf wrapped around his torso, flickering over to the enchanting feather on his turban. He was yet to wear his contact lenses.

"Are you not going to say anything?" I grew irked at the lack of response.

"You heard me." He shrugged, infuriating me further.

"And you have nothing to say in defense?"

His Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped, "I haven't lied."

My hands balled into fists and I cried out, "But you have, Sumedh. You lied to me!"

"I've never led you on, Mallika." His calm and controlled tone started to bother me.

I shook my head in disbelief, "And all that in UP? Did it not mean anything to you?"

"Please don't exaggerate." He turned to face the mirror to fix his turban when I flailed my arms in frustration, "How could you be so emotionless?!"

His eyes glimmered in rage as he gritted, "You've got no right--"

"I do. Because that's what you did. All those nights we toured around the city, the secrets you shared with me, everything was a farce. And yet you act as if you don't care. As if none of this matters to you!" I lashed out.

I walked up to him, grabbing his arm so that I could meet his eye again, "You don't deserve to be Krishn. You don't deserve to be a hero, Sumedh. Not because you aren't capable of being one, but because you just don't want to."

Pushing my forefinger into his chest, I frostily accused, "You just want to spend your entire life in the dark shadows to drive people away. It's pathetic."

I had been trying to get a rise out of him, and I finally succeeded. Because he grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me to the nearest wall, "You've no right to count my flaws when you're hardly perfect."

"I--"

"No, you listen to me now. I told you on the first day of shoot that I wanted to keep things professional between us. But you're so irritating and clingy that you wouldn't give up until I gave in. And so I did." He berated roughly, boring his eyes into mine.