8

Ayesha stared at him darkly, for ten whole seconds.

"Go to hell." That was what she told him.

He was taken aback. He expected a smile, a slap on the hand, or maybe even a hug. But not tears and a rude comeback. He froze.

"How could you even think of leaving me?" she asked.

He sighed and finally said, "I'm sorry." He slowly opened the gate, and sat beside her on the bench.

"How dare you come into my house?"

He smiled and patted her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Liar."

He laughed. "Okay, maybe I did."

"Why did you come back?"

"I felt bad."

Rahul was sitting quitely, as Vihaan kept driving. He could see Vihaan was itching to tell him something, but was controlling himself.

Meanwhile, he couldn't get the last image of Ayesha out of his head. She was crying. That too because of him.

He felt horrible. He didn't want to leave her. But after the policeman incident, he was afraid she might get into more trouble because of him. He wanted to spend time with her, as he felt he could forget reality for some time with her at least.

But reality crashed in, when Vihaan offered to take them home.

Home.

Did he even call his place home, anymore?

Home is supposed to be a place where you feel warmth, hope, happiness, and secure. Home is not a place which you want to avoid going to at all costs. It is not a place for which you try to stay as late as possible outside, ir order to avoid it.

Home is a place which has people you love. Not a place with people whom you wish aren't in the same place at the same time.

So when Vihaan mentioned Home, reality crashed in him like a tsunami. He felt mad and bitter. He shouldn't actually be beside her. It was his mistake to not avoid the bench Ayesha was sitting in. It was his mistake to encourage her to talk to him. It was his mistake that he spent time with her, thinking he couldn't leave her alone was a valid excuse for his longing to spend more time with her.

He sighed. "Spill," he said to Vihaan, who he could see wanted to say something.

"You're making a mistake."

"I'm not."

"You are. You know it. I know it. I know you want to go back, but you aren't."

"So what if I am?"

"Don't."

That was all he said.

Mistake.

For some reason, he felt that word was haunting him. He knew it was a mistake that he spent time with her and... somehow gave her a false hope that he has a normal life. He was obviously very attracted to her. But he didn't know what to do of it. He even forgot to tell her why he ran away.

He sighed. So many regrets.

Her image when she realized he wasn't coming with her still haunted him. She was close to crying. He didn't like it at all. He hated it, in fact.

"Where am I supposed to drop you?" asked Vihaan.

He sighed. "Here." This isn't right. "Stop the car right here." God, what am I doing? "I'm going back." It's done. Crap.

Vihaan stopped the car without any hesitance, and Rahul got off the car as swift as possible. He swung his bag on shoulder, and closed the door. 'Thank you' he mouthed to Vihaan. He flashed him a smile and a thumbs up.

Sighing, he began to move towards the direction of Ayesha's house.

Rahul looked at Ayesha. She still seemed mad at him.

"Hey," he said to her.

"What?"

"Do you want to know why I ran away?"

She eyed him with rapt attention.

"My parents," he began, "as I told you, fight a lot. Like a lot. Too much, and too loud. I hate it whenever they fight. I always wanted to block them out. I hoped they would cool down, and just have normal fights like normal couples instead. But... no."

"I - I have no clue on what to say."

"I hate my home. It's not home. I can't stay in a place that I have pretend is my home. I can't. So I run away."

"You don't have to, Rahul."

"You don't get it. I always hope at least this will put some sense into my parents, to fight with lower volume at least."

"But it doesn't," she guessed.

"Nope. Hence, I run away. It literally justifies the line, I run away from my problems."

The two laughed softly.

"Are you still mad at me?" he asked her.

"I guess not. You came back."

The two stayed quite.

"Does it help?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Running away. Does it help?"

"Honestly, I thought it did. But tonight... I realized it didn't. Running away makes me feel I'm not supposed to stay. That's what happened back in Kiara's house. I felt I have to run away from you. And I almost did."

"I'm glad you didn't," she admitted.

"Sorry."

