Hi :)

Happy Diwali to all Indian readers. To all the people who don't know what it is, it's the Indian festival of light :)

We light lanterns, fairy lights and.. well basically our houses end up looking like christmas trees xD

We have fireworks and stuff too so yep, it's pretty fun :)

Soo.. Here is your Diwali gift

Enjoy :3

~Liam~

I lay her on the bed, careful not to drop her. Stacey came next, taking the duvet from beside the bed and laying it gently on her before looking at me and wordlessly nodding.

When Stacey had found us, all circled around a very unconscious Kritika, she mustve thought that we were going to rape her or something and she had shrieked like a goddamn banshee before launching herselves at us.

It took some time to convince her that we werent. She had refused to listen at first and had threatened to call the police on us. Only once she finally understood the situation had the waterworks begun.

Turns out, they were supposed to board a train to get back home and now having missed that, they didnt have a ride back home. The car was running low on petrol so we decided to go back to our place, with some resistance from Stacey. As we argued loudly with one another, we heard a moan from the back seat. Our arguing had brought Kritika to. She sat up slowly and clutched her head, demanding water. After drinking a few sips, she had coiled back into a ball into the backseat and fallen silent again. Everyone had stopped arguing and stared at her.

I looked at Stacey who just whimpered 'Its my fault' to herselves and slumped down in her seat, closing her eyes.

So half an hour and an almost empty petrol tank later, we were finally there. I had slightly shaken Kritika's arm but she was out cold. I tried once more but when I saw that she didnt even stir, I scooped her up in one swift motion and made it for the door. She wasnt heavy at all, but I found myself stumbling and almost had fallen twice. So I made a beeline for the nearest room which was Louis and Zayn's but since it was strewn with clothes to the point that I couldnt even see the carpeting, I went next into Harry's and Niall's. Thankfully, it was somewhat clean.

"What did you do?" Stacey asked for what felt like the millionth time, only now she sounded really exhausted.

"We didn't do anything, Stace." I repeated calmly

"BUT THEN HOW DID SHE END UP LIKE-"

"I DONT KNOW" I yelled over her "We dont know, okay?"

"Exactly." Zayn piped in, much to my relief. Neither of them had spoken much and I had been the constant victim to Stacey's lash outs "We were lazing and shit and out of nowhere we see her drowning and shit. And thats when shit hit the fan." I mentally face-palm. "Very helpful Zayn, very helpful." I mutter under my breath.

"Uh, guys?" someone said softly and we all whipped our heads to the side almost simulatenously

~Kritika~

If my head hadn't been spinning so wildly, I would've laughed at their expressions. "Uh.. hi?" I said awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot and, suddenly very aware of all the stares I was receiving.

And that's when hell broke loose

"Are you okay?"

"We thought you were dead, dude."

"Are you hurt?"

"Is your head okay? You'd hit it fairly hard when you fainted."

Sure enough I clutched my head, suddenly aware of a dull throb on the back of it. I felt a few hands on my shoulder steadying me. "Are you okay?" Stacey asked me softly, as if her speaking louder will cause me to disintegrate or something.

"I am." I reassured her "I just want you guys to stop yapping all at once." I said, wagging my pointer finger at them for effect. When they all effectively shut up, I nodded in approval "Now..one person, at a time."

They all looked at each other, waiting for the other to speak. Then, they began chattering all over again. I slapped my forehead, before removing my bracelet which had miraculously stayed on my wrist despite being in the water and turned back to them "Whosoever gets the bracelet, speaks first." I then threw it towards them and someone caught it.

"Zayn." I nodded and waited for him to speak. He just scratched his cheek slightly before passing me a sheepish look. I raised my eyebrows at him "Well, I forgot what I was going to say. So..oh wait, do you want water? You look like you could use some water." he said quickly in one breath.

I blinked, his question sinking in a second later "I.. yes please. My throat feels like sandpaper." he nodded once before taking off towards the kitchen. As he brushed past me, I saw that he had his phone in his hands and it was vibrating.

"My turn!" Stacey said, waving my bracelet in the air "My question is.. What happened? Like, what happened?"

"How well elaborated Stace." I said sarcastically "Well.. its a long story." I added lamely. What would I say to them? That some moron pushed me into ocean and I let him?

Heck to the freaking no.

"Hey.. Your left eye is twitching.. You better not hide anything from me missy. jDare you not."

Dang it!

"Okay." I sighed. There was absolutely no use hiding anything from her. Believe me, I have tried, multiple times. So I decided to tell her everything.

And I did.

