"What were you going to say before your dad..." Zac asked the question but trailed off at the end, not wanting to say what had happened on that day.

"I was gonna say, get done perfecting yourself to impress others. Do everything for yourself because, in the end, it's just you and yourself." I replied to him.

"Oh, God! You are always spot on! Where do you get those? Google? DuckDuckGo?" Kesari asked me.

"I get them from my head. I'm a human analyzer, I speak from experience." I defended my point.

"You are speaking my heart then."

"Does this mean, you are going to Bangalore because of Zac? I knew it!" I said it out loud before I couldn't think twice.

"What? Noo! That's not what I said. Is it the reason? No, it's not the reason. Haha, it isn't."

We all looked at him before Jessica decided to say what was in her mind.

"Kesari, everybody here knows it's true. You always wanted to go and study abroad, what happened?"

"You don't want to go to Bangalore? Why are you coming with me then?" Zac asked him.

"I might be confused about what I want, but I know you are the one I need."

It was a statement.

"So, Jessica. You really are going to model? You have good grades; you can go even to fashion school!" Prem said to Jess.

"Says a guy who is turning down a scholarship to go to Chennai, and change the oil in cars!" Jessica rolled her eyes.

"The garage is mine. I'm going to supervise it, and make sure it runs accordingly."

"Prem, whatever! And why are you onto me? Don't you know that Aarush isn't going to university as well?" Jessica asked him.

"Hmm, Aarush's mind is like a constitution. The only person who was able to make amendments was his father, and he ..." Rahul was speaking, but I cut him off.

"Rahul, your girlfriend is going to sit down all day long writing scripts, aren't you concerned about her?"

"What! This isn't about me. My case is different!" Disha half-shouted.

"Totally different. Sid, they're boarding." Harleen said putting down her phone to look at the rest of us.

"I guess; this is goodbye then," Sid said to us, tears threatening to fall.

They pulled us in for a group hug. I could hear Harleen trying to stifle laughter. She was nervous.

"Don't tell me you are going to do this for every plane that'll be boarding!" Raj broke the hug when he said that.

"I love you guys! I'll miss you so much!" Harleen said while getting her two bags.

"Take care! Especially you Aarush!" Sid said leaving us there just looking at them going to the boarding station.

They presented their document before they were allowed to go. They both turned back to us and waved us goodbye for another time.

"Are you going to different places?" Roshni asked Jessica.

"Yes, we are. She is going to study in a different city from where I'm going to work." Jess replied.

"I thought you were friends!" Roshni said.

"We are still friends. All of us here are friends."

"Then why did she leave with Siddhant Chaturvedi?"

We all had to laugh. She always came up with different names for Sid, and it was funny because Sid was just Sid.

"They are going to the same university. In the same city." Jessica answered after that moment of release.

"Ugh, I'm so behind in these grown-up things!"

It was comical having Roshni there. She made the whole thing feel normal even though we were sad deep down thinking of how long it was going to take to meet again. Just like back in school days. Just like the old days.

"I think I heard Bangalore. They're boarding for flights going to Bangalore." Disha spoke up.

"I thought I was dreaming it. Why is it so low? Are they planning for us to miss our flights so they can counter our ticket prices?" Zac said getting up to get his three travel bags and a backpack he'd carried.

"Chillax Zacky! It's alright." Kesari said looking at us.

"I want you two to be happy. I know the university might be LGBT-friendly, but there will be some people who won't see you the same. Be yourselves, and be happy." I said to them. I felt like saying that after I remembered how our friends were when Kesari came out to us.

"Do us a favor, and start to think about yourself as well."

"Zac, that was rude. You have to say thanks first." Kesari said to his boyfriend.

"What! It's true! He is like dear God with all things he does to us, but none to himself."

"I think we should go." Kesari gave the dead eye to Zac and he took it as his cue. "I love you, Aarush. I always will. I wish I could spend another day with you, but I will have to settle with zoom calls I guess."

"That sounds like a love confession to me. Why would you do that?" Zac was again hot on his heels.

"I did nothing. And don't go blaming my damage control when we still have to talk about the damage you did at first!" Kesari pushed Zac forward as they continued to bicker.

"If this is how gay relationships are, I'll have to do a special video for my YouTube channel," Raj said.

"That's just a part of what relationships are. There are more in other relationships." Rahul said looking at Raj with emphasis.

"You aren't fighting with Disha, are you?" Jessica asked them.

"We are not! It's just simple misunderstandings now and then." Disha replied looking at Rahul.

"That is a sentence that screams 'don't buy what I'm saying," Prem told Disha exactly what I was thinking.

