7

Vihaan sat down on the edge of the bed, awkwardly. When he realized that Ayesha wasn't sitting down, he guestured her to. She went, and sat on the other end.

The tension was thick enough to cut it with a knife.

"Uh," she started, "thank you for everything, Vihaan. Oh and also for the clothes. Kiara... seems really nice."

He smiled at it. "She is."

"Is she... um, your girlfriend?"

He got visibly tensed at it. "Uh, you noticed?"

"It wasn't hard to."

"Yeah. She is. I just didn't tell anyone yet. Ayesha please, it's a request. Don't mention her or that I have a girlfriend to anyone. Please."

She was taken aback. "Okay, sure. But you -"

He stopped her. "No. Now it's time for you to answer. What the hell are you doing here, at past two in the night? That too with that guy? Rahul Lohiya. How do you even know him?"

"Slowly, slowly. Well, why I'm here? It's - uh - embarrasing. Please don't tell anyone but I was locked out of my house."

He was surprised. "Really? Then you should've called any of us. Why are you with him?"

"Well, my phone battery died. And I met him near my house, and we've been hanging out together ever since."

"You little idiot, thank god he's a nice person." The protectiveness shocked her. "What if he wasn't one, Ayesha? Then?"

She smiled a little. "Then I would've ditched him long ago."

"Dude, you have no clue how scared I was when I saw you two being questioned by a policeman."

"Thanks for the concern. I mean I know we're not that close in the group, but you still helped."

"I know we're not close, but still I'm not as asshole, you know."

"No. No. I don't mean it like that."

"It's okay. I mean I was never particularly nice to you or anything. But sometimes... I just worry for you."

"Worry?"

"Yes, worry. I don't have a clue if others notice it but I do. I noticed how you slowly... lost your charm."

"What?"

"Did you ever wonder why I never talked to you much?"

"Yes..."

"Well, it's because you're taking negative influence from others. You have charm, Ayesha. You are really nice and you seemed so... balanced. But then..." He seemed hesitant.

"I changed." She smiled, sadly.

"You changed. Not your personality. It is still nice and sweet, but the things you do and your priorities changed."

She kept mum.

"I'm saying this," he continued, "because I feel like you need to know. Especially now that I've seen you like this. You looked so frightened and vulnerable back then at the drive in, you know."

"I - I have no idea what to say."

"Resort your priorities. Once more. This time, be sure they won't do any harm."

"Th - thanks, Vihaan."

"By the way, Rahul seems nice." Vihaan had a smirk on his face. "He'd be a good borfriend to you."

Her face turned red. "Boyfriend? What - what rubbish."

"You like him, don't you?"

"What! No!"

"You do, girl. I can see it in your face."

"Rubbish. We just started talking hours ago. How can I like him so fast?"

"A couple of hours is more than enough, Raizada. You know what?"

"What?"

"I fell in love with Kiara in the second minute I met her."

Ayesha smiled broadly. "Really?"

"We're family friends. That's why our parents approve us... very much, in fact." He was grinning now.

"That's awesome."

"But I swear to god Ayesha, if you ever give a scare this bad like tonight..."

"It won't. Happen," she assured him.

"I talked to Rahul. He's very nice. I like him."

"Me too."

"Ah ha! You admit you like him!"

She widened her eyes. "No! When did I?!"

He burst out laughing, and she soon joined him. After talking for about two more minutes, the two exited Kiara's room to see Kiara and Rahul speaking with each other.

"We're done here," said Vihaan. "Rahul, come I'll drop you and Ayesha to your place."

"You mind if you just drop Ayesha back home?"

Ayesha was shocked.

"I have to go somewhere else," he confirmed.

"No," Ayesha found herself saying, surprising even herself. "No."

Vihaan was taken aback. "What?"

"No," she said. "I mean Rahul can drop me. You can go home, Vihaan."

"Don't be stupid." This time it was Rahul.

"Guys..." Kiara was unsure of what to say.

"Rahul. You can't leave me," she said. "Not halfway at least. It's close to two thirty in the morning. You were with me from eight. Don't do this to me."

"You're saying like I'm leaving you alone," he mumbled, a little guilty. He cleared his throat and spoke more loudly. "Vihaan said he'll drop you. I can't drop you."

Somehow, this maddened her. She forgot even Vihaan and Kiara were present in the room. "Oh hell yes you can!"

"I can't, okay? Even I have no freaking clue on where I'm going to go, how do you expect me to safely drop you home?"

"For six and a half hours I was with you and you didn't say bullshit like that. Then why now?"

"You didn't have anyone to help you," he admitted. "But now you have a friend. Go home with him, Ayesha."

"What about you?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

"I don't, okay?! I don't. I can't go back there, and you aren't understanding me. I ran away from my so called home. I'm not going back there."

She felt tears prick her eyes, for no reason. "You were, until now."

He sighed. "I couldn't leave you alone."

"Then now I can't leave you alone," she said, firmly. "You're coming with me."

"I'm not." He was just as stubborn as her.

"You are. If you won't, I'm going to follow you where ever you go. I won't go back in Vihaan's car. I'm not giving you an option, Rahul."

"But I'll take one. It's not like we know each other or something. We're not exactly friends, either."

Silence.

Ayesha felt as if someone crushed her emotions. She couldn't believe it. He actually said those words, when just a few minutes ago he assured her they'd acknowledge each other in college. She didn't say a word, and just stared at him. The silence was horrible.

"Ahem, guys."

Ayesha looked at Vihaan and Kiara, a bit startled, as she forgot they were even there. Generally, she would've gone red, but she was so angry at Rahul that it was impossible for any other emotion to have place in her mind. Vihaan went ahead to Rahul, and whispered something on his ear. She wanted to yell at him to not whisper, but controlled herself.

"He's coming with us," was all Vihaan said.

Before she knew it, the three bid goodbye to Kiara, and were in Vihaan's car. "What's the address?" he asked.

Rahul told him the address and directions, as Ayesha was too mad to speak.

The ride was quite, too quite in fact. Vihaan wanted to speak, but the tension and anger between the two scared him, hence silencing his words in his throat itself. He, in fact, was scared to on the radio too. Ayesha's house was about fifteen minutes away, and he found the way rather easily. He was going straight with a lane of houses on his left. When Ayesha spotted her house, she told Vihaan to stop there. When she got down, she expected Rahul to get down too. But when she turned back to the car, Rahul was still inside it and Vihaan turned on the engine once more. He isn't coming.

"Bye Ayesha," said Vihaan.

"Bye..." She was looking at Rahul and felt her eyes go warm with tears.

She kept looking as the car sped off. She didn't know why but she started crying. She didn't make a sound, but the tears didn't stop.

She felt sad. She felt upset. She felt mad. But mostly, she felt hurt.

She opened the gate, and sat on the bench she tried to sleep on a few hours ago. She clutched the edges of the bench hard, and the tears kept flowing. She cried, softly.

She kept crying as the whole situation of tonight took a toll on her. Her being locked out of her own house, by her own parents, her mistakes piling one by one, the club, the old building, the policeman, the friend she spoke least to and his girlfriend, and mostly the one person who was her comfort through out the whole ordeal leaving her.

She felt horrible.

"Beautiful girls like you seriously suck at crying faces."

She stopped sobbing and swiftly looked at the direction of the very familiar voice. She quickly wiped her tears.

"You - you..." She had no words. "I hate you, bastard."

Rahul smirked. "Missed me, Ayesha?"