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"What have you been doing?"

Sona gave an awkward laugh at her parent's question as she stared at her phone screen. Both of them looked like they were having fun without her around. With her dad wearing his golf cap, it was clear he had just come back from playing at the sports club he went to, her mom too was dressed extensively.

"What will I be doing?" she shrugged.

"Then you just sit and stare at the mountains?" her mother questioned. "I just came back from the kitty party, Tarni's mother was showing me the pictures, why don't you send me some?"

"Oh, I saw them too," her dad said in excitement, his brown eyes twinkling. "Oh, how lovely you looked in traditional Kashmiri clothes. My paari."

"Papa!" Sona whined, feeling a little embarrassed. She wasn't really in her hotel but outside in the garden, the network was nice only in this place and she didn't want her classmates coming in to eavesdrop on her conversation. Most people just sat here because the Wi-Fi was stronger.

"What?" he laughed, the bags under his eyes though seemed to had turned darker. "Come back safe, okay? You are taking proper precautions, aren't you?"

"Yeah, Sona. Don't act too childish," her mother scolded her. "Wear warm clothes even when you are indoors. I will have to ask Abhay to keep an eye on you."

"Mom!" Sona looked appalled. Why ask Abhay to keep an eye on her? She wasn't a kid alright! That immediately reminded her of yesterday and how he had in fact called her a 'kiddo'. Her blood was boiling now. She really felt like wanting to slap his smile away with her lips and dare him to call her a kiddo again. "Don't ask him anything like that!"

"As if that will stop me," her mother just snorted. "I don't have to ask him anyway, I am sure he is already doing that. See, how responsible he is. And look at you."

"Mom!" she gasped, "Papa, see what she is saying! Comparing a 18 year old female to a 21 year old male. How is that fair?"

"The key point is that you both are above 18."

"Papa!" Sona desperately wanted her dad's side. How will she ever survive her mother's verbal attacks alone?

"Now, Sindhu," her dad said. "Stop agitating her so much, it's not good for her health."

"Papa, that's not what I meant!" Sona cried out.

"After you come back, the doctors said they will start your treatment," her dad said, looking at seriously now. "Asthma won't be an obstacle anymore, hmm?"

"Um," Sona blinked the wetness in her eyes and nodded. "Yeah," her voice cracked. How did her dad always know how she felt?

"It probably makes you sad seeing people jumping around like monkeys," her mother put in very comically, though she didn't look like she was joking. "Just a few more days and you will be back home, go and do whatever Abhay says you can do."

"Mumma!" she screeched but the video call was cut off.

Sona angrily pulled the headphones off, stomping her feet as she stormed back inside her and Tarni's hotel room.

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Today they were set to do anything they wished for, which was quiet rare because their college had always kept the first years on a tight leash, like they treated like untrained dogs that would wander where ever they wanted and bite anything that came in sight. While the third years could do anything, so unfair it was. Until now.

"Why are they not commanding us today?" Priya scoffed as she scooped up her breakfast. Sona and Tarni were sitting with some more first year girls, the tables were full today because as New Year came nearby so did the people in the hotel.

"Seriously, right?" Tarni rolled her eyes as she looked up from her phone. "We shouldn't be complaining though, at least we aren't being restricted to only go around 1 kilometre now."

"I heard you and Vikrant. . . . ? " another girl chimed into the conversation, giggling as she continued. "Are you dating?"

"I wouldn't say dating," she blushed, "But we will get there."

"Hey, you mean Vikrant Rai?" another girl asked in surprise. "He isn't a great guy, Tarni. Be careful of him."

"What are you saying?" Priya asked. "He is the most sweetest! The most dreamy! And the way he treats Tarni will so much respect! Don't you think so too Sona?"

Now all eyes were on Sona, she blushed tucking her hair behind her ear as she shuttered. "I-I guess."

"What about Abhay though for us?" another girl piqued, her eyes were practically in shape of hearts. "He is single, na? Is he not?"

