“I'm suddenly thinking about the sins I committed this morning. Does making someone wait for shit count?”
“Why, what happened?” Abhishek asked, half amused. 
“Natasha, Abhi, hey!” Called one of the three musketeers, making me stiff to the bone. I glanced at Abhishek's direction, shooting a knowing look. 
“Must be one hell of a sin,” Abhishek whispered and surprised me by holding my hand as if silently supporting me. Three pairs of eyes caught onto that action but they quickly replaced it with their plastic smiles. 
“Long time no see, girl. Where have you been? Funny how we live in the same neighborhood, yet never cross paths for a year,” The plait haired girl known as Kaveri was the first one to speak.
I forced a laugh, “Funny indeed. I almost forgot you guys lived so near.”
“Oh, but we didn't,” Kaveri's lips twitched to the side, “You do such incredible things, Natasha. It makes it impossible to forget you even if someone wants to.”
My stomach dropped to the pit. I clenched my fists, thinking of a cunning reply but Heena beat me to it, adding. “She meant academics of course.”
“Abhi, man, how is it going?” The short guy approached Abhishek, extending his hand. However he withdrew it, when he noticed Abhishek's knitted brows, “Why that face? Don't you remember me?”
Abhishek scratched his head, “Uh, Girish, right?”
“No, dumbass. Gaurav.”
"Oh, yeah, Gaurav." Abhishek raised his brows in recognition then quickly gave an apologetic smile to all three of them. "Sorry, I'm just bad at remembering names... especially the ones who are insignificant in my life." 
Holy fuck! Now that was shot well thrown. I could very well kiss Abhi's feet right now.
“Come on, don't joke. You hurt my feelings,” Gaurav feigned hurt, trying to take that remark as a joke but failed. Soon the conversation moved on to other things. 
Kaveri and Gaurav studied at the same school as usual while Heena and Kaveri lived around the neighborhood. From outside, the conversation was pretty normal. Talks about what we were doing, our studies, future, etcetera. But only Abhishek and I noticed the deeper shade behind their selective words. Like how I must be living my dream life, away from my family. Or whether I stumbled across any hot older man to diffuse my charms into. They also made sure to tease both of us, despite denying it several times. Heena mentioned how it was terribly sweet of Abhishek to be still together with someone like me, despite the odds. I didn't feel like wasting my precious time and breath on people whose existence was as significant as the trash bin lying to the side. 
When the conversation worse than lectures, finally came to an end, I did this really cool thing by rubbing my nose with my middle finger, almost succeeding in peeling off the smiling masks from their faces. Better.
Aside from that encounter, nothing unfortunate happened. My sour mood quickly died as I spent a fruitful afternoon with Abhishek. It became even better after he joined Mitali and me for shopping. Mitali was the only one from my family who was civil with Abhishek. They often spend time making fun of me together but honestly, I didn't mind. I was just elated from spending time with my two favourite people. We were planning to stay till seven when mother nature cried over in the form of rain, forcing us to abort. 
Dread filled my being as Mitali and I walked home, drenched in rain. Something didn't seem right. My intuition came true. Usually I'd witness Sahil or Papa watching TV or Mum cooking dinner but there was none of it. Instead all three of them were sitting on the sofa, with a grim look on their faces. Mitali sidestepped near me, sensing the heavy atmosphere looming over the room. It was as heavy as downpour outside.