"Where were you yesterday?" Charu stood at the door with her hands on the waist the moment Isha entered Navya's home.

It was the next morning Navya called them over, said she wanted to tell them some good news. Isha could probably guess what it was about.

"What?" Isha acted confused at Charu's question, Isha's mother told her yesterday Charu dropped by at her home to meet her but she wasn't there.

Isha was caught lying but she was hoping Charu would forget since she didn't call Isha after that to ask.

But now, it appeared both of her friends were going to gang up on her about yesterday.

"Jeez Charu let me get in first" Isha sighed, she walked in and right at that instant, Navya's cat Molly passed by her hitting Isha's calf with her paw in her welcoming style.

Isha shrieked,"oh my God! Navya teach your cat some manners she is always scaring me, whenever I come"

"Okay Isha Madam, I will send her to your home for the cats personality development classes" Navya yelled from the drawing room."Come here now, both of you came to stand at the door or what?"

Charu and Isha moved, Charu eyeing Isha sceptically on the way.
She whispered teasing,"did you go on a secret date with that Yash or what?"

"No" Isha denied quickly, her face red.

Charu pointed her finger at Isha chuckling,"Oh my god! I am so right "

"What are you both talking about?" Navya frowned.

Charu's head turned to Navya grinning,"she went out with Yash and lied to me about it"

"Where? Oyo? Isha hooooo!!"Navya gasped, she did an act of fainting.

"No! Will you guys shut up?" Isha yelled, she froze seeing Ankit bhaiya was also there stood at one side and now he was looking at her with mild disbelief and amusement.

Isha wanted to die with embarrassment, she used to have a crush on him in school times .

"Hey, Isha" He greeted, when Isha remained staring at him with wide eyes.

"They are not right, they are bitches" Isha almost cried.

"Hawww mean! who are you and what have you done to baba Isha?" Navya said dramatically.

Ankit chuckled in response,"Have the cake both of you I brought for celebration, I got the job"

"Oh wow that's great!" Isha said surprised, so Advik did keep his words

"Congratulations Ankit bhaiya..." Charu sang.

"Are you spoilt it, I wanted to tell them by my way!" Navya glared at Ankit, he patted on her cheek playfully and left.

"we have another sizzling topic 'Isha'" Charu reminded as she plopped on the sofa stretching her legs out, getting comfortable like it's her home.

"Stop it, Charu" Isha said and she took the cake from Navya and served herself a big piece,"pineapple?"

"And mango" Navya replied grinning.

Isha hmmed in appreciation taking a spoonful in her mouth.

Navya was too happy to care about anything or any stupid person,"Advik or uski baatein.... bada aaya, my brother won't get a job blah blah...see my brother got the job and he just made a fool of himself by talking big. Who is he Hitler?? what he says and it will happen.... don't know where such people come from ....If I hear him say one more rubbish thing, I will break his nose I swear"

Isha choked on the cake coughing.

Charu patted her back,"kam thuso"

Isha gulped fanning her face then said,"Navya my sister...why don't you just leave him alone everything is fine now" Isha suggested

Navya scoffed,"who is even after him? Is he Hrithik Roshan?"

"But Navya-"

"No, Isha tell me is he Hrithik Roshan?"

"No, and I don't even like Hrithik Roshan"

"You are stupid then. Anyways he texted me he called me!?and I leave him alone wa Isha wah"

"I am so bored of this discussion, let's talk about Isha going somewhere yesterday and lying to me..." Charu whined.

Navya teased jumping to the next topic,
"Isha you will do that now huh.... won't even tell us. Tell me where did you go with your Yash? to the park behind the tree-

Isha tossed a pillow from the sofa at Navya's face,"I just went to his restaurant okay? now keep quiet both of you"

"And what did you do there?" Charu asked grinning.

"What one does in a restaurant Charu?" Isha asked back sarcastically.

"But why would you lie then?" Navya perked up.

"I-I" Isha stammered, both of them watched her curiously sharing looks at each other.She was so bad at lying but she didn't want to ruin Navya's celebration, she won't be celebrating after knowing Advik was responsible for Ankit bhaiya's job, who knew Navya would go fighting him again for doing a favour on her. The last thing she wanted from her enemy.

"Secret code" Isha said zipping her lips.

Both of her friends groaned nodding.

They had a secret code among them, where they were allowed to hide things from others when necessary till they were ready to confess.

In a few days Isha had to muster up the courage to tell them truly what actually happened yesterday. Using Secret code, now Isha made them more suspicious about the Yash situation.

She wanted to ask for their help on that mess but really she needed a break from boys. Isha couldn't believe she was having a boy trouble for the first time in her life.

••

In college, there was this buzz for the upcoming cultural fest with fashion show being the highlight of everyone's discussion, deciding on their looks and what partners they were going with and asking each other to be the partner during the lectures, hallways and other dramatic ways, except for Isha, why did it have to be this time when she had this confusion with Yash? Now who will be her partner?
She had stopped replying to his messages and even avoided walking into him literally changing the direction he walked from.

