"So you told him that you were in a relationship since you were nine?"

Sushi smiled at the latest watsapp message from 'AA', Anonymous Amigo. She had no idea about who that person was  and she knew that she did not need to either.Their friendship had started with a lot of 'tell me, who are you?' and 'I am going to block you if you do not tell me your name', I am pretty sure that you will make the correct guess as to who typed those messages. AA did not give away his name, neither did he give up. He started the "a joke, a day" strategy and Sushi just could not block him.

One day, he sent a joke about some disastrous marriage proposal and Sushi replied him with one of her own experience.He did not sent any message for two days and Sushi started getting worried so she sent a 'Hi' to him and he replied with a joke. Since then. they had been really good friends .Even if she had never seen him, she used to tell him about all of her proposal related issues, for some really weird reason, she felt comfortable chatting with him.

"Yep!" she could feel him laughing at the other side of the phone. She had never seen him. She did not even know his voice. She knew that AA was a male only because he let out that information. She felt connected with him, again, for some weird reason.

"It is funny but it still did not top your reason of being an AIDs patient," He sent. Then he sent about three rows of laughing emojis.

"Hey, girl friend!" Thomas took a seat beside Sushi and she knew that her 'AA' time on the bench under the mango tree was totally interrupted.

She typed a quick 'bye' to AA before keeping the phone back inside her bag.

She scratched behind her ears with raised eyebrows as she bit her lip and moved a little further from her fake boyfriend.

"Have you planned any surprises for me since valentine's day is coming up?" He smirked and moved nearer to her (not so near that his mint breath fanned her neck or that his masculine cologne filled her nostrils ,like in other wattpad novels, only a little closer) "I have planned a lot for the valentine's day, I will take you on a date to the best restaurant in the city and we will have the best Sushis for dinner because I love you, Ma Belle!" He kept a hand on his heart and sighed dramatically as Sushi stared at him with an open mouth.

"I have even a better idea for our tenth anniversary," he almost shouted the word 'tenth' as he clapped his hand once and batted his eyes."I will take you to the most romantic place in the city, a grave yard and buy a lot of roses for you so that I can bury you underneath it," He moved his face closer to her ears and whispered "Alive!".

He scratched his beardless chin and said, "The only problem is that I do not know when the anniversary is!" He kept a hand on his heart "Damn it!, I did not even know that we were a couple". He raised from his seat and knelt infront of her as he tried to act like he was crying "Forgive me ,Ma Belle, Forgive me"

He plucked a grip of grass and held it infront of her, the other hand on his heard and his head held low, he said "Oh , I am a sinner for I knew not of the love story in which I am the Romeo"

Sushi looked worriedly around her to see many students staring at them. Some of them looked at them as if a snake had given birth to a frog while other's looked at her with pure jealousy.

Thomas looked at her and pouted.

"Okay, Stop the drama at this instant , Mr Thomas!" Thomas obeyed Sushi's sudden command and she stood up from her seat to glare at the audience. She sat back after making sure that everyone had dispersed.

"Who told you?"

"Who would have?"

"Professor Salahuddin?"

"Precisely!"

"When?"

"When would he have had?"

"So that is why you were called to the staff room?"

"Yep!"

"Okay, I will explain you about my situation," She sat beside him and exhaled heavily as she tried to make up another tale. "Thomas, I actually...umm"

"Sushmitha, can we talk later. I have an important task to do right now" He said as he looked behind her. All the confidence and cockiness had drained in a matter of seconds. His eyes did not meet hers after the question and curiosity caught her, pretty strongly.

She turned behind to see her best friend approaching her while looking at a book in her hand. She was about to collide with someone when Sushi called her name.

"Yeah ,we can deal with this lat-" She turned back to see an empty spot beside her.

Something smells fishy, a little too fishy.

"Why did you agree that he was with us?" Shahma asked and dropped beside her. She was a little annoyed that Sushi added a third character to their tale without speaking with her. Moreover , Sushi had acted like she and Thomas were really good friends. No, not just good friends.

"I want to make sure that when I stay for the elections this time, I win, Thomas has a lot of fans and friends . A mere acquaintance with him could gain us bags of votes," Sushi kept her hands on her lap, one over the other as she found a perfect lie for cover. Sushi had stood for election in both her first and second year but lost both the times. She wasn't much of a political leader but she always loved doing crazy stuffs and an election was a crazy stuff according to her.

"If you were popular boy's beloved sister,  you could get thousands of votes" Shahma pinched her lip and looked at the clear sky, "If you are a popular boy's friend, you could get hundreds of votes" she looked back at Sushi, " however, if you are his girl friend, you ..."

