Chapter 5 - Stop hitting on me Rey!

Trisha

@Trisha49

Chapter 5 : Stop hitting on me Rey!

She sat reading in a corner of the shoe section, a frown on her face and her body contorted in a weird, uncomfortable looking posture. She was reading at the mall, Rey laughed recalling her words, she really must hate shopping. He walks to her and greets her. She smiles slighty and picks her bag to make place for him, and he sits beside a still sulking Taani.

"What's up?"

She whines out loud, "I hate shopping. No ok hate is a strong word, but I still really really strongly dislike shopping."

"Hmm."

"Hmm kya hmm, ye bhi koi response hota hai" she looks at him annoyed and he puckers his forehead trying to gauge her extreme annoyance.

"Tu.. sad kyu rahi hai itna?" He cautiously questions and she whines again,

"Mai fruit hu jo sad jaungi?"

"Taani what's going on?" he asked slightly concerned.

"Ahh is it so obvious! Reyy, I'm on my period and it's really painful aaj. Ugh! I can feel my stomach die, like wo marne se pehle jo tadapta haina waise"

She looks at his face tentatively, trying to see how he takes her announcement. How a guy reacts to periods is one of the ways she measures them, judges how comfortable she can get with him.

He presses his lips together holding back a chuckle knowing it could trigger something unpleasant in her current mood and shifts closer to her.

"Ye jo marne se pehle waala tadapna hai, iski tu baat aise karrahi hai jaise marne ka bohot experience hai tujhe!"

"Ha toh period - marna hi toh hota hai" she whines again and he can't help but look at her lovingly.

"Bilkul tadap tadap ke is dil se aah.. ek minute, ye gaana definitely kisine apne period pe hi likha hoga!"

This time he can't stop his laughter but seeing him like that makes her laugh too. As they quieten, he asks her,

"Humesha itna painful hota hai?"

"Nahi aaj bada pyaar aaraha hai meri body ko mujhpe, upar se ye stupid Rasi mujhe shopping le aayi"

"What happened to 'Haseena tu Kameena mai' ?" He asks remembering the song he heard on her Instagram story.

"Huh? Isn't it obvious that you're the Haseena in this dynamic?"

To which he slaps his head.

"Why are you hitting yourself?"

He gives her a look and smacks her head this time

"Stop hitting on me Rey!" She says half laughing half blushing.

He is left open mouthed, flabbergasted
"What even?! Taani, How?" And he laughs along with her.

"Anyway, I was talking about the song you were dancing to in the car."

"Oh that! Yeah I stick to my word, you're definitely the Haseena in this situation" she says and laughs at her own declaration.

"So you're the Kameena? Damn! It was like a favourite song and now I like it even more!"

"Yes Haseena, I agree. Oh Aajkal they're playing 90s music on the radio a lot ha!"

"I'm special you see!" He raises his collar and she replies in Deepika's Tamil accent.

"Kaha se khareedi aisi bakwaas galat fehmi?"

Rey is shocked. He smirks at her!

"Maine kaha tha it's a great movie!"

"Jury's still out on that, but I agree ki this dialogue is very meme-worthy."

"Come on! Confess that you liked Chennai Express inspite of all your 'oh it's a trash movie' drama"

"Nah!" She says straight-faced.

"Come on thoda sa" he unconsciously says softly while to coax it out of her and pouts.

She pulls his cheeks almost as a reflex and he realises what his expression was and gets conscious. She just laughs and pulls his cheeks harder.

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"Taaaani.." Rasi comes over to her with a few clothes in her hands, "oh, I didn't know we had company!"

Taani introduces them to each other and explains that Rey loves shopping and was infact here to shop for himself. Glad for the voluntary help Rasika starts showing her outfits to them one by one. Taani responds before Rey can collect his words since the clothes were too shiny for her liking.

"Listen I know you're a gift but you have to stop wearing wrapping paper!"

"I don't even know ki tu compliment de rahi hai ki suna rahi hai" Rasi whined in reply.

