"Anya, wake up."

"What?" Anya groaned, her voice muffled by the pillow that her face was currently buried in.

"It's time for you to wake up."

"Go away. I have major jetlag right now."

"Oh, come on," Nikki whined. "I have a whole day planned for us. We're beginning by going shopping at the mall."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"It won't take that long!"

"Nikki, let me introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is No."

Anya was just about to drift off again when Nikki groaned in frustration. "What if we only went shopping? You can bail on the other plans."

She gave it some thought. It couldn't hurt to just go shopping, right? It wouldn't take more than two hours.

"Fine," Anya surrendered. "But only if you throw in a pizza."

"Deal," Nikki said happily. "I'll give you a half hour to get ready now. I'll be downstairs, so don't get any ideas about going back to sleep."

Anya grunted an affirmation. A second later, she heard the door click shut as Nikki left the room.

For a moment Anya played with the idea of catching a few winks before getting dressed, but quickly gave up on it. Nikki seemed to be hell bent on having their shopping trip, and would most probably kill Anya if she fell asleep.

She dragged herself out of bed and got dressed sluggishly. She barely gave her outfit a thought and simply threw on a simple white top and her old denim overalls.

When she entered the living room forty minutes later, she found Nikki deep in conversation with Aunt Priya, of all people.

"-that's a completely stupid, narrow minded way of thinking," Nikki was saying. "Why can't a guy and a girl be friends? Come to think of it, it doesn't even matter if they start dating. There's nothing wrong with knowing what your options are."

Wow. Anya, feeling incredibly awkward, turned to leave.

"Besides, he's my brother. I know him better than anyone does- and that's why I just know she's right for him."

Wait, what?

They were talking about Zayan, but who was the mystery girl?

Probably his girlfriend, Mira, Anya thought sourly.

She paused, and listened to some more of the conversation.

"Maybe you should consider his feelings too, sweetheart. You can't just play matchmaker for kicks. Do you know whether he likes her as well?"

Anya mentally cheered for Aunt Priya. Unlike the rest of her uptight Indian family, her aunt was pretty cool with things like dating and not always following the rules of Indian society, a quality that was often frowned upon by her close minded relatives, who were sticklers for tradition.

It was one of the qualities that Anya admired her for.

Anya was pulled out of her thoughts by Nikki's voice. Her friend's next words made her heart sink.

"He's been in love with her for years. I'm also quite sure they're both on the same page- they just don't know it yet."

"Well, if they do get together it's not going to be easy, considering that she lives all the way- oh, Anya! We were just waiting for you."

Anya's ears turned red as guilt seeped into her. Thankfully, it didn't seem as though they had seen her listening in on their conversation.

"Hi!" Anya replied, her voice falsely bright. "Um, are we going now?"

"We most definitely are," Nikki confirmed. "Right away. By the way, you're late."

"Sorry about that," Anya replied sheepishly.

"Don't let this girl make you feel bad about being late," Aunt Priya interrupted with a small laugh. "She never shows up in time for anything."

Nikki rolled her eyes and picked up her bag. "Let's go."

******

By the time the two girls had taken their third stroll through the mall, Anya was completely frustrated.

"How long is this going to take?" She complained. "I fail to see how this is 'shopping' anyway. All we do is walk into stores, go through whatever they have and then leave empty-handed."

"Be patient, An," Nikki chided. "We're holding out for something phenomenal, alright?"

"Phenomenal."

"Yeah, you know- the perfect outfit."

"The perfect outfit."

"Stop sceptically repeating whatever I say!"

"I'm sorry, but by dragging me here when I was tired and cranky and then not even buying anything, you really asked for it," Anya sighed.

"Fine, we'll go to two more stores and if we don't find what we're looking for, we can leave."

"Great," Anya visibly brightened at the word 'leave'. She scanned their surroundings, then grabbed Nikki by the arm and began pulling her in a seemingly random direction.

"Hey, wait," Nikki protested. "Where are we going?"

Anya pointed towards a little shop that was half-hidden in the shadow of the large Steve Madden store next to it. "We haven't tried that place yet."

"Oh, no," Nikki began shaking her head as she struggled to loosen Anya's grip on her. "We're not going there."

"Well, why not?"

"Look," Nikki unsuccessfully tried to yank her arm away. "Nobody goes there, alright, An? It's a little boutique with all sorts of weird vintage stuff. If you really want to go to a store in that direction, I suggest Steve Madden. I'd love to get some new ankle boots."

"No way," Anya replied firmly. "Lucky for me, I happen to really like vintage clothes. So we are definitely going there."

Nikki grumbled, but finally stopped fighting to get out of Anya's grip. "Fine."

When they entered the shop, a little bell jangled overhead to indicate that there were new customers. Anya loved it right away.

"Hello, how may I help you? Are you lost, ma'am?"

Anya stared at the boy who had just spoken. He looked a few years elder than them, and her mind vaguely registered that he was kind of cute albeit not her type. What really interested her, though, was his confused expression, like he wasn't expecting them to be there.

"Are you closed right now?" She inquired.

"Well, no, but I thought perhaps you got the wrong place. Steve Madden is the place next door, and we are in no way affiliated with them."

Anya shook her head. "No, I'm sure we got the right place. You're the boutique that sells vintage stuff, right?"

"Yes, that's right." The boy looked elated.

After glancing at the store around them, Anya realized why. The place was completely deserted, save for a little old lady who was looking at some socks. It seemed like they seldom had customers.

"Anyway," Anya cleared her throat. "We'll just have a look around."

He nodded politely and backed off. She turned to Nikki, about to suggest that they go towards the dresses.

Her friend had a frown on her face.

"What's wrong?" Anya asked, concern written on her face.

"I don't really like to shop here," Nikki muttered. "I think that guy has a crush on me."

