Thanks for showing me the real you. The one that always puts me down without reason in front of everyone.

I couldn't believe I had said all that in front of everyone. It was daunting, being the centre of attention but the whole reason I even did it was because of Jai. The thought made the tears stream down at a rapid pace as I walked down the street of Sanaya's house. After being humiliated in front of everyone when Jai yelled at me, I ran out of the house, feeling suffocated.

I knew it was wrong of me and I wanted to go back, but that would be shameful. All I wanted to do was apologize to Sanaya and Mohit–whom I didn't even get a chance to talk to.

And Mohit saw me getting yelled at. How embarrassing.

I tried to erase the scene from my head, but it was like asking to fit through a crack in the wall; it was just impossible. It was too painful and embarrassing to think about, yet, it kept coming back to my mind again.

I was so mad at Jai. He shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like he had and made me look like a fool. He could have given me the benefit of the doubt but he didn't because that's how he was.

Rude and impulsive.

I didn't even want the stupid explanation of what was going on, anymore. It had something to do with the horrible Aisha and Rahul and also Gavin, and that was it. I assumed that Jai would tell me in his own time. After seeing him get mad at me when I asked, I realised it was a touchy subject and that he probably had his reasons to not tell me.

Of course, I didn't like it but I wasn't going to push. And the fact that he thought I would, hurt.

Completely out of sync with my mood, the sun shone brightly down on my face, almost mocking me for being so dispirited.

The gentle, warm breeze caressed my face softly and I let out a contended sigh, rubbing my eyes. Though I was in a bad mood, the nice wind provided me with the warmth of a blanket.

Walking aimlessly, I didn't know where I was going or where I would end up until the sound of a car horn stopped me.

Turning my head to the side, my eyes met with a black Bentley which I immediately recognized as Jai's.

Turning my head away, I quickened my footsteps, trying to get away. He didn't see that as a challenge and drove at the same pace I was walking.

He rolled the window down and yelled irritably.

"Karishma, get in the car." 

I refused to say anything and kept walking.

Jai was fuming, his low voice now tantamount to the threatening rumble of thunder.

"Damn it, Karishma, you can give me the silent treatment later, now get in the god damn car."

"No!" I said, raising my voice so he could hear how firm I was.

"If you don't get in the fucking car, I'll drag you in. Do you want that?" he said, his voice on the verge of a growl.

I said nothing and kept walking, trying to show him that his words had no effect on me when in fact I was petrified.

But that seemed to be the wrong thing to think because he stopped the car abruptly, causing my heart to speed up.

Since he had just threatened to drag me in his car, I felt a push to run but my feet were numb from pushing myself to walk super fast.

As soon as the car door shut in violent haste, I jolted back to reality and instantly, my throat became dry.

I twisted my body in order to run, but a tight hold on my wrist refrained me from going forward.

Jai spun me around and my eyes instantaneously locked with his. He stared at me with his jaw clenched, his amber eyes looking almost golden in the sun.

I wanted to look away at the raw anger in his eyes which caused a jolt to shoot through me, but I stood my ground.

Trying to wrench my arm out of his grip, I kept my lips sealed shut and refused to say anything. Jai said nothing either and instead, began to drag me towards his car.

I tried to shake his hand off of my wrist and planted my heel into the concrete to stop myself from moving along with him, but that only propelled me forwards and closer to him as I lost balance.

"Jai, let me go!"

I shook my arm and even tried to pry his fingers off with my own, but his hold only tightened; not enough to hurt me, however.

"No."

At this point, I didn't even care that people walking on the side-walk had begun to notice that there was a commotion.

Jai flung open the passenger door and pushed me in.

"This—this is abuse," I muttered, crossing my arms. He scoffed and shut the door, walking around it to get to the driver's seat.

The silence unnerved me, but I did nothing to break it.

Even though it seemed childish, I didn't want to talk to Jai.

We didn't move, letting the silence sit between us heavily, until Jai let out a deep breath from beside me.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you for no reason, alright? I just thought—"

"You thought wrong."

"Will you let me explain?" he said through clenched teeth. I sighed but nodded my head.

"I just snapped. And I'm sorry about that. I'll admit that this time, I was in the wrong, okay? I was a douche bag."

Yeah, you were.