"I...?"

"Well, Jealousy is a strong emotion!"

"Oh Shawarma! Stop beating around the bush!"

"I don't see a bush that I can beat and I do not wish to beat around this mango tree" She patted the tree.

"You know what I mean..."

"And you know what I meant,"

It was true Sushi knew what Shahma meant but she did not know how to manage it. She would be in great trouble if she chose to use more instant lies.

" You are so polite when you speak to others, why are you so annoying to me?"

"Oh, I am acting way better than how you would have acted if you knew about my relation ship from a source other than me"

"Shahma!" Sushi pouted.

"Sushi, why didn't you-"

Shahma suddenly stood up and Sushi followed her eyes to see Professor Salahuddin. He nodded at a smiling Shahma  and walked ahead without even looking at Sushi who was still sitting on the bench. She felt a little uncomfortable at the gestures between her best friend and the new Professor.

She knew that both of them were looking for suitable life partners and she wished that there would be a spark between them because as far as she knew he was a really good guy and he could be someone who could keep her bestie happy forever .

Something she did not know was about the boy who was hiding behind a mango tree in front of them and looking at Shahma with a heart that was beating very quickly.

Shahma sat down and flipped the pages of the novel that she had just taken from the library. It was 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte. The book was about the unbelievable love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Love is crazy and it effected the lives of the characters in a really bad way. Shahma did not know about the craziness of love however she did later...

Shahma was pulled out of the trance as Sushi cleared her throat.

"Yeah?" She closed the book and kept it aside.

"Wasn't that Professor Salahuddin ?" Sushi pointed at the retreating figure with her thumb.

"Yeah," Shahma started playing with her hijab as she stared at the blue sky.

"Did he nod at you?"

"Yeah," Shahma smiled at her best friend.

"Shahma , I am not conducting a yes or no quiz here, lady, spill it!" Sushi frowned.

"Nothing, he just helped me in picking this book so we talked, thats all"

"That's all?"

"Yep,"Shahma made a pop sound to pronounce it.

Yeah, your goofy grin shouts that that was all, come on,Shahma . Time to wear a Sherlock's hat. I will have to buy one from Max today itself.

"Speaking of Professor Salahuddin, " she kept her closed fist in front of Sushi's face, like she was going to shout a slogan for a protest.

"How do you know him?" She raised her index finger.

"What did you have to talk about after the class?" She raised her middle finger too.

"Why did he think that Thomas was your boyfriend?" She added ring finger to the 'raised fingers army'

" And why didn't you deny him?" She raised her pinky finger and then looked at Sushi with a sly smile "Never mind the forth question," she folded her pinky.

" Professor Salahuddin accompanied Amar when he came for the bride seeing ceremony" Sushi folded Shahma's index finger.

"He wanted to console me after his friend's rejection and did not want it to affect my studies." Shahma's middle finger was folded and naturally her ring finger bowed.

Sushi had to be very careful when it came to the ring finger. She should not spill up because she knew that it would great a big mess. She folded the ring finger very slowly, allowing herself to think a little.

"He must have thought about Thomas as my boyfriend as we reached the class together...I guess" She shrugged, "and I did not deny him as I was shocked by his outrageous thought. I mean me?...a boyfriend?"

"You? silenced by shock? Oh please!...I might have if I were in such a situation but not you, you are lying!"

Sushi knew that she had to pull an emotional card to silence Shahma from asking all the questions.

"No, Shahma... really" she made her face look numb with no emotions displayed, " Many people simply say that I too am going to act like Shamna and elope, I hate it when they look down upon me and his question reminded me about them.

Even if Sushi was pulling an emotional card for Shahma, she herself knew that the topic was a little sensitive to herself. She would never let her parents go through a sudden shock and shame like that. She could not still understand why her sister took a drastic step and chose her love interest over her parents.

However, she could understand why her parents were anxious about her. All the relatives and friends did a great job in making her parents lose their trust on her.

She once tried talking about her disinterest at marrying with her parents but it only shortened the intervals between the marriage proposals.

She had overheard her grandmother suggesting that she might be in a relationship from outside their community and her disinterest might be a cover to earn time before an elope. She facepalmed then and there as she realized that her parents and relatives needed more time to heal.

Something warm flowed on her cheeks before she was pulled into a warm embrace by her best friend.

Shahma hugged Sushi as tight as possible. She hated it when Sushi was weak. She hated it when Sushi cried. Sushi was not a crier and she had only seen Sushi cry a few times, the ugliest when her sister eloped.

She cursed herself for reminding Sushi about it.