When I got into Rehan's car, I could feel someone's glare boring holes through my back. I exactly knew who the person was so I just ignored it. I hoped that Varun wouldn't do something stupid. Minutes passed as everyone settled into their car whereas Danish and Rehan were still on the porch discussing something when suddenly Varun started blowing out the horn with frustration. Rehan glared at Varun while Danish shrugged and got into the passenger seat. Rehan too got into our car flashing me his signature smirk. I heard Varun's Range Rover speed out aggressively. I mentally pitied Danish as he was supposed to deal with a grumpy Varun tonight.

As Rehan started pulling out of the front yard I thought about the whole Varun-Rehan situation here. I was hundred percent sure that they had had a massive fight in the past but for the love of God didn't they live in the same house? I mean how long could you be rivals with someone you live with? Won't be there a time when they would make up and live like a family? They both put each and everyone they love in a difficult place. The whole gang and family loved both of them and just because of their massive fight people would have to choose. Varun had been ignoring everyone since what not time so at that time Varun wasn't even an option because he was aloof. But things were going to be different from now on, Varun was going to try and I knew the gang would show their full support. On the other hand Rehan would get mad at small things, just because he wouldn't be able to tolerate Varun. This was a mess, a huge mess.

"I was unaware of the fact that you sleep with your eyes open?", Rehan blurted.

"What?", I ask out of confusion.

"Your face looked like you were having a scary nightmare. What's troubling you Ananya?",he asked with concern.

"Your equation with Varun",I said the truth while he froze, not expecting it.

"What is troubling about that?", his grip on the steering wheel tightened, I could see the veins pulsing. He was trying his best to keep his anger at bay.

"I don't know anything about the history you share with Varun and I understand that you want to keep it discrete.From my observation and acquaintance with you all I have figured out that Varun had kept himself closed off since a long time, didn't he?",I knew that I was testing his patience but I had to get this straight.

"Yes, he has been an asshole since two years", Rehan spat while I flinched.

"But now somehow he seems to be trying to open up and the gang is happy about it", I said softly."Rehan please don't make them choose sides". Inwardly I pleaded that don't make me choose sides.

There was silence for a while and then I gave up and turned to look out of the window to see world which was engulfed in the darkness. I couldn't see the stars but I knew that they were there, watching over me.

"Okay", it came out as a soft whisper.

"Huh?"

"Okay, I won't put the gang in a situation where they would have to choose sides", he said with sincerity.

"Thank you Rehan",I genuinely smiled at him.

"I would do that for you",he said inaudibly but the moment I caught it, it scarred the daylights out of me. I didn't know why but the emotion in it was heavier than necessary. I was unknown to that and it scared me.

"I know", I reacted plainly because I didn't want to show him that simple things like that freaked me out. I was already nervous about going to this whole party fiasco while Rehan was unintentionally adding fuel to the fire. Well I couldn't blame him here, could I?

As we neared the party location, I had goosebumps all over body and I was freaking out in the passenger seat. As soon as we parked our car and the moment I saw everyone get out of Varun's car I froze. I couldn't move, I could try to let my embarrassment over my cowardice overrule my fear of socializing however I couldn't see that happening. I wasn't able to move an inch and my body went into a total shut down mode. I was glued to my seat with my knees knocking together and I was shaking with sheer terror.

I dreaded the fist day of school the most because almost every year I was made to change schools. But through years of expertise I had made myself quite invisible so no one bothered me and when it came to hoping in and out of different foster homes, I used to mentally prepare myself for that.In both of the instances I was supposed to meet new people but going to a party was way different from them, there was going to be a huge crowd waiting just for the arrival of the town's delinquent and the famous gang. So going unnoticeable was impossible in this case and that was the reason I was freaking like a drowned cat.

"Look why don't you all go inside and I will bring her when she is ready", I jerked my head towards the voice and I could see Danish standing right beside my window talking to everyone who were now somehow hovering over Rehan's car. Everyone passed me worried glances, I knew Kamya and Naina might be mentally debating whether to leave me with Danish or not.