"We've been fighting recently, and I don't know what is the problem," Rahul said making Disha upset in a fraction of a second. "I keep trying to understand what I'm doing wrong, but I still don't know what seems to be the problem. Maybe you can help us to figure that out before we kill each other in Delhi."

"You're planning on killing me!" Disha was being extra dramatic.

"I don't know what's happening to you, but if you want things to work out between the two of you, you have to get your heads out of your asses." I wasn't going to listen to their bickering any longer.

"What is asses?" Roshni asked me making me flinch by forgetting there was a barely ten-year-old who was there eating her ice cream as if the world depended on it.

"That's a grown-up topic. I thought you were behind on them." Jessica told her.

She looked at us tentatively before she sighed.

"Fine, but if you are going to Delhi, they are calling you."

Disha and Rahul looked at each other not knowing what Roshni meant, but as the speaker in the restaurant lit up with the announcement, they finally understood what she meant.

"Any words of advice?" Rahul asked us.

"You need to grow up if you want to deal with the grown-up things," Jessica said laughing at Roshni.

"Just don't kill each other, I guess," Raj said.

"Go do you," Prem added.

"Come visit me." Roshni also said.

"Oh Roshni Orha, I will," Disha said pinching her cheeks.

"Yeah, that looks like it hurts," I said before adding what I previously wanted to say. "And, explore, learn more about each other. I see a very great future with you two. It would be a shame after all that you had to go through to find the right partner, you let them go."

They hugged me and Rahul kept saying thanks to me which was super awkward. I didn't want everyone to know I was their matchmaker. I low-key still loved Disha.

Eventually, everyone else had to go right after the couple did. They were called to the boarding station, and Raj had to drive back home to prepare a video for his subscribers. I was also going to take Roshni shopping since Roy took Aryan and Mahir. He had vowed never go to shopping with Roshni ever again.

After going in and out of almost ten shops, she finally had what she wanted, and we were ready to go back home.

¶

"Aarush, you are back!"

It was Priya who came to me as soon as she saw me walking in. I had Roshni's things so she helped to take a few while we went upstairs to her room.

"How've you been, Priya ma'am?"

"Oh, I'm alright. And you? How was shopping?" she was asking more excitedly than she usually was.

"You do know that it was Roshni who wanted to shop and not me, right?"

"You took her there. I hope she didn't milk you out." She laughed knowing exactly Roshni's behavior during shopping.

"I can hear you." Roshni was heard saying.

I laughed along as I took the stairs to the first floor where the kids' rooms were. I was all smiley until I reached the door to my father's room. It stood there like a souvenir. Nobody entered that room since the event back in my sendoff graduation, and that was almost three months prior. It was just heartbreaking that we even had to see the room as we passed through.

"You know; you can talk to me about anything."

"Thanks, Priya Ji. But as much as I would like to talk to you about anything, I don't wanna talk about dad." I had to make it clear to her.

"Then what do you want to talk about?" She asked me as we walked further across the corridor, to Roshni's room.

"Maybe about why you are so cheerful today." She was taken aback, but when she got it, she had it.

"I thought you wouldn't notice. Roy is so going to kill me."

She was acting like a teenage girl making my mind dive away from the timeline. If Roy hadn't planned something stupid to cheer me up, then it was a prank coming to get me out of my comfort zone. I just wished it wasn't the latter.

"Umm, So?" I asked her wanting her to continue.

"Roy took to his knee, and popped the question!"

"Huh?! Roy did what?" I didn't understand what she said.

"You are so dumb! Roy proposed to Tatiana."

"He did what?"

"Yeah, and they don't want to wait for anything. Their engagement will be next month, and the wedding will be in three months from today. How lovely!"

"Lovely?!" I wasn't planning on saying that out loud, but I already did, and there was no going back.

"Don't you think it is?"

"Why now after everyone is gone?" I asked her.

"Jessica is a working model; I know she can work something out at her workplace. And Harleen, she wouldn't..."

"You don't get it!" I had to cut her off.

"What do you mean?"

I wasn't planning on saying it the way I did, but it was the way it was supposed to be said. There are just some things in life that you can't put a filter on them. And that moment, and the words I said, was one of them.

"Jessica and Harleen aren't everyone."

She didn't get it at first, but after setting the shopping bags down, a realization swept through her. And I could see how terrified she was. But that was just the beginning.

There were more coming, and none of us were ready for them. There was no perfect life. Every perfection required some sort of sacrifice which got harder as we moved along.

We had a quality life, but after all that we had gone through, after what I had to face and brave, was it even worth it?

Well, that was just the second most tragic year of my life.

The worst was just around the corner.

I wasn't ready for that.

I, Aarush.