Ritik's POV:

"I knew, you will come." Kiara said as she went and hugged her brother. I saw Sameer asking her something for which she just shook her head and brought him inside the house.

"And I thought you won't come." Mom said as she got up to meet him.

"I would never miss your birthday. I was just searching a perfect gift for you." He said as he came ahead and wished mom. Both Abhi uncle and Sanjana aunty were in total shock to see their son here and my condition was not any different.

"Sit, I will serve you." Mom said and made him sit.

"And Kiara, now that your brother is here, I hope you are ready to have your dinner?"

"Indeed." She said and sat beside Sameer. I noticed both of them talking something in between, it looked like Kiara was requesting something to him and he was ignoring it.

"Do you want something?" Nia asked breaking my thoughts.

"No thanks." I said and finished my meal and went away from there.

After everyone was done, they gathered in living room and started talking on random things. Sameer was so indulged in talking with everyone that this time, I decided to keep quite. I looked at Aashika and saw her taking Nia and Samira upstairs, probably to her room.

"Bye everyone." Kiara said as she came and stood in front of us.

"You are leaving?" Dad asked.

"Yes, I have some work to do." She replied. I looked at the clock, it was past 11 and at this time, she had some work. Great! Even though she said bye, it was obvious that she was not going to leave for more 10-15 minutes as she will keep talking to everyone. To avoid her talks with everyone, I took out my mobile and started looking at the notifications. I had many but only one caught my eye. It was Kiara's message. She told me to meet her outside. I apologized to her. maybe it was a forced one but she did say that, she isn't angry with me...then why is she calling me now?

If I would have went after she goes out everyone will figure it and so I called Viraj and went out of the house, talking with him.

"So, did you apologize?" He asked.

"Yeah I did but now, she told me to meet her outside, what do you think, what could be the possible reason behind it?"

"I guess, she is going to ask you out." He replied and even though I know nothing as such is going to happen, I felt a weird feeling build inside me.

"Shut up man, I'm serious."

"I was joking. Just wait and find it out yourself." He suggested.

"Yeah." I replied and started talking about some random things. Me and Kiara, we both are not interested in eachother and we will, never be!

I was going on talking with him when I felt someone come and stood behind me, I turned and saw Kiara looking at me with a smile on her face.

"I will call you later." I said and disconnected the call.

"Girlfriend?" She asked with a teasing smile.

"Viraj." I replied and heard her laugh a little.

"Anyway, I called you here to let you know that I'm not angry with you. I agree I was hurt but definitely not angry."

"And hurt because I didn't expect that from you, considering the fact that we were friends once upon a time." She said.

"I know. I'm really sorry for everything." I replied.

"Enough. You said it already." She stated.

"By the way, I hope you realized that I'm not selfish or self centred."

"Indeed. I'm happy to see that you actually care about others, giving away your own happiness is not a easy thing to do." I replied. Not gonna lie, I was seriously happy to see that.

"Why do you hate me so much?" She asked and I was tongue tied again. The way she was looking at me screamed so many questions. She has asked this question to me before and even though I said, I don't hate her, I proved it wrong.

"I don't hate you, I never did. I said all those words just because I was angry."

"Ritik, you know what? People usually say the truth when they are angry." She replied. Even though she was smiling she looked sad and I ain't so dumb to notice it. I wanted ask her the reason but ended up apologizing again.

"I'm seriously sor..."

"It's ok. Leave it now. Go inside and enjoy." She said.

"Why are you leaving so soon?"

"Abhay asked me to complete a presentation which was his responsibility and because he did the work which I asked him to, he told me to do this."

Ok, so the presentation was what Abhay asked from her.

"Are you going alone?"

"My brother won't let that happen. He will be here soon." She replied and then we heard her phone rang. When she looked at the screen even I was able to look at it. Vihaan! I was ready to leave from there because I thought she will recieve it and get busy talking with him however something different happened, she rejected his call and made a small message to him.

"Are you guys dating?" I asked out of sudden. She looked at me with wide eyes and started smiling.

"He is a perfect boyfriend material but no, We are not dating. At least not yet. " She answered my question. Atleast not yet? Does that mean there are chances of them dating in future?

Why am I thinking about it?

"Ok. All the best." I said to her and saw Sameer coming outside.

"Bye. Goodnight." She said and went towards Sameer. Apologizing is good, You get relief once you do it but for me, I didn't felt anything like that. There was still some kind of heaviness in my heart.

Maybe I'm overthinking!

As I went back inside the house, I saw everyone busy talking with eachother.

"How did you came to know that Aunty was the girl you want to be with?" Adhvit asked Dad.

"I don't know, it was love at first sight. Everything about her made me fall for her. So when it comes to choose the right one, I can't help you in that topic." Dad replied. Mom, Dad and their lovestory. I don't know it fully because my parents never told it.

"Don't worry. I will tell you." Mom said as she came and sat next to Adhvit.

