'How stupid are you Ashiana?'

My brows creased in a frown as I scanned the hour old what's app message.

'You finally got near enough a wi fi huh?' I quickly typed back before directing my attention to Alia.

I was sitting in her freakishly purple room, waiting for her laptop to switch on, so as to proceed with our movie night.

At three o'clock in the afternoon.

Indian parents I tell you.

On top of that, Alia, being the diva she was, had perfected the art of acting pissed.

And I was the unfortunate mortal at the receiving end of her glares, which were quite deadly might I add. All because I insisted on watching just one movie instead of three.

As if she read my mind, Alia grumbled for the fifth time since I had changed our plan.

"What do you possibly do in the middle of summer vacations, that required you to abandon me like this Ash?"

I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at her overly dramatic tone. "I haven't abandoned you, stop acting like a middle aged wife."

"You know what I mean!"

"Yes honey, but I have no choice. Coaching resumes tomorrow and I need to revise. Forgive me for not wanting to let some merciless monsters in the guise of teachers  insult me in class."

"Whatever," she lowkey snapped while shuffling though her collection of DVDs.

Before I could retort back, my phone binged with a reply from Karan.

'Yes! I'm so sick of jungles Ash, I'm not interested in tigers. But tell that to my parents. We spent seven hours in that effing jungle! Remind me to never go on a family 'fun' trip again.'

I chuckled lowly. I could practically hear the frustration seeping from his words. Clearly, the thick forests of Sundarbans wasn't his idea of a good vacation.

'So are you back in Delhi?'

'Nah, we'll stay in Kolkata for a couple of days. Internet connection at my grandpa's house was a pleasant surprise. Until I received a flood of messages from Kian. Please tell me he's lying. You didn't really think that he won't invite you right?'

Gods no, not this again please.

'Nope, I was stupid. But it's all good now, we talked and everything, kian and I.'

'*sighs* I honestly don't know what to do with you.'

'Bring me loads of sweets from Bengal ;)'

'Yeah yeah...'

"So now texting is more important?"

I looked up, only to see Alia scowling at my phone.

"I'm sorry....you know what? We'll watch one of your choice." I tried negotiating.

"That's not the point Ash, the tradition is that we at least watch three movies, your choice, mine and one random." She continued huffing.

"Oh....we can space it out then. Next week, we'll watch a movie of my choice and a random one  the week after that." Alia was the reason I understood why comedians made fun of their girlfriends, girls can be unreasonable.

She shook her head, "you don't get it." Sighing, she clicked play and I was surprised when an oh-so-familiar opening tune greeted me.

"Harry potter and the socerer's stone!" I exclaimed, shocked. I must've been quite distracted with Karan's texts as I couldn't believe that I missed seeing the cover of the DVD she had pulled from her shelf.

Alia glanced at me moodily, "you can't complain, you love it." Thankfully, she didn't sound as frosty as she looked, meaning she was just pretending.

"I know I love it, but you don't."

"Yeah but I'm sick of not understanding references, and it can't be that bad, I guess I was judging a movie by its poster."

Waving off the mild offence my fangirl soul had taken, I asked, "who talks in Pottereferences with you? I know I don't."

"You're not the only person I talk to," she mumbled, already staring at the screen, totally engrossed.

Who wouldn't be, to be honest.

"I'm the only Potterhead friend you have."

"I can make new friends, it's not a crime you know? Now stop ruining the only movie we'll be watching today and shut up."

I did exactly that, however, for the first time, I couldn't concentrate on the zoo scene of Dudley's birthday. No, I was busy silently assessing Alia's behaviour. I'd known her since the past two years and she always refused whenever I urged her to atleast watch the Potter movies, if she couldn't read the books. But no, she wouldn't do anything she didn't want to.

Unless it was to impress someone.

A guy to be specific.

A cute guy to be even more specific.

Cute in her definition that is, I personally didn't dig the too-cool-for-showers, too-cool-for-combs, black-is-the-only-colour-that exists style her previous crush had. She didn't exactly have the best taste when it came to boys.

Almost shuddering as I remembered her Guns N' Roses and Black veil brides phase, I racked my brains for any guy like that I might know of.

Ten minutes later, Harry managed to escape his abusive muggle relatives to go to Hogwards yet I was unable to think of any possible crush of Alia's.

Who could it be? Who could it be? Who could it be?!

