To not tell Gaurav about Aditya being of the same age as Vikram, was a conscious choice Vikram made. It was a wild card for him. When everything else failed, that was when Vikram would use it. To knock Aditya out of this game. Checkmate!

As he had very clearly enunciated last night, the game was on. Although Vikram was not sure what the game was. It was not like they had sat down and laid out rules of what they were supposed to do. In fact, last night was the most number of words either had ever spoken to each other, ever. So despite being sure that he was going to make Shruti his girlfriend, Vikram exactly wasn't sure how.

"Where were you last night?" Shruti asked with a smile when Vikram reached the school the next day. It was disappointing to see that she was still sitting on the seat in front, instead of next to Vikram but he didn't dwell on it. He was going to change everything soon.

Vikram cocked his head to the left in smug amusement. "Why?"

He noticed that Shruti had the last page of her notebook open that was full of scribbles and nonsense and then Vikram's eyes fell on Aditya's name crammed up in there somewhere- right next to hearts.

A flush of ugly hate rose up Vikram's stomach and settled somewhere in his throat.

Yeah, nonsense alright!

"I called you, four times."

Vikram blinked. The ugly heat was cooling down now. "You did?"

Shruti nodded. "Were you not home?"

Well he wasn't but that was far later than the usual time Shruti called. Could it be possible that he didn't hear the phone ring over his earphones? That was a possibility, right?

"I was asleep." Vikram said, omitting the fact that he had walked out of the house only to find Aditya and wager up a stupid challenge with him, if it could be called a challenge.

Shruti turned around completely until her hands were on Vikram's desk. Her light curls brushed against the edges of the table and a few strands fell on Vikram's stretched hands. Shruti casually flicked her hair back from the right and it just floated in the air for a second before softly settling down on her back.

Vikram watched each moment intricately. Shruti blinked twice before smiling at Vikram and he could feel his own smile creeping up.

"So I have something to tell you. Aditya and I are going on our first official date this Sunday." Shruti said, a hint of mischief acting up her face. She lightly licked her upper lip before biting down on the lower and all Vikram could think of was what it would feel like to touch those lips, to bite into them softly, to lick them with his own...

And then, his vision was intruded by Aditya who was taking Shruti's lips into his own.

What the fuck? Vikram exclaimed to himself in his mind and jerked a little away from her, only to hit the wall behind his chair a little too hard. For a second, his vision went blank but when it cleared, everything was spinning. A sharp ringing rose in his ears and before he could process what had just happened, everything turned dark.

When Vikram came to, he realized he was in the school nursery. Everything was too white for his liking and the strong smell of disinfectant hit his nose. He rubbed his eyes and propped himself up on the pillow, wondering why there was no one there to tend to him. That's when his eye fell on the IV line attached to his wrist.

"Dehydration." came a voice from his right.

For a second, Vikram wished he had never opened his eyes at all. What even the fuck was Aditya doing there, lying on the bed right next to Vikram's?

"What?" Vikram asked.

"The school nurse said you were dehydrated. You can leave after the bag of fluid is empty."

"I am not staying here any longer." Vikram proceeded to sit up straight but the sudden movement made his head spin. He thought it better to rest for a while, despite his likings.

He sank back down to the bed. Aditya hadn't said anything after that and it was not like he wanted Aditya to speak but for some reason, his silence was making Vikram more nervous than his words.

"What are you doing here?" Vikram asked after a few minutes had passed and the fluid bag was halfway to being empty.

Aditya twisted on the bed and placed his hands behind his head before staring up at the ceiling. Vikram's eyes followed. There was nothing much to see. There were fans attached to the ceiling, it was painted some pastel colour that Vikram didn't know the name of and there were visible spider webs hanging from every corner.

"Sprained my ankle while I was running."

Oh, right! Vikram remembered. Aditya came to school an hour early, just like Vikram but to run. They had never once bumped into each other because the football field where Aditya ran was on a different side of the central wing of the building and was not visible from the Photography Club room.

