To be able to create fully, it's maybe fine that you learn the rules, but you have to forget and to rebel against those rules.-Philippe Petit

''Thank you doctor, you really have magic not just with your expertise, but also in your words.''

The lady in her late 20s thanked the young female doctor, who was barely 25 years old, but even at such a young age had indeed achieved a lot in a profession where majority took years and years to attain some fruitful accomplishments.

Khushi, or Dr. Khushi Gupta as she was formally known gave a warm smile to the lady standing opposite to her who showed enormous gratitude in return of her treating her baby girl and curing her just in about three days with her prescribed medicines and advise.

For Khushi, there was nothing more valuable than the pleasure she immensely received from her patients or their parents. Their parents, because all her patients were very very young. Sometimes newborns or toddlers, in a nutshell, kids not exceeding the age of 14.

Yes, at the age of 25, Khushi was a popular pediatrician practicing at the equally popular Royal Horizon Hospital in New York City.

While her infectious smile possessed the indefinite magnitude of easing down the worry of every parent who were tensed about their child's health, it was her humble nature and positive demeanor that actually heralded in many people the hope of looking at life differently.

Her friends were no different. Everyone loved her for who she was, how she was.But little did everyone know that within confinements and soliloquy, the woman had her own demons to fight, own insecurities to battle, and own turmoil to live with.

Just that when at work, all these imposters readily agreed to stay at bay, only to strike back with a deeper tenacity when she was all alone.

As she watched the lady leave her chamber with her little baby girl in her arms, Khushi let out a sigh.

She sat on her chair, craving for a short nap, but she knew she didn't have any chance of it, for this was going to be quite a busy week ahead.

And like she thought, her intercom rang immediately, and her PA reminded her, ''Dr. Gupta, this is just to remind you that you have to attend the State International Pediatrics Conference at Upper Manhattan tomorrow.''

Khushi nodded slightly and answered, ''Thanks Tracy. I do remember.''

And she hung up.

Of course she remembered the conference.If there was something that she could happily brag about as her ulterior talent besides her expertise in medical profession, it had to be her strong memory.

It wouldn't be wrong to say that she actually didn't need a PA after all to remind her of her schedule, for she had them all by-hearted by default. But oblivious were everyone to this, that somehow this talent of hers was sometimes more of a bane than a boon.

After all, it's always a blessing as well as a curse to feel everything ever so deeply, isn't it?She sighed as she looked out of her chamber's window, the season of fall reflecting in the ambiance in its utmost glory and for once she needed to take a break and just become lost in nature. She had delved herself so much in her work all these years, that she hardly had any strings attached to a world that was serene and all about nature.

But who was she kidding?

Every individual has their own set of defense mechanisms, and for her, drowning in work was the last but most worthwhile resort.She berated herself for once again letting her mind slip into the cauldron of unwarranted thoughts and decided to get back to her routine, which was of course, her work.

As she opened her laptop and brought the cursor to the address box of her browser to visit the website of the conference to get some brief insights of what to expect at the event tomorrow, she didn't know when and how, she accidentally hit a different button on her keyboard, and instead of R, she mistakenly typed F.

And as if even Google was over-willing to bring her back to a horizon she didn't want to visit anymore, the site that she had royally ignored all these years suddenly flashed as a Google suggestion in front of her.

Her heart unceremoniously skipped a beat as that link instantaneously brought back a flash from the page of her life she totally wanted to forget, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't.

It had been a little over eight years that she had successfully albeit with a lot of effort, refrained from opening the site, giving her highly active social-media bugs of friends the usual excuse of

''I find social networking sites to be useless!'' But now that this weird kind of typing accident happened to her unannounced, she didn't know what to do with it.

She was someone with supreme mind control and sometimes, she actually enjoyed testing her own self and felt this sadistic pleasure of letting her patience stretch and never break.But even she couldn't deny today that since the past fortnight, she had been relentlessly feeling restless, over something she couldn't particularly pinpoint, but it was there. Eating her, bothering her somehow.

And so, she, who would have again let her mind rule over anything else, for a change, let her control slip for a while, and hit enter, opening the same blue-white themed social networking site, the most popular one as the world and statistics called it.

Facebook.

Her memory was as strong as a Tsunami wave and she knew that two minutes of brainstorming would let her easily recollect her log in credentials, but she deliberately didn't ponder or devote any time to that.

