MAYA'S POV

"Hello Jeeth" I heard the footstep behind me stop. I smiled. He only knows the old maya. The old maya who would shiver at his raised voice, who had stood there and let him chop off my hair without even raising my voice. If he came here expecting that fragile child... boy oh boy was he going to be surprised.

"Hello maya" he sat down next to me.

"you know him too? He is my brother too" Arya chimed. yes technically Jeeth is her brother too. Her father's ex's step son. Her step brother maybe. Jeeth smiled at her.

"yeah I know him. He was my barber in college. He gave me a great haircut" I smiled. Arya blinked her Bambi eyes at me. Now I know why Tara is so smitten for Arjun.

Jeeth's smile dropped. god it was so satisfying to see that. I smiled even brighter. I escorted Arya to her room and came back to him. We had some unsettled business.

I leaned to the wall next to him. "so why the hell are you here? back in pornography business again?"

He flinched, shock plastered across his face. "What?"

"Oh? so they weren't paying you for the videos you shot? That's upsetting" I crossed my arms.

Jeeth ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. "Whoa maya. you have certainly changed."

"well technically you were the surgeon in charge for this change." I huffed.

"Im sorry okay? I know I messed up. But you have to understand It wasn't me. I wouldn't do stuff like that. It was the drugs pumping through my veins."

"Dude if you had raped me in college, would you still blame it on the drugs? Drugs aren't just bugs or commands typed into our head, they are just catalysts. It just accelerates whatever is already in your head. So don't play the innocent type here." I turned around.

He laughed " I had to try".

I smirked "No matter how much you try Jeeth you'll never be forgiven by me. You were, are and always will be a pervert in my eyes"

"I AM NOT A PERVERT" he yelled. "I was messed up. I was trying to save myself" he.. started...

Oh my god he was crying.

"Please listen to me maya." he pleaded.

I walked upto him, stood on my tiptoes and stared right at him" did you listen to me?"

he flinched.

"Did you listen to me when I begged you to stop? when I screamed for help? did you listen? Then why should I ?" I walked past him.

"IM GAY MAYA" he yelled.

I froze in my tracks. I turned around "What??"

"Im gay" he repeated.

Whoa... I did not expect that. wait a minute "Wait then why did you do all this? If you are gay, then you didnt like Khushi, so no need for revenge. Then why the fuck did you do all this?"

He sighed and sat down on one of the stairs. "technically im bisexual but i never loved Khushi. I tried maya I tried to tell you maya, I tried several times. but you were always with Him" he whined.

"Him? Adhi?" dots connected, wheels turned. "You loved adhi didnt you?"

he nodded.

"oh my god." I paced the room "You did all this because you loved Adhi? But he is straight"

He laughed sadly "I know"

This man infront of me is a messed up, pervertial, sociopath. But this is really sad. Falling in love with someone who will never love you back. I sat down opposite to him.

"I met him in first year. I liked girls till then. I met Khushi around the same time and yes I did like her. But then I met him." He sighed. "I was in denial for so long... I was trying to convince myself its just an admiration. he was good in everything so I just looked up to him. But then Khushi told me she loved Adhi. It was the light bulb moment for me. For a minute I thought maybe the pain was for losing Khushi but no.. It was because I was gonna lose him."

This side of Jeeth, I don't think he's shown it to anyone.

" Everyday I had to watch her holding hands with him, leaning on his shoulder, him smiling back at her and I was dying inside. he would never look at me like that. I was a Bro, a best friend. I wouldn't be anything more." A tear fell down his cheek. "One day I couldn't take it anymore. I burst into tears in my car, I was drunk and had started doing drugs, Khushi saw me and asked me what's wrong? And it spilled right out of me"

I gasped "She used you didnt she?" I don't think any straight guy would paint himself as gay under any circumstances. Toxic masculinity is one of their traits and they wouldn't do anything to diminish it. It affects their pride. I understood Jeeth wasn't lying.

He nodded. "The next day itself she proposed to him, And got rejected. she was sad and angry. I was like ' Welcome to the club'." he chuckled "But then she turned into all shades of crazy. She became obsessive and violent. Threatening girls, you name it. And I was her pawn. She threatened me that she would expose me"

"so you do know how it is to be on the receiving end of a blackmail. And yet you still did it?" I shook my head.

