A minute of silence passed after the interruption made my Karan but no one spoke a word, Viren was glaring at Karan, who in return just smirked.

"Asshole," Viren cursed, I looked at him in confusion but when Karan chuckled it made obvious that he was cursing at him.

"Calm down my boy, I was just stating the truth," Karan smirked and got another deadly glare from his friend.

"I'll see you later," it was me who spoke up this time.I had to leave before it got any more awkward, Shanaya would be waiting for me anyway and there was no way she was letting me go without being suspicious and popping up her questions.

"Um, sure." Viren said with a smile.

"Bye babe,"

What?

Babe?

How dare...

But before I could react I heard a deep chuckle which indeed was coming from Karan's way.

"Oh my god, your face!" he just kept laughing after that. I didn't wait for him to say anything else and left the cafeteria.

I kept cursing my whole way to the classroom and I knew my cheeks were flushed at the moment which is why I got suspicious looks from Varnika and Shanaya as soon as I entered.

"Where were you?" And like I expected, here it goes. Shanaya was like that suspicious boyfriend who thought his girlfriend was cheating on him and that's why she asked me so many questions.

"I went to talk to Viren," I stated the truth.

"Why would you do that?" Shanaya was going to be mad at me and she didn't had to tell that, I knew it instantly. But I couldn't handle that so I explained to her everything that happened in the morning and how I got a call from Viren last evening.

While I spoke, Varnika and Shanaya just listened to me patiently. I could see Shanaya's anger melting away as she tried to understand everything.

"If you think I did anything wrong, you've every right to be mad at me," I told Shanaya when I finished speaking.

"I think what you did was right," she said with a smile and I just hugged her in return.

The day passed quickly and before I knew the bell rang and it was time to go back home. Varnika and Shanaya made their way to where their cabs were and I came near mine.

It surprised me to see that Viren and Karan were standing just near my cab. Viren caught my eye and waved at me and I did the same.

"What's up?" I asked when I reached to two of them.

"Nothing much, do you want to walk home today?" Viren's question surprised me but the day wasn't bad and I didn't feel much tired so I just simply nodded.

"Let me just inform the driver," I said

"I told him already." It was Karan who spoke this time.

"Oh," was all I could say. How did he know I was going to agree?

I was still mad at him for calling me babe but it was not worth because he obviously didn't seem to care.

Why would he anyway?

The walk to my home wasn't too long unless you had two cartoons walking along with you who had to stop everywhere on the way.

"How do you know where I live?" I asked Viren.

"This guy stalked you, I guess he told you that." Karan answered from his side.

He seemed much nicer than I thought, he kept cracking jokes about Viren and I was surprised to laugh along. Viren only cursed at him in response which made me giggle.

Two of them seemed like best friends and it wasn't bad to spend time with them.

While the walk was not long enough I caught Karan looking my way twice. He didn't look away when I caught him staring, he just gave a smile and that's when I realized he had a beautiful smile.

When we were one street away from my house I bid two of them goodbye.

Karan didn't seem to be satisfied when I said I would walk alone from there and he insisted to accompany but I told them that if anyone saw me coming home with two boys alone, people will intentionally judge and spread rumours. I didn't want to cause any trouble for my parents or myself.

"Hey," Karan called out when I started walking away.

"Yeah?" I turned around.

"I'm sorry!" He said and Viren winked at me, then two of them walked away without saying another word.

Later I realized that was an apology for calling me babe in the morning and I just smiled to myself.

I had tuition classes on alternative days that so I didn't have the classes in evening so I slept a little too long. I wasn't in the mood to go out to the park and because I had assignment to do I texted Nishant asking him to either come over or meet me tomorrow in the class. He replied that he was out with friends too so he would meet me tomorrow and after that our text conversation just went along. Nishant and I never got bored of texting each other, we could talk on the random topics and still laugh like crazy people.

Before I knew how late it got, my mother called me for dinner.

After having my dinner I decided to talk to Vaibhav about what was bothering him so rather than going to my room I followed him to his.

When he realized that I was coming to his room he gave me a look but he knew that it was for him so he didn't say a word.

I sat on the his study desk while he sat on the chair.

"So, continue?" I requested

"Where was I?" He tried to remember where he left talking.

"That it's Ananya's birthday within two weeks?" I reminded him.

"Oh yes!"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Um, actually when yesterday I was in your room talking on the phone and screaming at someone it was -" before he could continue I cut him off.

