Mahika and Amoli can't stand each other, but that's not the only thing they have in common.
Mahika treats Amoli like she's childish. Amoli thinks Mahika is a stuck-up prude. But Mahika's best friend and Amoli's brother are getting married, so they c...
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˗ˏˋ clear skies and cloudy minds'ˎ˗
➷
The ping of the new message on Mahika's phone is the only sound besides the low rumble of the tires forming more and more distance between their van and the cottage, a smile of longing forming on Mahika's lips a second before they part and a sigh makes its way out of her mouth.
I miss you already
i've been in this car ten minutes
Amoli's response is almost immediate.
Okay, and? I don't know what you're getting at
A laugh escapes Mahika before she can hold herself back, and in an instant, she feels four pairs of eyes fixate on her. She pulls her lips between her teeth and raises her face with the same expression as that of a deer caught in headlights.
"Did you just... giggle at your phone?"
Embarrassment pinches at her chest and bleeds red across her cheeks at Sakshi's words. "I- That was not—" Stumbling over her words and carefully facing the screen of her phone away from the sight of her friends, she mutters. "Shut up."
Keerti stares at her with an expression bathed in genuine surprise. "Wow, I actually didn't expect you to get defensive."
Samay already has a grin in place. "Who is it?" he asks, and Mahika hates the fact that her cheeks bear the aftermath of the attention and turn even redder. Having Arnav in the car makes everything worse somehow, and she pointedly avoids looking anywhere near the rearview mirror since he's driving, instead trying to glare at her friends the best she can through the visible bashfulness on her face.
"Naina," she lies.
The way the three of them narrow their eyes in her direction all at once is almost comical, and Mahika would have laughed out loud if her breath wasn't stuck in her throat. She doesn't break eye contact with them though, afraid that she would easily give herself away if she looked away.
Eventually, Keerti is the first one to avert her eyes and say, "What a horrible liar. And now that I think about it, Mahi is the type of person who would date in secret."
Jaw falling open, Mahika reaches out and swats her across the shoulder. "Yeah, because you're all embarrassing."
"Keerti's right," Sakshi adds, stretching her arms out and nearly poking Samay's eye out before she tips her head to the side and rests it against the window. "Mahika would straight up pull out a husband out of nowhere. We won't even be invited to the wedding."
On a different day, Mahika would have jokingly said something along the lines of, Bold of you to assume I'm going to marry a man, but today, she stays silent and clutches her phone between her hands like it's the only thing keeping her connected to reality.