Finally it clicked. A guy goofy enough to like Harry Potter? Tall enough to rival Alia's 5'9 frame? Persistent enough to get a response out of the sassiest girly-girl I knew?

Aryan Sharma.

Of-fucking-course.

Reaching out, I paused the movie and turned to face the girl in question, who was already looking at me with a 'what now?' expression.

"What do you think of Aryan?"

Her naturally fair face paled even further.

"What do you mean?" She said, in an attempt to sound nonchalant.

I rolled my eyes, "I mean does your body release adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin when you see him, think of him, hear his voice or talk to him? I'm pretty sure that atleast adrenaline is released, since you're now sweating."

Reflexively, she wiped her forehead.

"Umm...is that the science behind having a crush on him?"

I sighed, bloody humanities students.

"Yes, yes it is."

"Then yeah...I guess he's cute."

Briefly closing my eyes in exasperation, I asked, "what happened to 'you're really sweet but I'm not interested'?"

"It went out the window when he made me interested."

I closed my eyes again, hoping desperately that Aryan wasn't doing this only for the sake of that stupid bet. A heartbroken Alia is worse than an unreasonable Alia.

'You were the one who initiated the bet remember?' my subconscious chided.

She was right but I was confident I'd win. I mean, come on, it's Aryan!

Shaking the dark thoughts away, I tried to come up with an appropriately girly response to her declaration.

"That's so...romantic." My voice came out a bit strange, fortunately, she didn't notice, "when did this happen exactly?"

And why did that idiot failed to inform me! He's sure to get an earful the next time I see him.

"Well...remember I told you that he blew up my notifications on every possible social media?"

"Vividly."

She chuckled shyly, "yeah so...I tried doging his requests but ultimately, I did add him on snapchat."

"So then?"

"Then nothing...we talked, for months. He annoyed me at first but when I got over his pathetic pickup lines, I realised he was pretty decent...and very much like me...surprising I know." She added at the end, in response to my raised eyebrows.

"That's actually pretty sweet," I said truthfully, because it was. Beneath his happy-go-lucky exterior, he was the most emotionally sincere person I had the fortune to be friends with, somewhat like Alia in fact. Not that I'd ever say that out loud.

"I know right?"

We went silent for a while, Alia studied her perfect french tips while I studied my horribly chewed nails.

"So what now?" I asked her, "are you guys dating or what?"

"I don't know." Her shoulders slumped, "I know I like him but his feelings are unclear."

Okay, they're both legit cute, because her IQ matches Aryan's.

"Alia," I said slowly, "did he approach you first?"

"Yeah."

"And why do you think he did that?"

Realisation dawned on her face, "oh!"

"Yes 'oh'," I said.

She didn't say anything to that, instead, she simply pressed the space bar to play the movie.

As we resumed watching the trio's adventures, my mind started working again and I internally groaned.

I don't really like playing matchmaker.

{[]}

First day back at coaching from our pathetic excuse of a summer break was mostly uneventful. That changed as soon as the shrill sount of the bell, indicating the end of last class, filled the  narrow corridors.

The heavy crowd which blocked the hallways was nothing new, but the pin drop silence was.

"Why is everyone so quiet?" I asked no one in particular.

"Mock NEET results are out," replied a girl beside me.

I suddenly felt sick. Mock NEET was a practice test conducted last December, back when I still struggled with physics.

Not that I don't struggle now, it had just lessened a bit.

My hands were clammy and I could feel my heart rate increase. The thought of a marksheet pinned up on a notice board, in front of everyone to see, terrified me.

It was impossible to see anything over the heads of all the students who had huddled around the notice board, blocking it completely. They were clicking pictures of that A-4 sized paper, the same paper which would tell me exactly where I stand amongst my competition. That thought certainly didn't help my nervous state of mind.

By the time the crowd dissipated,which took over twenty minutes, Kian was beside me, tightly gripping my hand and offering me an encouraging smile.

I felt myself calming down as I squeezed back.

Finally, when only around a dozen people were left, I took a deep breath and walked towards the most feared list.

It was arranged according to our ranks.  How lovely.

Feeling a sudden burst of confidence as Kian gripped my fingers harder, I started skimming through the names from the top, frantically searching for mine.

I didn't have to search for long though, for it was there at number four.

Four!

Centre rank-4
Roll no.- 2463174964
Name- Ashiana Pathak
Score-317
State rank-33
All India rank-109

Realising that I had been holding my breath, I inhaled deeply and felt a wide smile slowly creeping on my face.