Some part of her was already chiding her for letting her control slip, and hence, for the little self-respect in solitary that she had for herself, she wanted to get done with this as soon as possible.

One slip of control. For barely a minute. That's all.

She promised herself, and without wasting another second, she placed the cursor on the public search button, and typed.She typed something she had dared not to even enunciate in all these years, yet the essence of it was hardly away from her innate thoughts. And hence, typing something she was too reluctant to even verbalize all these years, was something that oddly made her feel jittery. But she did so, nonetheless.

Arnav Singh Raizada.

...As the profile loaded, showcasing its minimal content due to privacy settings and of course limited access from Khushi's end, she let out a deep breath, one she didn't know she had been holding for so long.

Quite on their own accord, her eyes ignore the upper left corner of his profile where his profile picture was bound to be located. Her sight rather focused on the details that were mentioned below.

And the first thing she saw was:

Works at: AR Designs (CEO)

So, he did take over his family business.

Somehow, that didn't surprise her.

Nobody was alienated to the fact that AR designs was the number one fashion house in the entirety of Asia, and had already started stretching its wings in the States and other countries as well.

She played with the scroll key of her touchpad, but never really went further to see anything else in his timeline.

Facebook was so changed, she thought.

The last time she had been on it, given the addict she was with this site, it was all so different.Situations were so different.

She was so different.

She sighed as she tried to keep those thoughts away from her, but when did her rebel heart agree with what her mind suggested?

As if hating herself for doing what she was doing, she lifted her gaze, and let it settle on the sight that she had proudly ignored when his profile had loaded.

His profile picture.

Dressed in a jet black three piece suit, his profile picture had him in his side profile, which to her appeared to have been candidly clicked from a business party, for he was holding a glass of champagne in his hand.

Even from a mere profile picture, it all came so well cemented that he was still so handsome, intellectual, sophisticated.But then handsome he had always been, intellectual too. And if any other adjective she could possibly add to that list, it would undoubtedly be a ''player.''

She darted her eyes at his profile bio once again and this time checked his Alma Mater, right below his work profile.

Harvard University for college.

Like she had expected.

And, Greenfield High School for schooling.

Like she had known.

With that thought, she shut off her laptop and rested her head on the headrest of her chair. Her eyes closed on their own accord, and no matter how defiant and firm she was, today even she couldn't help her mind taking her back to the old lanes of her memory zone, somewhere she didn't want to visit, but had to. Courtesy, her stubborn mind and rebel heart.
.

.

8.5 years ago

This was so not her.

And she hated it.

''I need to stop this. I will, I will, from tomorrow. Pakka.''She gave herself a pep talk and yet again, opened her laptop, typing in the words on the address bar that had become her favorite of late.

The whole school was reeling in the latest trend and despite her earlier reluctance, she was no different to the effect of the viral internet charmer.

After Orkut's slow death, Facebook was such a frenzy, and boy, it did have loads to offer!

Why Khushi hated it nonetheless?

Well, all these years, ever since she had started understanding life, it was imbibed in her by her father that her objective in life should be successfully finishing her studies, enrolling into medical school and becoming a successful doctor.

And without any fuss, she had totally complied, not just because it was her father's dream, but it was what her late mother wanted her daughter to become as well.

Her mom, Garima Gupta had passed away when she was only four, due to brain tumor, but she really didn't have any complaints from life. Shashi Gupta, a mechanical engineer by profession and a doting father, had made sure that Khushi never missed out on anything in life.

But for Khushi, there was nothing beyond seeing her parents' dream turn into a living reality and so when her classmates were struggling to solve the problems and learn theories of Grade IX, she was always one step ahead and studying concepts that an XI grader should be learning.

Amidst all this, she became the class' nerd, who was definitely very pretty looking, thanks to her pale white complexion, flawless skin, hazel eyes, and petite figure, but she was not really a fun person to talk to, as often regarded by majority of her batchmates.

But that didn't mean she was a loner.

At Grade XII now, she had a bunch of close friends, and they were pretty close-knit and for Khushi, that was sufficient.

And so when everything had so far been according to her wishes and plan, she sort of hated the fact that she was losing so much of her time to social media, Facebook to be precise, when all she should be doing currently was studying, given that it was their last year in school, and boards were only months away.

However, the moral policing by her own conscience didn't help much and she anyway logged in, and as always, went on to check her friend requests.After accepting two, and rejecting three, she went on to the last request that she needed to accept or reject, when the name it flashed kinda made her heart skip a beat.