"Love someone, who will love you, care for you, your family and will always be there to support and motivate you." Mom said and by the end she finished, I had only one face flashing before my eyes. But I never felt anything special for her, it was always friendship.

"Suppose there is a person who love and care for you but you never had such feelings for her, what should you do?" He asked exactly the same question, I had in my mind.

"Are you talking about yourself?" Mom enquired.

"No no, of course not. I was just asking on behalf of my friend." He replied. Now everyone knows that's a lie!

"Liar. Back to your question, you are still young. You have many years to find out whom you actually love and moreover, I personally think, you should choose the one who loves you because at the end of the day that's all you need. A person, your person who is willing to do anything for you and your happiness."

Nia!

But as mom said, I'm too young for it. I think I should try to know more about her, maybe I will feel something because if I'm not sure about my feelings, I will end up hurting her and I don't wish to do that, Also mom will never forgive me for hurting her.

I heard my phone beep, when looked at it, I saw a message from Nia, asking me to come upstairs.

"OMG." Mom exclaimed.

"What happen?" Dad asked.

"Kiu and Sameer went away and we didn't even click a single picture with them." Mom replied.

"No problem. We will click it some other day." Dad assured. Photoholic!

I went upstairs and saw a perfect seating arrangement with scented candles placed aside it. A perfect place to sit and relax.

"We did this." Aashika announced.

"I see your choices are improving day by day." I replied for which she just rolled her eyes.

"I will call Samira and Adhvit." She said and ran downstairs leaving me alone with Nia. She smiled and stood there looking at the sky.

"What are you thinking?" I asked.

"Nothing." She replied with a little smile and again looked at the sky.

"What is it Nia?" I asked again.

"When you look at our parents, who are so in love with eachother don't you feel like even you should have someone in your life who will look at you just the way Aarav uncle looks at aunty? Just the way Sanjana Aunty care for Abhi uncle and just the way my mom and dad, love to tease eachother?" She asked with lot of hopes in eyes and blush on her face.

"I don't know. Do you?"

"Yes I do. I feel a lot of things. I just don't know when are they going to happen."

"Maybe when you find someone you will love." I replied.

"Well, I Already did, Maybe that idiot is too ignorant to understand that." She stated. So she just called me an idiot, right in front of me!

"Maybe he is confused or needs some more time to get sure?"

"Is it?" She asked again with the same amount of hope in her eyes. Stop giving her wrong signals, Ritik!

"I mean it is possible right? The man you love must be focused on his career at this moment or there might be some other thing." I replied.

"If that's the case then I'm willing to wait for him." She replied, making me feel very very guilty. I didn't mean to make her wait. If I hurt her, it will be equal to committing a sin.

"I'm back." Aashika announced very loudly. She made Samira and Adhvit sit and again sat far away from me, leaving a place beside me. Nia came and sat there. So it was all Aashika's plan!

We talked a lot, sharing various things that we did in past and things we are willing to do in future. By the end, everyone was sleepy and someone was already asleep on my shoulder. Nia! I tried to wake her up and tell her to go and sleep in room but Aashika didn't allow me to do that, saying that she was tired, let her sleep. My only concern at this moment was her and my parents, if they see us like this they will definitely think something they shouldn't.

"But if she sleeps in room, she will be more comfortable." I said however she just glared at me.

"Why are you so determined to wake her up? Just sit properly." She warned. Who is elder, me or her?

"You both are looking too cute." Samira said.

"Nia." I heard Kriya aunty call and so I made Nia to wake up.

"What?" She asked sleepily.

"Your mom is calling you." I replied. She blinked at me for 4-5 seconds and when she realised that it was me, she immediately sat straight.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize when I slept."

"It's ok. Go now, aunty is calling you." I informed. She said bye and went downstairs.

"I'm sleepy, bye." Samira said.

"Me too." Adhvit said.

"Me too and you also go and sleep." Aashika ordered me and went from there. I looked at the sky, towards the moon mainly and sat on the swing. I don't know why but something didn't felt right, like something was missing out. There was no reason for me to be sad but I was still sad.

In order to change my thoughts, I took my mobile and started looking at WhatsApp status. I usually never do it as I have too many contacts and people post literally anything. As I started looking at it, I saw Kiara's status. Wait What? She deleted my number yesterday then how am I still able to see her status? Did she not delete it or did she saved it again?

I looked at it and found that she uploaded 4 pictures. The first one was a quote, second was her picture with my mom, third was the notice of new election dates of the Rotaract club and the fourth and the last one was uploaded just a few minutes ago, it was a picture of Sameer driving the car. It had a caption, 'My driver, forever'. Sameer will definitely hit her head once he sees this!

Because I was able to look at all the pictures she uploaded since yesterday, I came to know that she didn't delete my number but removed her display picture. She didn't do anything and yet I told everyone how she deleted my number! She proved me wrong again!

I'm done saying sorry to her and now I really don't wish to get into any more arguments with her. I hope we stay away from eachother, at least I will be able to live a peaceful life. I opened my contacts and deleted her number from it.
Better when away!

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