"Is this what you people do in school?" dad asked in a dangerous voice.

I stood there in front of him like a dummy. Pictures of me and Yuvan from Rishikesh and the saree he had gifted me, lay cascaded on the ground at my parents' feet.

They'd found out! This was it. I was finished.

"What rubbish is this? We are not sending you to a boarding school on some hill top for you to be doing all such things. Don't ever imagine that we'll support this nonsense!"

"Give her a chance to answer Naithik", mom said trying to hold her ground.

"You be quiet now", dad snapped, "Tell me this hasn't happened because you've spoilt her so much".

"I've spoilt her?" mom rounded back on dad, "She was here for two whole weeks. And did you even spend one full day with her? You neglect your child. You hardly know what she is up to and now put the blame on me".

"I'm not able to spend time with her only because you monopolize her whole time" dad shot back.

"I don't monopolize her time Naithik. I just try to make the most of it because she's away from us for nine months of the year!".

Duh! I hate it when my parents squabble. I was also reminded that once I left, it would be just the two of them in this big  house. They probably did feel a bit lonely.

But I couldn't help feeling mutinous. Why did people who had met at high school and hit it off, have a problem with my little relationship stint? Maybe it was the parental logic of "We can do it but not you".

"Hina! We still didn't get an answer from you", mom got back to me finally.

"Who's this guy? We've never heard of him!", dad thundered.

"Yuvan. He's in group B", I muttered.

"Yuvan?!" my dad snorted, "Well whatever. See Hina, I don't know who he is or what kind of guy he is. All I will tell you is you have to end this immediately. We are not encouraging this garbage".

"But it's already over", I said hoping they would buy it.

My parents stared at me. I continued, speaking very fast "We hung out. Just as friends, at first. And then it happened quickly. And it was very brief. We did nothing. We were just like two very close friends. But now it's over. Really!".

Mom raised her eyebrows, "Over, is it? That's why you're carrying his pictures in a separate bag?"

"But we're still friends. There's no reason why I should throw it away", I appealed to them.

"There's no reason why you should keep it either!" dad shouted losing his temper again.

"We were just hanging out", I argued.

"You and your hanging out! You throw these yourself", he pointed to the pictures, "And where did that saree come from by the way?" he asked suddenly.

I was dead now.

"Kimayra gifted me", I lied.

My mom looked at me disbelievingly and threw her hands up in the air in frustration.

We heard Mrs Patil's voice from downstairs, "Dinner is ready!"

We all looked at each other for a few seconds before dad finally spoke, "Hina, you're going to end this. You hear me? Because I can tell you, no good can come from hanging out with this guy whoever he is. No good. Alright? So better put a full stop to this and focus on your own thing. Focus on the final exams. We're having no more of this nonsense and that's it!" he said as he got up and left the room abruptly. My mom followed suit.

Dinner was a subdued affair. I ate without lifting my head.

My appetite was much better than it is normally on the last day. Maybe because the cat was out of the bag and I had managed to survive it and now I had nothing to fear and also probably because I was unusually looking forward to go back to school.

I seemed to be appreciating the dinner after a long time. And I for once was feeling sad that that I wouldn't be seeing aloo ke gutke for another three months and so  tucked in greedily.

Next morning, my parents were waiting downstairs to send me off. They had  a meeting at the office and so the driver would be dropping me at school. This had happened a few times before so I was not bothered.

Our goodbye was very brief. My parents skipped the usual hug but didn't skip the advice dosage.

After the ritualistic advices were over, I said bye and got into the car and immediately started thinking about how to sort things with Ishaan and Kimayra.

I desperately hoped that at least my last term in eleventh grade would be better than the previous two.