*******

"Wait, so you're telling me, someone pushed you into the water?" she said, skepticism evident in her voice.

"No, dont give me that look." I said, clutching the glass of water in my hand "I'm not lying. I was just sitting on the blanket, reading my book, minding my own ducking business when this.. Tomato.."

"Tomato?"

"Dude, you should have seen the color of his hair. Bright freaking red. He looked like a freaking traffic signal. So he thought it will be really funny to randomly dump me in the water. And you know what he said to me? 'It was a dare'." I said in a high pitched mocking tone, seething with anger "yep, that's what he said to me before he left me on my own. To die!"

Laughter boomed in the room and it belonged to a single person. Stacey turned to them with a wary look "Really now, Harry?"

"She got dunked." he said, breathlessly ignoring the petulant stares he was receiving "like in pool parties. Man, I miss those."

"Excxept this wasn't a pool." Stacey said dryly

"Neither was it a party." I added. He just continued laughing, and I shook my head at him. I felt the person beside me stiffen. Liam. He had a distant look on his face. He must've sensed someone looking at him and he looked up and I saw his jaws clench. Okay.

"Whats up with you?" I asked, louder than I had intended to.

"I think I saw that guy." he said "no, I know I saw him. Red hair you said, yeah? And.. blue swimming trunks? And.. a jacket?"

I gave him a shocked look and we simultaneously muttered "Black." Now I gave him an even more surprised look "Yes. How do you..?"

"I knew something was up." he muttered suddenly looking pissed "he was f*cking showing off to his friends about completing a dare or something and I thought I'd heard wrong." he scoffed, angrily "I shouldve known."

"Okay, whoa. Calm down." I said quickly sensing the sudden tension "Seriously, calm down. I'm okay now, arent I?"

"I dont know, are you?" he challenged "how are you so cool about this? Did you hit your head or something? I dont get it.. you almost died there Kritika!"

I mentally whooped at the fact that he had pronounced my name correctly, before snapping out of it and sighing loudly "Dont I know, Liam. You seriously think I am not affected by any of this? Heck, I am. I am still shaking. And I want nothing more than to go out and kill that Tomato. But for starters, I dont even know who he is. I cant go back and look around for him to get revenge. And lets say I do, what am I going to do? Tit for tat, doing the same to him? I cant really sue him for attempt at murder either, can I?" I said calmly "I say let's karma do it's work. One thing is for sure, I will never forget his face. Or his hair."

Liam's jaw dropped and he looked at Stacey for help who just shrugged in a don't-bother-arguing kind of manner. He looked at Louis next who shrugged "Very logical, to be honest. Didn't really expect this from you Kay Bear."

"Really now, Louis?" I shook my head at him.

"Huh." Liam said, his shoulders falling in resignation "well, if I see him, I will punch him."

"If." I agreed "for the record, I'll punch him first. I couldn't drowned."

"In shallow water." Harry added slyly and I shot him another glare but couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, I admit. I almost drowned in shallow water, can finally tick that off my bucket list." I joked

"Well, you have Zayn for company." he chuckled and I gasped lightly, looking at Zayn "Zayn? No way!"

"Way. Except it was five feet water. In a swimming pool." he teased

"Harr-"

He was cut off by a loud boom sound from outside which caused me to jump. There was a flash outside and surely enough, I heard a heavy pitter patter of raindrops.

"Huh." he said "bloody unpredictable weather. Well, at least we have electri--" the room suddenly plunged into darkness causing me to jump for a second time "Huh." I heard him day again for a second time.

"Who wants to watch a movie?" Niall suddenly exclaimed

"Really? And how'll you get the electricity to power up the TV? By rubbing two stones together?"

"Who said anything about the TV?" he scoffed "I downloaded a few on my laptop yesterday."

There were a few cheers from the guys before he addressed us in the dark "you girls up for it? Theyre all horror movies though."

I scoffed and before I could reply Stacey said "well seeing that it's pouring buckets outside, we can't get home any time soon. But.." she hesitated

"Don't worry. I'll drop you home in my car. Promise." Niall said

She sighed "Okay."

"I have no problem, for the record." I chimed in.

"Great." he said "now all I got to do, is find my laptop. It's on the dining table, I'll be right back." he said and I heard him get up and walk slowly into the dark.

I sat back and sighed. Today had been really bizzare. Nothing that I had planned, that's for sure. Guess a movie is all I needed.

After all, what could go wrong?

Right?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chapter dedicated to @fahmida1D because she's one of the best people I've ever met :)

Love you girl!

Next update soon :*

Until then

Cote❤

Stay Beautiful❤

Kay ❤