13) When is the baby shower?

My, my. Guess who's here?

Your favorite author in the world!

Whoop-whoop!

The old readers must've had gone into shock on seeing me update so fast. Lol.

Have fun reading :)

Kiara's POV

Life is never the way you expect it to be. It is full of surprises and has its own way of testing you, throwing hurdles in your way when you least expect them. Some people learn it the easy way while others have a hard time realizing it. People like me.

*sigh*

On my 11th birthday, I waited all day for an owl to come at my house and drop my Hogwarts letter but nothing happened. Eventually, my dad had to drag me back to the house from the terrace where I was patiently waiting for an owl with binoculars in my hands.

Even now, I was waiting for an alpha werewolf to come and claim me as their mate. This was one of the main reasons I was still single. And probably because of my inability to flirt with the opposite gender without making a fool of myself. I mean is it too much to ask for a werewolf to kidnap me? Before you people question my sanity, I want to tell you that I am just a kid by heart. I have every right to dream of anything I want, be it vampires, angels, heck even unicorns!

But the question is- Did it happen? No. Instead I was getting hitched to a stranger who looked no less than a Calvin-Klein model. And right now, I was standing near the dining table with him, waiting for our parents who had 'apparently' gone to admire the beauty of their garden. In the night. Are you kidding me? I am pretty sure they intentionally left us alone so that we can get to know each other better and all that bullshit.

I sighed as my eyes roamed around and stopped at a very gorgeous male a few feet away from me. I couldn't help but notice the way his muscles flexed whenever he moved his arm, running fingers through his jet-black hair. The way he clenched his jaw, the way his eyebrows furrowed when he read something on his phone. The wa-

The loud ringing of my phone brought me back from my unholy thoughts as my cheeks flamed and I desperately tried to look for it.

Well, you can't really blame me for thinking like this. I was staring at a flower vase for the past 5 minutes which happened to be the most interesting thing in my vicinity except from Mr. I'm-perfect. Eventually, I got bored out of my mind and the homo-sapien beside me didn't even bother to initiate a conversation and I was still in a daze after what happened in the room.

Fishing the phone out of my pocket, I found it was Anushka calling me.

"Hello-"

"BITCH. When is the baby shower?" I had to physically lean away from the phone as Anushka yelled in despair. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Was she drinking? No, she didn't drink. Was she on drugs? Oh no! She started taking drugs and she didn't even inform me. And then, in the middle of my absolutely ridiculous thoughts, realization hit me like a truck. A certain psychopath might have shouted the news on the microphone to the whole world.

Maahi!

"Anushka-"

"Don't Anushka me. And don't you dare choose Maahi as the godmother of your child. That is my title. Got it?" She screeched as I mentally face-palmed.

Can someone bring me a cup of water, please? Yeah, thanks, I would like to drown into it.

"Done?" I asked her, annoyed.

"Of course, not." She huffed. "So, tell me, is it a boy or a girl? Have you decided the colour scheme of your child's room?"

That's it. I was going to castrate Maahi.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh.... Have you gone for baby stuff shopping?"

Sometimes I wonder if my friends are really that stupid or whether they just really love annoying me.

I would not be surprised if she and Maahi had already purchased a baby crib.

"And wh-"

"Anushka! I am not preg-" I almost yelled into the phone but stopped mid-way when I realized that Arjun was with me. Oh god. What would he think about this? Shit! Did he hear what Anushka said? Oh god, please no. Crossing my fingers, I peeked a look at him, praying to the Almighty, only to find him busy on his own phone.

Phew. Thank god. He probably wouldn't even care.

He didn't even look at me once.

"It's not what you think, Anushka." I sighed.

"Uh-huh. And Shawn Mendes proposed to me last night." She chirped sarcastically.

"I am not in the mood for this right now." I rubbed my temple and cut the phone before she could answer. I couldn't deal with this headache anymore.

I wonder what the heck my friends were doing when God was distributing brains.

Probably drooling over a guy.

Chuckling at my own poor joke, I kept the phone in my pocket as a maid came with a bowl of custard in her hand and set it on the table.

"I think I'll help you." I muttered walking towards her. I cannot tolerate this awkwardness anymore.

She looked at me, open mouthed and then shook her head, giving me a polite smile. "No, miss, it's fine."

Oh, come on, I won't bite.

I looked at her with pleading eyes, trying to send her a message that I really needed to escape this situation. I glanced at Arjun but he ignored me completely as if I wasn't even present there. A-hole.

"No, no. I'll be glad." I exclaimed as I held her hand and tried to run out of the room. Well, the key word being 'tried to' because as soon as I moved towards the kitchen, I heard some approaching footsteps and turned to see the elders entering the dining hall, chatting and laughing.

Well, someone bonded pretty soon.

Groaning internally, I plastered a fake smile on my face and locked hands behind my back. As they saw us, Mr. Rajveer smiled and came forward.

"There you are. I would like to talk to you both in private. Come to my study. Now." He said, eyeing both of us and walked away.

Okay.

A minute later, I found myself sitting in a chair beside Mr. I'm-too-perfect-to-talk-to-anyone while Mr. Rajveer stood in front of us behind a table with a stern gaze. I felt like an errant child being scolded by the principal.

The room was quite big with a desk in the middle where we were currently sitting. The wall opposite it contained a big bookshelf that had a lot of books and files. The other side of the room had a set of couches and some family pictures adorned the wall beside it. Surprisingly, I didn't find Arjun in any of them.

Mr. Rajveer locked his hands behind his back and cleared his throat to gain our attention. I looked at him expectantly.

"I know this is difficult for both of you." He started with a sympathetic expression. "You guys are too young. You have your own ambitions, dreams and all of a sudden I drop this bomb of marriage on you kids."

More like a nuclear explosion, sir.

"But you must understand that whatever we are doing is for your own good and you mu-"

"Cut the bullshit, dad and come straight to the point. Say what you want to." Arjun said that in such an arrogant manner that I looked at him horrified. This guy was a complete monster. He had no feelings, no respect for his parents whatsoever. What kind of a sick person he was? First, he talked to his mother like that and now his father. Was this how he was going to treat me too? Or probably not talk to me at all?

I turned my head towards Mr. Rajveer only to find him unfazed by Arjun's behavior.

"What I want to say is that you have to pretend." He said. "Both of you have to pretend to be a happy couple in love."

Say what!?

If I had been drinking coffee right now, it would have been the perfect timing to choke on it or to splutter it on the desk.

"E-excuse me?" I squeaked out. What the hell was he talking about?

Pretend to be in love. With whom? This ridiculously arrogant male species sitting beside me? Hell no!

"Yes, Kiara, you heard that right. Since you are going to be engaged in a week, I want to make this marriage look more realistic to the people."

It felt as if a bucket of cold water was emptied on my head.

I was going to be engaged. In a week.

There goes my dream of hunting and falling in love with Dean Winchester.

I sat there completely frozen as I couldn't grasp anything.

"Fine." Arjun stated after a long beat of silence. "You want us to behave all that lovey-dovey shit in public, we will."

We will what now?

I whipped my head to look at him. Had he lost his mind?

How could he say this without even consulting me? Didn't he hate the idea of this marriage as much as I did?

I tried to look around inconspicuously. Maybe someone would pounce on me and tell me that it was a prank, asking me to wave at the hidden camera like a lunatic.

"But." He paused. "Only on one condition."

"And what is that?" Mr. Rajveer narrowed his eyes at his son.

"I want you to delay the wedding as for now." Arjun replied, leaning back into his seat and crossing his arms over his chest.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Rajveer grew suspicious of his son's intention.

"You wanted me to agree to this bullshit, I did. You want me to act like a love sick puppy, I agreed to that to. Now, I want some time. Engagement is fine with me but no wedding, at least not in the coming months."

Mr. Rajveer seemed to be in great thought as he weighed his options. He finally sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. No wedding... as for now."

I nearly squealed in joy at the words. We got more time. Which meant that maybe, maybe I could plan something to get out of this.

Arjun smirked for the 4295th time today, satisfied with the outcome and stood up to leave. I think he should register his name in the Guinness world record book for holding the record of maximum number of smirks in a day.

"Remember, you'll have to make the people believe that you are madly in love with each other. Everyone should be under the impression that this is your mutual decision, not forced upon you in any way." Mr. Rajveer called out after Arjun.

Arjun glanced back. He didn't say anything, just rolled his eyes and left.

And ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the sexiest eye roll ever in the history of eye rolls.

"You can leave too, Kiara." Mr. Rajveer gave me a polite smile which I returned with a rather awkward one and followed Arjun. I needed to thank him. No matter how rude he had behaved, he did help me. Sort of. Turning towards the staircase, I spotted him and ran towards him almost tripping twice on my way.