"Life me balance hona chahiye!"

"Haa maate!" Rasi bows with hands joint and leaves, "Swayam baba ki jai" echoes in Reys head. He shivers at the thought and smacks Taani.

"Ow!" She cries and smacks him back harder,

"Don't mess with a girl on her period, she's already bleeding and not scared of seeing someone else's blood!"

"Only on your period? Your never scared of seeing someone else's blood!" He states and she laughs, "Now because of your great ideas mujhe apne hi best friend ke taane sunne padenge!"

---------- flashback ----------

"Swayam Shekhawat?" Her eyes enlarge in horror, " You mean Swayam Shekhawat my bhai?"

"Huh?" His mind assembles the pieces of this puzzle, Taani Shekhawat who has a brother who left home for studies earlier, Swayam Shekhawat who spoke of his sister, his Chhoti sometimes..

"Swayam Shekhawat, Taani ka bhai, freak noo!!!" His mind screams and he feels the world shake a little bit.

He looks at her, eyes on the ground and a tense expression on her face when she bursts out laughing, body bent, barely able to stand, she guffawed at his perplexed face. Her laugh took him back, in reverse gear through all his conclusions, Swayam's chhoti was definitely abroad, last he remembered she was working in UK. As for Taani, he looked at her, anger covered his face and he screamed,

"OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL!"

He breathed in relief, happy that he wasn't stuck in the complicated web of relationships she had pranked him into accepting and laughed. He felt like he dodged a bullet, actually a cannon there. Swayam was quite possessive about his people, hell he was stern with people his friends dated! Dating his sister sounded like a nightmare!
-----------

Rey had invited her to one of his performances and introduced her as a friend but when it slipped Taani's mouth that they had met on a dating app, they knew there was something more than friendship that their bond aspired to. She had gelled up well with the team. They danced to the songs Character Dheela and Dilliwaali girlfriend. After they had changed and come up to where she was sitting, she commented,

"Kya performances thi waah! By the way, ye 90s music theme ka idea kiska tha?" She asked just casually looking around. Rey took the question for what it was but before he could retort Sharon burst out laughing and the other guys followed. All of them had an idea about this 90s music that Rey loved and Swayam, who found her fake brother prank absolutely hilarious had decided to play his part. He patted her back with a,

"My sister got her humour from me."

"Dude just because your younger sister isn't here doesn't mean you'll adopt this devil" Rey replied.

"First of all I do what I want. Second of all I don't have a younger sister bro, chhoti mujhse badi hai. Third of all, khabardar Taani Ko devil bola toh!"

"What? What even?"

"Kya matlab, you think the devil can crack aise bure jokes?"

Taani replies with, "How do you think I torture souls?" followed by an evil laugh.

"Ek minute ek minute, pehle ye bata teri chhoti, tujhse badi kaise hai" Rey asks,

"Arey wo apni joint family ki sabse chhoti thi for a long time till I came along, so everyone calls her chhoti and I just picked that up."

"So tu unwanted child tha ha!" Rey said teasing his best friend to which Swayam replied with,

"Taani he's making sure I don't approve of him for you!"

"Bhai don't worry yaha toh kaafi hot hunks dikh rahe hai, mai dhundh lungi koi."

"Ohoho not hot hunks, only hot food"

"That's not bad too!" She says, appreciating his suggestion. Swayam bends his arm leaving the space between his elbow and torso as an invitation and Taani loops her arm through it as they walk off leaving Rey open mouthed.

-----------

They decided to go to a famous eatery afterwards to get Rey's favourite dessert since it was his birthday. Yes it was his birthday and he conveniently didn't tell it to her, just invited her out to meet his friends. Taani was angry he hadn't but when she confronted him outside the restaurant, his confession melted her heart.

"It seemed awkward to just say ki mera birthday hai, I didn't know how to.." he said blushing in embarrasment. She sighed and gave him a hug.

"Kitne duffer ho tum" she exclaimed as they walked in.

