Chapter 6

It was class 11, and there were a spate of new admissions in school. The relationship between Vinay and Rahul had soured, thanks to a lot of Vinay's dominating character and that trying to affect Rahul's personal decisions in life. Rahul needed company at this juncture, and there was where Shreyas came into his life. Shreyas and Maria were among the new admissions in class 11. Maria was known to Anjali earlier, and also became good friends with the rest of the people.

Shreyas had this knack to make people roll with laughter at the most depressed of moods, a champ at sports, this guy was great at everything. He was the guy who was the most desirable among friends, just for his level-headedness and sense of humour.

Rahul and he struck a fine chord in a few months, and the bitterness with Vinay was left behind. Due to Anjali being there, they did kind of recoup, but everything was not the same anymore. Maria was this girl who took over from the trio as school topper. Her english was unmatched and she was easily the pet of Blossom's English teacher and principal. The treats are still on, but now with the five of them together in whatever they did. They obviously did give Anjali and Vinay some space, something which gave Rahul a lot of pain, because he still loved Anjali dearly, but he did manage to live with.

Slowly class 12 also got over. