Ranting Rights

...📖 Chapter 2 – Ranting Rights...

Later that night

Naina shoved her way into Riya’s apartment, dropped her handbag onto the couch like it had personally offended her, and flopped down dramatically.

Riya, sprawled(to sit or lie with your arms and legs spread out in an untidy way) on the floor in pajama shorts and a messy bun, didn’t even look up from painting her toenails. “That bad?”

Naina groaned. “Bad is when the coffee’s cold. Bad is when the waiter forgets your order. This—” she sat up, gesturing wildly—“this was a full-blown catastrophe disguised as a date.”

"He thinks iced coffee isn't a personality? Excuse me, I built a brand on that! And he called me... fake!"

Riya grinned. “Oh no. Tell me everything. I want visuals. I want trauma. I want to know everything that happened there .”

“Fine.” Naina held up her fingers like a checklist. “One: he was late. Seven whole minutes. Two: he looked at me like I was a catfish. Three: he ordered black coffee, no sugar. Who does that? A psychopath, that’s who.”

Riya snorted. “Or… a guy who doesn’t want diabetes.”

"Haha nice joke" naina said it with a annoyed face.

“Four,” Naina continued, ignoring her, “he spent ten minutes explaining coding. Coding, Riya! Do I look like someone who dreams in binary?”

Her best friend dissolved into laughter. “So he’s smart. That’s a crime now?”

“Five: I tripped. On nothing. And spilled my latte on his shirt. He just stared at me like I was a toddler with jam hands.”

Riya clutched her stomach. “Stop, my abs can’t take this.”

Naina collapsed back onto the couch with a dramatic sigh. “Dating apps are a scam. I’m deleting them. I’d rather marry my ring light.”

...........

At the same time across town, Aarav slouched on his beanbag, tossing popcorn into his mouth while Kabir sprawled on the gaming chair, laughing way too loudly.

“So let me get this straight,” Kabir said, barely holding back his chuckles. “You met a pretty girl, she spilled coffee on you, and your first thought was huh, she doesn’t understand algorithms?”

“It’s not my fault she asked what I do,” Aarav muttered defensively. “What was I supposed to say? ‘I make magic apps with fairy dust’?”

“Yes!” Kabir threw a popcorn kernel at him. “Anything except lecture her on data encryption. Bro, you’ve got negative game.”

Aarav scowled, but the memory of Naina’s eye-roll made him smirk despite himself. “She was… annoying.”

“Annoying-hot?” Kabir waggled his eyebrows.

“Annoying-annoying.” Aarav tossed popcorn back at him. “And I’m never seeing her again.”

Aarav typed into his Notes app: Never again. Influencers \= chaos.

Both of them, in two different corners of the city, declared at the exact same time:

“Never again.”

Both went to bed swearing they'd never see each other again.

The universe, of course, had other plans for them

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