She smiled. Rahul took her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. She didn't protest.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," she apologized. "I just hated the thought of you leaving me in the middle, for some reason."

"It's fine. It's my mistake. I left you like that."

She just nodded.

"So," he said. "This is your house, huh? It looks pretty."

She smiled. "Thanks."

Just then, he flinched his eyes and started looking at the house, accusingly. Ayesha just stared at him and then the house, but understood nothing.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Well," he said, still looking at the house, "I'm just wondering where your room is."

She slapped his arm, along with a 'Hey!'.

He laughed. "Just kidding. But seriously, which one is your room?"

She sighed, and pointed to the window on the top floor to the left side. "That one."

"Oh."

"You can stop by whenever you want," she said, hastily.

"I just might." He smiled.

"Good."

They stayed silent for some time. Ayesha was itching to ask Rahul to save her number, but remained silent as it came off too desperate and direct. It might just scare him away, she thought. She looked at him. She always found his hazel eyes really pretty, and somehow as he was looking at nothing, she thought they looked prettier.

"You know what expression suits you the most?" she said, suddenly.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Expression. Like while laughing, or frowning, or smiling..."

"Ah. I know what looks best on me."

"What?"

"Monkey face."

"Huh?"

He pulled his ears and pouted.

She chuckled. "It's ugly. Stop it."

He did, and laughed. "Okay, fine. You tell me which expression suits me the best."

"Well, I don't mean suits you the best... but I meant which expression I like the best on you."

"Which is...?"

"When you are reading or writing something, at times you are very concentrated on it. You frown, but very lightly. Your lips go up or down according to your mood. I can tell that you are concentrating on something with that expression. And I like it the most on you."

"Wow."

"Thanks."

"You stare at me a lot, in class."

"Hey!"

She flushed, and he chuckled.

"It's cute, Ayesha. Thanks. I never knew it."

"Of course you won't. Only I am dumb enough to tell you."

Rahul grinned and pulled in her into a big, side hug. The two laughed as Ayesha fell on to her left side, on the bench, and so did Rahul.

"Okay enough," she said. "I know I'm awesome. No need to express it so much."

He was still grinning when he pulled her up. Ayesha pulled her hair tie - which became loose - and was about to tie it again, when Rahul stopped her. She looked at him, questionably. He just smiled and set her untied hair on her shoulders.

"Ah," he said. "This looks better."

She smiled along with him.

"Vihaan seems really nice," he said.

She nodded. "He is. To be honest, the conversation I had with him in Kiara's room was the pongest conversation I ever had with him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We both are the least attached in the group, but yet... somehow, he realized where I went wrong."

"And that is?" he asked, slowly.

"My ideology. I had friends who liked to party. So I did it along with them. But the thing is, they always had balanced it and I was too stupid to realize it. They managed everything, but I couldn't see it. What I only saw was what I thought. Talking to Vihaan made me realize it."

"So..."

She sighed. "I'm going to apologize to my parents, first thing in the morning. They deserve it the most. Then, I need to apologize to my friends. They tried hard to get me back on track and even lowered their partying for me. But I was too stupid to realize it. They deserve it too."

"You are saying you're going to change?"

"Maybe. I'm going to try. It'll take time, maybe. But I'll get back on track for sure. I wasted almost a whole year already. Can't afford to waste more, can I?"

"Nah," he agreed.

"When I became this partying version of myself, I blamed my gang for it," she admitted. "But I realized they aren't bad friends. They never meant to change me. They took me for who I was. Now that I turn back to see Ria, Ankit, Vihaan, Natasha, Jaggu. They all... like me. And I don't remember them encouraging this new me, at all. I realize I am the one who went overboard."

"You realized so many things."

She just smiled. "Thanks to you, I even met an old best friend of mine," she said, referring to her unexpected reunion with her middle school best friend, Nihal.

"I was shocked," said Rahul.

"So was I," she replied.

The two looked at each other, and burst out laughing.

I swear, she thought, I'm never forgetting tonight.