The journey to the top is as beautiful as the hilltop. I couldn't take my eyes off the beautiful mountains which mesmerized me. Instinctively, I bring out my camera to capture this moment.

I turn around camera still in place, when Adarsh helping Naina climb up finds itself in my frame. I immediately click their photo. Because they look so cute together and also I'd have enough material to blackmail her.

Oh, this is going to be fun!

I see a few couples are taking cheesy photos and I find myself thinking about Caleb.

My sweet, but crazy boyfriend.

"Hey," Hitesh says, approaching me. He looks good in that black jacket with the tattoo on his neck standing out.

Maybe I also have a thing for good looking bad boys!

"Hey. So where is Ria?" I ask as we have to shoot soon.

"Checking the location with Sid. They are looking for the one place which would perfectly capture the moment,"

"I don't think it's possible to capture all this perfection," Adarsh says, joining us.

"Cocky much!?" Naina says with a raised eyebrow.

"No babe. It's just the truth,"

"Here they go again!" I whisper, leaning closer to Hitesh.

"Pretty sure they have a thing for each other," he whispers back and I snicker.

Their bickering continues while Hitesh and I make small talk.

"Team, come on. We found the perfect place," Ria says, calling us from a little further.

We solemnly follow her and reach the edge of the cliff.

'Suicide point, Be careful!' reads a board placed near the edge.

In all honesty, the location is too high but captured the beauty of the place perfectly. The view is wonderful. I watch as smoke comes out of my mouth when I breathe out or talk. I pretend to smoke and ignore Naina chiding me. She soon joins me.

"Okay, this is fun," she says as she takes in a deep breath and slowly lets it out.

"Isn't it a little tricky to stand by the edge and shoot it?" Hitesh asks Ria.

I turn around to see what are they discussing and struggle to maintain balance on the rocky surface beneath.

"Well, it is. But look at the view," she says gesturing to the snow-capped mountains behind and the dense forest that looked so scary yet inviting which is also covered in snow. The stream of water which flowed below disappeared around the corner of the mountains and the snow roofed houses. This looks like a Winter Wonderland.

We have a hard time setting up the camera on a rocky surface at such a high altitude. I decide to hold the camera at all times because the tripod seems to be shaking a little.

Adarsh goes first and it is probably his turn. He oozes confidence and charm as he speaks looking directly at the camera.

Given the chances of this being a risky shot, Ria suggested Sid shoot this, while I had to capture the scenery.

Adarsh goes about explaining the details of this place.

"Mallital is a charming area popular for its colonial architecture and wooded mountain trails..."

I soon leave the camera with Sid and walk around to the other end so as to not be in the frame and proceed with taking videos of the cafes, snow-capped mountains, the marketplace and the forest.

The forest was also covered in snow and I wonder how would it be if it snowed back at our place, back at my safe haven.

Naina soon joins me as Adarsh took over the frame and she will be joining for the latter half.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Umm m...."

"You are thinking about Caleb aren't you?" she asks, cheekily.

"Umm. More like how my life changed after I made the deal with the devil,"

"Oh, you mean your first date," she says grinning.

"So that was what the deal was all about?" Hitesh asks, joining us.

"Oh great. So even you know now!"

"Oh, come on. Tell us more about it !"

"Umm well...."

******

Friday, the day I've been dreading for the past week is here. This is the day.

I reach my workplace - the ice cream parlour and see that Naina is already there.

"Hey, Ness. You are here early," she says making a coffee.

"Umm well. I wasn't sure about tonight,"

"Oh shut up Ness. Have a little fun tonight, it won't harm you,"

"I'm not sure if this is what I want," I say sulking. I don't wanna just like that randomly date guys.

"Well, give it a shot. If you like it then fine or else no second date. Okay?" she says coming to sit beside me.

It is early and there were not many customers around.

"I don't even know where he is taking me. What if it is to a club or someplace I don't like?"