"Yes, that's probably the best idea", Rehan said from the driver's seat beside me, I had almost forgotten that he was here. He passed me a worried smile and got out of the car handing Danish the keys.

"Are you sure Ananya?", Kamya asked me worriedly. I knew she had been really excited for tonight's party and I didn't want to spoil it for her or anyone of them. I was glad that somehow Danish decided to stay, if it came to worst he could just drop me home and come back.

"I am fine. I just need a minute. You guy's go ahead", I felt so guilty that I might just ruin this night for her so I put on a brave face.

The fact that I just had a mini break down in the car which was witnessed by all of them, I could understand the way they all were skeptically analyzing me. While I was busy having goosebumps, they might have somehow figured out that it wasn't going to be easy for me.

"You girls look too hot okay? Just go in and have fun, I will have this one inside in just a minute Have you forgotten who I am?",Danish finally convinced both of them with his antics. Danish had this mature side to his nature which always lurked around his goofy self. While they left I caught a glimpse of Varun whose expression was unreadable. I could see his jaw clenched which meant that he was mad but his eyes were blank as if he couldn't think.

Soon Danish opened my car door and stood beside me. A gust of the wild wind hit me hard, I didn't know how long I could sit in the car freezing to death or sooner or later I would have to make a decision. But right now all I felt was stupidity.

"Why aren't you saying something?", I didn't dare to look at Danish because it was very unusual for him to stay quiet. From the corner of my eyes I could see that he had his arms folded close to his chest and was studying me with utter curiousness. By this time I had expected him to be mocking me a making a joke out of it.

"I am just checking",he replied monotonously.

"Checking what?", I furrow my eyebrows with confusion.

"How much we are going to have to fix?"before I could decode his words I felt an arm beneath my knees which picked me up. With his other hand he effortlessly unbuckled my seat belt. Once I was free from the restraint of the seatbelt he picked me up completely and hauled me out of the car.

"What are you doing?",I squealed in surprise.

"Getting your 'oh so heavy' butt out of here", he flashed me a Cheshire grin.

"Put me down", I yelled out of frustration.

"As you say Princess",he smirked but nevertheless put me down. Once I was on my feet I processed his earlier words'How much we are going to have to fix you?'

"You don't dare to consider me as a charity case Mister",I eye him indignantly.

"Oh I personally hate that word",he scowled. Then I understood that he too might have been called a 'charity case' before. He exactly knew why I didn't want people to see the vulnerable side of me and unfortunately all of them got a good insight of it today.

"I know",I sigh.

"Princess, it's okay to be afraid. I know we have had shitty pasts but you need to learn to let that go. Just value the present and try your damn best to not have regrets later",he told me sincerely and those words instantly struck a cord inside me. I remembered myself yesterday yelling at Varun and telling him something along the lines of what Danish just said.I was such a hypocrite! I gathered myself quickly and decided to face this head on. I clearly knew what I had to do to distract my conscience from being fidgety.

"How come you developed it so quickly?",I gasped dramatically.

"What are you talking about?",he seemed confused.

"Your brain",I jibed him unexpectedly and his face fell.

"Princess, the one time in years when I attempt to be serious, people like you ridicule me",he whined like a child while I knew there wasn't a bit of seriousness in his words.

"Aww, kiddo try hard next time, okay?",I ruffled his hair spoiling his perfect hairstyle for the party. Pay back for all the times he had done this.

"Hey girl! No one touches my hair", he squealed in a girly voice.

"Come on now, they would be waiting for us", I ignore his whining.

"So, basically it took me being bullied by you to make your nervousness go away. You are weird!",he exclaimed.

"Yeah, that could be one of the ways to get comfortable",I stroked my chin as if I was in some deep thought process. I knew this would irritate him, I loved doing that. Again a payback for making me look like a white clown in the morning.

"You seem to have put your mean girl panties on. Now we are good to go, aren't we?",he spoke through his gritted teeth, probably mentally making a note that he would never try to be serious again.

