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A pair of amber eyes stared at her with much perplexity. Sona immediately turned around, wiping her eyes as she sucked in a deep breathe.

"Sona?" he said again, the speedily wind eating up his words. "Are you okay?"

"Something went in my eye," her voice cracked miserably as she laughed. Using her hand to rub her wet eyelashes she gave him a forced smile. "What are you doing here, Aksith?"

The boy just shook his head, pointing his thumb towards the loo. Sona's lips formed a circle of realisation and she blushed in embarrassment. Of course, everyone was not like her who would go to the restroom to cry. They actually went there to get their business done.

"You didn't answer me," he said.

"Huh?" she blinked, "What?"

"Are you okay?" he pressed on every word.

"Yeah! Yeah, I am!" she quickly waved her hands, her back touching the metal wall as she gave another forced smile. She wondered if she looked like a mess right now, she didn't know how much she had cried.

Aksith had a puzzled look on his face but in the end he nodded, believing her lie. "Um, okay. I think you should go back. Rimple ma'am would be on rounds soon."

"Thank you!" she waved at him and made her way towards her compartment, already feeling like going back to where she had been crying. She bit her lip, she hadn't even checked the mirror to see how she looked like. Patting her face she wondered if her eyes were swollen. The look on Aksith's face made her feel embarrassed all over again, why would she bump into her classmate when she was crying?

"Sona? What took you so long?" Tarni started questioning her before she even stepped inside.

She stuttered, fidgeting with her fingers as she lied through her teeth, "Can you tell your brother not to tell everyone I am his sister. I was hoarded by some girls. It's really annoying."

Tarni frowned but nodded, "Okay, sure," then after some silence she added, "But he probably did that because he didn't want seniors to rag us."

Sona wanted to believe her words but she couldn't. "I don't think so."

"I don't think Abhay bhai hates you, Sona," she said with furrowed eyebrows. "It's only you miss, who hates him. It is one-sided hatred."

Ah, how much she longed to tell her that it was one-sided love.

🦋🦋🦋

the wind carried whispers

of the upset flower

whispering, whispering, whispering

it finally reached the bower.

"did anyone hear?"

asked first thing the rose,

for she didn't wish anyone else

to know her enclose.

"no," they lied

already flying away,

leaving her alone

with nothing else to say.

but as the wind moved northwest,

she heard different tales,

of her one-sided love,

that she alone sailed.

"she is so pitiful."

was all that she heard,

the same wind that carried her pain,

brought her more tears.

Sona smiled as she looked down at her phone. The response was very good. Many people had liked her poem and one of her internet friends had even asked her who it was for. She bit her lip as she replied, 'Someone close to my heart.'

TheSoul, who's actual name was Vedika started bombarding her with another bunch of questions. They had always asked her about who her muse was, who gave her the inspiration to write such poetry. She always just dodged it by saying it was someone close to her heart. She didn't like the fact that people would know it was Abhay, even people who didn't know her in real life. Even though a tiny part of her heart wanted to shout it out, she controlled her urges. If someone would ever know about her secret crush it should be Abhay himself or no one else.

"Miss. Sharma, is there something interesting you would like to share with us too?"

Sona stopped smiling, keeping her phone away as fast as she could. She couldn't let that be confiscated, how would she survive this trip?

They were all asked to line in the parking lot of the hotel. They had just descended from the buses in which they travelled through the dizzy road, their train had been two hours late meaning they were running behind schedule. Also meaning their professors where extra cranky about it.

The first thing Sona noticed was how her breathing had gone more irregular, she knew it would be hard for her to go to a cold place when she had asthma. But that's why she had brought her books, she couldn't do physical activities but at least she could just read away her time. She was, firstly, very apprehensive of going to their college trip but Tarni had insisted so much, saying she couldn't miss something that would happen once in a lifetime.

"I hope you already know the rules," Akash sir's voice was very deep as he shouted in the cold air. Sona sneezed, crumbling her body together under her jacket to keep herself warm. She had started regretting coming here already.

"They treat us like we are in school," Tarni hissed from beside her, her pink mufflers pushing her short hair back. "Except for the fact, they don't care to teach us. Ah! Sona! What do I do? I miss school horribly."

"Well, as far as I remember you called school a 'hell-hole' and wanted to get out of their as quickly as possible and also wanted to have nothing to do with it after you went to college."

"Fuck!" she cursed louder than she intended too, "You just ruined the whole thing, Sona!"

"The whole thing?" she giggled. "What whole thing? Why can't I see it? Is your love for school invisible or is it too precious for you to share it with anyone?"

Her own words tugged her heart as she gulped, rubbing her gloved hands. Her eyes seemed to search for someone in the crowd, she herself didn't know who but her brown eyes sure did— it exactly knew what they were searching for so restlessly.

