Just a recap because a lot of back-and-forth happened over the last two chappies: Fab 5 and kuch extras are going to Lonavala on a group trip.

Please share your thoughts on the chapter!

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Manik

That afternoon of our music competition, I was in front of a floor-length mirror, touching up my hair. The rest of my band was on beanbags, either on their phones or tweaking their guitars. We were supposed to be performing after NH3.

With the missing cufflinks on my wrists, my sleeves were rolled to my elbows, but wearing a blazer on top of that kind of bulk would restrict my guitar strokes. So one of the volunteers running around to help set up the whole show had brought in some safety pins to hold the sleeve in place, and my black blazer with red piping along the flaps.

Putting my arms through it, I shrugged them and my blazer came riding up and fit snugly over my shoulders.

A figure appeared behind me, looking at me through the mirror. Had she followed me from the old staff room? "Hum na, samajh sakte hai tumhara dard," She had come around me, and stood next to the volunteer. 

It was Nandini's friend, Navya.

"What?!"

She was looking at her nails, lost in her own thoughts. "One sided love, usme do pal ki khushiyon ke liye bohot dard sehna padhta hai,"

My face fell, eyes searching the expansive floor, the tall ceiling above, and after a deep breath, her. This was not love.

I cleared my throat. "What nonsense are you saying?" I snapped my fingers before her. "Listen, we're performing in 20 minutes, so stop spoiling my mood with your presence. And you, don't you have to be backstage by now?"

"Haan issliye main aayi thi humaare performance se pehle... bas yeh kehne aayi thi ki... At least you have a chance, usne toh abhi mana kiya hoga but give it some time, once she gets to know you she'll come around. Lekin main toh kuch kar bhi nahi sakti hoon Harshad ke baare mein..." Her fingers joined at their tips, hanging between us.

Face decorated with frown lines, I was trying to comprehend what she had meant by that. A gut feeling told me that Nandini had not discussed what had happened between us with Navya, which meant Navya had arrived to a conclusion on her own about Nandini having rejected me, and unrequited love–from my side.

My friends were not close enough to hear our conversation, thank God.

Harshad... "What about Harshad?"

She sniffed, and briskly wiped the corner of her eye. "Nahi, kuch nahi," She saw herself in the mirror, and adjusted her smudged lower waterline. "I think I should go, good luck!"

Did that mean she liked Harshad?

"Nav... Navya? Navya!" I called out to mere sounds of footsteps. She had long gone.

My hands went to my hips. "What the hell?" I muttered under my breath, stroking my lower lip. For fuck's sake, what was going on in this school?!

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Cabir

The jeep vroomed past a hairpin bend at an irrational speed, flinging us passengers to the opposite side of the wagon. Alia and Navya shrieked with their hands in the air, while cushioned a knocked-out Rose while us men had made ourselves comfortable on some of our luggages in the boot. There was a basketball rolling around under our feet, which we squished between our bags to hold in place.

Exactly fourteen minutes ago, my stomach had violently grumbled and I had thrown a spanner in the works by suggesting a very non-controversial proposal of chicken biriyani. Though Navya was vegetarian, she was tempted by the idea that there was a break coming up just around the corner and that the driver of the vehicle will be subsequently swapped–a big blessing it would be.

It was well past midnight, but the mission was in full swing. Unfortunately enough, we had to detour along some rural roads to get to the main town as quickly as possible.

"Cabir, I swear on my unborn baby that if anything happens to me, Ranbir will murder you on my behalf," Ms. Madhubala screamed clutching the headrests of the seat in front, incessantly chanting her prayers. 

"Why are you cursing me, yaar, Manik's the one driving!"

Alia tossed some fuel in the mix, "Manik is crazy as is, you're the one to blame for this, had you slept a few hours in the afternoon we would have had more options to choose from!" And the girls held hands to soothe themselves from the waves of jolts as Manik navigated the unknown roads with sly expertise. Manik smirked, as if he'd just received a compliment.

