Six months seems a long time when you cannot move on from the haunting images of your past, each day that goes by the memories seem to fade away but just a single thought occurs and the whole flashback is in front of yours.

It isn't very difficult to move on from people that you once considered an important part of your life but it's not even easy when your whole life revolved around them, I was making a progress but these dreams didn't seem to stop and now they were becoming annoying.

Lazily, I helped myself sit up the bed so that my mother knew I was up and she could calm down.

"Morning, mom!" I said just when a yawn escaped my lips.

"Morning," she replied and made her way out of my room. If I wanted I could easily go back to sleep which I was initially planning on, until I realised it was already noon.

In situations like this only one thing came to my mind - at night couldn't sleep, in morning couldn't wake up. It had been a long time since I stopped mourning over my relationship, and it took a lot of effort to make myself understand that Karan was never really worth the care and love.

It wasn't not like Karan and I just stopped talking after break up, we used to talk only when he felt like talking. He would message and like a lost puppy I was, I would happily reply to his messages - it was a bad habit and I needed to get rid of it.

After getting a quick shower I had breakfast and stumbled back in my bed again, my routine was quite boring but I liked it when I was busy, at least I didn't have to think about what Karan and I had.

I picked up my phone and was surprised to see a message from Karan,

*Good Morning :) *

Well, morning did seem to be good when your insides were dancing at the sight of this message. It was hard to simply ignore the message and carry on with the day so I replied back ,

*Morning :)*

It was a friendly reply and I'd anyway stopped flirting with him long ago. I wanted to move on with my life but it didn't seem easy when my phone was full of music that reminded me of him, when all I thought about was Karan but despite everything I tried and according to me, I made a progress which was a good sign.

Yes, I did say I stopped mourning over what I shared with him, but I didn't say that I was completely over him. With time, I started accepting the fact that we weren't meant to be. I was supposed to end up broken hearted, and that's what happened.

My phone started ringing and I was cut off from my trail of thoughts. A gasp escaped my lips when I saw Karan's name flashing on the screen. This was weird because Karan never called me, it was only text talk and after few messages he himself stopped replying.

Karan Calling flashed on the screen of my phone but I couldn't get myself to answer it, and after few more rings the screen went black, which meant that the call had been missed.

Mentally, I cursed myself for not recieving his call but the stars seemed to be in my favour because my phone started ringing a moment later and again, it was Karan.

Something was up.

However, this time without thinking it over, I answered the call.

"Hey!" I heard his voice and like the old days I found myself lost in it.

After Karan and I broke up this was the first time he ever called me himself, we talked two-three times on phone when I called him after he ended things. But, it stunned me how he still had this effect on me and how his voice felt like a melody to my ears and I was taken back to the time when I used to love when his rambling about his life or anything.

"Tanvi, you there?" My trail of thoughts were cut off when I heard him speak again.

"Um- yeah," was all I could say.

"Hey, how're you doing?" He asked, his voice calm as always.

"I'm good Karan, what about you?" I tried to keep the nervousness out of my voice, but it was obvious.Though, I couldn't figure out why this nervousness was there, but this was normal. My nerves got the best of me when it came to him.

"I'm great," he said.

Oh well, you're sexy too!

I mentally cursed myself for still thinking like this about him but it wasn't my fault when he was one of the most charming guy I'd ever come across.

"So, how come did you call me?" I asked.

I was curious to know what made him call me in the morning when according to him it annoyed him to recieve a text from me early morning, when we were still together. Well, I really needed to stop living in the past, but everything Karan did or said earlier had an effect on me now. I was cautious about myself more than ever, maybe insecure.

"Actually, I was thinking maybe we should hang out sometime, just like old times? I can ask Viren and Saanchi to join us too," he offered in all too casual manner and that made some senses snap into me.

I didn't understand boys at all, they were so unpredictable. At first, they try to be friends with you, then will impress you so you date them, and when you finally do, they drop you out. It sure as hell didn't make sense to me. And, now this same guy who ruined my past so badly was asking me out again?

Without even thinking about it twice, I just hung up on him and kept my phone on the side table. I needed to breath! What was going on with Karan this time? What was his another masterplan to make my heart shatter in pieces, was one time not enough?

I wasn't able to recover from our last break up till this day and I couldn't afford to trust him again and play along.

