˗ˏˋ clear skies and cloudy minds 'ˎ˗

➷

The ping of the new message on Mahika's phone is the only sound besides the low rumble of the tires forming more and more distance between their van and the cottage, a smile of longing forming on Mahika's lips a second before they part and a sigh makes its way out of her mouth.

I miss you already

i've been in this car ten minutes

Amoli's response is almost immediate.

Okay, and? I don't know what you're getting at

A laugh escapes Mahika before she can hold herself back, and in an instant, she feels four pairs of eyes fixate on her. She pulls her lips between her teeth and raises her face with the same expression as that of a deer caught in headlights.

"Did you just... giggle at your phone?"

Embarrassment pinches at her chest and bleeds red across her cheeks at Sakshi's words. "I- That was not—" Stumbling over her words and carefully facing the screen of her phone away from the sight of her friends, she mutters. "Shut up."

Keerti stares at her with an expression bathed in genuine surprise. "Wow, I actually didn't expect you to get defensive."

Samay already has a grin in place. "Who is it?" he asks, and Mahika hates the fact that her cheeks bear the aftermath of the attention and turn even redder. Having Arnav in the car makes everything worse somehow, and she pointedly avoids looking anywhere near the rearview mirror since he's driving, instead trying to glare at her friends the best she can through the visible bashfulness on her face.

"Naina," she lies.

The way the three of them narrow their eyes in her direction all at once is almost comical, and Mahika would have laughed out loud if her breath wasn't stuck in her throat. She doesn't break eye contact with them though, afraid that she would easily give herself away if she looked away.

Eventually, Keerti is the first one to avert her eyes and say, "What a horrible liar. And now that I think about it, Mahi is the type of person who would date in secret."

Jaw falling open, Mahika reaches out and swats her across the shoulder. "Yeah, because you're all embarrassing."

"Keerti's right," Sakshi adds, stretching her arms out and nearly poking Samay's eye out before she tips her head to the side and rests it against the window. "Mahika would straight up pull out a husband out of nowhere. We won't even be invited to the wedding."

On a different day, Mahika would have jokingly said something along the lines of, Bold of you to assume I'm going to marry a man, but today, she stays silent and clutches her phone between her hands like it's the only thing keeping her connected to reality.

"No man would ever be good enough for Mahi," Samay comments, almost as an afterthought, leaving Mahika absolutely stumped for a solid five seconds. She turns and blinks at him, eyes widening until they're close enough to the size of saucers. He backs off a little and asks, "What? It's true."

"That better be a compliment."

Samay reaches out and pats her head like a dog. "It is."

She bats his hand away and fixes her hair, turning to stare out of the window again. Maybe, just maybe, she would have been a bit braver and continued the conversation until she could hint at the fact that no, she would absolutely not be dating a guy ever, if Amoli's brother wasn't in the car with them.

As if on cue, he lets out a hum. "The automatic assumption that everyone is straight is a form of discrimination too, just saying."

Mahika freezes, and seems like her friends do too, if only for a split second. It feels as if she carries the weight of the world on her lashes when she looks up at the rearview mirror, but Arnav isn't looking at her. He's still staring at the road in front of him, driving like he didn't just single handedly make everyone in the car go speechless.

He realizes it after a beat, and the tips of his ears turn red. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to—"

"No, you're right," Keerti quickly waves his apology off, shaking her head. "I've never thought about it that way. I'm glad you said it."

"Me too," Sakshi nods in agreement, and Mahika lets out a silent, shaky breath. Her heart is thudding wildly inside her chest already, yet another ping of a new text on her phone almost making her jump out of her skin.

Samay is saying something along the lines of, 'As long as she invites us to the wedding...' but it sounds like background noise as she checks the text.

Poor network connection?

Mahika looks up again, staring at the back of Arnav's head. She breathes out slowly to try and ease some of the tenseness in her shoulders, contemplating whether or not she should mention this conversation to Amoli.

Deciding that it would be better for her to bring this up in person instead as soon as she meets Arnav's eyes for a split second, gone far too astray in her own thoughts to return his smile. She averts her eyes and types out her reply.

something like that

I was getting worried you didn't want to talk to me

...or that

: /

"Is Dhruv back yet?"