Arnav Singh Raizada wants to be your friend.

''Why?''

It was funny that it was the first word that escaped her mouth.She remained still for sometime, before deciding to open his profile and see its content.

She knew he was in her school, same XII grade to be precise, just a different stream.

He was pursuing PCM- Physics, Chemistry, Maths, while she was in BPC, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry, and hence, their sections were different too.But that didn't leave her from not knowing who he was, how he was, and how the entire school was outright gaga over him.

Son of one of the most vital trustees of the institute and the only heir to the Raizada Industries, he was damn intelligent, good-looking, captain of the basketball team of the school, and of course, quite a charmer, given his incessant list of girlfriends just in school life!

But why did he send a friend request to her?

Someone who was not even in his class, way off his league, someone who hardly had three friends in school, and who was only a nerd as many called her to be precise?

She was contemplating a little too much, when suddenly her conscience admonished her for such level of over-thinking. But when it came to deciding whether she should accept or ignore his friend request, nope. Her conscience too was of no help.

Agitated by the timing of things, when she was herself so disappointed for not studying properly and wasting so much time on Facebook, she rolled her eyes and without a second thought, clicked on the 'Accept' button and closed her laptop.

''Why am I even thinking so much! It's not even such a big deal!''She pacified herself and left for her coaching classes, being completely unaware to the fact that her pacifying words could only pacify her, and not change what was inevitable in her life..

As she returned home after a long day in the evening, she was way too hungry.Preparing for boards, keeping up with class assignments, and then getting ready for her competitive exams were actually giving her a whiplash. There was so much on her plate right now!

As she heated the bowl of pasta in the oven and poured herself a glass of orange juice from the kitchen, she headed towards her room, carrying her evening meal and thumped on her bed, multitasking quite efficiently as she opened her laptop once again, and clicked on the pinned tab yet again: Facebook.

She randomly liked a number of posts and photographs, some from her school friends and some from her distant relatives, when suddenly she saw her messages tab showcasing a '1' icon.

Inquisitive earnestly, she clicked on it, and was suddenly taken aback as the message read:

'Arnav Singh Raizada: Thank you for accepting my friend request, Khushi. :)'

She was silently still for a moment.First of all, she hadn't expected a friend request from him. Like never, ever.

And to add to it, receiving a message wherein he was thanking her for accepting his request, was way beyond her understanding.

She was still shocked with the development, when suddenly she paid attention to the words he wrote.

And right at that, an involuntary smile curved up her lips.''He doesn't use online short forms!''

Just like her.

Yes, in their sphere of social media bugs, aka, their generation, when everyone would be using bizarre shortcuts for writing SMS' as well as online messages, for instance, ur, yr, yer, etc., she always preferred to use words as they were, with no weird short forms.

And surprisingly, he had that in common with her too.

And so, letting go of her initial shock and inhibition, she quickly typed a reply.

Khushi Gupta: You're welcome. :)

..She thought of opening a new tab to look into the sample papers of CBSE, when her message icon turned red once again, indicating that he had again sent her something.

Arnav Singh Raizada: So, what's up?

Khushi sighed in return as she fully opened his message page in full screen, and typed,

Khushi Gupta: Nothing much! Just came back from coaching. You?

Arnav Singh Raizada: Same!

Arnav Singh Raizada: By the way, why aren't you showing online? Is your chat turned off?

Khushi couldn't help but giggle at that query, and nodded while typing,

Khushi Gupta: Yeah! Actually I hardly chat on Facebook. If there's an important message or something, I reply directly from message box.

Arnav Singh Raizada: Oh! So you did consider my message important? ;)

Khushi's cheeks colored red in a jiffy as she read that line from him, and her mouth flung open in surprise. The wink in the end of his statement deepened her color all the more! No wonder he had an expertise in charming women! Before she could type anything to that, she saw his message pop up.

Arnav Singh Raizada: Sorry, sorry. Just kidding! But you know, it looks weird not seeing the green dot beside your name. Feels like I am chatting with someone incognito! :( :P

Khushi rolled her eyes at his inference and words, but a moment later, even she was chuckling. This guy was theatrical too, she noted mentally.And with that, for the first time ever, Khushi Gupta turned on her chat, letting the much cliched green dot appear beside her name, and quite instantly, his next words greeted her.

