The awkward silence between the both of us was really irritating me. Like, not that I wanted to talk to her or something but her face was laced with fear and horror and that surely was very disturbing. She was still scared about something and was continuously looking around to check if there wasn't anyone. She surely has some terrible story! I told myself, confidently. "Did you say something?" She immediately questioned looking at me and I just nodded my head in a no. "Is something bothering you Nandini?" I asked in a low soothing voice, looking into her eyes trying to grab her attention. "Did you just call me by my name?" She raised an eyebrow out of shock. "Yeah, So?"

"Strange."

"Why do you think so?"

"Cause I'm the hitler for you, isn't it?" She laughed. Yes, she laughed. Nandini Mehta was laughing for real. I just sat there, staring her. This view was definitely very rare and to be very honest, she looked pretty with that huge smile on her face. "Why don't you do this often?" I questioned.

"Do what?"

"This. You've got a beautiful smile. Why don't you show that to the world? Why are you always so rude and why do you have those big strong walls around you?" And there you go! The smile faded away immediately as she realized what she did. She looked away as if smiling was some crime which she can't commit. I sighed, accepting the fact that she wil never really behave as a normal human being.

"You know why I do this?" She asked me. Initially, I was taken aback by this sudden reaction of hers after almost 10 minutes of silence but I really did wanted to know her story. I was very curious and the most surprising thing was, she herself asked me if I wanted to know her reasons. I nodded my head in a yes and she began, "I was just 5 years old when one day, My mom asked my Dad to leave her. We three were having dinner when she suddenly announced she wants divorce. My father refused but the everyday fights and arguments between the two went over board and one day, after alot of fights, they finally parted ways. I hated my mother for ruining my childhood. I hated her for taking away my father from me. I hated her Manik. I hated her." A lonely tear escaped her eye as she told this and honestly, even I was stunned to hear this story. "So it was your decision right? I mean, you chose to live with your father didn't you?" I asked.

"I didn't get the time to choose what I wanted." She laughed. It wasn't a happy laughter though. "What does that mean?"

"My father died within a week. I had to live with my mother. I was left with no other option." And that was when it hit me hard. This girl has been through so much. She has been through hell and all this while, I used to think of her as a badass. As a girl who is not afraid of any damn thing and as a girl who has never seen bad days in her life. "Oh don't feel bad about me. Maybe I deserve this. You know what? Even after all that my mother did, I accepted her. I accepted her second marriage. I accepted her husband but still she failed. She failed to be my mother. That's my story. That's how unlucky I am." She ended her story with a smile on her face, looking at me and I literally had nothing to say. "You're a strong girl, Nandini. You deserve happiness. You deserve peace." I don't know why, but this just came out of my mouth. I mean, Manik Malhotra would never say something like this to any person specially to the person who annoys him so much but this girl, she had the power to get me on her side. To get Manik Malhotra on her side. I felt for her. I could feel her pain. In that particular moment, I wanted to be the shoulder to cry on, for her. "Thanks." She smiled. She was upset. She really was and I didn't know what to do to cheer her up but I really wanted to make her smile. "Actually you know what? Have this." I said, handing her a chocolate."This is my favourite chocolate and I always make sure to keep one in my bag. You're actually very lucky that I'm offering you this cause believe me, even the Fab 5 never got this lucky. Ever." I smirked.

"Ahan?" She smiled, "So am I special to deserve this?" She asked and all I could think in my mind was, Is she?

"Well..how does that even matter? Just have the chocolate and be happy. You haven't ate anything by the way. It's been like 3 hours since we're here." I said.

"And what will you eat?" She immediately questioned and surprisingly, she looked worried too. Like, She was worried for me. For me? I was witnessing a miracle one after another and this was insane. "Don't worry about me. I had a royal breakfast in the morning so yeah, I'm full."

"Oh really? Let me remind you Mr Malhotra that I threw you out of the orphanage in the morning. What did you have for breakfast? The mud and the leaves?" I tried to hide my face cause my lie was now caught. "Don't try to be oversmart with me. We will share and that's final. Here you go!" She said, handing me half of the chocolate and we smiled as we took a bite of our half chocolate. That feeling was different and Damn weird. The girl I was fighting with yesterday was now sitting next to me with a chocolate in her hand that too, given by me. There was something in this girl which made my heart melt. Like, the strong tough egoistic man who never even shared a sip of his water with anyone was now sitting with the girl he hated. "So?" I said, looking at her.

"So what? That's it. That's my story."

"What about Sid? You and him..you guys are a thing?"

"No," She laughed, "Sanaya and Sid are my childhood friends. They are probably the reason I'm still breathing. I just have two friends and they mean the world to me. Just two."

"And now?" I questioned.

"Well..Now..I Don't know. Will see if you deserve to be my friend." She laughed.

~~~~~

The next morning we woke up in the most weirdest and unexpected way possible. A random guy scared the shit outta me. "Bhai Sahab, Halaat behtar hain ab. Yahan se nikaljaiye is se pehle phir kuch hojae." He said, shaking my shoulder trying to wake me up. "Aur han, apni Mrs ko bhi uthaden." And saying this, he turned to leave but all I heard was Mrs. I immediately looked around to find her but she was no where and that's when I realized, She was sleeping with her head layed on my lap. WHAT EVEN? "Hey you! She's not my wife. She's just my f-" and I stopped right there. Am I really calling her my friend? Can we really be friends? I don't need any friend except fab 5 or do I? Too bad, that guy didn't hear. Till the time I tried to figure out if I can call her my friend, he left. Should I wake her up? I constantly kept asking myself but something kept on stopping me from waking her up.

Thankfully, after about an hour or two, Ms Nandini Mehta opened her eyes and as expected, she freaked out but I chose to ignore her questions completely. "We better leave this place now. It's not safe in here and also, you're hell irritating, I swear!" I said, rolling my eyes but for a change, this time we both ended up laughing rather than fighting. "Let's go and listen..I need a favour?" She asked, hesitatingly.

"Yeah, Say?"

"Please don't tell anyone about this." She requested.

"About what?"

"About us..trying to be friends."

"Ahan. Friends? Cool. This just stays between the two of us. We're still the rivals, for the college, yeah?"

"Yeah." I smiled.

~~~~~~

Hola! Okay I'm back after a long long time, I know. Apologies for that but my sister flew away to America 2 days ago and I'm back to being the old me. The updates won't take long now and you'll get them very often. There's alot of stuff waiting for you so yeah, wait for that! :D Do leave in your feedbacks ❤