Vikram was excited to go back to school again. He wanted to go to school with every intention of confronting Aditya. He had a plan. Well he had half of a plan which was to ask Aditya to come to the lake where Vikram would tell him that he liked him. The other half was Aditya actually showing up.

Vikram would walk up to him and tell him what he felt. If Aditya said he didn't want to be friends with Vikram, Vikram would agree. If he said he wanted to be more than friends, Vikram would agree again. He would keep agreeing until Aditya would allow him to kiss him again and hold him tight in his arms, never to get go.

"I like you." Vikram said to himself in the mirror but then scowled. He wasn't too happy with the face he was making.

He composed himself and began practicing again. If he was going to do this right, he needed to practice. "Hey Aditya, funny story. So you know how we kissed? Yeah, turns out I kind of like you."

"Kind of?" he asked himself. An angry growl escaped Vikram. He wasn't happy with any sentence his brain was constructing.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back a little. "Ssup?" he asked his own reflection, only to realize that he should never try saying that again. He looked like a douche.

Scratching his head, Vikram wondered what else he could tell Aditya to compensate for all the shit Vikram had put him through these past few days.

"Date me or I'll punch you?"

"I like you and if you don't like me that's your problem?"

"Hey Aditya, do you want to kiss again?"

Vikram's mind was hung up on the kiss way longer than necessary and he barely managed to rush out of his room when he realized he needed to be in school soon.

He jumped the stairs and skipped the last few steps to land on the ground like a king. He hopped to the kitchen, feeling like a brand new person. Even something as silly as breakfast seemed very interesting to him on this day.

But all his excitements came crashing down when he saw his father sitting on the dining table, reading a newspaper.

He saw Vikram and slowly got back to reading the news

Vikram drew a chair and sat down.

"Good morning." Deepak said and Vikram looked at him weirdly.

"Good morning." Vikram replied. Was his dad... lucid today? He must be because he was reading the newspaper which he hadn't done in a year.

"All set for school?" he asked.

"Yes." Vikram replied curtly and pulled a piece of toast from the table before lathing it with butter.

Meera surfaced from the kitchen, handed Vikram a glass of milk and disappeared.

There was an awkwardness in the room that was piercing into Vikram's skin. All he wanted was to eat and quickly leave. But then he remembered what Aditya had told him. That the lucid days, even though rare, would come by. Vikram had waited for this day, to finally set his mind to rest. He had already accepted one of the most important things in his life, an apology would only make his mind lighter.

"Dad." Vikram said, turning to him.

Deepak looked at him and set the paper aside. "Yes?"

Suddenly, Vikram was unsure of everything he knew and everything Aditya had told him. He knew he should apologize but he had never apologized to his own father before. Well except when he said he was sorry for not being able to beat Aditya for 8 years straight. The only time he had not apologized was last year. But all those apologies were different. They were forced to calm his father down. This was way too significant. And Vikram was stuck.

"Nothing." he said instead and rushed out of the house before his father could stop him.

When he walked into the class, Ruvee was already there, among other students who were busy whispering something Vikram didn't care about.

Ruvee looked at him and his beaming face. "Yeah?" she asked from the seat.

Vikram broke into a grin and nodded. "Yeah!" he said.

Ruvee leaped with joy and ran towards Vikram. "Oh my god!" she said and hugged him and then they began jumping and dancing and doing just about every crazy shit possible. "Oh my god, Vikram!" Ruvee said again. "I am so happy for you."

Vikram pulled her away, only to pull her back into a hug. "Thank you." he said. "Thank you. If it wasn't for you, I'd have never figured out."

They were still hugging when suddenly the class turned silent. Vikram turned towards the door and so did Ruvee. Aditya stood there, looking at them, hugging and dancing. He was perhaps planning to come inside but when he saw them, he decided not to. Instead, he just turned around and left.

"He's so jealous of me." Ruvee whispered into Vikram's ears. "I love it."

Vikram laughed.

"Why aren't you going after him?" she asked.

Vikram shook his head. "I'll talk to him later." he said, "The school is too risky."

Ruvee pulled him to the back of the class and they took a seat. "I am so proud of you." she said, patting Vikram's head lightly, like he was a child.

"It's crazy!" he said. "I tried to deny it so bad but now that I have accepted what I feel, I feel lighter."

"Crazy indeed." Ruvee said and was about to say something else when someone rushed into the class.

It was one of the girls Shruti hung out with these days. Her name was Anisha. "Did you guys hear?"

Another girl looked at her, wondering what she was talking about. "He's gay." Anisha said.

The words echoed through the room and reached Vikram. Suddenly, all his senses went numb. Ruvee looked at Anisha and then at Vikram.

Vikram looked like all the colors had been drained out of his face.

Someone said something, but Vikram didn't hear. The only thing that was audible was a loud ringing in his ears as all other sounds faded. How did they find out? How did anyone find out? Did the whole school know?

Suddenly, it was getting difficult for Vikram to breathe. His hand reached his throat and he felt it constrict even more. He thought he would pass out. He heard the familiar sound of Ruvee's voice. And then he heard it once more, this time, a little louder.

"Vikram." she said.

Vikram looked at her and saw worry and stress.

"What happened?"

"I think you had a panic attack."

Vikram looked around. He was expecting everyone to be looking at him and laughing at him but nothing like that happened. In fact, the only person looking at him was Ruvee.

"Are you okay?"

"Anisha..." Vikram began, "she said something."

"Yeah!" Ruvee said, "She was talking about Kshitij."

Vikram's eyes flew wide open. "Shruti's boyfriend?"

"Ex apparently." Ruvee said. "Rumor had it that he dumped her last week and now everyone's saying that he dumped her because he's gay."

"Is he?"

"I don't know."

Vikram breathed, "Who'd spread such a rumor?"

River sighed. "It was Shruti. She just wanted to get back at him but things went out of control."

Vikram fumed. This was typical Shruti, acting like a kid when she didn't get what she wanted. "Is Kshitij okay?" Vikram asked.

Ruvee was about to answer when Mrs. Shukla walked in and the class turned silent.

"I'll find out at short break." Ruvee said.

The classes went on but all Vikram could focus on was the class. Everyone talked in hushed voices. Some made faces like they were disgusted while some laughed. Vikram didn't have to hear them to know that they were all talking about Kshitij.

Ruvee came back when the short break ended and informed Vikram that Kshitij had left for the day and she'd check on him the next day.

But Kshitij didn't come to school the next day. On the third day, Ruvee found out from some of the teachers that Kshitij's parents had withdrawn him from school.

The school principal had called them to talk about the rumor that had spread across. Ruvee, torn herself, told him that his parents had not taken it well and that his father was adamant on not letting Kshitij study at this school any longer because apparently for a week since the rumor surfaced, some guys from other branches had been bullying Kshitij for it.

When Vikram heard this, something shook inside of him. What if the same happened to him? Kshitij's life had been changed based on a rumor, Vikram's was the truth. He didn't want to be bullied. He didn't want Aditya to be bullied. Vikram didn't want his mother to cry in front of the principal and his father to feel ashamed of him. He didn't want his brother to become a joke at the school he wanted to study in.

In that moment, Vikram came to an unfortunate conclusion that even if he liked Aditya a lot, he couldn't do anything about it. That they couldn't be together, even if they wanted to because the world was cruel and not as accepting as Aditya was with his feelings or Vikram had become with his. There was no future in which this worked out between him and Aditya.

Vikram realized that for them, the best thing was perhaps to stay as far away from each other as possible.