Rahat's point of view:

It wasn't supposed to hurt this much. I knew people hardly ever value a friendship, a virtual one at that. The world is full of pretense. I shouldn't have taken her for granted.

This friendship should have been forgotten as fast as it had bloomed. But it didn't. I tried to shrug it off, forget all about her, but I just couldn't.

I wondered how those texts became so important for me. Whenever I heard a beep, I hastily grabbed the cellphone thinking it was her text.

Those simple 'Good morning, Good night text' had become meaningful to  me. Hell she was becoming more and more important to me. I was wondering if I could go visit her when I went back to India next month.

Yes, I decided to take the much needed vacation. I hadn't taken any holiday other than the weekends for the last three years.
So, when I asked my boss, he couldn't refuse to grant me a month long vacation. I planned everything secretly. I thought I could go visit her, and stay there for a day or two.

Even though she already invited me to visit her country, I would have asked her if she could meet up with me. But the one up above, had a different plan all along.

I read our last convo for hundredth times trying to ensure that she had said what I knew now. I had been feeling confused, glad, sad and nostalgic repeatedly since that day. I was all but angry.

I had no idea why I wasn't angry at her for making a fool out of me. I called her a kid numerous times. She must have laughed reading those texts.

I was confused because I didn't know how could she use someone else's account so carelessly.

What if the owner of the account read all of our conversations? Not that we talked about anything personal. Even then, what if we did? She would have known all of our secrets.

There was no point thinking about the what ifs. It had been six days since she told me the truth. Since then, she texted me every now and then while apologizing for she'd done. I felt somewhat glad that she told me the truth.

But I couldn't find it in me to forgive her so easily. I was a mere human. I got hurt too. Even though I was sad that she lied to me for so long, I didn't want to block her account for some unknown reason.

So, she had been texting me since then. I had read all of her texts but never replied.

What could I say even if I replied her? Could I say that I accepted her apology? That I didn't mind her playing tricks on me.

Honestly, I couldn't. I wasn't ready for that.

I walked into the cafeteria as it was lunch hour. Shujaat said he too, was on his way. I had been using the lunch hour by chatting with Soha. So, most of the time I was so engrossed in the cellphone, I never talked much with him.

I missed our lunch time.

I got myself seated in our usual table, and found a small group of girls engaged in a conversation. I knew them as Alice's friends. But she was nowhere near in sight.

I usually wasn't a nosy guy. But the way  they were cackling up from time to time, it seemed something hilarious. So, I decided to listen in until Shujaat came down.

"Really?" One of the girls asked. They were sitting not so far from me, so I could hear them pretty clearly. Thank God, they were so engrossed in gossiping that they didn't notice me.

"Yeah, even though I didn't see her face, I could imagine how bad she must have felt when she read those texts." One girl with ginger hair giggled as if it was the most funniest thing she'd done.

I couldn't understand anything from what I just heard. But what I got was she might have bullied someone.

"Poor girl!" The first girl tsked.

I shoke my head silently at their behavior.

"How and when did you do that?" Another girl who was in floral skirt asked with genuine curiosity.

"Remember the day Alice won the bet?" After set of yes and hmms she started talking again. "In the nightclub, when Alice dragged a not so sober Rahat away to dance, he left his phone on the bar counter." The girl replied.

Hearing my name, I straighten my back.

"His phone beeped and vibrated continuously, so I grabbed it out of curiosity." The girl paused. I felt goosebumps on my neck.

Does that mean she was the one calling Soha those names?

"Is he from ancient times by any chance? Who doesn't use pass code on their phone now a days?" She asked and got some giggles in reply.

"A fool." Sasha, the petite brunette answered.

I did use passcode before I started chatting with Soha. It was  bothering to unlock the phone when I was in a hurry to reply her texts. So I changed the settings.

I agree with the Sasha girl. I was a fool. And because of me, Soha had to suffer.

"I admit, babe. What you did was awesome. She deserved it." The first girl who might be Karen or Katrina replied.

I was stunned. I felt so enraged, and my blood boiled.

I stood up smacking the table, and went straight to those low life bitches.

"You say she deserved it? Why? Tell me one good reason." I asked as soon as I got near them. I waited for their reply as my eyes shown nothing but surge of anger.

"Because she's a ugly loser who just wants to get you in between her legs." One of them replied in disdain.

The girl obviously had no idea what she was talking about.

"Then, doesn't it make all of you ugly losers too? Because from what I've heard, you too, want to get me in between your legs." I said calmly. Being calm and collected wasn't my forte. My anger didn't reduce a bit even after insulting them.

They should have been thankful to their fathers's chromosomes for making them girls. Or I would've reconstructed their faces.

"What happened?" Alice asked as she placed a hand on my right arm. I couldn't help but wonder whether she knew about this. I shrugged off her hand, and went back to my table.

This incident made me think about our friendship in a new light. Those dumb bimbos didn't know how to value a friendship. But I did. This friendship meant more to me than I thought it did.

"Dude, stop thinking and text her." Shujaat said dragging his chair closer to the table. He had been trying to persuade me or more like nagging me to start talking to her again. In his opinion, I looked miserable waiting for her text.

"Sometimes we do things that we regret later. But we can't undo it nor we can explain the reason why we did it in the first place." He explained.

She doesn't have any explanation either.

I thought as I read our last proper conversation.

My hands started typing furiously as if they had a mind on their own.

Me: You there?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/n: How's it?

It's so hard writing a new chapter.

What do you guys think? Tell me every single thought you have in mind after reading this chapter.

Do you guys realize that sohat's journey coming to an end slowly but surely. Maybe ten-twelve more chapters, I'm not sure.

Do vote. Comment. And, share please please please? 

♥♡