"Aksith is behind us," Tarni snorted.

"What?"

"I know you were looking for him!" she gave her a wicked smile. "Should I go tell him that you like him?"

Sona's jaw dropped, how could her best friend be so stupid to even think that? Did she really think that she liked someone who wasn't Abhay? Not wanting to get into a racious argument she pointed towards the far right. "Vikrant is right there."

"What? Where?" Tarni turned around in every direction to search for her crush.

Sona on the other hand went back to the quest of searching for Abhay, but she couldn't find him anywhere and that immediately set a frown on her lips. She rubbed her cold ear, the climate wasn't good to her at all.

Far far away, she could see mountains covered in white snow. The endless clouds covering the sky as the sun hide behind them. Everything was so beautiful but to Sona the beauty didn't matter at all, because however beautiful was this place it was deadly lethal, poisonous if she say so herself. It was the best place where she could suffer from a severe asthma attack.

She should have listened to her parents? Did Tarni's nonsensical arguments really swayed her? Or was it something else? Someone else?

"Two people will be sharing a room," Rimple ma'am said, "You! Tarni! You will share your room with me."

"What the actually fuck!" she whispered-yelled, her eyes filled with utmost horror. She looked like her soul was taken away from her body. "Ma'am! That's not fair!"

"You really thought I wanted to share a room with you?" she said, sarcasm coating her voice. "But if you misbehave that's what will happen."

"The fuck, did she insult me?" Tarni looked startled as she stared at Sona who was trying to control her laughter. After years, she was still the only person who could make Sona double over about the fact that she had sat on an ice cream cone and walked all through the mall like that.

She titled her head towards the sky, tucking her hair behind her ear as she took a deep breath, the cold air filling her lungs made her feel shaky and she coughed. "It's so cold."

"It is," Priya joined them uninvited, a smile on her oval face. "It's 0 degrees! I wish it would snow during new year!"

Sona definitely didn't want it to snow.

"I saw the weather forecast! They said it would rain!"

She didn't want it to rain either.

Oh how much she missed the warmth of her home, the hot blazing sun burning her skin as she travelled to college in their nonoperating air conditioner bus.

"I can't live here," her teeth chattered as she massaged her arms. "It's too cold for me to even breath."

"Oh, yeah!" Tarni blinked, "Fuck."

"It was your idea!" Sona exclaimed.

"You just need to wear warmer clothes and not run around," Tarni patted her shoulder, a serious look on her face. "Anyways we will go back in 10 days. You can survive 10 days, right?"

"Hardly," she sneezed into her sleeve. "I need hot, hot fire."

Priya laughed at her dramatic words but suddenly it seized and she exclaimed, "Oh! It's Abhay!"

"Huh?" Sona's non-functional brain moved towards the direction she was pointing at. But before she could even blink Tarni was running towards him in full speed, her large bag on her shoulder. When she stood in front of him she gave him a big hug and unzipped her bag and extracted something that looked suspiciously like it belonged to Sona.

When Tarni came back she immediately questioned her. "What did you give him?"

"Something," her smile was very wicked to keep Sona's heart at ease.

"What was it?" she questioned her again.

"A notebook which had a big flower printed on top," she casually replied as she kicked a stone. "You know, the one you always hid in the secret zip pocket of your bag?"

"What?!" Sona screamed in absolute fright. Firstly, how did she know that she hid her book in the secret zip pocket? Wait, how did she know she had a secret zip in her bag? But the most important thing was, why did she give it to Abhay? That book was practically about Abhay! She had written all her poems there.

"Why would you give it to him?" Seeing how angry Sona was Tarni was a little taken back. The angry lines forming on her face darkened as she harshly bit her lip, her breathing growing shorter.

"I know you wouldn't talk to him," Tarni decided to ignore her unexpected anger as she gave a smile, with her hands making comical gestures she spoke with vigour. "You gotta live out of your books, Sona!"

"No! Tarni, that is my diary!" she screamed at her, feeling tears pool in her eyes. "How the fuck am I suppose to do anything here anyways? I can't do anything that's why I brought my books! I'll just fucking die from an asthma attack and you had to give your brother my diary of all things!"

Her chest heaved up and down as she rubbed her freezing nose harshly. Tarni and Priya looked shocked and so did the people around her who were eavesdropping. She shook her head and turned around, walking towards Abhay, ignoring the calls of Rimple ma'am who was asking them to grab their room keys.

"Oh no," she moaned miserably as she rubbed her eyes. Abhay and his friends were walking away and, she couldn't run so she shouted with all her might.

"Abhay!"

Guys I have finals from 15th June (T_T)

But what do you think of Sona so far?