"Send me a message if you don't like the place and I'll get you out from there. Use codeword Red, like how I do,"

"He is your friend. He will know if you get me out!" I say laughing at her ideas.

"Well you made a deal, so maybe stick with it?"

"Aaaaaahhhh,"

"But don't tell me you are going on a date dressed like this,"

"What's wrong with this dress?" I ask looking down at my jeans and black hoodie.

"Really?" she asks with her eyebrow raised.

"Umm..."

"Okay, we are getting you out of that. Do you have other clothes except for hoodies?" she questions as she gets her backpack.

"Aren't you working!?"

"Oh yeah. Nikhiiiillllll," she yells and a skinny guy with specs and a huge mop of hair comes from the kitchen.

"Yes?" he asks sounding casual.

"Please cover for me. I'll be back in like 30 minutes. Pleaseeee..." Naina asks him

"No. I have work!"

"Oh. Come on. I covered for you last week when you had to go to that stupid comic con. It's just 30 minutes. I'll be back by then. I swear. Please please please," she pleads with him.

"Fine but not a minute more and if Jacob asks, I'll tell I don't know where you are," he says going back inside.

"Okaayyy,"

He emerges from the kitchen wearing the apron on his T-shirt, with the company logo.

"Thank you," she says and drags me out.

"So how are we going?"

"We can walk or take a bus," I say.

"Oh god, we will never reach on time. Wait here," she says and leaves me on the sidewalk.

After a minute, I see her approaching me on a Vespa.

"You have a vespa?"

"Umm yeah. Got it this year,"

"Nainnaaaa,"

"Fine. It's my friends's. I took it from him,"

"Ufff," I sigh, getting on .

"You don't have a license, do you?" I ask her given we are just high schoolers and not even in college.

"Umm. Well..."

"Okay, great. At least put on a helmet and I'll ensure we don't come anywhere near the main road," I say and put on a helmet.

I give her directions and we reach home narrowly missing the traffic police. I hope they don't give us a ticket or ask us to pay a fine.

"Okay, so we are here," I say and open the gate.

I lead her inside and thankfully no one was home. I was afraid of what might my dad say if he saw me bringing friends home. I never did this and I'm not sure what would he say.

And my brother is also not to be seen - thankfully.

"Ness," Naina asks shaking me.

"Yes?" I ask turning to look at her.

"Where is your room?"

"Oh, it's upstairs. Here this way," I say taking her through the hall and then take a left to the stairs.

"Oh, wow. I can never keep my room this clean," she says as we walk in.

I watch her carefully to see how'd she react to my house. I'm pretty sure she is not from my part of the city and probably lives in a better house than me.

"Haha. So what exactly are you planning to do?"

"First let's choose a better outfit!" she says opening my cupboard.

"You don't have anything. I wish you were my size, I'd have given you my clothes," she says rummaging through my clothes again.

"I have so many clothes!"

"Nothing that's date-worthy!" she exclaims and pulls in more clothes from the cupboard.

"Do you have any dresses? Or even tops which are not basic tees?"

"Yes! Wait.." I say and open another cupboard. "See..." I say and point to the neat pile of Tees and a few dresses that are hanging.

"Wow, finally some decent clothes," she says and goes to attack them.

"Wait, take them out carefully. Don't ruin them," I say and watch as she pulls out dresses agonizingly slowly just to irk me.

"Okay. We are gonna have to adjust with this," she says holding a black net dress.

"No, it's sleeveless. I don't wear sleeveless,"

"Fine, pair it with a jacket," she says pulling a denim jacket.

I'm sitting in front of the mirror, in the outfit she picked and watch as she is trying to add life to my hair.

"Oh leave it, pleasseeee," I beg her.

"I'm almost done," she says as she curls my hair.

"I'm not leaving it loose," I say.

"Whattt! Why ?"

"I just don't want to," I say.

"Fine wait," she says, tugging and pulling my hair.

