"So let me get this straight. You played a silly game of pick up lines, bought ice cream, fell down and hurt yourself. What a stellar date!" Faith said sarcastically.

"It wasn't as bad as you're making it sound," Anya defended. "We had a lovely time."

"Did you kiss?" Faith quirked an eyebrow expectantly.

"No! God, no," Anya said, "Of course not. It was our first date."

"But not the last?" Faith grinned wickedly, and was quickly shoved by her friend.

"Shut up." Anya's face burned.

"Come on, atleast give me some juicy details!"

"Well, what kind of details do you want?"

"Anything and everything you can tell me," Faith replied breezily. "Did he tell you any secrets? Anything that's happened to him that he hasn't told anyone else? Spill."

"You do realize that even if he did tell me a secret about himself, he would expect me to not tell anyone?" Anya laughed.

Faith looked indignant. "Surely I, as your best friend, deserve to be aware of such information?"

"He didn't tell me anything at all," Anya shook her head glumly. "The closest he got to telling me about something that nobody else knows was that he was called to the principal's office today, and he didn't even tell me why!"

"Aww," Faith said, jutting out her lower lip to pout with mock sorrow. She caught sight of Anya's face and promptly changed track. "Fine, no big deal. So when are you two going out again?"

"This Friday."

"Oooooh, I wonder what's going to happen," Faith sang. "I wonder if- OUCH! Quit it, An."

Anya smacked her friend on the head again and gave her a satisfied smirk.

******

The following weeks passed by in a haze. Anya settled into a sort of routine; she attended school, met up with Aiden every other Friday and occasionally went shopping- or rather, window shopping- with Faith on the weekends.

Every date with Aiden was fun, but Anya was determined to keep him in the friend zone. She told herself it wasn't worth the trouble, although he was unbelievably good looking.

Zayan was good looking too, she reminded herself. It's not like that relationship turned out to be any good.

She finally gave in to Aiden's efforts, though.

It was a chilly Friday evening, one day before she had to leave for India. Anya ran up to Faith, who was walking back home, presumably from her dance class.

"You will not believe what just happened!" Anya hollered. She skidded to a stop in front of her friend and put her hands on her knees, gasping for air.

"What? What?" Faith asked eagerly. "Our english homework got cancelled? You're not going to India? They're remaking the Percy Jackson movies? Trump is resigning?"

Anya stared at her friend's outburst of wild guesses with her mouth agape. She found her voice a few seconds later, feeling slightly amused. "Well, that escalated quickly."

"Alright then, tell me what's up," Faith chuckled.

Anya finally remembered why she had come; she had exciting news to deliver. "I- well- it's- Aiden kissed me!"

"WHAT?!" Faith screeched, her eyes bulging. "That's awesome, An! Oh, and I don't want to say I told you so, but I totally told you so!"

"Okay, fine. You did tell me," Anya replied, laughing a little as her cheeks coloured.

"How about we celebrate?" Faith asked, obviously delighted.

"It's not something to celebrate. It was just a kiss."

"I beg your pardon? Did you say 'just a kiss'? This isn't a kiss with a random guy you met, An! This is Aiden we're talking about. The hottie, remember?"

"Alright, fine, I'll ask mum if I can go. But it's not going to be easy to convince her- we have a flight to catch early tomorrow morning."

"Yay!" Faith squealed. "We are going to have so much fun, An! Oh, and don't you worry- we'll be home by ten."

That was how Anya found herself being dragged along by Faith that night, an amused Raven watching from the sidelines. As it turned out, Mrs. Hamilton refused to let Faith leave the house unless both her daughters were going. Apparently, everyone was aware of the fact that Faith wasn't the most responsible of people.

"What are we even doing? Are we just going to be roaming all over the city?" Anya protested. She finally succeeded to wrench herself out of Faith's grip. "Stop for a second and tell me where we're headed!"

"It's a surprise," Faith replied, clearly exasperated. "If I tell you, it would defeat the whole purpose of it being a surprise. It's going to be fun, I can assure you that. You wouldn't think we were just going to a catch a movie or something, would you? Because that's just plain stupid."

"Yeah," Anya said, laughing nervously. "Of course, duh, I wouldn't be that stupid."

Actually, that's exactly what I thought we were going to do.

"Great," Faith chirped. "Let's go, then."

Raven, who had been quiet all this time, finally spoke up. "We won't have the time to do everything you've planned, sis. Maybe you should list it out for Anya and let her select her top three."

Faith glared at her, and a staring contest between the two sisters promptly commenced. In the end it was Faith who backed down, to nobody's surprise.

The girl might be the epitome of craziness, but when it came to competing it was like she had no spine. Affectionately so, of course- after all, she was still Anya's best friend.

"Fine," she now muttered almost inaudibly. "Go ahead and tell her."

"Okay," Raven said cheerfully, turning to Anya. "The options we have for tonight are bowling, karaoke night, hanging at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, taking a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge and nighttime biking."