"Sure",I grinned.

My eyes widened as I took in the jam packed space with the music reverberating around the room making the glass window vibrate loudly. I saw red solo cups everywhere, lining the floor and in people's hands, on tables. That's when I realized that I was at an highschool party and I had finally gotten a chance to do things like the kids of my age do.

"I take that you like it?",Danish seemed amused as now he took me by the arm and pushed me through the gaps of space we got between the tightly pressed bodies. I tried recognizing people from the school, there were many similar faces while some might have been seniors. I saw almost everyone was greeting him as we passed whereas a few girls winked trying to get his attention.

"No this is exactly as horrible as I had imagined it to be,so I am not disappointed",I grinned at him.

"Do you feel dizzy just by the smell of the alcohol? You are blabbering like a weirdo",he seemed frustrated.I spotted Kamya on the makeshift dance floor and decided to let Danish live.

"Your work is done,I will join the girls and now you would be free to attend your winking fairies",I teased him.

"Suits me fine", he grinned waggling his eyebrows and went away.I didn't know where the sudden bravery came from but I found myself experiencing this exhilarating rush which made me want to do crazy things. As soon as Kamya and others caught a glimpse of me, I was engulfed in a bear hug which was life threatening.

"Are you okay?",Kamya spoke still strangling me.

"I will be fine if you don't choke me to death",my voice was ruffled but she might have heard it because she loosened her hold on me.

"I take that you are absolutely fine right now", Naina grinned beside Kamya.

"You like this, don't you?",it was Nia who asked this. I didn't know what gave that away,it might have to do something with the big, fat grin on my face and I made no effort to hide it.

"I do, this is surely better than staying in my room and studying"

"Come on,let's give you a night you would never forget",Naina grabbed my hand as we passed through the crowd I could sense a lull through the full commotion. People were staring and I wasn't surprised because certainly they needed to know everything about the infamous gang and it's members. Kamya and Nia were used to this while I saw Naina getting a bit self conscious but her general confident personality didn't let her falter. Whereas I was having jittery nerves by all the attention we were getting.

My mouth watered at the sight of all the junk food which was placed on a long community table. It was laden with bowls and bowls of chips and dips and numerous boxes of pizzas. There were beer bottles and diet coke for those who refused the consumption of alcohol. Almost all the people present in the party were underage but that didn't stop them from drinking. My feet gravitated towards the food like we were opposite poles of magnet.I reached for the bowl of Cheetos dying to taste the cheesy goodness but my hand was swatted away before I could get to them.

"Bad Ananya!", Rehan appeared out of nowhere.

"But I...",I whimpered at the sight of all food.

"We don't eat food from this table",he was telling me just like my mother who always told me that we don't call people ugly on their faces, a mistake which I always committed.

"That's not fair", I whined.

"You do realize that this bowl might have more germs than a communal toilet?", my face scrunched in disgust as he began telling me how many hands might have been in that bowl which would have been somewhere else before. Let's just say that I won't be eating in any of the parties from now.

"I got you these though",he offered me a bag of same Cheetos and I jumped at it, taking it out of his hold and opening the packet with a lightening speed. He knew that a part of my heart would always be reserved for all kinds of snacks. He stood just there as I oh so gracefully devoured the whole pack. In between I took a moment to glance at my surroundings I saw that Naina and Kamya had went off to dancing while Nia had found a couch where she was talking with some of the kids.I saw Kartik playing a dart game with some of his tech buddies while Danish and Amer both were dancing with random girls. Amer seemed as if he had been forced to do this while Danish was having the time of his life.

"You done little piggy?",I grunted angrily which amused him. He patted my head like I was a puppy and grabbed my hand. He took me to the makeshift dance floor where some of the gang seemed to showing their rocking moves. I saw Naina winking me as we trudged towards them. As soon as a loud song blared out of the speakers,I jumped with excitement. It was all new to me but at the same time I thought that I was this person all along and just needed a little shove to open up. I felt exhilarating and giddy as the people around me started dancing to the song which I seemed to have loved instantly.