"Why were you in my room?"

"Because mom was cleaning up my room and I got a call and it was urgent and I had to take it." He explained.

"You could go to the living room too," I argued

"Mum could hear me from there."

"Oh!"

"Now just shut up and listen to me okay?" He said giving me a murderous glare and I nodded.

"It's her birthday two weeks from now and I had arranged a surprise party for her. But at the end moment the booking for the lounge got cancelled and it was my friend's responsibility to take care of it. It's her 18th birthday and I know she would never ask me for anything but she is expecting from me to make it special and now everything's spoiled." He ran a hand through his hair.

I adored my brother's relationship and my heart got such a warm feeling to see him care for Ananya so much. He was upset because her expectations might not be fulfilled and she might get hurt and even though he treated me like shit most of the time I wanted to help him in anyway I could.

"Why don't you book some other place?" I questioned.

"Do you think if any place would've been available to book for the day I would've been this upset?" Well, he had a point. If any other place would've been available Vaibhav would've booked it already.

"When is her birthday exactly?" I asked, thinking of some plan.

"12th November" he replied.

"Same week mom dad is going out of town." I don't know why I even said that.

"What?" Vaibhav's eye were literally twinkling and I knew something was going on in his mastermind.

"Yeah, it's their anniversary two days after Ananya's birthday so this time they planned to celebrate it out of town,"

"You're the best sister ever," he hugged me tightly and I was still wondering what made him say that.

"What're you thinking of doing Vaibhav?"

"Our house would be empty, mom dad wouldn't be here so I can celebrate her birthday here," he said grinning to himself.

What?

Listening to what he said I just choked on my own saliva.

Watching me cough like a mad woman Vaibhav's expression turned to that of concerned person. He gave me a glass of water and I gulped it down.

"No!" that's the first thing I said after gulping whole glass of water.

"Why not?" His brows were furrowed and he looked at me in confusion.

"Because if mom and dad got to know about it they will kick both of us out of the house," I said in a panic tone.

He better had to be kidding me, because if mom dad got to know that when they were out of town we had a birthday party at our house, and on the top of that party was for Vaibhav's girlfriend they would kick both of us out of the house without even giving us a chance to pack our things, dad especially.

"How would they get to know Tanvi, just shut up." He was too happy about it, I could sense it in his voice.

"I don't know about you Vaibhav but I do care about being homeless at such a young age." I argued, I know I was just over reacting but seriously what if my parents got to know about this whole party stuff?

"This is fixed we're celebrating Ananya's birthday party here, and if you don't want to be a part of it then that's your choice but Ananya wouldn't like it when she would get to know that you backed off in the plan," he spoke with that puppy face he knew would work anytime.

"If you think emotional blackmailing is going to work with me... well, then you're right," I said sighing and Vaibhav's lips turned to a smile..

This was not for Vaibhav or anyone else but it was for Ananya. The girl who did nothing wrong rather than loving my brother, so she deserved this much for her birthday.

"I'll leave now, goodnight," I said. Vaibhav was grinning from ear to ear and only watching him like that made this effort worth.

He gave me a tight hug and said goodnight.

I came back to my room and realized my phone was vibrating. I picked up to see there were five messages, two of them were from Viren and three from unknown number.

Message from the Viren read -

*Hey, I'm sorry but Karan stole your number from my cell. Hope you'll not be mad at me for that. :|*

And another message was *Tanvi, don't be mad at me. Be mad at that asshole. Goodnight :) *

So now I knew who was texting me from the unknown number. I wasn't mad at Viren so I replied a goodnight to him with a smiley then I quickly saved Karan's number and went to the inbox to read what he has to say.

- *Hey:)*

-*Don't be mad at Viren, he didn't know about my intentions when I asked for his cell.*

-*Are you ignoring me? Or pretending that you don't know me? We both know you know who I am. ;)*

I typed a reply - *Why did you had to be a jerk about it? If you would've asked to me for my number directly, I might have given it.*

Within seconds my phone vibrated again and it was a text from Karan I quickly unlocked the screen and read it.

*Might have given it, huh? ;)*

I smiled at the screen and even though that jerk wasn't here in front of me I could imagine him smirking while he read my text.

A yawn escaped my lips and that's when I realized it was too late and I had to wake up in the morning for the school. I knew if I would've continued the conversation I would've slept even later so I just texted a quick goodnight to Karan and within a second he replied with the same.