Arnav Singh Raizada: There, there! Now it's perfect! ;)

She smiled at that and what followed later was a two-hour long Facebook chat with the guy, who was suddenly not a stranger to her anymore, and quite unprecedentedly so, for the first time ever, she enjoyed chatting with someone over the web quite a lot..

.

As days passed and the boards neared, there were two developments happening quite simultaneously in Khushi's life.

A. She was super, super busy preparing for her boards as well as her medical entrance exams, and,

B. She remained super, super excited, looking forward to having their daily dose of Facebook chats late in the evening, and sometimes at night.

During this brief time span, they had shared a lot about their lives and connected on many common grounds.For instance, both of them loved their families a lot, and looked forward to big careers ahead. While she wanted to pursue medical science, he wanted to enroll in Harvard and then join his family business.

During this same span, she had also quite unexpectedly told him about how much she missed her mom at times since her father was always engrossed in work, but she loved her father so much for all he had done for her.

In return, he too had opened up to her about how his parents hardly ever had time for him, since they were always busy with business meetings and parties, and so for him, the company of his friends was everything.

Unknowingly, they had suddenly become a secret diary of each other's most innate thoughts, something they quite liked keeping concealed from the world, and Khushi had no qualms for this.

It was as if, they were four persons in the physical vessel of two.Four, because she had two personas, just like he did.In other words, one persona of hers was the one that would chat with him for long hours, open up to him, and the other persona was the one that would be her physical self, when she would see him at school.

And well, the scenario was mirror-same from his end at well.He wouldn't even spare her a glance at school, and go on with his routine, which comprised of classes, friends, basketball, and heading home.

In fact, if Facebook wouldn't have been there and their chats would have been non-existent, they would have themselves thought whether they were the ones actually speaking to each other, and there were people impersonating them!

But there wasn't anything dicey there!

Because in their chats, they would most certainly talk about happenings of the school, and sometimes, it included phrases like, ''I saw your match today! you were great!''

''I noticed you at the extempore competition, you did exceptionally good, Khushi,'' so on and so forth.

And if all of this didn't make her smile enough, Khushi was in for yet another heart-fluttering moment, when suddenly she received a notification, which said: 'Arnav Singh Raizada likes your profile picture.'

And she didn't know why and how, but that realization made her blush profusely and her heart thudded a little louder than usual.

What was really happening to her?

Was this even for real?

She knew that she was almost 18 and at this point oxytocin hormone secretion happened in abundance in human beings, but despite the logical science behind all of this, she didn't know specifically why she was feeling such a surge of so many things all at once!

That night, she slept with a wide smile on her face, looking forward to the next day, which was going to be their annual sports day, meaning they could wear civil dress to school, instead of the usual school uniform..

.

.

The morning came in quite quickly and Khushi hurriedly got dressed for the event.She wore a light blue colored knee length skirt and paired it with a sleeveless floral top, and kept her long tresses open.

She wasn't someone too fond of make-up, so all that she applied was only a line of kohl in her lower lash line and a transparent lip gloss.

And she was good to go.

Adding to that, they could also take their cell phones to school today as it wasn't a working day and of course, everyone would be clicking pictures.

She knew that Arnav was going to play the basketball match today and in some corner of her heart, she really looked forward to watch him play.

Smiling to herself, she left for school...Greenfield High School was totally hustling and bustling today! Rightly so, everyone was super busy, super excited, and in a thorough fun mood as the events of the day began, and people cheered for their favorites, and in between, clicked loads and loads of pictures on their cell phones and digital cameras.

Khushi too was having a great time with her friends Payal, NK, and Lavanya, and her mood was lifted all the more when one after another, she received many compliments from her classmates as well as friends, on how pretty she was looking.

They had hardly seen this side of her, wherein her long, toned, milky legs were showing, and the cute attire only made her complexion be flaunted all the more.Not that it was the first time Khushi dressed or appeared modern.

But in school uniform, her 'nerdiness' as people would address it would look intensified.

Living in the moment and enjoying it the fullest, she looked at the basketball court, where the match was all set to start in 10 minutes, and while she waited with bated breath to see him in the court and win the match, she was in for a surprise, as her mobile beeped with a text message, and she was shocked to see a message from an unknown number, which read:

'You look damn pretty today, Khushi! No wonder the weather is so hot. ;)'

Khushi's mouth flung open reading that text and she needed no genius to tell her who it was from. Before she could even reel further in shock, another message popped her validating her anyway validated inference.