"How about this?" she asks me as she finally leaves my hair in a half-bun.

"Umm.. decent enough. Okay this is fine," I add before she plans to play with my hair again.

"Cool," she says as my phone chimes.

Caleb: Hey where are you?

Me: Hey, will be there in 10 minutes.

"Naina, let's hurry. Caleb's waiting,"

"Oooooo, someone seems excited,"

"I'm not. I just don't like being late,"

"Are you always like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I'll tell Caleb to get you drunk so you loosen up and have some fun," she says and opens the door.

I follow her outside and see my brother standing in front of his room.

"Shit!" I mutter unconsciously.

"What?" Naina asks raising her eyebrow.

"Nothing. Let's just leave,"

"Where are you going?" Derek asks.

And here I thought he didn't notice.

"To work," I lie through gritted teeth.

"Like this?" he asks looking at me.

"Umm. We kinda have a celebration at work. Sooo.."

Uff, one lie leads to another!

I cross my fingers and hope my expressions don't give away that I'm lying.

"Aha. Okay".

He walks in and bangs the door.

A scowl forms on my face. I turn around and leave.

"Okay, so you and your brother don't get along, I presume," Naina says starting the Vespa.

"So we are stating the obvious I see,"

"What's wrong with you?" she asks handing me the helmet.

I get on and don't utter a word. We remain silent through the ride back.

"Don't let him ruin your date," she says as we get down.

"Ahaa. Sorry, I.."

"It's okay. Your date is here," she says pointing behind.

He sure was standing there and he looked good wearing black on black with a denim jacket.

"Hey Ursula," he says smiling at me.

"Hey, you promised not to call me that. This date will be cancelled if you keep calling me that," I say annoyed at him.

Wow, he sure knows how to annoy me.

"Okay okay. Come on, let's go," he says taking my hand.

"Bye Naina," I say and he also throws a hasty bye.

"So where are we going?"

"You'll see,"

"Oh come on. Tell me,"

"It's nothing special. Just a place where I usually go to,"

"Hmm.."

"It's close by but do you want me to get my bike?"

"No, that's fine,"

I don't have to get on his bike. Yayyyy. The last time I was on a bike was scary enough.

"You sure you can walk?"

"Yeaahhh. I do have two functioning legs you know,"

"Okay, okayyy. Don't blame me if you get tired,"

"I won't. Now how far is this?"

"Just five minutes," he says and we walk a little further along the beach road. I see the night bazaar ( flea market) is in full swing and we walk slowly.

We soon cross the beach road and come closer to the other side of this place. You know every city has two sides one the glamourous one and the other is the hidden truth - where we live.

So we reach the glamourous part of the city and he takes me to a mall.

I didn't know what to expect from him. I'm not fond of the mall. I used to love shopping until I had to do it all alone. Coming to the mall just reminds me of all the time I spent shopping with my mom.

I take a deep breath and try to smile.

"So ...." he tries to talk breaking the silence.

"Ummm.."

Awkwarddd!

"What do you wanna do?" he asks, smiling at me even though his eyes look confused like he is lost. He seems to be actually putting some effort into this thing.

"Anything is fine with me!" I answer with a smile plastered on my face, trying not to ruin the date.

"Okay then. Let's go bowling," he says and the excitement in his voice is pretty evident.

"Umm, ok--"

"This way. Come on," he says leading the way.

We go put on shoes and he pays for it. This is my first time and I'm pretty sure, it's going to be "epic".

"So you wanna go first?" he asks as he picks up a ball.

"Umm no. Why don't you start?" I ask as I'm not even sure what to do.

"Okay," he says and smoothly rolls the ball. I observe his every action to ensure I can repeat it.

Strike! reads the board above. And he turns to me grinning.

"Wow! That was amazing,"

"Eh, well," he says trying very hard not to jump.

"So it's your turn. Go on!" he says and signals me to go ahead.

