"Did you ever get to find out who was it behind those notes?" Jai asked Hardik, who just smiled. The notes he was talking about were just poems of love that found him every morning without fail - usually in his desk. There was one time he had found one in a library book, making him pleasantly surprised.

"I don't know. It must be a prank dude." Hardik said, pushing him lightly when he started laughing.

"Someone is in love with Hardik." He singsonged, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Shut up."

Behind them, Anushka blushed. She had been the one to put little love notes in his desk every day, figuring that it would be better if she started confessing her love this way, he would finally see her out of the friend zone.

"Who are you taking to junior prom though?" Anushka heard Jai ask Hardik, her heart pounding at his answer.

"Maybe Riya? She's pretty awesome and besides we're all going as friends only - we'll hang out at the arcade later."

"Done dude. We're going to have so much fun."

-

"Meera, fuck!" Shruti whisper screamed, looking at her. Meera was sipping on her iced cold coffee, not a care in the world.

"Shruti, I don't understand why you've called me." Meera replied, looking at her. "You're the one who didn't want to do anything with me."

"You're making it so difficult, wouldn't you say?" Shruti replied back condescendingly. "Was that you?"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Meera asked.

"The Rohit hit and run case, was that you?" Shruti asked. "You're playing with fire, if they find out you're going to get killed."

"But they haven't, have they?" Meera asked, moving closer to the table. "I told you to move away. You're the one who's always talking to me. Hasn't your boyfriend told you to stay away from me?"

"He has." Shruti replied, lips pursed.

"Does your boyfriend know that you're here?" Meera replied, smirking. "Oh no, what will happened if he does get to know?"

"He won't get to know because you're a little conniving bitch who knows what will happen to her if someone were to find out that she was the one behind all the trouble."

"Touché." Meera smirked, leaning back in her seat. "Well played."

-

"Shreyas, what do you study?" Simran hummed as she sat on his lap, looking through piles of information on her classmates. Anushka and her had compiled on all their common classmates and had divided it among the two of them.

"I'm in my first year of electrical engineering at IIT Madras." He replied, kissing her neck. "But you are not studying for your exams, are you?" He continued, keeping his head on her shoulder. "What are you researching?"

"My classmates." She murmured, looking at the sheets. "There's been some weird stuff going on lately."

"That requires you to do all this?" He remarked. "Wow, quite a school."

"It's a very dramatic school." She giggled.

"Explain it to me." He remarked. "Maybe I'd be of some help."

"Yeah maybe, you are from IIT." She said, looking at him. "Okay, there's somebody who's been poking their noses where it shouldn't belong."

"Hmm, who?" He enquired, slightly curious.

"I have no freaking idea. Why do you think we're all doing this?" She said, pointing at all the sheets. "They're literally digging up secrets. Well I mean, they've dug up one friend's secret, one friend's sex tape and another's enormous alcohol supply."

"Ouch." He muttered. "That's bad?" He asked, hesitantly.

"Of course!" She turned around. "They are my friends. They can sometimes be very mean and of course fucking shitty but they're mine." She turned around and hugged him.

"About two years ago, I did something horrible. Like truly terrible. They could see past all of that and yes, it took a bit of time but I didn't think anyone would. So, yes I'd defend most of them until my last breath." Simran said, hugging him tightly.

"I hope someday you'll it share with me." Shreyas said, keeping his head on her shoulder, breathing in her scent. She smelled like home, truly.

He knew that it was very sudden.

But Simran was what he wanted all his life and now that he'd found her, he wasn't willing to let her go.

No matter what.

-

"What's the deal with you and Gia?" Anushka asked as Hardik dug into his food, making him choke on the pasta.

"Wow." He coughed out as she gestured to the glass of water beside him. He drank a little then put the glass down, looking at Anushka. "Way to start the conversation."

"I'm being serious." She asked, sipping her drink. "After you slept with her, what's been happening?"

"Nothing, we're just friends." Hardik hummed, taking another bite. "We spoke and we don't see each other that way - I've got my eye on someone else."

"Oh." Anushka hummed, disappointed. "Who's the lucky girl?" She said, sarcastically.

"Aare, you know. Meera." Hardik nodded. "In fact, we're actually dating now."

"Oh wow!" Anushka said, surprised. "How come you didn't let me know before? I thought we shared everything?"

"It's been recent but she's a little different than what she was at the beginning." Hardik said. "You know, with Virat."

"Would it help if I apologised as well?" Anushka muttered, unhelpfully. There was no way in hell she was going to apologise to someone like her.

"No, why would you do that anyway?" Hardik said, laughing. "Anyways, Virat cheated on you too. I have no idea how you're on such great terms with him."

"What do you mean, he cheated on me?" Anushka snickered. "We broke up way before that."

"Ah." Hardik nodded, cleared up. For most of the year he'd been wondering what was the entire story between Virat and Anushka that even after he'd slept with Meera, she still considered him her friend. This explained volumes. He'd even heard of Virat sleeping with Simran.

"What's the thing with Simran then?" Hardik asked, brows furrowed. "You guys were in a relationship right?"

"That's a little bit complicated." Anushka winced. She'd been a very willing participant when the threesome between Virat and Simran happened but after a year of the incident - explaining it to others was a hassle. They had gone for a cover that Virat and Anushka were on a break and Simran was just with Virat.

They didn't even think that they required a cover but when Jasprit got to know about the situation, they needed to make it seem like it was only Simran and Virat.

Jasprit, out of respect for Anushka had kept his mouth shut about the truth. It took a lot of begging and pleading and an all tution paid transfer for Jasprit into another school as he couldn't see their faces anymore.

Their friendship had been ruined for good and yet, it was something that she could afford to lose.

She couldn't lie to Hardik but something was stopping her from admitting the truth, even though he was her childhood friend. They'd grown up together and her parents made it possible for Hardik to study at their school as well.

She suddenly remembered the Gia adoption spectacle. Gia had told Hardik about her being adopted and within the matter of a week, it was publicised everywhere. She didn't think it was Hardik but something was nagging at her.

Hardik had admitted it to her that it was Meera the last time and she'd foolishly let it go, thinking it was her revenge on Virat for the leaked photos. She actually admired the tenacity that she had, pushing on after the photos.

If it had happened to Anushka, she didn't think she would come back without putting the guy in jail.

She could sympathise with the revenge. It wasn't like Meera could go to the police station with Virat as the perpetrator.

The inspectors would laugh at her.

But if it was Meera this time, she had just opened Pandora's box. She couldn't prove it but she knew that somewhere, she had to be involved.

She had a choice. She could tell the truth behind the Simran-Virat fiasco and take a risk in Hardik telling the story to Meera and Meera publishing the entire story. Anushka would get banned from leaving her house forever, facing the wrath of her parents. Simran would get ostracised. Virat's parents would kill him.

But it would be confirmation that it was Meera behind all this. On the other hand, Hardik would be crushed. This was the first time that Hardik was in a serious relationship and it seemed he really liked her.

But would he continue to like her if he knew that she was behind all this? Allegedly, of course.

Anushka had to make a choice.

I had always thought that the penultimate choice of the story would be made by Meera and that there would be a redeeming arc as well. But ever since I've lost the original plot book, I've just winged the plot to the best of my abilities.

But the book is slowly reaching its final stretch and I'm very glad.

As I read through the original chapters, I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome of the book.

I do hope that the plot meets your expectations, dear readers :)