"It's not bad right?" Kian probed tentatively, still clutching my hand, "it's great infact. How many applicants were there in total?"

"Twenty five thousand. And yeah, it's not bad, I don't know about great but I'm definitely in the race. Though there is scope for improvement," I said, in a dreamy voice.

"What could be better than this?"

Looking at him with renewed determination, I answered:

"All India rank one."

{[]}

June passed in a haze of classes, numericals and one movie long hang out sessions with Alia, occasionally joined by Kian as well. July arrived with what seemed like the wettest monsoon in my life.

When school reopened, all twelfthies became so immersed in ankle deep slippery mud accompanied with homework and unit tests, that I was unable to have a proper conversation with Aryan in the first week back.

So now, as he peacefully slept in our noisy bus, filled with hyper kids harassing Kian, the newly elected bus monitor, I didn't feel any remorse in slapping him awake.

"I've already washed my underwear mom, lemme sleep." With that, the thick-skinned nincompoop continued snoring.

I rolled my eyes before grabbing his left upper arm with both my hands and shaking his lanky frame like an empty rattle.

"Jesus! What is the matter with you!" Aryan yelled, wide awake.

"Nothing, I just wanted to talk to you. And did you convert to Christianity?"

"No." He yawned, hastily covering his mouth when I pinched him.

"Then why did you exclaim 'Jesus'?"

"Because when I'm in mortal danger, I'm unable to remember my faith," he said, sleepily. "Then any God would do."

I frowned, "you're not in in mortal danger."

"I'm sitting next to you sweetie," he deadpanned. "Now why the hell did you wake me up?"

"I haven't spoken to you in like, forever!"

He let out a loud groan, "so you mean that you inturrupted my blissfull slumber for idle chit-chat?"

"You want me want to come straight to the point then?"

"Yes, please."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay then," I paused for a moment, "when exactly did plan to tell me that you and Alia are this close," I indicated with my forefinger and thumb, "into transforming to a lovey-dovey sample."

As soon as I had mentioned Alia's name, his previously drooping eyes popped open.

"What do you mean?"

"How sweet! She said the exact same thing at first!"

He winced, "so have you discussed this with her?"

"What do you think?"

Aryan stared at me for a second. "You've discussed this with her," he affirmed. Running a hand through his face, he weakly asked, "what did she say?"

"What do you think?" I repeated.

"I don't know what I think," he sighed, "that's the problem, when it comes to Alia, I'm unable to think."

I almost said 'aww' but managed to control myself.

Metally rubbing my hands, I prepared myself for his final test.

"You won the bet bro! You're now a hundred rupees richer! Here," I said excitedly, holding out the bill towards him.

He looked at the note, then at me, then back at the note, before finally shaking his head and smiling, thin-lipped and genuine.

"Forget the bet, that was stupid of me." He continued shaking his head, "the fact that she feels something for me is enough."

Perfect Aryan, full marks!

"You sure?" I pretended to confirm, in the most sceptical voice I could muster.

"Hundred percent. Now would stop testing me?" He rolled his eyes, though still grinning.

"Yeah...I had to check right?" I said sheepishly.

"Hmm..." he leaned back and closed his eyes again, "let me plan the perfect way to ask her out."

We were quiet after that, me, absently watching Kian scolding a first grader and Aryan, silently introspecting.

"So what did I miss?" Kian enquired, dropping on the seat beside mine.

"Nothing much, just me being a matchmaker."

He arched one perfect brow, "oh really? You playing cupid? That's astonishing!" The impact of his sarcasm decreased as the typical lazy grin appeared on his face.

"Ha ha...hilarious.." I retorted with a straight face.

"I know." He winked.

I was about to reply when Aryan abruptly snapped.

"Either you guys stop flirting or just kiss already!"

And, without lowering his grin or looking away from me, Kian flipped him the finger.

{[]}

Hello fellow muggles!!

Writing scenes with Aryan is my favourite to be honest. What do you all think of him? Just another funny guy or more?

This was a relatively short chapter but believe me, it was not a filler. Interesting stuff happening in the next couple of chapters ;)

With that out of the way, let me inform you people that next update would be on 29/9/2017.
I'm sorry but the exam month is upon me and my phone can be confiscated anytime.

If I'm unable to update on 29th then it would surely be within two days after that.

Till then, if you liked this chapter then please;

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