Chapter _13 Staring Match

The stadium is filled with cricket fans. The people are jumping up and down. The match is between Australia and India. It's twenty- twenty world cup semifinal. People dressed in Indian and Australian jersey are already waging their loyalty by jumping up and down. Whereas my heart is tumbling and jumping on thinking about what just happened.

Just as we turn inside the VIP Box my father raises his eyebrows. He is dressed in Blue Jersey himself, looking finitely proud. He doesn't ask where we have been instead he excitedly comes towards us. Kiyansh leaves my hand and I heave a sigh of relief. " I am so excited I am sure we gonna bugger off the Ausies today. "

" Dad " I shriek. " Language."

" What language, everything is fare in love and war. I got one more jersey you want? " He looks excitedly at Kiyansh.

" Yes. " Kiyansh quips beside me. And hops on the jersey above his t-shirt, I roll my eyes at both of them.

Kiyansh gives me a releived small smile. I sigh and stare back at him. I miss the days when we could just fight with eachother without ever getting things awkward between us.

" So " I encourage, " we are gonna rock today aren't we. "

" We have an ass- kicking team. " My father says like a capacious devoted fan. " And thanks to you. " He points at Kiyansh, " you introduced the player in your IPL team last year, Vikrant, he is an awesome all rounder. I am well damn sure it's gonna be exciting. "

Kiyansh's already perpetual pride, grows a lot much courtesy to my father like a kid he steps forward and literally moves his hand in his chocolate brown hair like a model, and then says proudly, " Oh My IPL team is best. "

" That's why you lost in finals two consecutive years. " Oops. I try to control the laugh but it comes out.

" My team is the best." His eyes flashes fire.

" Yes it is. " My father also turns to his side. As always.

" Okay okay " I say and raise my hands. I feel a gaze of someone and my eyes move to the entrance door and there I find the curious eyes of Ayan staring at me, with a smile on his face.

He is standing with five people. One I recognise is an actress, I try to remember her name, ahhh yes, Kritika. And there are another three people I don't recognise.

I smile back and Kiyansh turns towards the door. His back becomes instantly stiff. I don't know if Ayan doesn't notices Kiyansh's eyes throwing daggers at him or he ignores it, whatever it is, it's a valiant task.

" Hello. Hello. " He whistles at me.

I laugh and shake my head at him. " Dad ( I only use Papa in front of family members) this is Ayan. Ayan this is my Dad. "

" Nice to meet you Mr. Sharma" he extends his hands towards Papa giving his goofy smile.

My father looks at Kiyansh, as if to assure himself he is not committing a sin what? I pinch my father and he stumbles forward taking Ayan's hand.

The smile doesn't dissapear from Ayan's face and he turns towards Kiyansh. Extending his right hand towards him,

" Last time we were in hurry weren't we?"

Kiyansh tilts his head and looks at his hands as if wondering if he should shake it or not. Then his eyes move towards mine, I give him a pleading look and he instantly shakes his hand with Ayan.

I feel a languor taking over me. And I smile at Kiyansh.

" This is my co-actor" Ayan introduces us to a brunette in pink flower dress. Her eyes are vigil on Kiyansh. She is busy checking him out when Ayan introduces her to everyone.

I instantly feel the need to step between her and Kiyansh. She sprightly moves towards him gawking and gives him an overbright smile with her flashy white teeth. I cogitate and without a second thought take Kiyansh's firm arms and drag him towards me. He looks at me in amusement then smiles at me instantly holding my arm happily. I look around us and find everyone staring at us.

I blush and realise what did I do. But Kiyansh doesn't let go and smiles like he has achieved a medal.

I look back at Ayan and find him staring at me. I apologetically smile at him and wave from my free arm at the three people standing beside him. " Hi " I say.

They are his childhood friends he tells me. I try to free my arm from Kiyansh's but he doesn't let go. When everybody goes to sit at their seat he whispers in my ear " someone got jealous huh? "

" Jealous?" i grit. " I was saving you."

Kiyansh smiles at me. As if he knows. He will never stop bothering me about it now.

My father is sitting on the right and Kiyansh is sitting on my left so everytime I have to talk to Ayan I have to tilt forward and talk to him which is forestalled by Kiyansh's body intentionally, I glare at him but he doesn't even looks at me.

Everyone in the VIP BOX are shouting and biting their nails because we are waiting for third umpire decision, Vikrant the team player which Papa mentioned is standing for the decision as he might be run out. please Vikrant don't be out..

The decision comes and everyone of us jump in exhilaration somehow me and Kritika have become friends so now I am standing beside her and Ayan's friends, his friends are so cool they make such snarky remarks I feel like my stomach will burst out laughing " Look at that buffon he is gonna jump on his teammate saying You did not take that catch mate, please jump like a kangaroo. Wait does Kangaroo even jumps? " Ayan's friend Samarth remarks and me and Kritika sputter out in laughs. We both look at eachother then laugh again.

I give Samarth high- five " you are so funny" I manage between laughs holding my stomach " and that Australian accent dude."

" There's nothing so much funny about it. " Kiyansh nose flares like he is completely annoyed by us.

" Oh but he is. " Kritika says in sing song voice and Ayan laughs looking at her. Beside Kiyansh even my father is trying to not laugh I can see that from his closed mouth and red face.

