Crescent Hill Academy – Chemistry Lab
The smell of ammonia filled the room, and beakers clinked as students milled around, half-focused on their experiment and half-focused on gossip.
Meher had her goggles on, gloves halfway pulled over her fingers. She was humming some Bollywood tune under her breath as she measured the solution drop by drop.
“Your concentration levels are worse than a squirrel on sugar,” Arav murmured beside her.
She jumped. “You again! Why do you always sneak up like a villain?”
“I don’t sneak. You just don’t pay attention.”
“Same thing.”
Arav rolled his eyes, taking the pipette from her hand wordlessly. Their fingers brushed. Meher didn’t say anything—but she felt it. The jolt. The awkward silence that followed.
“You’re too close,” she mumbled.
“You’re in my assigned space.”
“Says who?”
“The blueprint of the lab table,” he said with maddening calm.
“You’re so annoying,” she grumbled.
He didn’t reply—but there was the faintest twitch of his lips.
A smile? No way.
---
Lunch Break – School Grounds
Meher plopped down under the gulmohar tree near the playground, unwrapping her lunch. Her friends chatted nearby, but her eyes occasionally wandered—back toward the sports field.
There he was.
Arav, alone as always, earphones in, sketchbook open, sitting far away like he belonged in another universe.
“You keep staring,” Riya said beside her, smirking.
“I do not.”
“You so do. If he were a human heater, you’d be roasted by now.”
Meher threw a chip at her. “Shut up.”
But it was true.
Something about him kept pulling her in. Not just the mystery, but the calm he carried—even if it felt like a storm underneath.
Then a shadow fell across her lunchbox.
She looked up.
Kabir Mehta.
Tall, loud, charming—and Crescent Hill’s favorite flirt.
“Hey Sharma,” he said, flashing a grin. “Got an extra paratha today?”
“Depends. You gonna steal it or earn it?”
He laughed, sitting beside her. “How about you let me take you out for pani puri after school instead?”
Before Meher could respond, she felt it.
That stare.
Arav stood across the field, frozen mid-step, eyes locked onto the scene like a sniper targeting his mark.
Cold. Unblinking. Dangerous.
He turned and walked away.
---
After School – Science Lab
Meher found him at their project table, packing up the materials alone.
“You left without finishing the test results,” she said.
Arav didn’t look at her. “You were busy.”
“With lunch?”
“Or with Kabir Mehta.”
She frowned. “Why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
“Then why do you sound like you do?”
He finally met her gaze. “I don’t like distractions.”
“You mean people?”
“I mean boys who hover around girls who don’t know any better.”
Meher’s jaw tightened. “You don’t get to tell me who I can talk to.”
“I don’t care who you talk to,” he said, voice lowering, eyes darkening. “Just don’t expect me to watch it and feel nothing.”
Her breath caught.
That wasn’t cold. That was… possessive.
Dangerously so.
“You’re not my boyfriend, Arav.”
He stepped closer. “No. But I never said I didn’t want to be.”
And just like that, the air between them sizzled.
He walked out, leaving her stunned.
And for the first time, Meher realized—
This wasn’t just a school project anymore.
It was something far deeper.
Something far riskier.
Something that could burn them both.
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