Was what I wanted to say, but instead, I shrugged. Honestly, it was tiring staying mad at someone and I really didn't want to talk to him, but he had apologised.

And I had punished him enough.

Of course, I was still mad but I could forgive him.

"It's okay," I relented. "And I'm...sorry, too. For pestering you."

His eyes flashed but his lips tilted up. "It's alright. You weren't really—You had a right to know and I was keeping it from you."

I nodded and despite our apologies, the air was still tense.

Jai sighed heavily and started the car. Just by the sound of the engine getting louder, I could feel him speeding past the limit as my body was flat against the seat.

"Jai, please slow down!"

My strained voice cut through the tense air and Jai's shoulders relaxed as he slowed down.

"Fuck," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

From my peripheral vision, I could see him glance at me but I refused to look in his direction.

I glanced sideways to see his eyes narrowed into slits as he glared at the road ahead.

Jai parked in the driveway of our house and stopped the car. He unlocked it but made no move to get out of it and neither did I. There was a minute of silence before he broke it.

"I know that you blame yourself for what happened two days ago, and the thing is, I don't want you to. It's not your fault. Let them say shit about me, you should know that it doesn't matter.

I would never have guessed that they'd stoop so low to try and get back at me, but I was planning to ignore all of their petty actions. None of it matters, Karishma. I didn't want you to get involved for a reason; you'd get hurt unnecessarily."

I slowly turned to him and as soon as I did, we locked eyes and I was entrapped by his gaze.

Jai's eyes were burning with vehement determination as he said, "There, I said it. Are you happy, now that you know?"

"I'm not mad at you because you didn't want to tell me. What you told me is completely understandable and thoughtful. But what made me mad and upset is the fact that you humiliated me and made me look like a fool for trying to be kind. You may have apologised but not even a thousand apologies can change what you did."

The thought caused the ache and the fury that was briefly buried, to rise again.

"So, what do you want me to do?"

I remained silent, not responding to him and Jai roughly ran a hand through his hair, messing up his dark silky locks.

"Look, all I can do is say that I'm so–"

Not wanting to hear the rest of his empty apology, I pushed open the door and ran out to the front door.

Jai would just go and hurt me again.

From behind me, there was no sound for a little while until the sound of the car door violently being slammed close, reverberated throughout the entire street. The harsh stomps against the concrete indicated that he was marching angrily towards me.

My body tensed but I willed myself to stay strong and, a second later, I could feel the heat of his body right behind me, his voice laced with constrained fury.

"Karishma, I swear to God–"

"Just open the door," I cut him off, my words surprisingly harsh and full of confidence–the opposite of what I was truly feeling.

Silence.

His right hand came from behind me, holding the key, startling me. I sucked in a deep breath as his left hand pressed against the door, ultimately trapping me in, between his arms.

My heart began to pump harder and my hands felt damp–but he didn't do anything or hurt me as I expected him to.

Jai casually pushed the door open and walked past me, throwing the keys on the side table as he always did.

Shaking my head at my foolish thoughts, my tense muscles relaxed and my body calmed down.

I slowly walked in behind him, trying not to look at him and wanting to race up and away to my room.

He had taken off his blazer which was hung up on the back of the coat hanger, and the shirt he was wearing was tight, clinging to his muscles.

It was white, which meant it did its job displaying his upper body in detail. I averted my gaze quickly, scolding myself for gawking even though I was mad.

I watched as he ran a hand through his hair before crossing his arms, staring down at me with his golden eyes ablaze.

Gulping, I turned away and walked past him in order to go up the stairs.

I was stopped, however, by Jai himself, who gripped my wrist and spun me around again. His strong arms encircled my wrist and pulled me flush against him, my hands flying to his chest instinctively at the sudden movement.

His muscles grew taut and rippled under my touch; his eyes suddenly flashed with something more intense and ardent. I tried to muster all the confidence I had into a glare directed at him, but it didn't work.

What's happening? Why can't I breathe?

My throat constricted and I felt like I couldn't say anything as I blinked up at him slowly. I could feel the ripples of his abs against my stomach, the strength of his muscles and every shape and inch of them being pressed firmly against me.

The contact made me both uncomfortable and exposed, with an odd but familiar feeling rising and swirling around in my stomach again.