I go and try to pick up a ball. I didn't realise that the number of the balls indicated their weight. It felt so heavy, so I try to pick up another one which turned out to be even heavier.

I sigh and try picking up another one which looked small and it felt lighter as I picked it up. I go over to the bowling lane and try rolling it, but it goes straight into the lane beside it.

"Oh!" I frown and go back to him.

"Is this your first time bowling?" he asks me.

"Yes, why?"

"Haha. You get two chances to bowl. Not everyone is as great as me to hit a strike on the first throw," he says in a teasing tone.

"Oh, I didn't know that,"

"Figured that! Come on, I'll show you how to ball like a pro," he says picking up a ball.

He shows me how to hold the ball and how to roll it down the lane. I follow everything he says, and somehow manage to just hit 2 of the bowling pins.

"Well, that's a start. Wanna bet who is gonna win?" he asks cheekily.

"All my money is on you," I say picking up another ball.

After about 10 rounds of him teaching me how to roll the ball and me desperately hoping it hits at least one pin, he wins.

"So the winner gives a treat, right?" I say after losing big time to him.

"Umm... sure. What do you want?"

"Good question. I actually need your help," I say slowly hoping he'd help me.

"Oh, I thought we were talking about food or a treat," he says eying me suspiciously.

"I wouldn't mind that too. But I do need your help."

"Okay. Let's eat something though. I'm hungry."

"Okay!"

We walk to the food court and see that it's crowded. Thankfully, we spot a couple getting up by the window. We leave our belongings there and go to order. He immediately goes to the BurgerKing outlet and orders burgers, fries and a salad.

"You eat salad?" I ask as I watch him order

"No, I thought you'd want to," he says looking at me.

"Hell no. Don't go around making assumptions. I want a chicken burger with coke, "I scowl at him.

I see chicken wings on display and my mouth starts watering.

Another time, Vaneessa! Another time. Remember he is giving a treat, don't order too much.

I cross my fingers to control the temptation of chicken and patiently wait for our order.

"Token number 21," yells the guy behind the counter.

Caleb gets up to get the order. The minute I see it, I wished to pounce on it. I control myself and try to eat as humanly possible.

"So what is it that you wanted my help with?" he asks between bites.

"Umm..." I slowly finish my burger and go about explaining it to him.

"So I need to track someone's GPS to find where they've been to in the past week without them knowing about it," I say and slurp on my drink.

"Whom are you stalking?" he asks laughing.

"I'm not stalking anyone. Some things just seem fishy, I just need to you know.. umm.. clear things out," I answer hoping it convinces him.

"Oh and don't tell Naina about it!" I add

"Sure, but I have a condition," he says smirking.

Why is he smirking? What's he up to? It's not gonna be good!

"What's it?"

"First you promise you will fulfil it,"

"First you tell,"

"Don't you need my help?"

"Finee! What's it?"

"I'll tell you when I need to. Now whom do you wanna stalk,"

"This one person whom I know,"

"I know that. Who is that person?"

"It's --"

*****

"Nesssss! Come on it's your turn.Why don't you shoot this scene? And Naina get ready you will be in this scene," Ria says breaking my flow.

"Sure, why not?" I say grabbing my camera.

As I get up, Hitesh says, "Not fair. You need to finish the story."

"I will. Another time maybe."

"Anyways, how was the date?"

"Not what I like, but I got to try something new. It was fun. Plus I had my own reasons, you see,"

"Yeah. Sly little girl you are," he says feigning surprise.

"Haha," I say and walk away back to the shoot.

A/N:

So guys, how was this new update? Whom do you think Ness is stalking and what do you think is his condition to help her?

Your feedback and suggestions are very helpful and they make my day, especially to my Rebel book club members. Thank you guys for helping me and motivating me. Your feedback and reviews mean a lot to me :)

If you like this chapter, Like, comment,vote. Go crazy!

Until the next update.

Lots of love
~Vaishnavi.