Where the hell is she? I am sure she went in this direction only. How can she vanish?

I increased my pace and checked all the classrooms in the hallway. I still couldn't find her. Yesterday, I saw her with Ayush near the soccer field, and I was not at all happy with the scene. My best friend was crying, and I couldn't control my anger.

Thus, I ended up hurting Sandhya, and if Mayank bhaiyya hadn't arrived there on time, I might have ended up breaking her elbow - I really regretted my actions and wanted to apologise to her, but she was avoiding me.

It wasn't her fault. I acted like a barbarian and let my rage and fear take over my judgement. I had seen Ayush like that after a long time, crying and having a panic attack; all of the memories of that day came rushing back.

Fuck... I really need to work on my temper. Why do I always make her cry?

"Hey, Bro!" Karthik yelled.

"Hi." I gave him a short nod.

"Did you lose something?" he asked.

"No, I am just looking for someone."

He thought for a minute, and I was about to leave when he pointed at the second floor.

"I saw Sandhya going up there just now," he said.

"Thanks, man."

He told me not to kill her, and I gave him a flat look. I was going to reply, but I didn't want to waste more time. I took the stairs two at a time and spotted Sandhya chatting with Rajeev bhaiyya, and he looked concerned. I gulped nervously.

Did she tell him about yesterday? If she did, then I could count today as my last day. Rajeev bhaiyya will kill me for hurting her.

I slowly moved towards them, trying to hear what they were talking about; I noticed Mayank bhaiyya, and he shot me a mischievous smile. I wished I could use telepathy; I didn't want to get beaten up by Rajeev bhaiyya. I might have known Martial Arts, but his punch was enough to send me into coma.

Finally, I reached the red zone, and Sandy Pandy quickly ducked behind Rajeev bhaiyya. Fortunately, he smiled on seeing me, meaning Sandhya hadn't told him - or he could be waiting to tell him myself. I glanced at Sandhya, and she refused to talk to me when I asked to have a little conversation with her.

How was I going to apologise if she wasn't even willing to talk to me?

She avoided my gaze, and as soon as the bell rang, she took off like Sonic. I had to catch her. I bid goodbye to the guys and followed her. Apart from saying sorry to her and checking how severely she got hurt, I also wanted to know if Ayush mentioned about his tenth birthday.

After getting him into the hospital, he hadn't spoken a single word. All he did was stare at the blank wall and refuse taking his medicines. He was tired of spending most of his time indoors due to his medical condition, but we had no other choice. Leaving him alone meant pushing him into a well and letting him drown - he was still fighting with his trauma.

Why did my friend suffer?

When I saw Sandhya fall down after bumping into a group of students, I thought she would stop, but she didn't. She was in no mood of stopping even when I yelled her name countless times. She was running as if I was some serial killer.

From her point of view, I guess it was like that for sure.

I got an idea when she dived into an empty classroom. I acted like I didn't see her and went to the other corner of the room. I felt her sneaking out from under the desk and let her cover some distance before I caught her. Her body slumped the moment I had in her my arms.

"Kill me," she said.

I looked at her; her face was pale and eyes glazed with unshed tears. I was right. She really thought that I was going to murder her. As she build plans of her funeral in her mind, I checked her elbow and cursed myself when I saw a purple bruise. After deducing that it would heal within three-four days, I pulled down her sleeve and turned her towards me.

She ducked her head, and I apologized for hurting her. She froze for a moment, and I sighed when she said that she was sorry for Ayush's condition. She didn't know why he reacted like that, confirming that Ayush didn't tell her anything. She cried and said that she didn't do it on purpose.

"Please don't mention about his birthday again," I said.

She nodded. "I won't. I will stay away from him."

I gave her some space, and she left after I told her to go. I stared at her back and tried not to think about that day. I felt the strong urge to go and hug her, but I controlled it. She was already regretting about yesterday, so I didn't want to put pressure on her mind.

I was the one who wanted to keep her away from my best friend; I knew something like that would have surely happened. But I knew Sandhya wouldn't hurt him intentionally - the situation was pretty messed up. I had to take every precaution. I had seen Ayush having sleepless nights for countless days, looking like a corpse. And revealing his painful past wasn't my decision - it was his.

Sandhya was an important part of his life and a trigger too. I still wasn't sure whether her keeping her distance was good or not for Ayush. Sometimes, he had no issues with her; I had even seen him look at her, but yesterday, what happened was exactly what I was fearing all this time.

Not to forget that I had developed feelings for Sandy Pandy. Yup, I had landed myself in a big trouble.

I had pushed her so far that expecting her to believe that I wanted to improve our relationship seemed like an illusion. Either she would die laughing on knowing that or she would kill me for even thinking like that. I was doomed, and then there was Ayush too.

Currently, he was on the same boat as me of disliking Sandhya, each one of us having our own reasons. But my boat had a hole in it now, and I had to choose whether I was going to stay in that boat or jump in the one Ayush was sailing.