"Hey!" Tarni chided, not looking happy at where the conversation was going. "No talking about my brother! He is off limits!"

"But Tarni!" another one whined. "He is so handsome!" she closed her eyes as she sighed. Sona found herself nodding too, almost unconsciously and when she realised she grew rigid and went back to her food with alarmed eyes, wondering if someone had seen the slip up.

"I know, I know," Tarni sounded boastful. "That's because he is my brother."

The whole table broke into scornful chatter at her egoist words, Tarni didn't care as she jerked her neck to the side to get her hair out of her face. The whole time she had her eyes closed with a smirk on her lips.

Sona scoffed under her breath. "Such a Singh she is, is she not?"

"I know," Priya who has heard her to her dismay nodded feverishly.

Sona blushed in embarrassment and she coughed. "Well, she is still my best friend."

Priya laughed and then her eyes widened in excitement, she looked at Tarni and waved at her. "Oh, you are so protective of your brother like he is younger than you but what if Sona and Abhay had something in between them, you won't allow that too is it? She is your best friend, no?"

Tarni narrowed her eyes as her looked at Priya while Sona chocked on the food she was eating. She gulped in mouthful of water looking like a deer caught in headlines as she looked at the girl who had asked that question. She was still coughing, her throat was ticklish.

"That's not possible, dude," Tarni laughed as she shook her head. "We all grew up together, Sona is practically like a sister to me and even to Abhay."

Sona forced out a laugh, her fingers clasping the butterfly necklace she was wearing, even touching it seemed to burn her.

🦋🦋🦋

"Winter Carnival?" the group had moved out, as Sona rubbed her gloved hands together she caught a wind of the conversation the other girls were having. "Where is it?"

"Not far," Tarni clicked her tongue. "But we are going to the skating ring."

"Skating ring!" Sona was surprised. "There is one here?"

"Ice skating ring, Sona," Tarni put her arm around her shoulder as they walked by the road. The market was buzzling like always, the cold wind carrying the smell of pines as snow crunched under their feet. "It will be fun."

"We don't know how to skate," she snorted.

"That's why I have Vikrant and you have Aksith!" she said as if everything was very simple.

"I don't think they know how to either."

Tarni awed sadly, then she turned towards her again with sparkling eyes. "Then it's just you and me baby."

The ring was huge and so it was very crowded too. To Sona crowded places were always a no, it made her feel suffocated but seeing that the people couldn't be shooed away like birds she didn't have much option if she did want to go enjoy Shimla.

They wore their boots attached to the skates, mostly families were around and Sona frowned. She didn't find anyone from college here.

"Youngster mostly come at night," the man who gave them to key to their shoes rack said. "It wouldn't be a lot of fun now."

"Acha, bhaiya," Tarni nodded. "Don't worry, hum log bus hai fun karnai kai liya."

Sona rolled her eyes at her words, sure it would be fun right with no Vikrant around?

"I see the look you are giving me Sona," Tarni's legs shook as she stood up with her hands on the railing. "Don't worry, I actually did call the boys."

"Boys?" she raised her eyebrows, too scared to stand up.

Tarni steadied herself and posed, Sona rolled her eyes and took out her phone to click her picture. "Yes, Vikrant and his friends and even Aksith and bhai, of course."

Sona almost slide of the cemented stair and hit her butt on the cold ice. She caught the railing the last minute, breathing deeply. "Vikrant and Abhay in one mix?"

"I mean," she threw a peace sigh and another click was heard. "He already knows about us sneaking into that party yesterday and he wasn't that angry than I thought he would be so I wanted to see how he would react to me with a boy."

"He gave you a piece of chocolate and you are asking for the whole bar?" Sona smiled sarcastically.

"Shush, Sona!" Tarni held her hand out and pulled her up slowly, Sona's legs felt like jelly. But after carefully standing up she clutched her other hand on the iron railing. "Don't jinx it, okay?"