Mahika looks up at the mention of her other best friend's name, just in time to see Samay nodding enthusiastically. It's endearing how fond he is of the other boy, and Mahika is reminded of the time Dhruv had been hesitant to find a roommate back when they had recently started college. But Samay, like the ball of sunshine he is, had barely taken a week to grow on Dhruv and his introverted ways.

They're basically inseparable now.

"He got home last night."

Almost immediately, she feels her chest lighten, and then tighten again when she realizes she probably won't be able to see him for at least another day. She clearly looks visibly sulky, because Sakshi reaches out and squeezes her arm.

"What's wrong?"

"I miss Dhruv."

"You're worried about the wrong best friend," Keerti jokes. "In a week we'll see Naina for the last time."

Mahika throws her head back and groans, closing her eyes before rubbing her temples with her fingers. A light smack echoes inside the van, followed by Keerti's low 'ow'. Sakshi tells her to shut up in a low voice, and Mahika doesn't even bother opening her eyes when they begin bantering with each other in hushed whispers.

After knowing Naina all her life, not having her around is going to take a lot of time for Mahika to get used to. She avoids thinking about it in depth, but it's been at the back of her mind for a long, long time now. Naina isn't just her best friend. She's her other half. They've seen each other at their best and their worst, and just going on with her life after Naina moves sounds not only an implausible thing to achieve, but the idea itself sounds absurd inside her head.

You're still going to stay in touch, everyone around them says.

Of course, they would. She knows that.

But distance... is tricky. And Mahika is scared. That eventually, their calls would get less and less frequent. Texts would begin sounding formal. Keeping in touch would become an obligation. And then finally, they would learn to get by just fine without the other's presence.

She feels childish the more she lets the worry take over, well-aware that she's only overwhelming herself further. But at the same time, she can't avoid the way her heart squeezes itself inside her chest and her throat seizes up at every reminder that the day to say goodbye to Naina is getting closer and closer.

Pulling her lips in between her teeth, she unlocks her phone and sends another text.

what's naina doing?

Sulking ):

already?

Like you aren't

touché

Amoli begins typing again, then stops. Five seconds later, she sends a picture of Naina staring out of the window with a sullen look on her face.

oh my god

It's okay. She's just pretending to be in a music video

Disguising another laugh behind a cough, Mahika quickly turns to stare out of the window to hide her face until she can bring herself to stop smiling, taking note of how ironically enough, the weather, unlike her cloudy mind, is clear.

If this continues, she's never going to be able to keep this—whatever she has going with Amoli—a secret.

Shaking her head at how a bunch of worries were piled on top of her just a few minutes ago until Amoli pulled her out of the mess with barely three texts, Mahika begins typing a reply but stops midway when Sakshi's head comes to rest on her shoulder, panicking for a total of two seconds before she realizes that Sakshi's eyes are closed.

She sneakily clicks a picture of the girl on her shoulder and checks in the rearview mirror one last time to make sure that Sakshi is still asleep before she clicks send.

It's the last text between them for the rest of the ride.

And probably the first time in her life that Mahika feels mopey about her friend falling asleep on her.

➷

a/n

hello hey hi i know it's been a while since i updated and this chapter was super short ): so i'm sorry about that. but also, please keep reading! i have something important to say

okay, so if you're a regular reader, you've probably already noticed that the updates on this book have been off schedule for a few weeks now. i have always been fortunate enough to have the sweetest bunch of readers (for the most part), so i want to be transparent with you instead of disappearing and coming back every once in a while

my health hasn't the best for the past few months, and sitting for long hours to write like i usually do would not only be hard, but extremely careless on my part. which is why i'm going to take a step back and update whenever i can (hopefully at least once a week) instead of my earlier schedule with this book until i can recover enough to get back on track. i won't be making any promises, because i'm honestly clueless about how long this is going to take.

thank you so much for your patience. thank you for being kind to me. thank you for all your support. always. i appreciate you guys more than i could ever put into words.

take care of yourselves and stay warm!

until next time x