The Strings Of Heart

23

Sitara POV

I look at my mum blankly as everyone gets on the bus. I cross my arms and stand before her with my luggage.

"Sitara... Please understand. It won't hurt you sitting in the seat."

"Why me? I mean ask Aansh or Nihal or even Rishi to sit in that seat."

"Hell no, we already decided that we going to sit together and do a blog for our YouTube channel. We are not shifting places," Nihal said looking at us.

"Yes, Sitara. I'm not going to sit away from Nihal. We got editing work," Aansh said getting into the bus. Nihal shrugged his shoulders following Aansh.

I grunt my teeth in annoyance as David signs. "Sitara, just listen to me."

"Not happening. I'm not giving to sit with him."

"It's getting late, we need to start," Shiva uncle called out. Mum looked at him before shaking her head.

All my aunts and uncles sat with their favourites to gossip. Elora Akka decided to sit with the kids to give their parents some off time.

The only people left out is David, Pihu, Rishi and I. Rishi wants to have the single cabin as he needs to prepare for his exams. He can't be sitting with Pihu as even she needs to prepare for her exams.

Now, the duel and single cabins are left out. If I take the single cabin like I wanted, Pihu will be sitting with David.

David is uncomfortable sitting all his journey with Pihu so mum decided that it would be better if David and I sit together.

I don't want to sit with him, he didn't say anything yet. I agree that I developed a crush on him and it's for my betterment if I stay away from him.

Sitting beside him means, range of mixed feelings and he is my first crush. I don't want to develop anything knowing how competitive I'm.

"Why can't you just sit beside Pihu?" I say looking at David.

"I'm uncomfortable sitting with her." I try not to check him out, he always dresses up good... Perfectly...

"Then I'm uncomfortable sitting with you. Why can't you just adjust?"

"No."

David and I start arguing while everyone watches with wide eyes. They don't see this side of David and David only becomes hyper when it comes to me.

"Shut up you both! Get on the damn bus," Elora yells looking from the window.

"I'm not allowing you to go out or make plans with your friends if you don't get on the bus and adjust."

"I don't need permission to go out," I tell mum.

"You do when you want to meet your school friends. I'm not talking about your present friends."

"You wouldn't do that."

"I won't if you adjust and sit beside David," David smirked before getting on the bus followed by my mum.

"f**k him," I mutter getting on the bus.

"Finally!" Elora said looking at me while I frowned. David is trying not to laugh.

"Someone said they will make Pihu sit beside David." Rishi taunted looking at me.

"And fate played differently because they ended up sitting beside them," Aansh said while they all laughed.

"What did mumma said? To make her sit with you?" Elora asked David.

"If she doesn't sit here, she isn't allowed to go out."

"Woah!" She laughed.

"Stop laughing before I tell mum about your late-night texts and calls." She stopped laughing and it's my turn to smile. David stood behind Elora's seat as he waited for me to choose the seat.  I took the window seat and David took the seat beside me.

"Everyone settled?" Shiva uncle asked. Mum smiled looking at David and me. She doesn't want her favourite to feel uncomfortable but she is okay with me being uncomfortable.

I f*****g hate this and this trip. I waited as they chanted god's name before the bus moved.

"Did you guys know that there was a rumour in our school that a ghost is roaming around the school campus at nights?" Rishi said turning around to see us. 

"Ghost?"

"Haan, even our teachers are talking the same," Pihu said. I leaned in my seat resting my arm on the armrest.

"You guys are watching fear files daily and believing in those rumours. It's a rumour no truth, so stop fearing," I say looking at Rishi and Pihu.

"It might be true, right? Fear files are based on true stories" Pihu commented.

"Ohh." David leans back in his seat, his arm is touching mine so I pull my arm away. We fought and ignoring each other so I don't want to start a conversation with him.

"You guys should watch them. They are very interesting. And also scary," Rishi said.

"Even mumma and daddy watch fear files," Nishu said.

"You little guys also watch those horror series?" David asked Nishu. I look at him, my gaze shifted to his open neck. He is wearing a simple black t-shirt. There is a mole on his neck, I watch his neck, jawline and mouth as he talks before shifting my gaze away. I don't want anyone to catch me checking out David.

"Sometimes, but when it is very scary. We sleep with mumma or daddy." Nishu said holding Elora's hand.

"You kids are devils and you are scared of your friends?!" I say.

"And you are our number one devil in our gang," Rishi commented which made David laugh out loud.

"True." He agreed on what Rishi said.

I didn't think much as I pinched David's arm, "Ouch." He yelled in pain looking at me. The others laughed but didn't comment on it.

"Let's play a game everyone, guess the movie name. Right v/s left," mum said standing beside her seat.

"Okay!"