His body heat and the warmth of his chest and arms seemed to engulf me completely, instantly stopping my shivering.

Something in me made me want to rest my head gently against his chest and snuggle against him to get warm. Ashamed and disgusted at what I was thinking, all I wanted to do was run away. My body reacted almost immediately and I pushed at his chest, struggling in his grip. Gritting my teeth, I tried to shove him and push him away. But despite it all, he didn't budge.

"Let go of me!"

He did the exact opposite as instead, his hold tightened around me.

"Just listen to me," he snarled, gritting his teeth.

"No, now let go."

"Listen to me."

"I listened to you in the car. Isn't that enough?"

"You left when I was trying to fucking apologise, Karishma. That's not listening."

"Well, I don't want to hear any more of your empty apologies."

Jai licked his lips and sighed. "I know I've apologised too many times. I know. But all my apologies to you have been genuine. Especially now. I'm so fucking sorry. Yelling at you in front of everyone like that was an asshole move."

When I looked away from his intense eyes, he held my chin and tilted it up so I was making eye contact.

"Are you happy now?"

We stared at each other in silence. His eyes that were usually void of emotion, held a small glimmer of hope.

I rolled my bottom lip in between my teeth, and I watched as his eyes quickly flickered to my lips before he tore them away, looking back up at my eyes again.

What? Why was he staring?

His gaze suddenly made me uncomfortable. I instantly stopped chewing on my bottom lip, settling to bite the inside of my cheek, instead. I had technically already forgiven him but another part of me was still mad at him even though there wasn't any point in giving him the silent treatment.

I sighed and shook my head. I decided on just letting it all go but the movement caused me to yank my chin out of his grip by jerking my head back.

His grip around me loosened as the expression on his face displayed one of defeat, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down slowly and heavily as if he struggled in doing so.

I was instantly confused.

"Jai?"

His eyes were an open book now; he looked vulnerable and I could see guilt and regret swirling in them as they watched me.

My eyes widened at what I had seen in his eyes, but it didn't last for long. His face suddenly shut off, like when you turn off the lights in a brightly lit room–it was shocking and almost frightening.

And that was when it hit me. He had misunderstood, thinking that me shaking my head was rejecting his apology. Gone was the vulnerability–it was replaced with his usual expression that showed nothing but indifference.

"Jai, wai—"

"You don't need to say anything. I see how it is."

Jai stepped back from me, causing the warmth to leave with him and leaving me to be hit by the cold air once again.

He stiffly turned and walked up the stairs, grabbing the ends of his shirt and tugging it over his head as he went up.

I whipped around to avoid seeing anything that I didn't need to see but I was still struck at what just happened between us.

Misunderstandings kept tearing us apart and keeping us further from each other.

It was infuriating but now I had the job of trying to make him understand that I wasn't saying I didn't forgive him.

With my mouth turned downwards, I walked slowly up the stairs, his words ringing in my head.

I stopped in front of my door and glanced up at Jai's shut door wistfully through my eyelashes, the feeling of remorse from before creeping up again.

Witnessing his hopeful eyes crumble, made me feel cruel and something in me cracked.

I reached out and knocked on the door.

"J-Jai?" I whispered. "Can you please open the door?"

There was no response and I bit my lip. I knew how much he hated me, now that I had allowed a small misunderstanding to come between us when we were getting along so well.

Out of nowhere, my mind drifted to the moment from before, where we were had close physical contact, and I quickly shook my head, trying to get rid of the embarrassing moment.

Quickly rushing into my room, I shut the door and my eyes caught sight of my phone that blinked with a white light, indicating a new message.

It was eerily silent afterwards as I stared at it without blinking.

I slowly stepped forward and picked up my phone, gently. As Gavin's name flashed across the screen, my shoulders relaxed.

I knew it couldn't be him! He can't have found me.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I opened my phone to see the message clearly and froze as my eyes roved over the words sent to me:

'I know you don't want to see me, but I really need to see you. It's urgent. Please meet me at the park at around 3?'

The last person I wanted to see was Gavin but I felt bad. I was upset about Jai not giving me the benefit of the doubt and so I wanted to give that chance to someone else even if that person didn't deserve it.

I hesitated in replying with something I would later regret:

'Sure.'