----------

The gang suggestively asks her what she gifted him, playing pushy cupids like they usually did and an uncle from the adjacent table shoos them aggressively. They gave him a blank look and in response to their question Taani dramatically hands Rey a tiny white shaker from the table.

"Ye kya hai, salt?" He asks sprinkling a few crystals on his palm.

"Nahi," she replies, "Namak ishq ka!" and bursts out laughing at her own lame joke making him roll his eyes. The gang members either cringed and rolled their eyes or just cheered out loud, prompting the busy uncle on the next table to "shh" at them with a newfound vigour.

----------- flashback ends -----------

They were almost done with shopping and were at the food court to grab some snacks. Rasika and Taani we're gonna go get food while Rey caught the table. Rasika walked ahead to one corner of the floor to browse a few food shops and Taani was gonna go get her Dosa from McDonald's much to Rey's horror. Yes they made those masala dosa brioches, and much like Indian Chinese, American Indian was another fusion Taani liked. She kept her sling bag on the table and had just turned to leave when Rey held one of the belt loops of her jeans. She turned to ask why and he signalled her to stay silent as and only once Rasika was out of hearing distance he spoke up,

"Wo.. tumse kuch kehna tha."

She sits down close to him on the bench to hear his secret.

"Um wo.."

Seeing him hesitate she just held his hand and raise her eyebrows in question

"Taani. I.. you're very different, we're very different, hum expectations se alag kaafi, mai.. tum.. mai ye"

"Freak", her eyes fell as she thought, "he's never gonna meet me again!"

"Taani" he says louder, hoping his words make sense and repeated, "Taani... Mujhe bohot acha lagega agar tum meri girlfriend banogi!"

"Huh?"

"Yaar don't make this hard for me, I said mujhe bohot acha lagega agar tum meri girlfriend banogi."

She laughs. "Mujhe bhi" she says and laughs even more as a tear escapes her eye.

"Taani?" He asks worried,

"Ignore ignore, it's the hormones."

His smile widens as much as it could and he hugs her tight. A little calmer, Taani says out loud.

"Of course tumhe acha lagega agar Mai tumhaari girlfriend banungi!" He breaks the hug and not knowing how to face him without blushing and recalls her own words.. "Freak Rey! Maybe I am the Haseena in this relationship! Why else would you be happy to have me as your girlfriend."

"Well" he quotes lines from the song, "itna bura bhi nahi hai kameena agar pehchaan le jo tu" as she slaps his arm.

-----------

Rasika was back and clueless about what had conspired when she was away. She was talking about the "ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahi hosakte" trope, and Taani countered.

"See there's Shivam! Haha we're great friends but nothing romantic there."

"Nothing except for the one time you choked him in a rickshaw" Rasika adds suggestively making Rey choke on his food. Taani rubs his back as Rasi offers him water. Once the situation is calm Rasika adds in a tone almost under her breath - but not quite, since the other two hear it too.

"And now she's choked Rey too!"

"What?" Rey says, "what is this choking business" and then tries to add humourously, "I was right when I said you're a creep from a dating app huh!"

Taani swats him as Rasika laughs. "Omg I completely agree" Taani swats her too and explains,

"I choked him with a choker, the necklace type. Like I was wearing one and it was uncomfortable and wo mujhe annoy kar raha tha ki nahi bohot beautiful hai, mujhe pehne rakhna chahiye. I didn't agree toh maine use pehna diya.. and obviously it was thoda small for his neck so.. well I proved my point!"

"By almost murdering your friend." Rey adds

"I have no regrets, she says looking straight into his eyes."

"Nor do I!" He says smirking, placing his hand on hers gently as she blushed.

"Can we discuss the creep on the dating app thing please? How long did it take you to come up with this? Now that I think if it, ye toh uske bio me hi evident ho jaana chahiye tha!"

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Yo! So I'm finally uploading Shweta's edit smiley36 IT'S BEEN 2 UPDATES! Kaafi foresight ke saath she made one for the "creepy" bio from chapter one that Rasi is referring to:-