'It's me Arnav by the way! ;)'

''God! Him and his never-ending usage of winkies!''

She rolled her eyes, but from inside, she was having this sudden gush of butterflies fluttering like there was no tomorrow.

She was only preparing herself to draft a reply to him, when suddenly her phone beeped again and the next message from him completely took her off guard.

'By the way, make sure that NK doesn't cosy up to you so much. He's trying to flirt with you! And I don't like it.'

..Khushi couldn't believe her eyes.

Did he actually appear jealous?

That too of NK?

Was it really happening or was today a really, really strange day altogether?

She was only too shocked to react or type anything when she saw the teams enter the basketball court, the audience breaking into cheers, hoots, and claps, and right then she noticed him.

Far away from where she sat of course, yet his eyes boring into her, conveying quite straight-forwardly that what he wrote in the SMS was indeed what he felt.And that gave her goosebumps.

.

.

As the match got over and yet again, all thanks to Arnav Singh Raizada, their school had won, the crowds went gaga once again, joining the host school's team in the ground, while Khushi only waited to catch a sight of his.

It was as if, her other persona was slowly dissipating into thin air, and all she wanted was only for reality to be real, which in this case meant, her talking to him without any inhibitions, right in the school, instead of Facebook or any other digital medium.

But her wait remained only a wait as he disappeared with his team into the boys' locker room, not replying to even the congratulatory SMS that she had left him after the match got over, and that made her crestfallen, her disappointment quite warily showing on her face.

.

As she finished dinner and wished her dad a good night and retired into her room, she didn't know what to think of what was happening.

One moment, she was rejoicing and the next, she was in the middle of nowhere.Was she regretting accepting his friend request that day?

''No!''

She instantly fought back.

This was not about regret, never will be. But it was definitely about haze.

About confusion.

About her own feelings.

And for a meritorious student like her, confusion and not knowing anything properly was the worst kind of punishment that could ever be bestowed upon her.

And so she made up her mind.She will let this confusion go away. For once and for all.She stood up from her bed and walked in slow strides towards the full length mirror on her wall, and stood there, silently still.

She recalled how every ordeal, every insecurity, every nervousness that she had to deal with, she would always come and stand in front of this mirror, talk to herself, and resolve her issue in no time.

Be it preparing for her debate competitions or school speeches, standing in front of this plane glass always worked wonders and helped her connect with herself.

And so today when she did the exact same, how could the result be any different? At one glance, it was only her own usual reflection that she was seeing in the glass.

But on a keener reading, all she could envision was him.

Their banter, their moments, their chats, their arguments, their individual dreams, their talks, their texts, and finally, today.

That one moment from the basketball match.

His look, her thoughts, his words, her feelings.

And so as much as she was scared to admit it, she knew it now. Loud and clear.

She had fallen in love with Arnav Singh Raizada.

And there was no confusion about it anymore in her mind or heart.

.

As much as she wanted to confess her feelings to him, she was apprehensive about what would be his thoughts about it.

Would he laugh it off?

Or would he belittle her?

She hated both the theories and so she tried calming herself before jumping into any conclusion.But right now, her patience was getting unwarrantedly tested, for he hadn't come online since the past two days, and she couldn't even see him in school since the next five days after Annual Sports Day were declared holidays.

If that wasn't enough already, she had tried sending him SMS's but she never got a delivery report for any of the text messages she sent, indicating his phone was either switched off or out of coverage area.

She hadn't even known how he had got her number that day when he had texted her right before the match, because she distinctly remembered they had never exchanged their phone numbers, keeping their chats limited only to Facebook, but currently, she was not even sure of calling him, simply because it felt strange to do so, given that they had never spoken over the phone.

.

.

Trying to give a rest to the chain of haphazard thoughts in her mind, she finally let out a frustrated sigh, and told herself that it was better to let this go for now and rather concentrate on her studies.

Their boards were only a month and half away and she didn't want to take any chance with it. And by and large, she had tried her level best to reach Arnav, and if he really wanted to talk to her, he would do that on his own.

With that, she opened her heavy Biology book and tried devoting all her attention to the chapters.

.

.

.

10 days had passed and frustration had started taking its toll on Khushi.

Since the past three days she had seen him at school, and all that she had encountered was the same old drifting between their alter personas, wherein they used to behave like they never knew each other, in school.