Weirdly enough, the trip had started off better than I had thought. Manik was neither his usually snobby nor arrogant self. He was one beer in from earlier in the evening, but nothing compared to the usual threshold. Alia had helped him pack his suitcase while Varun and I waited in the lobby. Manik, when he had arrived, was calm and somewhat happy, while Alia was relaxed yet seemingly lost in thought. If I didn't know better, I would have thought Alia and Manik had hooked up. 

Varun, I had thought was a lot more introverted, from a geeky stereotypical lens, but no, he was a laxed dude to talk to. Currently DJing from the back, we were enjoying the cocktail of songs that he had queued up, with one recommendation from each passenger. Ranbir was a lot more soft-spoken than the version Navya had narrated, and after the initial introduction/confusion we had about the coincidences between us, things were relatively cool. He didn't seem like a person who was too comfortable talking about himself. As much as I had questions, I didn't want to bombard him with them on our first meet and overwhelm him either.

The car slowed down near a lit street with several food stalls and youngsters and families of all ages gathered around different shops for a break in their travel. Manik offroaded the vehicle some hundred metres away from the stalls and we all disembarked, eager to feast on some delicious hot and spicy biriyani with a cooling raita with it. Ranbir made the order, Dhruv had disappeared to fetch something from the car while the rest of us found a wooden table with benches on either sides to accommodate the entire gang.

"Am I the only one who seemed to put some effort into this trip?" I remarked while flicking my shirt at the shoulders. I had hydrated my blonde tips and styled them with Alia's diffuser, and I was wearing a floral buttoned up shirt to resemble a Hawaiian vibe. Dhruv and Manik were in a full sleeved T-shirt and short sleeved black tee and shorts respectively, while Varun and Ranbir were dressed more business-cash. 

When Dhruv returned, it was with some glasses, one filled with ice cubes and a large bottle of Black Label. He cracked it open with ease, and filled four glasses midway through, before dropping in ice in two of those. 

Varun exclaimed with Alia squished to his side, "Whatta classic, biriyani and whiskey! You guys are more desi than I thought," This version of us only comes out when we're all together, I wanted to add, only to remember our group wasn't complete. It would never be the same without Mukti and Manyu. As Manik's gaze aligned with mine, I realised our thoughts did as well.

Dhruv offered one of the iced cups to Manik, which then went back to the pool of drinks. "I'll be driving back too,"

"Manik, let us spare Navya for one more night at least!" Alia said and then giggled, earning a sly smirk from Manik.

What was up with his pleasantly jolly mood today?

First of all the blind compliance, without any further objections on our Lonavala plan. Usually, he jumps the gun and concludes how everyone is out there to get him at all times. Second, drinking his guts out on road trips was his favourite way to let loose. Where was that Manik Malhotra today?

"I'll take the pipe instead," I pulled out the pack in my front pocket.

Rose gasped, "Manik smokes? How did I not know this?" Navya smiled, gleefully reminiscing something.

"Back in school, I remember he used to run through one packet a week, and then Nandi–" She wearily read the room, and at once deduced that she had mindlessly spoken too much.

It was certainly true that between the six of us, our old group, Mukti or Abhimanyu were never brought up in discussions. We all immensely felt that gaping void every step of the way, but we found it easier to avoid talking about it. Navya was not part of our group. She had no need to shelter Nandini from discussions among us, yet she was reluctant in even bringing her up in conversations with us. She blinked lazily at Manik.

There was no baseline for Navya showing so much understanding towards Manik. He wasn't naive or wholly unaware of his deeds as he engaged in them. He thoroughly knew what he was doing every step of the way. He might have never felt love before that in his life, but even when he did have it, he did nothing–absolutely nothing–to hold onto it. He didn't really love Nandini. If he really did, he would have done anything in his power to hold on to that feeling, hold on to that person like his life depended on it. Functioning without her would have been a living nightmare.

But he was doing fine without her. It's not her absence that ruined him, it was Manyu's. It was Mukti's.

That was not love.

Love is not a second option.  

"Who are you guys talking about?" Rose butted, steering me back to the conversation. Her fingers were playing with Dhruv's hair until he pulled his cap over.