Maybe, I was over thinking everything because he just asked me out not that he talked about anything else but he was Karan Malhotra - the playboy who was meant to break everyone's heart and I couldn't risk to get my heart broken again. Even now I cursed the day Viren introduced me to him. Oh, how I wish I had never become friends with any of them so that Karan was still a stranger to me.

● ONE YEAR AGO ●

A drop of sweat was rolling down my forehead while marching in the ground and it was distracting me from concentrating on the beats of drums while our Sports Master kept on shouting Left - Right - Left in the microphone, it was mid-october and the breeze was still hot which showed no signs of winters coming up anytime soon.

"God, it's so annoying!" I cursed under my breath while wiping of the sweat for the fifth time from my face.

"I know babe, you're not the only one suffering here," I looked to my left where Shanaya looked as pissed as I was.

"How many rounds are left?" I asked her, because I lost my count after we completed two rounds as I was too distracted by the summer breeze.

"One more to go, chill!" She said and gave me her sweetest smile.

Like any other year we had our Sports Function in November and this time our batch had to do the March Past and no one had a choice whether they wanted to participate or not because it was compulsory for every student of the 11th Batch to be a part of it.

On the top of this annoying weather there was a group of guys standing near the entry to the ground and they just kept staring at everyone and making fun of them. I had never seen them before so I didn't know which batch did they belong to, but few of them were staring at me with weird expressions on their faces which made me a bit suspicious but I thought of just letting it go.

They might be staring at everyone who passed through that corner while marching.

After another fifteen minutes of the same drama, we finally came to a halt which meant we were now free to go to our classes.

"Before you all leave, I have few important announcements to make so I'd like pin drop silence please," our Sports' Master began his lecture but I was too tired to hear anything so I turned a deaf ear towards him.

After five minute of his speech he let us go and I felt relieved.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Shanaya asked me while putting her arm across my shoulder which felt like tons on me, so I shrugged her arm off.

"Nothing Shanaya, I'm just so much tired. Sorry if I'm being ignorant right now but you know how it goes with me when I need some sleep," I informed her.

I knew myself so in situations like this I had to assure Shanaya that I was not mad at her rather I was just tired. Shanaya was my best friend from four years and I couldn't afford to hurt her feelings, not even when I was in a crappy mood.

"It's okay, babe, I understand. Let's go to cafeteria and have something to eat," she said and I just simply nodded.

We made our way to the canteen of our school and on my way, I saw the same group of boys staring right at me with curious expressions on their face.

"Hey!" Someone called out and Shanaya and I turned around at the same time to look back.

"Hey, Varnika!" I exclaimed and hugged her instantly.

Varnika was a close friend of ours, almost like a best friend. She was someone we could trust on and knew it would never be broken. Shanaya hugged her after me and together we took a seat in the small cafeteria of our school.

My throat felt extremely dry, so I left my friends as I got up to get a water bottle for myself.

"Where're you going?" Shanaya asked.

"I'm going to get water, I'll be right back," I informed her and went to the drink counter and asked for a water bottle.

Just when I turned around three boys were standing in front of me, blocking my way. I instantly recognised them from the group of boys who were making fun of others while marching.

I decided to ignore them which is why I started to walk away from the side but one of them just came and stood right in front of me, blocking my way completely.

"What do you think are you doing?" I questioned, exasperated.

He backed off like something just striked him and taking the advantage, I started to walk to where my friends were sitting.

"Hey!" He called out but I didn't look back and walked straight to Shanaya and Varnika.

After having a short meal we made our way back to the classes. When we just took a turn in the hallway, I was taken aback as I saw the same guy who blocked my way back in canteen. This time,however, he was alone which gave me an opportunity to observe his external features.

The guy didn't stand tall, but neither was he dwarf. His unruly hair were messed up on his head as his light brown eyes were searching for mine and when he noticed me checking him out, a smirk played across his lips.

Why was he following me? He probably wanted something and damn, I was curious to know what it was.

"Hey," he greeted, smirking.

"What do you want?" I asked, not having enough time to waste on strangers like him.

"Your name," he stated simply.

My name?

What did he have to do with my name?

"Pardon?" I frowned at him.

"What's your name?" He asked.

This guy was weird! He was following me since the march past got over just to know my name?

Wow. Impressive.

X-x

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