Both options seemed easy, but here was the catch. Even though Ayush was my chuddy-buddy, I didn't always know what was going on in his head. He said that he hated Sandhya, but he never said why exactly he thought so - the reasons varied according to the situation.

Maybe he was doing it for my sake, or he was just trying to avoid getting triggered, or maybe he no longer thought of her as a friend. There were other possibilities too, but I never for once fully believed that he resented her for what had happened. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry.

The equation was big, the solution being small, but the steps to solve it were not that simple. I couldn't take a decision on Ayush's behalf, and I also had to find out a way to not make a fool out of myself in front of Sandhya. I was lucky my stupid heart didn't make me tell her that I liked her; I had to keep it in control.

I took a deep breath and decided to clear my mind. I went to the basketball court and told Coach that I would stay back after school hours to practice. He was happy and allowed me to play all I wanted. Unfortunately, I was missing a lot of hits.

"You look disoriented."

I shrugged when I heard Nikhil's voice. I kept shooting baskets, while he shook his head at my performance.

"Keep that up, and the captain position will soon be mine," he commented.

"I am always up for the competition," I challenged.

He nodded, and I passed the ball to him. He dribbled the ball and took his stance. He judged the distance and shot the ball in the air. Slowly, the ball rotated and bounced off the ring.

"Fuck," he cursed.

He tried again and failed.

"Looks like you are disoriented too," I taunted. "Someone's not gonna be a captain."

He threw the ball away when he couldn't make a basket. I tried again and managed to get a one-pointer, but that was it. I was performing really badly.

"How the fuck are you two still on the team?" Parth asked.

I saw the soccer captain standing with a confused look, glancing between me and Nikhil. None of us said anything. Parth took the basketball and showed us that he was skilled in that sport too.

"What's bugging you both?" he asked while wiping off the sweat from his forehead.

"Nothing. Just studies, what else?" Nikhil replied.

"What about you, Ved?" Parth directed his gaze on me.

"My boat is sinking," I said.

My friends looked at me in confusion. "What boat?"

I sighed and sat down on the floor. "Soon, there will be water above my head, and I won't be able to breathe. And I know I can swim, so I can jump out any time, but I don't want to. I will have to, I guess, but what if I just drown?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Parth asked. "Is it related to Ayush?"

I gave him a short nod. He stared at me for some time and then glimpsed at Nikhil, who was lost in his own world.

"He will be okay. Don't worry. By the way, did you talk to Sandhya? Bro, please believe me. She didn't do it on purpose. I know you guys have a shared past, but I think I know her well enough to say that she isn't guilty," Parth said.

"I apologized to her," I said.

Nikhil's eyes drifted towards me. "Can we please not talk about her?"

"Why you getting so worked up, bro? She already said sorry for causing trouble for you, right? Are we not allowed to say even her name?" Parth argued. "Don't forget, she is still my friend."

"Yeah, of course. She is your friend," he mumbled the last part.

Parth rolled his eyes, and I thought I was off the hook, but he was back at investigating me. I avoided answering him, but he was adamant. Somehow, I managed to divert the topic, but my idiot Vice-captain brought the topic back to Sandhya.

"Why did Rashi slap her though?" Nikhil asked.

"Dunno. Might be something between the girls," I said.

Though I felt bad when that happened. What exactly did Sandhya do?

"You know anything?" Nikhil asked Parth.

"I know, but I can't reveal it. It is a personal matter for Rashi, so I can't do so."

"I am sure Sandhya must have ended up creating a blunder. What's so hard in minding your own business? She loves getting in trouble," Nikhil grumbled.

Parth shot him a glare, and Nikhil huffed. I knew Nikhil didn't say that only because he was angry; his voice showed a bit of his concern, but he wouldn't accept it. Earlier, Sandhya used to try to talk to him, but she had stopped doing that also.

Again, not her fault.

"Whatever the case maybe, I hope they don't hold grudges," Parth said.

Brrrinnng!

"Let's go," I said and dusted off my clothes after getting up.

"You done repairing your ship?" Parth commented.

I pursed my lips, and Parth laughed. Nikhil patted my shoulder as we headed towards the locker room. Parth left to get his belongings, while Nikhil and I prepared to get home, contrasting my plan of staying back for practice.

While taking out our bikes from the parking lot, I noticed Sandhya handing out some flyers to the students; Nikhil was also looking at her. I moved my bike forward and banged my fist on his helmet. He winced but stopped zoning out.

"Wanna do some group studies?" I suggested.

He started his bike and nodded. "You suck at teaching though," he said and zoomed off.

"I know that, asshole!" I yelled.

I caught the last glimpse of Sandy Pandy and felt a fuzzy feeling building up. I quickly averted my gaze and followed Nikhil, who had already covered quite a distance.

I think my boat was indeed going to sink - maybe sooner than I had expected.