It's Always Been You

Chapter 1 - Best Friends Forever

"Where is she?" Abhimanyu Birla rushed inside the Goenka house and came in contact with Naira Goenka who had just about finished designing the colour rangoli on the front foyer.

"You are back!" She glanced expectantly towards Abhimanyu Birla, her best friend's son and her daughter's best friend.

"Hi, aunty!" Abhimanyu waved anxiously towards Naira. "Akshara? Where is she?" Abhimanyu shifted back and forth on his feet nervously.

"But weren't you supposed to be —she's in her room." Naira realized it was wiser to zip up her mouth because Abhimanyu was in no mood to listen to anything she had to say.

"Thank you!" Abhimanyu didn't even bother glancing at Naira as he rushed to climb the stairs, 2-3 steps at a time in a bid to get to Akshara's room.

Normally, he would have rushed to her room straight away, but he had to pretend to ask permission from Akshara. Because as they say, you have to respect your elders.

Abhimanyu pushed the door to Akshara's room wide open. "Aksharaaaa!" He yelled in the voice he knew Akshara found annoying.

"Go away! I don't want to talk to you!" She grumbled from beneath the blanket she was hiding under.

"Too bad! You have to talk to me!" Abhimanyu mumbled back, jumping into bed with her. He pulled her covers down to look at her face.

"Go say! Abhi!" She growled fiercely before covering her face back up again. "I don't want to talk to you!"

"Why! Not!" He asked incessantly, pulling the covers back down her face.

"Because! It's my choice!"

"I said I am sorry! Look! I came back, didn't I?!"

Abhimanyu folded his arms around his chest as he leaned against the headboard of her bed. "I said I am sorry na! Please forgive me?! I even had the boys drop me off at the nearest stop and I had to catch a cab back." Abhimanyu argued, dejected.

The plan had been simple. Having completed college and earned his business administration degree a week ago, Abhimanyu, Neil, Parth, Kairav, Vansh and Rohan had planned a boys roadtrip to Goa to celebrate.

However, amidst the happiness of the trip, he had forgotten about the promise he had made Akshara, his best friend.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She mumbled from under the blanket.

"So I guess that means you don't want the tickets either? Should I tear them up? Or better yet, give them to Reem and Nishtha. I'm sure they'll enjoy the backstage VIP passes to the Arijit Singh concert." Abhimanyu sighed dramatically, taking out 2 VIP passes from his bag and waving them in the air.

"VIP passes?" Akshara removed the blanket from her face, eying Abhimanyu suspiciously. "You remembered?"

"Yes. I bought them especially for you, even spent all my weekly allowance on it. But if you don't want it then..." He sighed again, heavily this time, "then I guess I have no other option but to give them to Reem and Nishtha."

Harshvardhan Birla, his father had been pestering Abhimanyu to join the family business, the Birla Industries since his graduation —which had not even been a week ago but Abhimanyu had been putting it off, wanting to travel and explore the world first.

That is why he was still living off his father's weekly allowance. Despite being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Abhimanyu cared about spending his money wisely.

"No! I want them!" Akshara got up from her bed and grabbed the passes out of Abhimanyu's hands.

"But how?! You hate Arijit Singh! And you had plans to go to Goa too." Akshara frowned.