"Okay!" I don't show much interest as I don't watch movies. I only watched a few movies which were shown on Saturdays when I was in school.

I silently watch them play, they yell and laugh as they try to guess the name. I know my aunts and uncles were loud but didn't know they are this loud.

I look at David who is actively playing the game. I thought he doesn't watch movies but seeing him now I change my opinions on him.

"Are you a movie geek?" I ask him finally. He has been guessing each and every movie.

"He is... You will always find him watching a movie in his hospital cabin if he doesn't have any work," Elora answered my question.

"Hmm... I love watching movies, series, Asian dramas and web series."

"Good," I say turning my head.

"David also loves music, he always had a crush on someone who got a good voice. He is a sucker for people who can sing," Elora added.

"Yes, Pihu joined the music classes to impress David," Nihal said.

"Things you do for your crush," Aansh added. 

"She failed at it though, we don't have any singers in our family," Elora spoke looking at all of us.

"It's not my mistake. I tried my best but we are just not born with the singing quality," Pihu said.

"By the way, how was your date with Sejal? You two went out, right?" Rishi asked. Now this got my whole attention.

"It went good, we are actually working in the same shifts. So I got to spend time with her."

I rolled my lower lip into my mouth biting on it. I don't like what I'm hearing.

"I don't like this, you are my crush and seeing you with someone doesn't feel good to me," Pihu said.

Now I understand what Pihu must be feeling. s**t, two sisters crushing on the same man. I should get over this crush.

I zoom out and take a nap while they play games and talk. Rishi closed his cabin door to study for some time. I'm tired because of the work and exam week. Now I can relax for a week.

*

I'm listening to Pihu and Rishi talk about some incidents while eating my brownie. David is also listening to them when my phone pinged.

I pulled my phone out to check the messages. A smile grows on my face when I see Kabir's name.

'wassup? Miss me?'

'travelling and nah, why would I miss you?' I type the message.

'travelling? Where you going? Lier... You miss my messages and my handsome face.'

I chuckle reading the text which didn't go unnoticed by David and my sister.

'haha... Going to shiridi and other places for a vacation with family. How was the test match session?'

"Who are you texting?" Elora asked.

"Friend."

'it went good, we are now resting before the IPL practice starts. If it's possible let's meet up. I'm in Mumbai.'

'sure, we will be visiting Lonavala. You can drive to Lonavala.' I type the message.

I didn't give much attention that David's arm is touching my arm as we both use the armrest. I texted Krishika and others in the group chat while David and my sister spoke about some other things which I don't know.

*

I stretch my arms after getting down the bus we have reached the farmhouse which we rented.

My gaze goes to David who is stretching his arms and a yawn left his mouth. I chuckled as he looked like a cartoon.

My sister too laughed looking at him, he gave her a lazy smile before wrapping his arm around her shoulder. I turn around shaking my head as I felt a giddy feeling watching his sunshine smile.

"Sitara say hi!" Nihal said turning his camera towards me.

"Hey," I say waving my hand at the camera.

"Guys, she is our cousin. She studied in a boarding school so you guys never saw her in our videos," Aansh spoke wrapping his arm around my shoulder while Nihal recorded.

"So Sitara, are you excited about the vacation?"

"No."

"Ah? Why?"

"No comments, need to go before they take up good rooms with good views," I say giving a two finger salute to the camera before going towards the gates.

"Oh s**t! We totally forgot about this!" Nihal yelled.

The rooms are decided, I'm sharing my room with mum. Elora is sharing her room with Pihu. David and Rishi are in one room.

After an hour of settling down and getting refreshed. We all went to the family restaurant down the road.

For the first time without knowing David and I sat beside each other. I looked at him and he looked at me before looking away.

He was sitting beside Elora and unknowingly ended up sitting in between us sisters.

"Ugh, I wanted to sit there," Pihu said looking at me.

"I'm too tired to argue with you and he was the one who sat beside me," I tell her.

The food is served, while they talk I fix my whole attention on my food. I'm hungry and I need to fill my belly.

David leaned towards me to take the curry bowl, as he leaned I was able to breath in his scent.

He smells good...

I take a sniff of him before taking the spoonful of curry inside my mouth. His eyes met mine, he chuckles looking at my puffed cheeks.

"This tastes good," he said pushing the paneer towards me.

"I don't eat paneer." I tell him making a face.

"You don't."

"No."

"Then eat the gravy, keep the paneer away." He gave me a smile then joined the conversation with my sister.

I looked at the paneer curry and at him. Picking the spoon, I push the paneer aside and serve the gravy on my plate.

We eat our food, sometimes David's arm touched mine or mine touched his as we ate.

He kept on smiling and chuckling talking with my sister, Nihal and Aansh. Now that I'm sitting close to him, I observed that he gets a slight dimple on his cheek whenever he smiles.