"Arjun!" I called after him. His back tensed as he stopped dead in his tracks. He turned with a stoic face and raised a non-chalant eyebrow questioningly. Oh yeah, God forbid his Royal highness if he ever talked to me properly.

"Thanks." He just kept looking at me with a blank expression on his face. "You know, for asking for some more time." I explained.

He just rolled his eyes with an annoyed huff. "Don't get your hopes too high. I didn't do it for you. I can't even stand the thought of marrying you. So, just keep your pretty little mouth shut and I'll find a way to get out of this fucking mess."

Ouch. That hurt.

He went downstairs without even a look back at me.

I could have answered him back, I could have thrown insults at him but I wasn't really in the mood to do so. I was tired. I just wanted to go home, curl in my bed and sleep straight for a week.

Having no other option, I treaded down the stairs where everyone was seated. They stood up as they saw me.

"I think we should go. It's getting late." Dad announced as Mr. Rajveer, too, joined us.

"We had a lovely night." Mom gave an appreciative smile to Mrs. Roshni.

"Don't worry about the arrangements, Mr. Sharma. I'll handle it all. And I'll ring you if I need any help." Mr. Rajveer nodded at dad.

Arjun was nowhere to be seen. He must have left, I thought to myself.

"It was such a pleasure to meet you." Mrs. Roshni smiled as we made our way to the front door and bid goodbye to the Singhania family.

*

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. No. No. Noooo." Maahi gasped, her hands in her hair due to frustration. If she continued pulling her hair like this, she would turn bald in no time.

"Please don't die. Please don't die. Please don't die!" She kept muttering as her hands shook and her eyes watered.

"Oh no! Oh no! He died. He died, Kia! Shit. Do something. Please." She panicked and started shaking my arm vigorously with both her hands while I focused on my project in front of me and continued writing.

No, I am not a heartless person or a sadist who will watch someone die in front of their eyes. So why was Maahi pleading for help and I wasn't doing anything? Because she was watching Game of thrones on her phone and crying because of the fact that her favorite dragon had died.

I mean, what the actual fungia?

"Aha! There you go." Nandini exclaimed excitedly as she dropped a bundle of papers in front of me and sat beside me.

"What's this?" I asked, confused.

"I did some research on your hunk of a fiancé and here are the results. It contains all the information about him from his birth till now." She beamed proudly as if she had won Nobel Prize while I looked at her dumbstruck. I turned my head to tell Maahi about this nonsense but she was too busy mourning over the death of her beloved dragon. I was scared that she would start banging her head on the desk if we didn't stop her.

"Why would you do such thing?" I was confused as hell.

Nandini looked at me as if I was talking in Spanish. "Are you stupid? How can you marry someone you don't even know? You should at least know some basic facts about him if you are going to pretend to be his lover. So, be a normal girl, thank me for this and read it." She waved her hands in an over-exaggerated manner.

Did I tell you that my friends were overly, like over-the-very-top-ly excited for this wedding?

And you wouldn't even want to know the torture I went through while telling them about my visit to the Singhanias. Anushka had joined us earlier during lunch and I was cornered. Literally. And then, the interrogation started. My worst nightmare ever. I felt like a goddamn terrorist being interrogated by some high officials. They kept bombarding me with questions and interrupted me every 5 seconds for minute details. How the fudge would I remember the colour of the cushions on the couch?

It came to the point that I thought of filing a mental harassment complaint against them.

Finally, the college was over after such a tiring day and I couldn't wait to go home.

As we were walking towards the main gate of the college, we noticed a crowd gathering at the entrance.

"What's happening there?" Nandini asked, her brows furrowed and eyes narrowed.

"Was there a celebrity coming?" Saumya asked.

"Not anyone I know of." Maahi shrugged as we continued walking.

As we neared the entrance, I realized that the crowd mostly contained girls.

Okay, that's strange. And a little creepy.

When we got closer to the crowd, I let out a loud gasp when I saw what all the commotion was about.

Oh. My. God.

A shiny, sleek, black Lamborghini stood proudly that was worth drooling for. But it wasn't the car that made my eyes the size of golf balls. Leaning on the Lamborghini was a 6 feet, 2 inches tall incarnation of the greek god himself.

Arjun.

Arjun Singhania.

My supposed fiancé.

Arjun freaking Singhania was here in front of me. In my college.

Holy freaking skittles!