Gia was walking along the promenade, looking at the scenery when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned around to find a familiar smile.

"Hardik! What are you doing here?" She hugged him and moved back, wondering why was he here.

"I live on this street." He pointed right and then looked back at her. "I was feeling too cooped up at home, couldn't study. I usually come here for a walk. What about you? You're alone?"

"Oho, that's why." She nodded. "I really like this garden, I usually just come here once a week to paint." It was then that Hardik noticed her bag with an easel sticking out, wonder in his eyes.

"Oh shit, you paint too?" Hardik wondered, surprise in his eyes. "Are you any good?"

"Hey, I win awards okay." Gia laughed. "Do you paint?"

"If you count stick figures, yes." He nodded seriously, snickering after a moment.

"Come on then, paint with me. You have anything else to do?" Gia looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Nope." Hardik moving his head side to side. "Lead the way, ma'am."

As they both sat down and painted, Hardik had a sense of peace and happiness. The two painted the sunset, although Hardik's painting looked like someone had thrown up the colours of the sunset in one easel, she still took it home and hung it, writing Hardik's masterpiece on the side.

It still hangs in her room.

-

"So we're all in agreement, no one saw anyone suspicious?" Nupur commanded while writing something on the whiteboard in her room, her friends nodding.

"Fuck man." She exclaimed, sitting down. "Literally we've been at this for two days and we're nowhere closer to finding out who's the snake."

"We'd be horrible detectives." Rohit muttered, drinking his third coffee of the day. "Thank goodness, we don't have to decide what do we have to do."

"True." Virat hummed, then put his head down on the table. "I'm so sure, Jasprit knows something. That fucker is way too slippery. I went to speak to him, he was continuously looking everywhere but at me. He knows something."

"If he knows something and he's not telling, that means it involves somebody that he wants to protect." Simran chimed in from her seat, making heads turn towards her.

"Fucking finally, your brain is working!" Nupur cheered. "So tell us Simi, who could he be protecting?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Anushka replied. "The love of his life, Shruti. No offence, Simi darling."

"Yeah, I lost that title a long time ago." She shrugged. "No point crying over spilled milk."

"Wow, you're actually so clever sometimes!" Rohit said in a sarcastic tone. "If only that cleverness was used in daily life."

"Rohit." Ritika warned. "Leave her alone."

"We have to ask Shruti. I'd hate to say it but Simran, you'll have to do this." Virat groaned out, getting up. "I, on the other hand, have an appointment."

"Would that appointment be at the Mathur estate?"

"Shut up, Rohit." Two voices chimed in, simultaneously.

-

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Jasprit slammed his hand on the wall, Shruti wincing behind him. "No matter what I do, I still get dragged back to that group."

"Jassi I'm sorry." She wailed out, tears running down her face. "I really am."

"I told you not to mess with them." Jasprit turned around. "I told you. What do you do instead? Plan with that Meera instead?"

"I wasn't thinking straight."

"Damn right, you weren't thinking straight." Jasprit groaned and sat down on the sofa. "Shruti, I didn't ask you to deal with them. They didn't do anything to me - in fact, they don't do anything."

"You were broken, Jasprit." She sobbed out, sitting next to him. "They didn't do anything, not one call, not one text. They just sided with that cheat and even now they're friends with her!"

"Whatever they do, it's upto them." He rubbed the edge of his forehead, feeling a headache. "I'm not going to say you were wrong but baby, you didn't need to exact revenge for me."

"I'm sorry." She hiccuped out, tears finally stopping. "They won't find out, will they?"

"They've got connections, Shruti." He muttered. "No matter how much we want to humiliate them, we can't."

"Do you know what Ritika's parents do? They own the largest coaching institution in the world and are on the board of this school. Rohit's parents? They own half of Delhi with their investments in real estate. Virat's parents? They're the single largest publishing house in the country, owning major stake in all film houses." Jasprit continues, filled with dread as he forces out his sentences.

"Nupur's parents? They own most, if not all clubhouses and bars across the country. Gia's parents single-handedly set up the IT sector in our country. Anushka's parents are politicians and the only semi- normal ones are Simran and Bhuvi and even they own some resorts and restaurants." He finished, Shruti rigid next to him.

"Shruti, if any one of them gets to know that you've played a part in this, your future is gone."

-

Virat didn't know when was the right time to say anything to Gia, if it was really the right thing to do. Ever since she'd confessed to him, ran off without him having the chance to say anything back, slept with Hardik (which was really out of nowhere) and the viral sex tape starring Gia and Hardik - this entire situation was really making him pissed, angry, crazy and jealous.

He'd never felt so many conflicting emotions in a span of one week. It was horrible.

Horribly confusing.

As he walked up to the Mathur house, he stopped on the driveway and just stared at the door. On the other side, Gia would be waiting for him - they'd have dinner together and then go up to her room to chill, then he'd stay over and head to class tomorrow.

He was feeling like a boyfriend.

Gia's boyfriend.

He'd been dreaming of this scenario his entire life but it didn't seem right when no one had spoken about this entire mess and his own life baggage (the fuckups he'd repeatedly taken part in with Anushka) and what if Gia didn't want to be with this version of Virat?

He'd be broken, irrevocably.

He took a step back and took out his phone - and texted Gia.

Virat
Hey sorry, some imp work came up last minute😔Rain check?

Gia
Oh no🫠
Sure, it's not like I'm going anywhere😭

Virat
Cheer up, darling🤗
I'll come and visit you tomorrow, pakka

Gia
Okay! If it's something I can help with, lmk

Virat
Will do, have your dinner!
Good night❤️

Gia
You too, take care😘

As he walked back out of the driveway, he called up Rohit.

"Hey Rohit, you're at home?" Virat sighed, coming out of the driveway and unlocking his car.

"Yeah dude, I mean I'm just driving back home, dropping Ritika off. Why, Gia kicked you out?" He snickered, honking in the background. "Abey saale, andha hai kya?"

"I just need to offload. Want to join? I have beers." Virat put the call on Bluetooth and connected it to the car, starting the engine.

"Sure man, wait let me call Bhuvi as well - maybe he'd like to join as well." Rohit said and suddenly honked, startling Virat who'd just turned the car around.

"Sure, meet me at my house - I'll be in the shed."

"Cool, meet you soon."

Unbeknownst to Virat, Gia was at her window - watching Virat blatantly lie to her on text. She wiped a few stray tears which had ran down her cheeks. She couldn't understand why had he lied, he could've just told her the truth.

She turned around and spotted her phone on her dressing table and walked over, picking it up.

"Hey, Hardik? Want to meet up for drinks? I'm in a shit mood, I need a pick me up."

If you want any other character background or any particular scenes between characters, comment here - I'll try my best to incorporate it :)

Happy reading!