"What?" Anya's eyes widened. She burst into laughter. "Really?"

Nikki nodded curtly, looking irritated. She spun on her heel and began walking towards the exit.

Anya ran after her. "Come on! Please?"

Nikki ignored her and continued to march away.

"Nikki?"

Still no response.

"Nikita Mehra! Stop right now."

Nikki turned, her expression incredulous. "Did you just call me by my full name? Nobody calls me by my full name."

"It got your attention, didn't it?" Anya shrugged. "Look, if you come shop with me at the boutique, we can buy a pair of Steve Maddens later."

"And pizza after that," Nikki reminded her.

"Of course. What would we do without pizza? It's the food of the gods."

******

"Can we go already?"

Anya's question caused Nikki to turn around and glare at her.

"You promised we could go shoe shopping after we shopped at your little boutique."

"When I said that, I had no idea that you take an eternity to decide on a single pair of shoes."

"You put me through the torture of hanging out at a store with a guy who stalks me!"

"He doesn't stalk you, Nikki. Cut out the drama."

"He might as well have. He's already sent me multiple friend requests on Facebook and liked all my Instagram posts. What's next? Retweeting everything I post on Twitter?"

Anya chuckled. "Sometimes I really wish you could meet Faith. You two would get along like a house on fire."

"Overreacting to everything is in my blood," Nikki said, putting a hand up to her brow dramatically. "Don't hate me for it."

"I could never hate you," Anya smiled fondly, pinching her friend's cheeks.

Nikki made a face and pulled away, pretending to throw up. "Don't pull all that cute and sweet nonsense on me. You see this?" She asked, pointing at her badass hair and attire. "Rebels don't do 'sweet' and they definitely don't do 'girly'."

"That's the one difference between Faith and you," Anya said. "Faith loves all that girly stuff. Lucky for you, I'm a total tomboy."

"That's good," Nikki nodded. She then turned her attention to a pair of tan ankle boots in her hand. "I hope they have these in black."

"I'm sure they do," Anya said distractedly, her eyes set on something behind Nikki.

"What are you looking at?" When Nikki saw her eyeing a pair of gorgeous blue heels, she nodded in approval. "You can get those. They're amazing."

"No," Anya protested weakly.

"Come on," Nikki urged. "They're on sale. Even a tomboy can splurge on fabulous shoes once in a while. Besides, Zayan would love those."

"Zayan?" Anya frowned.

"I mean, even a guy like Zayan, who has no sense of style, would like those," Nikki said quickly.

"Well, if someone with no sense of style would like them, what does that say about the shoes?" Anya laughed.

"You know what I mean," Nikki nudged her, a relieved smile spreading across her face. "On a completely unrelated note though, are you seeing anyone right now?"

"Wow," Anya stared at her with a poker face.

"What?" Nikki looked uncomfortable.

"I never thought you would come out of the closet like this. Don't worry though," she quipped. "I support the LGBTQ community."

"Anya!" Her friend chuckled. "I don't like you in that way; I'm not a lesbian. I do support them, though," she added quickly.

Anya pretended to wipe away a tear as she contained her laughter. "Alright. Well, yes, I am seeing someone right now."

"Oh."

"Aren't you happy for me?" Anya pouted, looking at Nikki's face.

"I am," Nikki forced a smile. "So, who's the lucky guy?"

"You sound like my mom," Anya grinned. "His name's Aiden Clearwater. He's our age, and I must tell you- he's a total hottie."

"Oh," Nikki repeated, struggling to smile. "That's awesome, An."

"I know, right?" She squealed.

"You know what?" Nikki said abruptly. "I think I'm going to ask an employee if they have these boots in black. I'll be right back."

She quickly retreated in the opposite direction.

Anya stared after her, confusion etched on her face. Her phone rang at that moment, coming alive as her ringtone blared the beginning tune of Cypher part 4 loudly.

"Ireum, ireum!" Sorry bae.
"Bareum, bareum!" Sorry bae.
"Diction, diction, diction!" Sorry bae.
Oh-

"Hello?" The ringing cut off as she accepted the call.

"OH MY GOD, YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I'VE WAITED TO GIVE YOU THIS NEWS. YOUR MUM FINALLY AGREED IT WAS TIME TO TELL YOU."

Anya winced, holding the phone away from her ear as Faith's loud voice pierced the silence of the store that she had gotten accustomed to.

"Pipe down," she said. "What news?"

"You're going to love this. I'm coming to India!"

"What? Why? How? When?"

"I'll be there in a few days, once we get that break from school. Your mom got extra tickets so I could go too."

"That's amazing!"

"And that's not all. Guess who's coming with?"

"Beyoncé?" She asked jokingly.

"Of all the times you could be funny, you choose now?"

"I use humor as a defence mechanism."

"Stop quoting Chandler Bing," Faith said impatiently. "Aiden is coming too!"

"What?" Anya screeched.

"I didn't know till yesterday, when your mum texted me the details. You're so lucky your parents love him."

"Wow," Anya was blown away by the prospect of her best friend and maybe-boyfriend being here with her.

"I know, right?" Faith said lightly. "Anyway, I have a ton of homework left. Talk to you later?"

"Sure."

Anya hung up. She couldn't believe it. Her trip was about to get a million times better.

Hey there, guys! I made a random graphic and put it up above the title. Lol.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the chapter? What do you think of Nikki's odd behaviour?

Who is the mystery girl? I think Anya has even more competition now ;)

Oh, well. What's life without a little drama?

Vote, comment and share- you guys knows the drill! Most of you forget to vote after reading, though :( so pleeease vote? Pretty please?

Would you rather hang out at the mall and shop, go to the beach or go hiking for a whole day?

See you in the next update!
Much love xx