The last time I saw Arnav was when he came to talk to me at my place and we both ended up arguing as usual, it had been two weeks since then.

I started going to college again, it was the only way I could keep my mind diverted and not think about the terrible memory of my childhood.

For the first few days I thought he wasn't just coming to college to avoid me but then he hadn't shown up for two weeks and I couldn't stop wondering where he was.

I hated when he was around trying to irritate me, but now I dint seem to be liking the fact that he wasn't around either.

"You okay?" Stefan asked as he settled down beside me and smiled at me.

"Yeah." I replied without looking at him.

"You don't really seem okay, does it have anything to do with Arnav?" He asked.

"I have a lot more important things in life to bother me than him Stefan, but where is he anyway, I haven't seen him for a while." I looked at him curiously.

"He's been out of town, he's got some personal problems to handle." Stefan replied to which I nodded, I remembered there was also a time before when he left, what was the personal stuff he was dealing with anyway?

I couldn't believe that I actually missed him being around, it was strange, I never thought I was going to miss someone, that too Arnav but recently a lot had been happening between us that I thought won't ever happen.

"Do you like him?" Stefan asked out of the blue, I looked at him and he was looking at me seriously, I wondered why he was asking that.

"What? No! Everyone knows we both hate each other." I tried to laugh, did we really hate each other? Maybe yes, but that was before, what did we have now?

"What did you do to my friend that he had to leave?" Damon asked as he stopped in front of me looking at me weirdly, seriously why did he always think I'm the reason behind everything that happens to Arnav or Stefan or anyone?

"Damon." Katherine gave him an angry look.

"Don't Damon me, it's been two weeks and he hasn't been back, I don't remember the last time he was away for this long." Damon said as he looked at Katherine then me.

"So you think I kidnapped him and hid him somewhere? Really Damon, get over it, if he left it was his wish, I dint have anything to do with it. What problem do you have with me anyway?" I looked at him angrily.

"I don't really get good vibes from you." He said as he looked at Stefan and eyed him for a moment as he walked away, Katherine seemed angry on him for talking to me like that so she dint go along with him, instead she settled down on the seat behind me.

"Khushi, umm would you like to go for dinner with me tonight maybe?" Stefan looked at me nervously, I looked back at him in surprise, why did he want to take me for dinner? I thought everything between him and Caroline was working out fine.

Or maybe I was just overthinking things, maybe he just wanted us to go out as friends? I really couldn't decide what to say to him so I kept on staring at him as he stared back at me nervously waiting for an answer.

The classroom door opened and to my surprise, Arnav walked in, gladly he was back at least Damon would stop haunting me now.

I saw him making his way towards me so I turned back to look at Stefan and smiled at him.

"Sure, I would love to go to dinner with you."

"Great, I'll pick you up from your place at eight." He said excitedly.

I saw Arnav look at me in surprise before he chose to ignore me, he headed to sit with Damon. I hated doing this, agreeing to go out with Stefan, I dint want to give him any wrong hints but all I wanted was to avoid Arnav.

I couldn't deny how he made me feel, how his touch felt or how his kiss felt, but more than that I couldn't deny that not seeing him for two weeks was actually making me miss him, I dint want to feel any of that for him and that was possible only if I avoided him so I was ready to do all it took to keep him away.

*****

"What are you trying to do?" Katherine asked as she followed me out of the class after the class was over.

"What are you talking about?" I asked as I stopped walking and looked at her.

"Are you just blind or you can't really see what Stefan feels for you? You can't do this Khushi, you can't just play with the feelings of two guys. You know it, you'll never be interested in Stefan the way you are interested in Arnav, so why are you going for dinner with him and behaving this way with Arnav?" She looked at me angrily.

"Who told you I was interested in Arnav? Really Kitty, there's no part of me that's interested in him, all I have for him is hatred."