What frustrated Khushi even further was the fact that last night, he had liked her new profile picture on Facebook, which was her wearing the same dress from the Annual Sports Day, sitting on one of the lawn chairs with Payal.

And if that wasn't enough already, he had dropped her a 'Hi!' on Facebook, as if his ignorance was never a factor for all these days, and when Khushi had replied to him with 7 messages in return, mainly asking him, why he hadn't come online, why wasn't he receiving her SMS's, etc., he had not even showed the decency of replying to any of that.

And to top it all, despite all this, today at school, he had once again ignored her.

And that had broken her heart.

.

.

She had always been a strong girl, but for the first time in life she was feeling she was being trapped in a cobweb, that was precarious and she couldn't evade it anyhow.

And just like that, another week passed, and another, and all she now focused on was only her studies.

Today they had to go to the school to collect their admit cards, and after that they won't be having any classes, as they were given preparation leaves for their boards that was all set to start in less than 20 days.

Right before that, they also had their official school farewell, but at the moment, Khushi was least interested about it.

As she collected her admit card from the administrative office, she stepped out from the main building and headed towards the school ground.

This was a place she rarely spent some time in, yet it managed to bring forth a fresh surge of nostalgia, for she could distinctly remember that as a kindergarten student, she used to love playing here.

She smiled at the recollection of that childhood memory and saw how the little kids now in kindergarten were jovially playing in the ground. And that realization hit her strongly.

This was her last year in school.

Her school life was getting over, and after this she didn't even know what course her life would take, where she would go, what she would achieve.

While the future scared her, reeling in this unexpected piece of nostalgia soothed her adrenaline.And as if in a state of trance, she totally missed the football all set to hit her with full force, when a husky voice urgently screamed at her: ''WATCH OUT!''

And her reflex instantly made her duck, evading the storming ball, but in the process she twisted her ankle and gasped in pain, immediately holding the branch of the tree next to her to lean on for support.

And as if on cue, a familiar sight greeted her right at that moment, and all she could do was gasp in surprise seeing a worried Arnav Singh Raizada in front her.

.

.

He was sweating profusely, wearing the school's basketball jersey, indicating he was in the middle of a match when she unceremoniously landed as in intervention. Not that she had any control over it, but right now his concerned face was all that she could focus on, but not for long, since a fresh jolt of pain shot from her leg, making her wince.

''Shit!''

Arnav exclaimed helplessly, as he approached her, and made her lie down on the ground, letting her back rest against the tree, while he held her ankle in his grip, and said in a tone next to aggressive yet concerned,

''Can't you even see properly? What if the ball had hit you? You should have at least stayed alert, Khushi! People are playing cricket, football, basketball, here! You could easily get hurt!''

Khushi wanted to retort, ''Why do you care?'' to his allegation directed towards her, but for some unknown reason, she chose to keep quiet.

And her silence irked Arnav nonetheless.

''Agar tumhe kuch ho jata toh?''(What if something happened to you?)

He said in a tone almost hurt, but when he saw her wince in pain again, he lowered his head, and held her sprained ankle carefully.

''Thoda dard hoga.''(It might hurt a little).

He warned her apologetically though there was nothing he could practically do, but he still assured her that he won't deliberately hurt her through his eyes, as in a fraction of second he twisted her ankle back to let the sprain go away, and in reflex, she earnestly gripped his shoulder, her little fingers curling as they clutched his jersey tightly.

.

.

The pain was gone from her foot long ago, yet there was this unknown heaviness in his chest, due to her rebel heart that was beating loudly, making her feel unknown ounces of feelings that had no parameters as limits whatsoever.

And as she looked at his eyes after a while, she saw that she was not the only one in this.He gazed at her intently, his chocolate brown orbs boring into her hazel golden ones, as if trying to communicate many things leisurely, yet not verbally validating anything.

She couldn't stop her heavy breaths and he couldn't stop watching her closely, and in that spree, he didn't know when, why, how, he inched dangerously closer to her, so much that his lips were only a fraction away from hers, and in all his might, he thoroughly knew that he wanted this, and so did she, when suddenly a voice from behind halted him in his tracks, and he immediately pulled back, his fingers clenching into tight fists, as the impact of what was just about to happen still resonated strongly in the back of his mind.

''Khushi! Are you all right?''