Anya was stunned. "You were planning to do all that in one night?" She directed her question to Faith.

"And we only have till ten, it's not like we're going to be out till 3am," Raven added dryly.

Faith rolled her eyes at them. "Whatever. Can you just take your pick already?"

"Um, okay, sure," Anya eyed her friend doubtfully. "I don't know if we can do them all, but I'd love to go bowling and stuff myself with burgers and fries as we play. I hear they have karaoke too, so we can do that as well, and then we can take a walk on Brooklyn Bridge before we head home."

"That's great!" Faith grinned. "Let's go."

Thirty minutes later Anya found herself on stage with Raven and Faith, nodding her head to the tune of Sia's Cheap Thrills. Usually she would desperately try to get out of the spotlight, but today she decided to embrace her best friend's crazy ideas.

Taking a deep breath, she began to sing. "Come on, come on, turn the radio on, it's Friday night and I won't be long. Gotta do my hair, put my make up on, it's Friday night and I won't be long."

Raven piped up. "Till I hit the dance floor, hit the dance floor, I got all I need."

"Well, I ain't got cash, I ain't got cash, but I got you, baby," Faith sang, shooting Anya an evil look because she was pretending to wince at her terrible singing, blocking her ears dramatically.

Raven, oblivious to the silent conversation that the other girls had just had, continued to sing. "Baby, I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight."

"I LOVE CHEAP THRILLS!" The three girls collapsed into a fit of giggles as they yelled out the last line.

Once they had sung to their hearts' content, the girls headed towards the bowling area. There was an intense competition between Anya and Raven, but Faith gave up halfway through and sat down at a table nearby, munching sorrowfully on her cheeseburger and extra large fries.

It was almost half past nine when the girls finally walked out of the bowling alley. It didn't take long for them to start bickering over who had won fair and square.

"You cheated once!" Anya said hotly. "I remember it pretty well; so that turn doesn't count."

"I'd still win, because I'm so much better at bowling than you are!" Raven insisted.

Anya's words dripped incredulity. "Are you kidding me? I beg to differ. I think I-"

"Can you two please stop arguing over this?" Faith interrupted loudly. "It doesn't even matter!"

Raven shrugged, while Anya mumbled, "Fine."

They walked on, remarkably silent this time. Of course, the scene around them could never be quiet. They were in New York, the city that never sleeps. Besides, it wasn't even 10pm yet.

Raven gave her watch a cursory glance. "I don't think we have enough time to take our leisurely stroll on the bridge, sis."

"We could walk home," Faith suggested, but she knew it was hopeless. If they walked they would never get back before ten.

Anya sighed and spoke up. "Let's just take a taxi."

The cab ride back was unsurprisingly dull. They were all exhausted, yearning to doze off under their covers.

After wishing the sisters a good night and promising to call Faith the moment she reached Mumbai, Anya let herself into the house and went up to her room. It was obvious that her parents were still up, but they were probably brimming with anxiety about whether they had everything they needed for the trip, so she decided against informing them she had returned. They had probably heard the front door being unlocked, anyway.

The last bit of her energy ebbed away as she crawled into bed. Tomorrow, she would be on her way to India.

******

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. The temperature outside is 26℃.

For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain turns off the Fasten Seat Belt sign.

On behalf of American Airlines and the entire crew, I'd like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future. Have a nice stay!"

The voice of the flight attendant filled the cabin as the airplane slowed to a stop. Anya gazed at the seat belt sign, willing it to turn off. When it finally did, she quickly unfastened her seatbelt and hopped to her feet, her carry-on backpack resting between her shoulder blades.

As she made her way down the aisle, she spotted her parents a few steps ahead. Her mother smiled at her, and Anya responded with one of her own.

This was it. She was back in India! As she exited the plane and got her first true glimpse of the city after a span of two years, she realized how much she had missed the place.

Maybe this time, India would be the place where all her dreams came true.

Hey guys! There are SO many things I want to tell you in this A/N.

Firstly, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for MORE THAN 1K READS! Sorry, I didn't mean to shout but I'm just so excited!! 😄😄 Thank you so much, my dear readers, I love you all ❤

Also, ANYA AND AIDEN FINALLY KISSED! Where are all those Brookwater shippers?!!

Okay, so I didn't really describe the kiss, and I'm sorry about that, but who said that's the last you'll see of Aiden? They may be 7786 miles apart now, but do you think that will stop him from going after her? Who knows? ;)

Really makes you wonder who the title of the story is REALLY meant for, huh? *evil smile* Keep guessing!

And Anya's FINALLY in India, so you guys will get to meet Zayan soon! (Yayyy)

Lastly, I'd like to ask you, my lovely readers, to take a second to vote and comment if you liked the chapter. It takes less than a second to press that star button, and its free! I'd also love if you would share the story with your friends if you think it's good so far :)

If you could have a night out with any celebrity, who would it be?

See you in the next update! Love you guys xx