When you have a few weeks left to live, the only other tragic thing that can happen to you besides dying is to fall in love.
For Ariha, love means helping her best friend, Aarya, get the boy she has had a crush on since sixth grade. When life is so...
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I remain silent on our way to the bus station. As per my prediction, the clouds rumble with thunder and it starts drizzling as soon as we're inside the shed. The bus stand is empty and we are the only ones in the waiting.
"You're awfully quiet. Did you not like the smoothie?" Rehan asks, taking the vacant seat beside me.
"No, blueberry smoothie is my favorite." I say and bite my tongue for being open with him about my choice of drink. I shouldn't feel the butterflies knowing he somehow knew what flavor of smoothies I drink. Cradling the said drink in my hands, I take a sip and turn to look at him.
Wrong move.
Rehan looks like my next favorite thing with those midnight eyes, sharp jawline and wet strands of hair sticking on his forehead. I watch him roll up his shirt sleeves and brush his fingers through his hair. He lifts his eyes and catches me staring at him.
I look away, gulping away the drink in my mouth. The strange flutters are back in my stomach. He does that to me every single time and I can't escape them even if I tried.
He chuckles. "I don't mind you checking me out."
"I'm not checking you out." I glare at him.
He laughs shaking his head. My words sound as unconvincing as lame, and I can't help the embarrassment creeping in my cheeks. I touch them and instantly feel his eyes back on me.
"Stop it. You're embarrassing me." I snap at his laughing face.
He suppresses his laughter and throws up his hands in surrender. "Okay, I will try not to be a jerk."
After a long pause, he finally says what he has tried to say since the beginning, the secret I've been keeping to myself for so long.
"You read my journal, didn't you?" He says, keeping his gaze on the front and gentle smile on his face.
"How... How did you-"
"I saw you stealing my journal and sneaking in your friend's note, while I was swimming in the pool." He turns his head to look at me. "I must admit you're a very bad thief. Anyone would've caught you."
I squeeze my eyes, burning with both embarrassment and a new emotion which was entirely new to me. I feel flustered for no reason other than the knowledge of what he has been writing in his journal.
"If you knew it all along, why did you pretend like you didn't know?" I don't meet his eyes and pick at the chipped nail paint on my nails.
"I did not pretend." He says. "I just wanted to know how you would react to it. And from the look of it you seem indifferent."
I look up to walk dark clouds shrouding his ever bright face. I don't like it. "You're wrong."
He leans back on the bench with his hands spread lazily on the backrest and puts on his playful smile. "So, whatever you read...you liked it?"