"It's nothing important, really," I dismissed, swirling one of the iced glasses before sipping on the luxurious liquid. That can of worms was not ready to be opened yet.

"Okay okay, real question, Alia let's start with you... what's one ugly secret about you that you wouldn't want anyone outside this circle to know?" Ranbir had returned with a buzzer in his hands. Order number 22.

"I think some of you already know this, but my brother used to date Manik's mother,"

"Uh, gross!" The three outsiders groaned.

Manik pulled a puff, "Tell me about it,"

"Ranbir?"

"I don't really have anything that ugly to share, sorry Alia; my parents got divorced when I was really young. My mother and I have been family to each other, but that's about it. I hardly saw my father so I hardly missed him too," The buzzer rang and Dhruv, Varun and Ranbir promptly stepped up to get the food. Rose wanted to use the bathroom so Alia accompanied her, leaving Navya and Manik in my companionship. 

The biriyani smelled too delicious to resist, I chomped my chicken legpiece without waiting for the rest of the group to join. "Sorry guys," I mumbled between bites, I was clearly not sorry.

"Saale kamine, how dare you eat without us huh?" Alia pounced on me just as she arrived, putting her hands into my leaf cup of biriyani.

"Ugh, Alu!"

Dhruv sought the opportunity to annoy me as well and dug into mine. I yelped, now seriously grossed out by the multiple hands that have smeared into my food while all the other bowls remained fresh and untouched. I dipped into one of them with my hands to replenish my own.

"Cabir, you're disgusting!" Rose said, pulling a bowl to herself and protecting it from my claws.

Manik pulled one towards the other boys, who were relieved at their share being uncontaminated. The accompanying spoon took turns filling their palms. Dhruv shoved his mouth onto the morsel on Rose's hand, earning a shriek from her.

"Navya, here," Ranbir shifted in his spot to make space for her, but seeing the chaos she was far far away from the rest, merely emerging with a Bhel Puri plate in her hands. Something told me Ranbir was going to smear the portion in his palm over her face if she did come over.

"Oh wait, I want to try something," I said, reaching for a half-filled glass of whiskey and drizzling it over my bowl.

"YUCK!" Alia screamed and jumped onto Varun.

I mixed the sauce with the scrumptious meat and rice and then stuffed my mouth with it. Though slightly sweet in taste, I was glad that the alcohol must have desanitised their germs too.

The remaining bowl of biriyani sat gleaming at everyone while I gobbled mine down. Manik looked at it for a couple of seconds, and then pulled it towards him. "I mean, it's just Cabir so," He picked a morsel with his fingers and ate. I was taken aback by the gesture, only to see his middle-finger flicked at me.

Trust Manik to ruin a wholesome moment. Soon Dhruv shared that bowl too, and the game resumed. 

"So Navya, what about you?"

"I almost got in trouble falling for the wrong guy in school, Harshad," She added, avoiding the association between him and Alia. The outsiders did not need to know the ugly details about our past.

A water bottle went in circles as each of us rinsed our oily hands on it and then borrowed a wet wipe from Alia's purse to clean the rest of our fingers.

"Seriously? Oh thank God," Ranbir gasped, earning a giggle from the other couple in the group.

"Varun?"

"I grew up in a secure household so I don't really have anything to complain about, but I was bullied a lot in school for being too geeky." Manik lit another one of the cigarettes up.

"But I love you for that!" Alia whined, pulling his cheek and pecking it.

"Cabir?" I glanced at Ranbir and then took a big gulp of the drink in front of me.

"Not ugly anymore, but I couldn't come out–as gay–for the longest time. The day these guys found out, things were ugly," Ranbir nodded in understanding, passing me a soft smile. What I wanted to say was: I think I might be your long-lost brother.

"Manik?"

"Hmm? I–I have nothing to share, everyone knows everything about me," He took another puff. I pulled the cigarette from him, piping one myself.

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Batao batao kaisa laga? :P Usually we see Cabir teasing Manik about MaNan, this time I wanted to do something thoda sa alag, so...

Been keeping up with writing this story acche se (kisi ki nazar na lag jaaye :P )

Let me know what you think, and vote zaroor karna! :D