Sins of the Elite (18+)

3. Payal heard her bitching about her

Avantika hated Payal. Already. Lots of hate. Little jealousy. Lots of dislike. Little anger. Or lots of anger.

When she reached classroom, she saw that her friends, Aditi and Rishabh were not there. She attended the class alone and then it was time to leave college. She was looking around for Aditi and Rishabh, and even texted them but they didn't reply.

A little later, Aditi called her.

"Where are you?" Avantika asked.

"Rishabh and I are at a café, enjoying alone time together," was the reply.

"You ditched me," Avantika said.

"You ditched me too, for trying to get selected by those assholes. You know how much I hate all of them, the entire elite club of theirs," Aditi sounded pissed.

"I am sorry but I really wanted to perform."

"It's okay, I am sorry too, we should have informed you about us leaving earlier."

"It's okay." Avantika replied. She never dared to tell Aditi about her crush on Advait, she will never understand and she will try to save her and protect her and tell her that Advait isn't good for him. That's why she never told her best friend.

Avantika booked a cab and was waiting for it when she saw Advait entering his car and about to leave.

She gathered courage to go talk to him, possibly even take a ride from him, but just then Payal came into the picture and sat in the passenger seat. Avantika saw them leaving.

Her cab also came and she reached home soon. When she reached home, the environment at home was totally different. Her father was sick, high-fever and hypertension. He was laying on bed, his face looked so much different.

"What happened?" She asked her mom.

Her mom told her about the high-fever, she asked, "How it happened?"

"I don't know. Maybe your Dad is worrying too much about politics and...I don't know, just talk to him."

Avantika sat on the bed, and asked her Dad, "What's going on?"

"Karan Veer Sharma, he needs to be defeated," Her father did sound obsessed. Now at least she knows

from where her obsessive treats comes from.

"Forget about him and all those things. You should focus on your health," She told her father.

"What about the health of society? He is radicalizing Hindus, he will ruin the fabric of society," He replied.

"I know, but let's not think about it today."

She made her father forget everything for a while by talking about her memories from childhood and then she went back to her room. She was exhausted and wanted nothing but to rest. She was confident that she was selected for the dance performance.

However, the next day, when she reached college and checked the notice board, her name wasn't there.

She knew what happened. It must be that b*tch Payal Malhotra.

Avantika lost all hope and just decided to focus on studies and her current friends.

"So, you weren't selected?" Aditi asked later, when they were sitting on grass in the garden area of the campus. Rishabh was sitting beside Aditi and holding her hand. Seeing them, Avantika thought either she wants their kind of affectionate love or just hot toxic boyfriend like Advait, nothing in between.

"I wasn't," Avantika replied.

"I had told you before, stay away from them. Mehwish hates me, so if they know you are my friend, they will never select you," Aditi said.

"I don't think it's about that. They barely know me. But I find Payal rude and..."

"Don't even talk about her, she's the biggest b*tch." Aditi said.

Avantika was getting curious now, "How do you know about them so much? I am with you since we began college, you never hung out with them," Avantika was curious to know.

Rishabh began to laugh and asked Aditi, "You never told her?"

"Told me what?" Avantika asked.

"Payal is her cousin, first cousin, they grew up together, bestie type until one day Payal ditched her for Mehwish," Rishabh said it bluntly.

Aditi rose up in anger, "She didn't ditch me, I ditched her because I don't tolerate such behavior."

"Hey, don't be angry, I love you," Rishabh said and began to rub her thumb on her palm.

"I love you too, but I really hate them, all of them except Arjun." Aditi said.

"What's so special about him?" Avantika asked.

"He's a nice guy. I know him since school, almost like a brother to me." Aditi told her.

"You know Advait too?"

"I only crashed at his house once, his house is like a mansion," Aditi replied.

"What? When?"

"It was his birthday party, Payal invited me out of courtesy."

"You never told me," Now Avantika was pissed.

"You never asked," Aditi replied back.

"Because whenever I would try to talk about them, you would just get angry and never let me ask. Now I know it's because you hated Mehwish and your b*tch cousin, Payal." She was loud and...

And Payal heard it when she was walking by the garden with Mehwish and Naina.

Aditi and Rishabh stopped Avantika from saying any next word but then they saw Payal walking toward them.