CHAPTER 12

Manik's gaze flicked back to the road as the light turned green, and Nandani realized she had been holding her breath. She let the air out.

"I wanted last year to be a fresh start," he went on. "A place where no one knew me. Where I could be someone other than the druggie, or the prom king, or whatever other labels people slapped on me."

"I think a lot of us want that. A fresh start," Nandani said softly.

Manik had not answered straight up about rehab, but it did not matter to her right now and she was not going to press him. His words reassured her that whoever he had been, he was trying to change now.

"Yeah. I realized something though. Running away is not the way to change how people look at you. Or if it is, then it is a coward's way out. That is why I came home," Manik said.

After that, they drove in silence for some time, but it was more comfortable even than the previous day. The conversation had brought them intimacy rather than awkwardness.

A part of Nandani still felt unsettled from being back where she had spent her teenage years, but she was mellowing with every passing neighborhood. Maybe it was because they were getting further from home and closer to school. Or maybe it was just letting go, having Manik sitting next to her, perfect as ever on the surface and turbulent as ever underneath. Despite the contrast, he seemed completely comfortable with himself and with her, at ease and unassuming.

Finally, he broke the silence. "So you know what they say about people who live in Hill Park?" the place where they had spent their childhood.

"I have no idea," Nandani replied.

Manik shocked her by proceeding to try and entertain her with all sorts of jokes, more off-color than not. Some were funny and some were just appalling. All of them made her laugh.

Like flicking a light switch, he turned on the boyish charm she had only seen glimpses of before. She could immediately see why he had been so popular.

Nandani allowed herself a minute to look over at him. Manik's dark hair revealed brown highlights in the late morning sun and his grin seemed to get a little brighter whenever his eyes met hers. She realized that they had spoken to each other more in the last four weeks than they ever had. Out of nowhere, she wondered whether they would have been friends before if they would have met under different circumstances.

But what surprised Nandani the most? At that moment, Manik Malhotra, the former quiet kid turned the most popular guy in school, turned trouble teen, turned who knew what wanted nothing more than to cheer her up. And she wanted nothing more than to let him try.

*********************

Monday morning Manik and Mukti were waiting for Nandani downstairs to give her a ride to school.

"Want me to look at your car later?" Manik asked Nandani.

She looked at him warily. "Don't take this the wrong way, but have you done this before? Or is this just some macho guy thing?"

Mukti intervened. "Manik's pretty good with engines. He pretty much rebuilt the 'Chevrolet Chevette' from the ground up, and he also used to fix his friend's bike all the time." Manik looked slightly surprised she had backed him up, but it seemed that they were on better terms lately. He turned towards Nandani expectantly and she nodded.

"Great. Thanks," Nandani replied.

Sure enough, Manik knocked on the door at eight at night. Mukti alerted her to his arrival by shouting up the stairs.

"I will be right there!" Nandani replied. She pulled on shoes and wrapped a soft sweater around her and went down. Manik was taking up most of the doorway, and she almost stopped in her tracks at the sight of him.

Manik was dressed in a black hoodie and dark jeans. The combination was striking. With the sun almost down and darkness creeping in, he looked like the kind of guy you would not want to run in an alley at midnight. But his dark looks did not scare her. It would have been better if they did.

She grabbed her keys off the hook in the foyer and squeezed past where he was standing in the door frame.

"You are like a magic genie. Giving rides on-demand, fixing cars," Nandani told him.

"Don't get used to it. You will owe me big time for this," Manik replied.

"I thought we were friends, Manik."

"We are friends. But having been friends for all of four weeks, this goes beyond the call of duty, Nandani."

"If you can get it running again, you can have anything you want," Nandani said casually.

He walked around to the front of the car where he had left a toolbox. Nandani popped the hood of the car for him and tried starting it. Nothing happened.

Manik leaned over, bracing himself with one strong arm as he started fiddling under the car hood. Nandani stepped out of the car and closed the door. The stupid convertible had been a bad idea, she thought, as she rebelled against her mom and Karan her stepfather, for buying something she wanted. It was an impulsive decision, she realized. It then occurred to her out of nowhere that kissing Manik that first night had been another stupid impulsive decision.

Thankfully it was fading from her memory the more time they spent together. She could actually enjoy almost an hour in his company without glancing at his hands or mouth or anything else. It was progress for her.

Nandani leaned against the side of the car while he worked. If he didn't know what he was doing, he was a hell of an actor.

Manik's face was a mask of concentration. His hair fell across his forehead, but for once he ignored it. His hands were strong and sure as they moved.

"Are you just going to watch me?" His voice in the darkness surprised her. She could watch him all night but was not about to say it to him.

"Yup. Consider it my insurance," she said.

She thought she saw a corner of his mouth quirk up, but it was hard to tell in the low lighting. "In that case, will you at least entertain me while I work?" Manik asked her.

"Maybe you should be entertaining me. This car fixing stuff isn't my thing." Nandani smiled sweetly as he glanced in her direction.

"What do you have in mind?" Manik asked.

She thought for a moment. Still not sure he was going to grant her an all-access pass. She figured she might as well start somewhere. She chose her words carefully. "You said at the party that I didn't know you. If we are going to be friends for more than four weeks, which I think I would like, what else should I know? I mean, I know you are smart enough to be here on scholarship and you were prom king despite...whatever it was that ultimately landed you in rehab." She also wanted to tell him that you are a pretty decent guy, and hot enough that you should have a warning label tattooed on your forehead. But she kept that part to herself.