★★★

Zain's Pov

Misunderstanding?

Two years of pent up frustration over a misunderstanding because someone I loved never trusted me?

I feel like breaking something right now. I was walking towards my college to collect my bike. Do hell with Aarav and his two hours' drive, I can't stand to sit here for so long.

As I reach my college, I start my bike and ride towards my home. All the while replaying my and Aria's moments.

Our meet.

Our kiss.

Our hug.

And one misunderstanding.

And everything was over. I sped the engine as I made a sharp turn towards the corner of my house and stopped the bike in front of my house.

My mom who was standing in front talking to some neighbour aunty kept her hand on her chest startled. "Do not ever ride your bike like that!!" She scolded me as I nod my head and walked inside.

I wanted to break something and I have to do it fast. In the rush I forgot to see Varun's car was parked outside my house.

"Dude are you okay?" I heard Varun ask and that's when I realized he was at my house and in my room.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. His eyes widened at the tone of my voice.

"There is something wrong with you, tell me?" He demanded walking towards me.

I just narrowed my eyes at him but didn't answer. I went and sat on my bed with my hands fisted. "You didn't tell me what are you doing here?" I ask him again.

He sighed and looked at the back of my head. "Your mom called me, she wanted to see some samples of the interior she wanted to do next week," he tells and I remember, his mom must've sent him with the book. His mom was an interior designer.

"But you still haven't told me what's wrong with you?" He asked and took the chair of my desk and sat beside me.

"Nothing." I mutter under my breath and avoided his gaze.

"Yeah sure." He says not believing me. "If it's nothing then you shouldn't be having any problem to come with us for a party, right?" He asks and I look at him confused.

"What party?"

"A bachelorette party that my cousin is having and I've already invited the boys." He tells me and I see a challenge in his eyes daring me to refuse.

"But why do I have to go?" I ask irritated.

"Because you just said there isn't anything wrong with you, and you've only one way to prove it and that is you're coming to the party with me." He declares and I roll my eyes.

"There's seriously nothing wrong with me." I try convincing him. I really didn't want to go to party. I just wanted to be alone today.

But to think about it- maybe I should go, it'll distract me from thoughts about Aria.

"Okay." I tell him and he looks at me surprised, clearly expecting an argument before he makes me agree on going to a party with him.

"Okay then, I'll text you the location, be there at eight sharps." He tells me as he smacks my back before walking out of the room.

"Yeah. Whatever." I mutter under my breath and close my eyes.

●
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"You're late." Ranbir says narrowing his eyes at me.

"Yeah just a little late." I say shrugging my arms.

"Exactly one hour and forty-five minutes late to be precise." Abeer informs from beside me and I gave him a lazy glare.

"What took you so long though?" Abeer asks.

"Just stuff." I say and I see Aarav coming in front of my vision with a frown on his face.

"I swear if you give a short answer one more time, I'll punch you." He said with a glare.

I stared at him with an emotionless face and snorted. "Okay." I replied.

Aarav was about to punch me when Varun stopped him and pushed him behind.

"Okay now, you guys are here to enjoy the party not to fight." He states and glares at Aarav who looks pissed off at my behaviour.

I roll my eyes and stop the waiter who was serving drinks and take a mocktail from his hand and gulp it down in one go. Ahh yes...that felt good.

As I opened my eyes, I saw four pair of eyes looking at me with concern. I sigh and roll my eyes, "Guys I'm fine." I tell them.

"Yeah and I'm a girl." Abeer says not believing me.

"Okay something clearly happened at Aria's place, tell us!" Ranbir asks and the rest look at me confused.

"You went at her place?"

"Why would you do that?"

"Did she tell you she's pregnant?"

I glared at Aarav who obviously asked that last question.

I looked at all of them and thought about telling them. What's the harm anyway?

"I got the answers as to why I was not getting responses from her." I tell them and their eyes turns into one of realization.

"What was the reason she didn't try to contact you?" Aarav asks and I look at the glass in my hand.