I placed my phone on the side of my pillow and dozed off to sleep.

-

Days passed and it felt like time flew away. It became a routine when I would go near my cab to find Viren and Karan waiting for me, not that I minded. They always made me laugh and I started to like their company much more than I thought I could. There were times when Viren wouldn't show up so Karan walked me home and now it felt like having a cab take me home was a really bad idea.

In school, time passed between gossiping, having march past practices and classes.

I still never got a chance to ask Viren and Karan how aren't they a part of March Past.

Shanaya too seemed to like their company, there were times when we would be having practices going on while Viren and Karan would make funny faces, which always made me giggle.

I even got scolded once by the Sport Master for laughing like a fool but not that it offended me.

It was two days before Ananya's birthday, when my parents were leaving to enjoy their anniversary at some hill station.

Two arms were grabbing me tightly and I was afraid that my mother might just start sobbing.

"I'll miss you both, I wish both you could come too," she said after hugging me and keeping a hand on Vaibhav's shoulder who was having unreadable face right now but even then I knew he was mentally dancing because our parents were leaving.

"Mom you know that I've sports function next week and Vaibhav have things to do. We'll be fine on our own. You both enjoy," I tried to console her.

"I still don't understand why did two of you refuse the idea of my mother coming over to stay with you and to make sure you both are alright," it was my dad's turn to speak now.

Obviously, Dad asked grandma to come over and take care of us and the house but Vaibhav and I told him we would be fine on our own. Basically, he was scared that one of us might just murder the other but since I was helping Vaibhav with everything that wasn't going to happen.

"We'll be fine dad," I assured him, giving him a hug.

After assuring my mother what seemed like the tenth time I gave both of them the last hug after which they left.

The day went planning about Ananya's birthday party and at night I felt so exhausted that without even bothering to change I just dozed off to sleep.

I woke up in the morning Vaibhav screaming at me because we had a lot to do and me sleeping till noon wasn't going to help. Other than throwing a surprise party for her Vaibhav also planned to make a documentary on her and since he was busy with other things I had to do most of the work.

I took a day off from school but I was glad to hear that Ananya's birthday was on Saturday so I didn't have to take two leaves. The day went in decorating living room with Happy Birthday posters here and there.

That was something my mother used to do for me when I was five, but when I said that to Vaibhav obviously I got smacked at head so I just obeyed what he asked me to do.

After having dinner, which obviously Vaibhav ordered I stumbled in my bed. The day had been too busy and I never got a chance to check my phone.

There were three missed calls, two from Karan and one from Nishant. There were also ten messages.

I opened my inbox to find that six of them were from Karan, three from Nishant and one from Shanaya.

Shanaya knew about the whole plan, I invited her too since Vaibhav gave me freedom to invite my friends if I wanted to, but she said she would pass since she had tuition classes too. She texted just to check up on me, and this small things showed how caring she was.

I replied to her telling how the day had been heck only to get a laughing smiley in the return her teasing me by telling how much she enjoyed in school today with everyone. After saying goodnight to Shanaya I checked up on the other messages.

*Why didn't you come to the class?*

*Where are you?*

*I want to come and see if you're fine but your asshole brother would start making comments about it, reply ASAP*

All these three messages were from Nishant and I laughed at how my brother annoyed him so much. My brother always thought there was something more than friendship between Nishant and I. Whenever Nishant was around, he would make comments that totally annoyed Nishant.

I quickly typed a reply to him.

*Everything's fine. I was just a bit busy today. Long story, will tell you when we meet.*

While I waited for his reply I opened up messages from Karan. Why did he call me twice and then left so many messages in my inbox?

*Why didn't you come to school?*

*At least you could inform me that you weren't going to come today*

*What happened? Are you fine?*

*Pick up the damn call Tanvi*

*Is everything okay? Why aren't you replying or picking up my calls?*

*Where are you?*

I kept re-reading every message from Karan, I don't know why but for the first time while reading messages from a guy made me feel different, a good different.

It was clear from his messages that he was worried, Karan was worried for me and that itself gave me such a heart warming feel.

I mentally cursed myself for thinking bad of Karan. But it wasn't my mistake that at the beginning he behaved like some arrogant asshole.

While re-reading his messages I forgot that I still haven't replied to him.

*Hey, everything's fine. I was just a bit busy today*

I hit send and patiently waited for his reply.

Instead my phone started buzzing and to my surprise Karan Calling flashed on my cell's screen.

x-x

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