Payal's voice came out loud as Khushi too gathered herself from the moment she was categorically drowned in and regained her composure as she nodded in affirmative and Payal reached her in three long strides, and helped her stand up.

As she finally stood up, and looked at Arnav's direction, she noticed that he was long gone, joining his team at the basketball court, playing perhaps one last match before school was over.
Though she comprehended the pragmatic angle of the situation, something just panged her heart thinking about that incomplete moment, that incomplete wish, their incomplete kiss.And with one final look towards the court where he had just disappeared, she walked with Payal back towards the building.

.

.

It had been two hours since that incident, yet Khushi was still lost in the aura of it. She had studied about ''after shocks'' pretty vividly, but experiencing it literally, she was now. Though she had received her admit card long ago, she was still waiting here, since Payal was yet to get her library clearance done, and being her friend, it would be indecent on her part if she left Payal just like that, only because her work was done.

And for a change, she didn't mind waiting.

She purposely didn't visit the ground again, knowing that she would intentionally let the impact of whatever conspired between Arnav and her two hours back haunt her all the more, and so like a decent young girl, she waited for Payal to come back from the library.

But when did it ever happen that god abided by what a human proposed?

As she continued tossing the pages of their lab journal, she saw from far sight that his match was finally over, and he was heading towards the boys' locker room. At that sight, she sighed.

The locker room was on the other corner of the building, and she knew that in no time, he would disappear back home from that side of exit, meaning, she would never even get to talk to him. And that was something that led her to despair.

She knew that maybe this was technically the last time she was even going to see him because she didn't understand his behaviour, changing attitude anymore, and the very fact that board exam centers too were different, she had little to no hope that their paths would ever collide again.

And so with a headstrong demeanor and determined thoughts, she stood up from the chair and began walking towards the other side of the building, towards the locker room, if not for anything, then only to say goodbye to him and wish him all the best for the upcoming exams, and the future to come, especially his career, Harvard, etc.

But if only she knew that her positivity, determination, best wishes, and courage, all of it was going the drown in a sea of nothingness, she would have never taken that stride.

As she stood outside the locker room, waiting eagerly for him to come out so that she could say to him what she had to and go back home, a jolt of shock took off the ground beneath her feet, as one not so familiar and one familiar voice, echoed from the room.

''So what was with Gupta, huh? You looked all enchanted by her at the ground. I thought you were enjoying the bet of wooing a nerd like her, way off your standard, but what was that look you were giving her?''

''Shut up dude! A bet is a bet! You people challenged me, and I won. She can never be my type! Never was, never is, never will be! School's getting over and the bet too. So none of it matters anymore. And at the ground, the stupid girl had sprained her ankle. So I was helping her, out of humanity! Not because I am her boyfriend or something, get that?''

.

.

As the words hit her like a thunderstorm, she couldn't help the lone tear that trickled down her cheek, her insides churning at the impact of what she heard, her heart shattered into a million pieces as the echoes of every thought, every dream, every wish, she had woven around him broke mercilessly like a delicate piece of glass.

And with a heavy heart, all she could do was clutch her mouth with her palm, lest her sobs could be heard by all, as if she wasn't mocked enough already, and vilified to the point of no return.And just like that, it was the last time Greenfield High School ever saw Khushi Gupta, for she disappeared into thin air.

The boards came and went.

She topped.

Her photograph was flashed in the newspaper, but she never made an appearance.She never appeared on social media again.

Though her Facebook was never deactivated, but she never cared to open that site ever again.

Her mark sheet too was collected by her father, and she didn't even appear at the much talked about official farewell party of the school.It was as if Khushi Gupta never existed in the Greenfield Alma Mater, though she was the state topper of that year.

Neither did Arnav Singh Raizada hear from her again.

Nor anyone else.

.

.

As she opened her eyes, hating to have gone through that dreadful phase of her life yet again, after so many years, she wiped the lone tear that had escaped her eye without any forewarning.

This was past, wasn't it?

A high school incident to be precise?

People were always supposed to move on from their school life miseries, blunders, and mistakes, then why was a part of hers still stuck there?

Like always, she had no answer to this.

And she could actually thank her stars, because right at that moment her PA Tracy called her, informing her that she had a patient to look into, named Adrita, aged 4, and with that, she regained her composure, and let her bad, bad past stay at bay.

Her present was all that mattered.

She reminded herself yet again, like always.

**