"Please maya let me complete. After that when Adhi had dissed her infront of the whole college, she went batshit crazy. She was the one who took the video of Adhi's mom and my dad. She knew Adhi was here on a scholarship but his grades weren't even that good. So she found out about the affair. But what she didnt know is that the principal was my father, Nobody did. not Even Adhi until I told him later.

Even after she left the college she still had eyes on him. so she used me to threaten him with the video. To make sure he cant date anyone from the college, especially me well he hates me now. You mustve seen the look on his face when he realised I betrayed him. It was like he died a little that day." he wiped off his tears and took a deep breath.

"Do you really think I would use my own father's sex tape as blackmail material for some girl. I might be gay but im still a man. But by then I had no choice. Did Adhi ever see Taniya, you're roommate?" he asked.

"I don't know. Why are you asking me this?" I enquired.

"Just think about it, did she ever make herself seen infront of Adhi? have you ever seen her in the campus attending class even once?" He kept on.

I had a bad feeling about this. Taniya was always scarce. She used to comeback to the hostel late at night, she would wake up after half the hostel had actually gone to college. I have never seen her around campus, only at the hostel. She didnt even came to see me off on my first date that day. it was just Preethi.

"No, she didnt. why?" I breathed, I had an idea where this was going.

"She wouldn't. She couldn't let herself be seen by him. because he would recognise her right away. Because your Taniya was our Khushi" he declared.

My eyes went wide, shock propelled through me. Painful, icy cold shock. I started remembering. the way she told us the story about Adhi and jeeth's history. She had tried to make Adhi the bad guy multiple times. How she had warned me to stay away from him that day, to be safe from Jeeth- the next day Jeeth ragged me infront of the class, How she told me sleeping over at his place was too fast- the very night the video was shot.

OH MY GOD! My best friend Taniya was Khushi.

I sat with my head on my kneecaps taking deep breaths to calm the nausea churning in my stomach. Jeeth patted my back slowly. This guy, no matter what he did, was used as a pawn. He was a nice guy who was blackmailed to be the villain, just like Adhi.

"She gave me instructions on what to do. She made me make Adhi hate me, so that I would be out of the competition. I would never touch a girl without their permission, that was Taniya's back story right? I tried to molest her friend?" I nodded, he scoffed.

"That bitch! She made me do all that stuff to you maya. I tried so hard to tell you this, but I couldn't get you alone. I couldn't tell Adhi he was already prejudiced about me. But I never got the chance to tell you and..." he sobbed. "im sorry im so sorry I did that to you. Even though I had been a conduit, It was because of my selfishness that you both had to suffer this much"

Tears springed to my eyes. I don't trust him, no I don't think I ever can. But I believe him. It was right infront of my face and I couldn't see it. Because of my bias towards Adhi I portrayed Jeeth as the ultimate bad guy.

"So now im here, to finally get it off my chest. And I feel soo much better now" he smiled through tears.

"Im sorry this happened to you" I patted his hand. he smiled and patted back.

"is Khushi still...?" I started.

"No... no no, she lost interest in me after adhi's mom got married to my dad and she lost her trump card on him. And he just became my brother so.. she had no use of me. I haven't heard of her since"

"oh god adhi is your brother now... Jeeth.." the situation he must be in. Poor guy.

"It actually worked on your favor, if not I would have actually gone after him" he wiggled his eyebrows playfully. we laughed. He was such a playful guy. God what had Khushi did to him to make him be that monster.

"so will you forgive me?" Jeeth asked hopefully.

"I will. not yet... you have to earn it.. You can join Adhi. He's on the same cruise too" I winked at him and he laughed.

We shook our hands and stood up to leave.

"Maya, I would appreciate it if you could just keep quiet on the gay thing for a little longer, I wanted to be the one to tell them." he pleaded.

"Oh yes of course. And you have to keep quite on the fact that me Adhi and you know each other from college. "

"Why? nobody knows?"

"No, if I tell them I know Adhi I might also have to say I dated him, then they'll ask me why we broke up and ill have to tell them about the whole betrayal thing and it'll come straight up to you. So its for your good too" I said.

"Got it" he fist bumped and we parted ways. He was smiling. I was. . . Breathing.

I finally had an explanation to what happened that day. Now I ca finally work on the forgetting part of my therapy with dr. Mehta.

I went to my room and printed out my design for the haldi stage and called dr. Mehta.

She picked up on the third ring "Maya?"

"yes Dr.Mehta we have some improvement I have to talk about"

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