Rehan laughed as I started dancing with the song pulsating in my whole body. I didn't protest when he placed his hands on my waist as he too began moving with the same pace as mine. Instinctively I placed my hands on his shoulders as we both allowed the catchy beat to guide our steps, singing along the song in the most hilarious ways possible. We couldn't seem to stop laughing as we brought out the craziest steps.Soon Naina and Kamya joined us while Rehan loosened his hold on me but still kept his hand on my back. Kamya seemed to zone out for a while and when I followed her line of sight I could see Danish pressed up against a girl. She tried to hide her change of expressions but I wasn't oblivious to that.Before I could go and ask Kamya to do something about that, I accidentally locked gazes with Varun.

He had got Mahira in his arms while she was facing away from me. I didn't know why but I was eternally grateful for the fact that she couldn't see the murderous look which Varun was passing towards me and Rehan. I quickly let Rehan go, letting my arm which was wound around his shoulder fall to my side. He realized what I was doing and let me go.He was standing beside me and saw what I saw, which was a very angry Varun Khanna. It wasn't jealousy or sadness which shone in his eyes, it was mere anger, a murderous one. He looked at me as if he was about to kill, his rage wasn't directed towards Rehan, I was his target today. All I saw in his eyes was repulsion and hatred for me. What had I done?

Mahira would have sensed the discomfort in Varun's stance because immediately she turned around and locked her gazes with mine.I saw her grinding her teeth and graced me with her limitless wrath as she looked at me with so much hatred that I started feeling nauseous. Her eyes turned into slits when she noticed Rehan's hand over my shoulder which he might have thought would comfort me. What had she do with Rehan now?

"We should go", I whispered, keeping my eyes on Varun and Mahira.

"It's their problem Ananya", Rehan replied. Kamya and Naina were still dancing a bit away from us, the space being so packed that they didn't have any idea about the hurricane brewing over here.

I saw Varun clenching his hands, knuckles turning white and gritted his teeth making an effort to remain silent, his murderous form excluded an animosity which was like acid-slicing,potent and burning. Beneath his anger there was a tinge of hurt, sadness and betrayal which was so unjustified. Still it had the worst effect on me as I burned from within. How could you hate someone so much? Was this morning and the whole day a dream for me? He had behaved so nicely today then why did he snap this instantly?

Next thing I saw was that Varun grabbed Mahira, turned her towards his side and before she could react he placed an arm behind her neck and slammed his lips on her so roughly that it almost looked painful. Though it might not have been so painful for Mahira as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to reciprocate what he had started.People around them seemed to be enjoying the show as they hooted and whistled.I felt like a freight train was running over and over and over me. I pushed past Rehan who had been witnessing everything, I pushed past everyone who had been laughing ,drinking and dancing.

I didn't see Kamya , Naina or anyone from the gang and I was grateful for that because the last thing I needed was them to see me like this.When I am in clear space, I went down a winding hallway in search of peace and quiet. As if my wish had been fulfilled a guy stumbled out of the room smelling like alcohol and I knew that it would be the bathroom. I hoped that he wouldn't have made much of a mess, when I saw that the bathroom was pretty clean I went and locked myself in.Once I was all alone I slumped down beside the wall bringing my knees to my chest.

What was I thinking?

I was overwhelmed by the amount of hatred he had for me. Right at this moment I wasn't sad or hurt because I didn't expect him to be my best friend within a day or a year or ever. I had just expected him to not hate me.The expectation was only due to his behavior towards me today, I thought he had gotten over this. I got out of the party just because I couldn't be subjected to that amount of hatred when I wasn't at any fault.I knew that the sight of Rehan irritated him but that didn't justify his hatred towards me. I couldn't take that anymore.

I was pondering over this when suddenly the door burst open and I jumped up in surprise.My heart beat went into over drive as I took in the intruder and my skin started to crawl for the worst reasons possible.