Kiyansh glares at Kritika and she instantly stops laughing. I glare back at Kiyansh and his eyes instantly roams around left and right. " So we gonna kick the asses right mate? " I say in a fake austrailian accent to light up the mood and everybody laughs again. This time even Kiyansh's lips curl a little bit.

I shake my head and move towards Kiyansh back, patting him on his right arm, " stop bothering yourself too much. It's okay to have fun sometimes. " Like a cat who wants full attention he moves close towards me. I blush and look at everyone else but there eyes are fixed on the screen. " Just stay by my side " he purrs in my ear. I don't say anything and just nod my head.

" Can we go to the balcony I want to scream ?" I ask excitedly.

My father and Kiyansh nod heads and we all go outside. I wish I was also wearing a jersey. We all head on the balcony and there we hear the shout of crowd.

I am filled with persisting enthusiasm for Cricket for the first time in life. I didn't know it could be so excited. I instantly regret the times I couldn't be there with Kiyansh on his IPL final.

The final overs are there, and I don't know what's gotten into me but I shout with truculent force like my father when Ashish in partnership with Vikrant hits a sixer.

We get a total score of 253 runs with only four wickets. Which is a pretty good score.

The match starts again and after a long time when Rathi Vagera( I just learned his name) , a fantastic bowler takes the 8th wicket we scream our heads off. Without thinking I ebulliently turn towards Kiyansh this time. He smiles at me and I excitedly bumb my waist into his our childhood bumping style. " Hey watch there. " My father points at the screen. And there on the national television I am bumping my waist into Kiyansh's and Kiyansh is smiling at me. And on the background it's Ayan bumping his fists up. There it is, the Monday morning news. I am so stupid. I created another problem.

Kiyansh just smiles at the big screen as if it is a happy news advertisement. And not a terrible media bait.

This time when we win the match by getting the Australian team all out. I scream again but with my father. My father and I bump fist and again it's on the screen.

" We made you a fan " my father says.

" Oh you did. " I say smiling ephemerliy at him.

" Do you wanna meet them ? " Kiyansh asks from beside me.

" Oh I wanna meet them! " Ayan says from beside him.

" I was not asking you! " Kiyansh says rudely.

" Can we meet them ?" I interject excitedly.

" Oh yes. They are friends. "

" Why didn't I know about these friends earlier. Vikrant is so hot! Let's go. " I squeal.

" Oh yes he is. " Kritika chirps from beside Ahan, she wiggles her eyebrows at me. We both giggle and high five each other. I didn't know I was making a friend today. They are all so cool.

Both Kiyansh and Ahan look as if they had been told the worst news of all.

" No he is not. " Kiyansh curses.

" I am more hot. " Ayan steps beside Kiyansh who passes him a daggering glare.

" Ahem. Ahem. " My father clears his throat. " So let's go meet them. "

" It was a mistake bringing you here." Kiyansh murmurs and I happily ignoring him, continuing my ogling session.

I control my feet to not jump when after twenty minutes I see the man of the match, Vikrant. His jersey is sticking to him and he is looking avertely sexy, his muscles are clearly visible, he is as tall as Kiyansh I guess even more. Even though I am a new fan of him I can't help but say Kiyansh is more sexy than him. But yeah he is sexy too and the way he plays is awesome. He looks at Kiyansh and grins at him, coming towards us. " Thank you for coming today man. How was the game? "

" The best like always. " Kiyansh smiles at him and they both high five each other. "Is she who I am thinking she is? " The tall handsome Vikrant turns towards me, his one eyebrow up.

For a second I freeze and think he takes me wrong for Sahana. Maybe Kiyansh mentioned about Sahana, but Kiyansh nods his head and Vikrant literally jumps at me. I stagger back in surprise. " Oh man! So you are finally here. You wouldn't even know how many times last year at the IPL team meeting he said Shanvi is gonna come to the finals. She is going to. And then his face turned like this. "He says and turns his lips downward with wide eyes , Kiyasnh glares at him but he continues, " and you know what he said, ' she has a movie shoot in Europe she can't come guys. He looked so crestfallen I tell you, we all in the team so much wanted to meet you. "

" Hey Rathi! " he whistles at the bowler who took five wickets today. The bowler is short in height. But his crooked smile doesn't can't waver the fact that when he bowls he looks lethal. "

" Hey Kiyansh." Rathi shakes Kiyansh's hand. Does he know everybody? " He was also on the same IPL team." Vikrant tells me maybe after seeing my confused expression. " Rathi, she is the one." Vikrant wiggles his eyebrows and the small player grins at me eye to eye.

" Woah. Now I can understand why boss was continuosly asking her to come for finals. "

" Shut up both of you. Shut up." They both ignore Kiyansh . And crowd me, " So did you like the match? " Vikrant asks.

" Would you come for IPL this year? He will be on the clouds." Rathi giggles, when I saw him on the ground with that expression on his face, I didn't for a second thought that he could giggle.

" You will be able to ask her to come if you would be staying on the team. " At this both of them take a step back.

" We were just kidding. " Rathi raises his hand and I smile at them. Did he talk about me so much? With them?

Rathi whistles "Now who is that". His eyes are on Kritika who blushes. While everybody else just stands and see the show specially my father. He just needs a tub of popcorn.

" Okay get yourselves together." Kiyansh says.

" I just need an autograph on my jersey" Papa says excitedly.