"Oye Nerd did you ask Yash to be your partner? You guys have decided any look? Today is the last day for names submission" Charu said peeping at Isha who had her nose stuck in the book.

"I don't have time for this Charu, go away I need to revise four chapters shoo" Isha swatted her away, she needed to focus on studies not on useless things

"What? You won't participate but we promised to do it together? ask Yash na bro what's the matter?"

"I can't" Isha said, looking up with a troubled face

"Why?" Charu frowned,
"Navya also went to give her name"

"Who is her partner?"

"She's doing solo" Charu rolled her eyes,

"Are we allowed?"

"I guess not but anyways it's Navya she will have it"

"What look is she going for?"

"Seriously you need to even ask that?"

"Nisha" Isha smiled.
Navya's all time favourite movie.
"But I thought she wanted to be Elena?" Considering her love for vampires.

"She said she wanted to wear that pink dress.. I don't know what goes in her head anyways You ask Yash right now, if you are shy then give me your mobile-

"No Charu" Isha tried to get the mobile but Charu grasped it quickly

•

"Hum aapke hai kon" Navya said the movie name, when the senior frowned at the name of her character.

"Retro?" Shweta asked, still not getting.

Navya sighed in frustration,"bhai just write Nisha, can't believe you haven't watched that iconic film what senior are you then?"

Shweta wrote the characters name and asked annoyingly,"who is your partner?"

"No one, I don't need a partner" Navya huffed.

"No partner no entry in the competition"

"Weird rule and you talk about women empowerment " Navya argued,"what is that?" She pointed at the Mr. Popular bowl kept at one side of the table with colourful paper chits in it.

"You don't know this? are you a fresher even?....well solo girls are putting their names in it who doesn't have the partner I am dropping your name too" Shweta gave a fake smile and put Navya's character name chit in the bowl to shoo her away, the annoying girl was eating her head for the past 15 minutes. "If you are lucky you will have Mr. Popular as your partner, thank you for participating, now go byee"

Navya stepped away as the people behind in the queue moved to submit their names.

She stared at Mr. Popular bowl intriguingly.....who in the world was Mr. Popular? She shrugged who cares she will go solo by hook or crook and it's not like her name would come. She left walking out the door as Advik walked in both stopped and glared at each other. Navya swatted her pony at his shoulder huffing, "kiski shakal dekh li whole day ruined"

Advik dusted his shoulder with a dirty look,"psychos roaming around should be illegal"

He swaggered in to where Shweta was, she blushed at her junior can't help he was really handsome,"Mr. Popular here" she chimed

"Yep taking the bowl now, enough names here don't want it to be nearly impossible for my lucky girl" Advik picked the bowl the girls complained in the queue, he winked at them grinning,"sorry girls, the draw is closed now"

•

"Charu, give back my mobile!" Isha got up to get it from Charu, who typed the password knowing it, and called Yash

"No please bro ...this is not funny" Isha said, seriously but Yash already answered.

"Yash, where are you? Come to the lecture room no. 51," Charu said the moment Yash answered in shock, since Isha had been avoiding him for two days and he knew it had to do with something Advik said that day

That bastard yapped nonsense but he was more hurt by Isha's behaviour she had completely shut her off from hearing anything. So he respected the space and didn't disturb her more but why was she calling him now?

..... It was her friend.

He subdued his excitement, getting back to the program on his laptop
"Does Isha want that?" He asked regarding him going there.

Charu raised her brow looking at Isha, she put the call on speaker.

Isha shook her head,"No" she said putting her head down on the table hiding her face as if he was there.

Charu shot her a weird glance.

"Then I am not coming" Yash hung up staring blankly at the keys. That proved she really didn't like him. He was a bit disappointed, that she was not communicating at all and he didn't know how to approach her when she won't even look at him. He glared at Shreyansh out of frustration and whacked his laptop shut, Shreyansh was working on it.

Shreyansh looked up unamused,"thank you, I was having an important call"

Yash left the canteen picking his laptop, deciding to just bunk off the rest of the classes and do other work.

"What is wrong with you Isha?" Charu said observing her.

Isha felt guilty of the way she was treating Yash but she needed time to think about it.... she will probably make a list and go all nerd before having a proper conversation with Yash. She gathered her books and left,"I will tell you later"

•

"She is behaving weird" Charu mumbled under her breath. Her mobile chimed with a notification.

She checked it was from the company that was hiring freshers, Charu had decided to do a part time job, considering her mother was the sole earner. She cleared the interview and was put forward for a PA job. In the evening at 4 pm, she had a meeting with her will be boss. Great.
Now she gotta get ready for it too, over the upcoming cultural fest and her friends drama.

Shreyansh exhaled seeing Siya's message, finally she found him a PA. She better not be a sensitive type, like the previous one, left because of silly reasons like over work. You got hired to work so what was this term overwork? Shreyansh marked the meeting on his schedule at 4 pm.