"I saw you both Kiss, that day outside your house, Damon had just dropped me home and I thought we hadn't talked for a while and I had a lot of things to tell you so I came but then I saw you both..." She said.

"You can't tell anyone about that Kiss." I warned her.

"Why? Because finally there's a guy you are interested in and you're doing what you always do? Run away!"

"I am not running away Kitty! That kiss was a mistake, it won't happen again and I don't want him to think that there's anything ever going to happen between us that's why I agreed to go with Stefan." I shouted at her angrily, she was really getting on my nerves.

"Deny it all you can Khushi, but it's written all over your face and you know it too, the fact is that you like him, you are just running away from it because you hated him at first and maybe because of your ego. I hope you open your eyes before it's too late." She rolled her eyes and walked away.

That was the problem wasn't it, I was running away, Kitty was right, Bonnie was right, even my mom was right, but what could I really do?

There was a part of me that was always going to be scared about how things would always change from feeling good to feeling worse, I could stay without feeling good but I did not like the idea of feeling worse, it was something even the strong Khushi wouldn't be able to handle.I dint want one more person coming to lecture me about Arnav or my feelings or anything so I chose to go home instead.

I headed to the parking lot, Arnav's car was there as usual and he was seated in there, I passed by as I looked at him and he looked at me, neither of us talked to each other.

I got inside my car and drove home, I hated how my life had changed since the day I met Arnav, everything had changed, before that I had a really great life and now everything was so difficult.My phone rang while I drove home, I looked at the screen and saw mom's name flashing, I chose to ignore it because I was driving and she was going to be at home anyway, the advantages of owning a company, you could always do whatever you wished.

Once I arrived home, I parked my car and headed inside, I found mom standing at the door holding her phone close to her ears, as soon as she saw me she rushed towards me.

"I was calling you." She said.

"Yeah I was driving so I couldn't receive it, why were you calling anyway?" I asked.

"There's someone here to see you." She said, I looked at nervously hoping that someone wasn't Arnav, well it couldn't be, he was in the university when I left and if he wanted to talk to me, he would have done it here.

I walked inside curiously and to my surprise I found Rachel seated in the hall, she stood up as soon as she saw me, why was she here?

"Rachel?" I looked at her curiously.

"Zion isn't dead." She announced happily, she seemed really happy I wanted to believe her but how could it be possible?

"I know it's confusing and it doesn't sound real but the police figured it out, he's just hiding somewhere, he used his card today and they found out where it was used so they went there and checked the cctv footage, they saw him in it, but they couldn't find him." Rachel said.

"If he's alive, why is he hiding?" I looked at her curiously.

"I don't know, he must have his reasons, I'm just glad that he's alive. We should do something to find him the only person I thought could help was you so I came here." She said.

"We should." I agreed as I walked towards her and settled down.

When I learnt about Zion's death I was told that he committed suicide, he had some fight with some guys and it affected him or something like that, but I knew him better, I knew he wasn't someone who would take his life so I never believed it and I tried to find things out.

I started to believe it more when that day Caroline and Bonnie called me to the mall, but then I dint get to talk to the person who had witnessed the fight and after that a lot happened between me and Arnav so I couldn't concentrate on my mission.

Now if he really was alive, I couldn't understand why he faked his own death, it wasn't something easy to do, plus we all saw him dead so how did he manage to do it?

I had a lot of questions and I knew so did Rachel, and the only way we were ever going to get answers was by finding him, we had to find him and talk to him to know what exactly happened and why he chose to take this step.

Right now I just hoped the news was true because no one was going to be happier than me if Zion was actually alive.

"Give me all the details you've got and I'll try to figure things out, if he's alive I promise I'm going to find him." I said to Rachel, she nodded and started giving me all the information she had got from police, we both had to work together to find him anyway because apart from Rachel, he had no one else to care.

His Parents had got divorced long back and then a few years later his father passed away too, so they both lived together and tried to get through life, their mother never really showed up and they dint seem to care about her anymore.