"Okay." Internally she was laughing at Tarni while she pretended to believe with her in her false hopes. Abhay not trying to murder a guy who was near her? Impossible. She remembered the time when they were young and a guy was pulling on Tarni's pigtails, Abhay had punched him right in the face and also gotten suspended of hitting a junior. That was when he was just 12, the time their bua had shown up at their doorsteps all bruised and battered. Tarni and Sona might have not understood it then but Abhay had, she was beaten up by her husband.

"Let's click a picture!" Tarni titled the phone upwards and Sona smiled into the camera. "Now, wait a minute I have to put it on my Instagram story."

Sona's legs were wobbling, and as she clutched on the railings someone came from behind and screamed giving her a jump scare.

"Ahh!" she closed her eyes, her legs slipping on the ice floor only for a pair of arms to sturdy her. Her eyes were tightly shut and when she opened them it was none other than a bewildered Vikrant.

"Umm. . . ?" a confused noise erupted in the back of her throat.

The boy cleared his throat as he smiled. "Sorry, I was trying to scare Tarni."

"Thanks," her face felt like it was on fire.

That's when Sona turned towards her best friend, Aksith was standing beside her for gods know long as he raised his eyebrows at them. Tarni had her mouth agape.

Sona jumped away from his hold and Aksith caught her hand to help her. "Be careful if you don't want to bruise your butt."

"Don't talk about my butt," Sona gritted out, squeezing his fingers. "I feel like I am signing my death on my own."

Aksith's chest bubbled with laughter, that's when she realised she was standing too close to him but what could she do? It wasn't like she could move backwards in these skates. Oh these bloody skates! She wanted them off!

"Always the optimistic one, aren't you dear Sona?" Aksith said sarcastically.

"Shut up!" Sona rolled her eyes as she slapped him on his shoulder. "Why do you know how to skate?"

"Why?" he laughed, "Shouldn't you ask how? Anyway it's not that different from rollerblading, I fell a few times and learned how to do it right."

"I don't want to fall a few times to learn this," Sona exclaimed in horror.

"Sona!" Tarni held her hand, "Let's go!"

It was so crowded, where did she want to go? Sona squeezed her hand but didn't let the grip on Aksith's hand waver. After all he would be the one to save her, Tarni would make her fall and laugh at her. But as she glanced at the mischievous smile on his face she shuddered, what if he was no different from Tarni anymore?

"Vikrant, why are you late?" Tarni asked, "I thought you'd be here before me, seeing you were the one who actually planned this."

The boy sheepishly smiled, "Well, we found trouble on the way."

"You know Abhay is here right?" Aksith told her. "What will he say when he sees both of you holding hands with a guy?"

"Can we focus on what we are doing?" Sona mumbled, feeling annoyed though her eyes moved around in search of him. She didn't want to keep walking in these skates. "How is this suppose to be done? How is this even fun?"

"See, drag you leg this way," Aksith demonstrated and Sona tried following.

For all she knew this ice skating was not fun at all.

"Look is that Diya?" Vikrant piqued, his eyes moving towards someone in the crowd. In the middle a girl elegantly glided through the ice, spinning around and around on one leg. With the sound of excited chattering going around, many people were filming her too, and as she finally stopped spinning, she bowed with a big smile on her face.

"It is," Tarni looked in awe too. "She's a senior, is she not?"

"Yeah," Vikrant looked more than impressed. "I didn't know she could ice skate so good."

Sona was still watching her as people clapped, her hands were too busy trying to save her life so she could only nod her head in awe. Aksith bent down and whispered in her ear.

"First red flag is when you see him praise another girl too much," his hot breathe hit the skin of her neck, her ears were covered in mufflers.

Sona shot him a glare but then looked back at Vikrant and frowned.

"I will be back, okay?" he skated away without another word.

"Diya is so cool!" Tarni said with astonishment, she cupped her face with her gloved hand, her fingers peeking out of them as she curled them around her face. "I want to learn skating too! Aksith, teach me!"