Which was a massive relief because Vikram didn't want to spend a good part of his time watching Aditya sweat it out on the field every morning when he looked out the window to find some peace. He was certain that if Aditya was anything, it was the opposite of peace. Aditya was chaos.

"How is your friend Mohit doing?" Aditya asked.

Vikram looked at him intently. He was still staring up at the ceiling and as always, there was no hint of emotions in his voice or his face. He was like a robot that did not regret what it had done.

Vikram would have punched Aditya on the face if he was being smug about hitting Mohit but he was not. He was indifferent and stoic and Vikram, for the life of him, didn't know what to do with apathy.

"Why do you care?" Vikram asked. "Was it not enough to put him in the hospital?"

For the first time since Vikram was in that room, Aditya looked at him; really looked at him. He turned his head to the side and rested it on his left hand, gazing at Vikram straight in the eye.

"Did he really change schools?"

Vikram wanted to hit Aditya, haul his head from where he was lying and bang it against the metal frame of the bed until he begged him to stop. That would bring out multitude of emotions from this robot, right? Vikram could also get payback for Mohit while at it.

"Did you really expect him to still go here after what you did to him?" Vikram asked instead.

"Do you always answer a question with another question?"

Vikram pressed his lips into a tight silence. He didn't even know he was doing that until Aditya pointed it out.

"Do you ever mind your own business?" Vikram asked before he could stop himself from falling into the bubble of predictability that Aditya had just put him in.

Aditya turned back to watching the ceiling and Vikram nervously looked at the IV attached to the fluid. Only a quarter of it was left. Soon he would be free and away from this vile prick, as Vikram liked to call him.

He wondered why he had asked about Mohit all of a sudden. Was he feeling guilty for what he had done? Vikram supposed that he should feel guilty considering the extent of damage he had done to Vikram's life.

Mohit was the only guy friend Vikram had at school and in his life and despite having Shruti around, there were certain things he preferred to talk to Mohit about. Most of which were about Shruti and how he had been pining over her for years. But now Mohit was somewhere in the US with thousands of miles and the significant time difference between them which meant Vikram had no one to talk to anymore. About anything.

And it was all Aditya's fault.

Was Aditya on a mission to ruin Vikram's life because after chasing Mohit away, he was also pulling Shruti away from Vikram's life too.

No, Vikram would not let this happen. He had already lost one of his best friends to Aditya, he was not going to lose another.

Vikram closed his eyes and willed the time to pass faster but nothing happened really. If anything, time went by slower than it was possible and Vikram waited with dread for the fluids to be over so he could escape.

And when the bag finally emptied, Vikram couldn't wait for the nurse to arrive and take the drip off his wrist. He held the catheter and nudged on it gently. It didn't budge.

He tried harder.

"Don't do that" Aditya's voice came but before Vikram could hear him completely, he yanked the catheter out of the vein. A flow of crimson horror gushed out of his wrist, painting the bed red.

"Fuck!" Vikram muttered, realizing his mistake in taking catheter out without being careful first. "Fuck!" he said again.

He was still at loss for what to do when he found that Aditya had hopped his way to Vikram's side and was now standing by his bed, holding a pad of gauze in his hands. "Here..." he said, holding the gauze over Vikram's wrist. "Use this to stop the bleeding."

Vikram's eyes travelled to Aditya's face and he saw... did Aditya actually look worried? No way! Vikram was sure he had imagined it because it all went blank almost immediately.

He took the gauze and for a brief second, Vikram's fingers brushed against Aditya's.

He felt an instant spark.

"Fuck!" Vikram cried again, coming out of the trance. It was an actual spark.

"Static." Aditya said and it was only then that Vikram realized that his tone was back to being as good as dead.

Fuck static current. Fuck the IV . Fuck the gauze. Fuck school, Vikram thought as he grabbed the gauze and pressed his against his wrist, ready to dash out of the room. And as he did, he turned back one last time and saw Aditya going back to his bed to rest for a little longer. Fuck Aditya.