I was walking towards my room and a beautiful small smile was playing on my lips, as I entered the room my eyes fell on Farwa who was leaning against the window. She cocked her head at me and smirked at me as I ignored her completely and walked towards my bed.

"Ohh so you spent three days at Shah Mansion, nice" she flashed a mean smile at me.

" None of your business Farwa," I groaned and rolled my eyes at her.

"You're enjoying all the attention you are getting right? Like you never had any friends and now you trapped a rich girl and now you're behaving like some typical small-town slut, you think you can get close to Wajahat by doing this, but honey you're wrong this time, he's..... "

" Shut the fuck up, Farwa" I yelled with full force and cut her off. My face was red from anger.

"Are you stalking me Farwa?? So the prettiest and the most popular girl in the college is stalking this stupid nerd... Why? Are you insecure?? Like you know it already that no one in whole damn Shah family like you, and they tolerate your presence just for the sake of their aunt who's an idiot I guess, who likes a girl like you, " I knew I said a lot of mean and wrong things to her and I shouldn't say these things to her but her word "slut" torn my heart. Asiya always called my mom slut, and this word has a different impact on my life.

Her face became pale and she came closer to me, I felt weird, she held me by my shoulders and looked directly into my eyes. I swallowed my saliva,

Was she going to hit me???

God, I'm not even that strong to hit her back!

"You bitch, what do you know about my aunt?? How did you dare to call her idiot? I'll slit your throat next time, just watch your shitty mouth again," she roared in a single breath and pushed me to the wall and left the room.

I didn't expect that she would react like this. There was definitely something between them. I sighed and moved my steps towards the washroom.

After taking a nice shower I unlocked my phone after ages. It has a lot of unread messages from Azlan. I really felt bad for not talking to him. He was my savior and I always felt different sensations in my body whenever he saved me, touched me. Wasn't it weird that I have feelings for the two boys at the same time?

I took a deep breath and started replying to him. I never felt anything whilst talking to him but I remembered the night when he came there to rescue me I felt a weird comfort around him.

I was scrolling memes when a new notification popped on my screen. It was the text from Hammad.

Miss Zaynah, tomorrow's Zara's birthday and we want you to come.

Damn...I didn't know this. She didn't even tell me. Now I had to get a gift for her.

Yeah...I'll be there...

I stood up from the bed and wrapped the hijab around my head. I gotta get her something nice. I walked to a nearby store and started looking at some earrings as she loves earrings. I brought a cute pair of earrings and I was finishing the payment when a foreign yet beautiful voice called me.

"Zaynah," I turned around and the confusion appeared in my eyes. He was a good-looking guy and he might be a few years older than me.

"Huh?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I didn't expect this, I thought you'll recognize in seconds," his face fell and he pouted dramatically.

" Az..Azlan... you're Azlan, right?" I knew only one guy and he must be him.

" Yes," he smiled and nodded his head.

" Omgg" I laughed like a kid.

"I'm so happy, it was the best surprise,"

"Finally I'm meeting you," he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

" Yeah," I laughed again, I didn't know why I was feeling instant happiness in my chest.

"Can we go for ...umm coffee?" He asked hesitantly and he was really looking cute that time.

"Umm... okay" my face heated up. I've never been out with any boy but I guess a cup of coffee won't harm me, right??

******

"Stop please," my eyes were filled with tears as I was laughing like an idiot. He had a great sense of humor and I really liked his company.

"Okay sorry," he suppressed his smile.

He has a beautiful smile, I stared at his face, our eyes were locked and I was feeling a different sensation in my stomach. We came back to our senses when a notification rang on my phone. It was a text from Hammad.

Listen Miss Zaynah, there's a dress code for the party to make her birthday more special. You have to dress like a clown. I mean a clown costume.

Now, what the heck, how am I gonna find the costume of the clown. I've never been to any party and I didn't know these dress code-like things.

"What's wrong?" Azlan asked me and I explained to him in short.

" Ohh, it's not a big deal, nowadays people love to do this to make parties more special. I'll help you to get your costume," he passed me a genuine smile and a burden lifted from my heart.

He was really a nice guy and I guess we could be good friends. After spending a few hours in some mall with him, he asked me to drop, I tried to refuse him but he didn't listen to me.

The whole ride was fun, we were talking continuously, I remembered there was always complete silence with Wajahat. Why the heck I was thinking about him?

He stopped the car near the hostel, I climbed off and bid goodbye to him. As I moved few steps my eyes landed on the familiar Rolls Royce, Wajahat????

He was leaning against the doorframe and his eyes were fixed at us. His face had different expressions. I waved at him but he didn't wave me back. He is bipolar...in the morning, he was acting nice and this time he ignored me like he doesn't know me.

I shrugged my shoulders and walked inside, I stormed into my room and hopped on my bed.

What kind of girl are you Zaynah?? You like spending time with Azlan and have a crush on Wajahat???

Azlan is like a friend to me...

A friend who gives you butterflies...

Shut up!!

I closed my eyes tightly and tried to shrug those thoughts from my head.

********

Today was Zara's birthday, I wished her on calls and now I was getting ready for the party.

I dressed in a blue color clown costume, I looked at my reflection in the mirror and my eyes widened. I was looking like a real clown. I didn't wanna go like this but anything for Zara, right? Also, I won't be the only clown there.

I called the cab as I didn't wanna use any bus or taxi in this costume. Girls of my hostel were giving me weird looks and laughing at me but I was tolerating all these things only for Zara.

The cab dropped me in front of Shah Mansion and I stepped inside. The whole mansion was decorated with beautiful lights and balloons. I felt like I just came to some fairyland. Everything was so mesmerizing and perfect, in the middle of the hall, there was a big cake which was surrounded by a princess-like girl... She was Zara, she was looking extremely gorgeous and she was laughing and smiling with almost half of IISC kids. Those rich IISC kids wearing expensive pretty dresses.

Costume?? Where were their costumes??

I realized I was the only clown standing there... A real clown. Their eyes traveled at me and they burst into a peal of loud laughter which pierced my ears, my heart. Zara looked shocked but the next moment she laughed at me too. Hamza, Hammad, and him... Yeah, he was laughing too. They all were laughing at me, taking pictures of me, making videos of me. So it was the grand birthday celebration where I was presented as a clown of the party to entertain Zara's people, to make her birthday more special. My vision got blurry from tears and I felt like my soul left my body. Well, it was cool... anything for Zara, right???