"Inaya," I answer as their faces turns into confusion.

"What did that blockhead do?" Abeer ask and I almost snort at the name if it wasn't for the sadness I was feeling thinking about Aria and her trust over me.

I tell them what all Aria told me, the message and that fucking earring fiasco.

"She didn't call you over an earring?" Ranbir asks unbelievably.

"Not precisely, she was under an impression that Zain was playing with her, I mean I don't blame her, what else would she think if a girl who hates her guts comes and tells that she is dating her boyfriend and shows her the same jewellery he brought for her some days back?" Varun asks and I was speechless for a moment.

"But that still doesn't lessen that fact that Aria believed her lie, she should've believed Zain." Aarav tells and this time Abeer shakes his head.

"I'm with Varun in this one," Abeer says and looks at me. "Try imagining yourself in her place Zain, she was all alone, then she befriended Inaya who backstabbed her because of something which wasn't even her fault, as far as I remember they had a fight after the treasure hunt game, whose fault goes entirely to you." He says with narrowed eyes and I nod my head.

That I take the blame on, if it wasn't for me, nothing like that would've happened but knowing Inaya, she would've done that anyway.

"But what about trust? She was her girlfriend she should've trusted him?" Ranbir asks and I see Varun roll his eyes.

"Girlfriend? For exactly how many days were they in relationship Ranbir? As far as I remember, maybe seven to eight days before we had to get back to our cities, and Zain I remember you behaving like an asshole at the start of the camp." Varun narrows his eyes at me and looks at Ranbir.

"And you wanted Aria to trust him?" Varun says pointing at Zain. "Zain and Inaya knew each other since school days and it may have made Aira think that there was indeed something between the two and there was no one for her to clarify her doubt that time, she had already left and your message clearly said don't try to contact, even if that message wasn't from you." Varun says and Abeer continues.

"And god knows what that Inaya may had been feeding in Aria's head all the time we weren't with her in the camp." Abeer mutters and I was stood still in the same place. It was as if someone had slapped a reality in my face which I had been ignoring because of my reasons.

"I understand your words Varun, but she should've at least called once, at least once for the clarification?" Ranbir asks and this time Varun nods his head.

"Yeah apart from her mental state I can agree to those words, she should've at least called once and cleared the misunderstanding." Varun agree and drink a sip from his soda.

"Guys can we forget about it for now?" Aarav asks breaking the silence between us. Each of us were in our own thoughts.

"And Zain, it's time you forget about Aria and search someone else, come on I'll help you." Aarav says with a wink and pulls me towards somewhere while the boys snicker behind me except for Varun who shakes his head with a stern face.

Just thinking about someone else makes my stomach churn in a bad way. Even if I thought that I've moved on, Aria's memories don't let me forget her.

"Aarav no man, I don't want to-"

"Shh...shut up, trust me" Aarav says with a smirk on his face and I looked at him confused. Why do I feel like there is something else he is planning apart from introducing me to some random girl?

"Hey Mishka!!" Aarav calls for a girl who was standing beside some boy having a drink. She looked same age as us.

"Aarav no please-" I was cut off as Mishka came with a wide smile on her face towards us.

"Hey Aarav, how are you?" She asks hugging him and look towards me.

"I'm fine, by the way meet my best friend Zain, actually I have some urgent business so can I drop him off to you for some time?" He asks and my eyes widened.

She wouldn't dare-

"Of course," she replies with a genuine smile directed towards me.

"No that's okay I will be leaving-" I was cut off when Mishka chuckled.

"Don't worry I don't bite," she says with a wink towards me as Aarav snickered standing behind her.

"Yeah Zain she is vegan." Aarav says and Mishka laughs at some internal joke with him.

Aarav then leaned towards her and said something in her ear that made her eyes twinkle. She looked at me and smirked.

What are they on?

I frown as Aarav left with a smirk and a wink towards me. That Asshole.

"So.." I was cut off by a sultry voice of Mishka as she inched closer towards me.

★★★

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