3.

I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and wake up the whole neighborhood. But, the problem was that the scream died an early death in my throat and I could only stand there stupidly with my mouth and eyes wide open in horror.

“Go on, call me hot-buddy,” hottie smirked, leaning against the headrest with his arms crossed behind his head.

I was thinking more along the lines of stalker…

It took me two minutes to close my eyes, inhale a deep breath and compose myself. All the while, hottie provided the background music with his whistling.

“The frick!” I roared, as soon as I got my voice back, “You perverted stalker! How the hell did you find me? I am going to call the cops on you!”

Hottie raised an eyebrow at me, “Are you sure you will be calling the cops for me, pretty little criminal?”

That knocked out all the remaining air from my system.

“I-I am not a criminal! You don’t know me!” I retorted weakly.

“Well, let’s see…” hottie said, raising his hand, “I know that one, you are running from the cops,” he stated, counting on his finger, “two, you punch someone who tries to help you,”

“Hey-” I started to protest, but he cut me off, raising his third finger.

“three, you are frickin’ ungrateful to your savior, four, you are a ditcher. You use and throw away the person who saves your ass. Five, your whole identity is suspicious. Five, you are even a party crasher. Six, you are a pretty good question dodger. Seven, I think that’s enough points to prove that you are shady,”

Damn him and his hotness and his…observation skills!

“Get your ass out of my bed!”

That was all I had to say to him after his long speech on my shady qualities.

“Tsk. Tsk. Question dodging,” he mocked.

I fisted my hands and marched towards him. There was no way I was going to tell him a single thing about me.

“I will say this one last time. Get out of here!” I shrieked at him.

“No can do,” he said, casually, “until I receive my answers.”

“You ain’t getting anything, hott- I mean buddy,” I fumed, tugging at his muscular biceps, to pull him.

But, the tables turned the next second, when he pulled me all of a sudden, so that I landed above him very ungraciously.

Before I could beat the shit out of him, he grabbed both of hands and flipped us over, completely entrapping me in.

“I always get what I want,” he smirked down at me, “especially if it’s relating to some potential criminal whom I helped get away,”

“For the last time, don’t say that when you don’t know shit about me!”

“Tell me then,” he said, seriously, his eyes boring deep into mine.

I had to suck in a sharp breath, from the intensity his electric blue eyes were radiating. It felt like I would go blind if I kept looking in his eyes for too long. My mind was already reeling from the delicious scent entering my nostrils.

I made a mental note to ask him the name of his cologne and shampoo later.

Really? My inner voice rolled its eyes.

That jerked out of my trance and I glared at him.

“Just because you helped me, doesn’t mean I will go ahead and give you my bio data,” I scoffed, “I don’t even know your name, for God’s sake-”

“If that’s what you want to know, then, my name is Alex,” he interjected.

Thank God, he told me. At least I could stop thinking of him as hottie!

“Look, Alexander the great-”

“Alex!” he growled, interrupting me.

I frowned at him.

“Isn’t that short for Alexander?” I asked.

“None of your business,” he grumbled, “just call me…Alex.”

Ooh. Someone was grumpy about their name.

I gave him an evil smirk, “Now I will definitely call you Alexander.”

His grip on my wrists tightened painfully, “Stop messing around and just give me the answers I need.”

Oh boy, infuriating him was so much fun! Maybe, I could pass time like this until the warden of this place came for her daily inspection around 10pm and kicked him out.

“Hmm…” I made a thinking face, “let me see, Alexander. I don’t think I want to divulge any kind of information to a stalker, who for all I know may be a potential serial killer. I mean, dude, how did you even find me here? And, how the hell did you sneak into a girl’s hostel?”

He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. From the muscle that was ticking in his jaw, I could easily deduce that if he could, he would have gladly choked my neck by now.

“I followed that car you came into and climbed that tree outside your window to get in,” he said simply as if it was no big deal.

For a moment, I was speechless. Then, a big question popped inside my head.

“I don’t understand. Why did you even go to such lengths?” I asked him.

“To make sure that I didn’t actually aid a criminal,” he replied sincerely, “so, tell me now, why are cops after you?”

I bit my lip. This boy was running in circles. Every conversation with him tumbled upon the same question again and again. And, he didn’t look like he would give up anytime soon.

“Would you please stop distracting me for a second, and answer my question?” he muttered, angrily.

What did I do now? I didn’t even say anything!

“I did nothing to distract you!” I yelled.

His eyes flicked to my lips, “Stop doing that thing with your lips!”

Oh my God! That was what he was talking about?

“Why?” I teased him, “Is it affecting you?”

“Hell no!” he growled, and this time released me, getting up from the bed and avoiding my gaze, “FYI, nothing about you affects me. It only infuriates me. I am surprised that I haven’t killed you already.”

That made me really angry. Not that I was interested in him or wanted him to be interested in me, but, no one apart from my brother had the right to be rude to me. And, this boy was breaking all records now.

Before I could give him a piece of my mind, there was a knock at the door.

“Oh, that would be the warden,” I informed Alex with a smirk, “for the daily inspection.”

Alex glowered at me, “This is not over yet,” he declared marching towards the window to climb back down.

“Wait!” I ran after him, quickly.

He turned around with a confusion, “Missing me already?” he asked, his lips slightly quirking up at the corner.

I rolled my eyes for two reasons, first, this boy was more arrogant than me, and second, he could not even smile properly. I mean, I had only seen him either smirking or mocking me, if we kept the other negative expressions aside.

“I just wanted to know the brand of your shampoo,” I told him.

He gave me a look that said that he was contemplating my mental health, then shook his head and went on his way, leaving me standing there in confusion.