FORTY-TWO

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★★★

Zain's Pov

"So, what do you say?" Ranbir asks as he shows us the pictures which he and Aarav selected to show us of the place we will be travelling.

"Beautiful," I nod my head looking at the scenic picture in my hand.

"Yeah, it has great reviews." Varun says and we look at Abeer for his take when we found him typing over his phone.

"Dude, who do you keep chatting up with? It's been days now and you haven't said a word to us." Aarav whined and threw a chip at him which Abeer caught and ate.

"Just someone I met online." He answers and I shake my head. He keeps making friends online and eventually they take advantage of him.

Just last month some psycho told him that his father is sick and is in need of some money, this idiot sends him fifty thousand rupees and next day his so-called online friend was missing. He had blocked Abeer's number from everywhere.

"You still want to chat with someone after what someone did with you last month?" Varun asks shaking his head at him with disappointment in his eyes.

"Come on guys, not everyone is like that. The last one was bastard I agree, but I can't say the same about her," he says pointing at his phone.

"Her?" Aarav suddenly went from bored to excited. "You sure that the person you're taking with is a girl?" He laughs and Abeer glares at him.

"Yes, I'm sure she is a girl." Abeer says and I was about to say something when Ahana walked in. We were at Ranbir's place when she told us that she was coming here with Aria to tell us something.

"I have a great news!" She says as she sits on a chair as Aria joins me on the bed. I forward her the bowl of chips as she takes it and gives me a smile in appreciation as we look back at Ahana.

"What is it? You not coming with us on this trip?" Aarav joked which gained a glare from almost every one of us. He chuckled and raised his arms. "Geez, I was joking." He says and mutters a 'sorry' looking towards Ahana.

Ahana shakes her head and smiles. "No Aarav, you're not so lucky, I'm coming with you." She says and Aarav laughs and she looks back at all of us. "My brother is coming!" She says excited.

"Your brother Keith or your brother Benny?" Varun asks confused.

"Keith, so there is a little problem too." She says and I frown.

"What?"

"Keith is actually going to come the same time we all are going for a trip, so it's a little...you know...messed up," Ranbir says.

"Why can't he join us?" Aria asks from beside me and I nod in agreement.

"You want him to join us?" Ahana asks making sure making us look at her with a frown.

"Why? You thought we-"

"Yes, exactly what she thought," Ranbir says narrowing his eyes at her. "She thought we wouldn't want a kid to join us."

"Oh, come on Ahana, you know us better than that. I will just book one more ticket." Abeer says.

"We already decided where we are going?" Aria asks confused from beside me.

"No, but Ranbir and Aarav just found this awesome place and we all liked it, why don't you two have a look," I say and show the girls pictures.

I was looking at Aria, she was looking at the place mesmerized. "Oh, I've been here. This place is actually wonderful." She says.

"You did? When?" I ask curious.

"Family trip." She says and shakes the picture in front of me. "We actually saw tigers here!" She says and sounded excited and I smiled and decided to thank Ranbir and Aarav for selecting that place.

"What the fvck? What are you guys taking about?" Abeer finally keeps down his phone and looks up at us and takes the picture from Aria's hands.

"Guys I said no jungle, why do you always do this?!" Abeer whined as he looked at the pictures.

"Come on man, don't be a baby." I say. "Aria just said the place is amazing." I say and aria nods her head.

"Yeah, the place is beautiful and there are all the security majors taken seriously so you don't have to worry." She tells but Abeer still shakes his head.

"But I hate jungles!" He says again.

"How many of you vote not to go here?" Aarav asks and no one raised their hands except for Abeer.

"Are you serious?" He asks looking around. "Come on guys, for fvcks sakes it's a jungle."

"Exactly!" Ahana says and we nod. "It will be so much fun; we would even see some wild animals." She says and Ranbir smiles.

"I agree," I say and Aria nods. "We all want to go to the jungle, so Abeer, gear up. We are going to Satpura Forest." I see him crunching up his face but muttering a yes under his breath.

I smile at Aria and we all decide the dates and timings we all will be going. After a two hour discussion we all left Ranbir's place. I take Aria along with me after a lot of pestering.

"Why is Abeer so scared of Jungles?" Aria asks as we sit on one of the rooftop cafes. It was almost five in the evening and the cool air flowing around us was really refreshing.

"That's actually a funny story, he said once he had this wild dog running after him for whole ten minutes because he accidentally stepped on its tail." I chuckle as I remember him telling us that, though I know this was only the half-truth. He doesn't want us to know what exactly happened with him. Fair enough, because as it is, we tease him about the wild dog so much.

"That's not a laughing matter Zain, what happened then?" Aria tried showing seriousness but I could see she was close to laughter.

"The help showed up and stopped the dog." I say and she chuckled.

"Anyway, I should get going now. Exams will start next week." Aria says and I nod. My exams start three days later but who is worried?

"Yes, I'll drop you, but we are meeting tomorrow right?" I ask and she frowns.

"What's tomorrow?" She asks confused.

"The date," I say with a flirty smile.

"When was that decided?" She asks close to smile but didn't show anything.

"Right now." I say and winked. "So? Will you?" I say, trying not to be subtle about it, but failing hard.

"What time?" She asks instead.

"So, you're going?" I ask excited.

"Uh...huh," she nods her head.

"Great, then I'll pick you up at 7.00 pm." I say and stand up.

"Okay, so, where are you taking me?" She asks as we walk down towards my bike. "Please don't say circus!" She says and I laugh remembering what happened last time.

"No, it's not circus. Let's keep it a secret, shall we?" I wriggle my brows as she rolls her eyes but nonetheless nods her head.

I drop her at her house and go to my home. Mom is already waiting for me for dinner.

"Hey maa," I say once I had freshened up and sat down for dinner with her.

She was looking at me with an excited plus accusing look.

"So, Zain, what's up with you lately?" She asks and I frown.

"Nothing interesting, my exams start three days after, you already know about it though," I say and take my first bite of my favourite paneer.

"Right," she nods and goes back to her food.

A moment of silence later.

"Want to tell me who is Inaya?" She asks all of a sudden and my hand stop midway to my mouth as I stare at her dumbfounded.

Inaya? How does she know about her?

"Mom...she..."

"And who is Aria?"

★★★


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