She almost slipped off from the excitement that Sona had to catch her. "Why don't you stand in the middle?" she nodded at Aksith who rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Of course, of course, I am always there to save damsels in distress."

"We are not damsels in distress!" both the girls snapped at him.

"Geez, okay," his eyes widened.

"Where did he go anyway?" Tarni's eyes searched for Vikrant. Sona looked for him too and then she saw him near Diya who was near Abhay.

"Second red flag," Aksith whispered yet again, "When you see him with the said girl he was talking too much about."

"Why is she with Abhay?" Tarni completely skipped over the fact that Vikrant was there too, instead her concern for her brother rose and all her admiration for Diya extinguished. "Damn, don't tell me all that was to impress my brother?"

"He doesn't look impressed though," Sona didn't know why she said that, she couldn't even see his face up close to know if he was impressed or not.

"Aksith, take us there!" Tarni immediately commanding as she patted him on his shoulder.

The boy didn't look pleased instead he rolled his amber eyes. "Am I a chauffer? Why don't you learn a bit and then you can go anywhere you want on your own."

"Why the hell do you sound like a bird teaching her kids how to fly?" Tarni snapped furiously. "What then? We will finally have our freedom and you won't bother with us anymore? If you really are being a parent where is the love you give to your kids?"

Sona giggled and Aksith grumbled under his breathe something along the line of 'lunatic', 'scary' and 'demon from hell'.

And so he took them to Abhay, though very slowly as they skated with his support. Both physical and moral one, the whole time though he didn't miss a second to ridicule Sona.

"See, it's wrong," he laughed. "The angle is suppose to be a 45 degree—"

Someone knocked straight into Sona and her grip on Aksith loosened, she fell down straight on her butt, the cold ice seeping into her as her eyes welled up from the pain. The sudden impact had her frightened and she could feel her breathing closing up, she fumbled in the pocket of her coat but she couldn't find the inhaler.

"Sona! Are you okay?" Tarni said, her voice filled with concern. Even Aksith seemed shocked, he skated towards her, leaving Tarni behind.

"Sona?" Aksith was helping her stand up but she couldn't breathe. "Hey, what's wrong?"

She was crying as she clutched on her chest, on her necklace. "I-Inhaler," she pointed far away. It was lost in the sea of people, having tumbled and fallen when she had the nasty fall herself. Her chest was paining as she wheezed and coughed nonstop, her tears didn't stop either.

"Sona!" Tarni's face was pale, she looked so scared that she couldn't even move.

"I'll get it for you now," Aksith hastily went up and looked around the various feet of people skating here and there.

Sona closed her eyes, but she could still hear the voices around them and as her vision was fading she felt someone lift her face.

Abhay.

It was Abhay.

"Sona!" his eyes were red, he looked like he had completely lost it as he shook her inhaler and brought it to her mouth. She wrapped her lips tightly at the closing as he pressed onto it and slowly, little by little her pain in her chest was going away. She looked up with red eyes, expecting him to shout at her and he did so, very angrily.

"Is this what you call looking after yourself?" he yelled, his arms still around her. "Do you have no clue you would have died, Sona? You think everything is child's play, huh?"

Sona was still crying.

"Bhai!" Tarni came in, she wasn't wearing the skates anymore and she was just in her socks. Her body was shaking as she kneeled down on the ice. "Stop it, bhai. She is crying."

"And you Tarni!" he faced her, his eyes turning darker. "You are having too much fun on the trip I see, I want to see how long this fun with last!"

His words were bitter and hoarse, blinded with anger and rage. He harshly ran his hand through his dark hair as he stood up with Sona in his arms. She gasped, clutching onto the collar of his jacket, her head was in his chest that was beating wildly. She looked at his face closely, he looked so scared. And just like that he skated away, ignoring everyone and anything around them.

The longest chapter I have written so farrrrr

if you want me to dedicate you a chapter please comment!!