"Can you do this for me?" Pragya's voice echoed in Shahana's ears.

"Yes.....Yes.....I will do it for you." Shahana croaked holding back her tears. How could she refuse to give something to the lady who was her mother figure.

"Thank you" Pragya said with a heavy heart too.

"I....I need to go.....I remembered something." Shahana said and rushed out of the room.

"I know it will be difficult for you but it would have hurt more if Alia would have seperated you when you were deeply in love. I know the pain and don't want to you to suffer the same.  Alia can go to any extend to achieve what she wants. I can't loose you like Bulbul. You will recover soon from this puppy love." Pragya thought sadly.

Shahana closed the door of her room and dropped down on the carpeted floor. She couldn't hold back anymore. The event which had occurred a few minutes ago couldn't register in her mind. She shut her eyes and let the tears flow freely. A chocked sob escaped her lips, followed by a whimper of pain, no matter how hard she tried to control them. 

After hours of crying uncontrollably, sleep engulfed her, relieving her of the pain for a few hours. The sound of the alarm woke her. She got up slowly from the floor and sauntered into the bathroom. After having a refreshing bath, she stood in front of the mirror and talked to herself.

"I don't like Aryan.....He's just one of the random guys.......I don't like Aryan......" she tried to convince herself.

With a determined look, she opened the door and walked downstairs.

"What happened to you?" Prachi asked as soon as she saw her.

"What are you talking about?"

"Why are your eyes so red and puffy?" Prachi questioned suspiciously.

"I had studied till late night yesterday, so may be they are like this." Shahana lied. "Leave about me, did you sleep yesterday or stay awake the entire night out of excitement?" she said to divert the attention away from herself.

"Stop teasing me and have your breakfast." Prachi scolded.

"Good morning everyone." Aryan appeared and plopped into the chair next to Shahana.

"I forgot something. I'll have breakfast in my room." Shahana got up abruptly. She had decided that the best way was to avoid Aryan as much as possible.

Aryan felt something wrong but dismissed as nothing.

Shahana didn't appear again till it was time to go to college.

"Rhea, can I you drop me to college today?" she went to Rhea ignoring Aryan.

"Heh! You always go with me." Aryan pointed.

"So what? Can't I go with my sister for one day?" she said somewhat rudely.

Aryan thought that she was being atrabilious due to lack of sleep the previous night. So, he didn't persuade her much.

"Is there anything wrong?" Rhea asked once they were on the road and alone.

"No, what can be wrong?"

"I meant, you preferred to come to college with me instead of Aryan."

"Why? Don't you like me?" she asked.

"I didn't mean that." Rhea quickly replied fearing that she may offend Shahana.

"I wanted to plan about Prachi and Ranbir's wedding with you, that's all." she said with a smile.

"Oh! I'm too excited about it." Rhea said easily accepting the lie.

Shahana sighed mentally. All she had to do was fool everyone by acting and lying and she accustomed to doing it proficiently.

-----

When Aryan reached the classroom, he found Shahana sitting beside someone else. As the teacher had arrived, he didn't get the opportunity to aske her anything. On the other hand, Shahana knew that Aryan would try to talk to her after the class, so she decided to rush to the library.

"Shahana.......Listen......." he called out after her but she didn't listen.

Once in the library, she felt safe as she knew that library was one of Aryan's least favorite places in the college. She took out a book and started reading.

"What did I do?" Aryan asked sitting down the sit opposite to Shahana.

"Why can't he make it easy by leaving me alone? It's already too hard to avoid him. But, I have to break our friendship to fulfil my promise." she thought to herself.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I'm sorry if I have annoyed you. You can scold or beat me if you want but why are you avoiding me?" he said solemnly.

"I'm not avoiding you. I'm very busy and don't have time for useless people." she said rudely.

"Did you say me useless? I'm hurt." he replied in a half-joking manner.

"Stay away from me and give me some peace, PLEASE." 

"Hey! Something happened to you. Did someone say anything to you again? You don't have to......" Aryan understood that Shahana's behavior wasn't normal.

"Nobody had said me anything and you don't have to think for me. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Shahana said and got up. "Now don't dare follow me." she stormed out of the library.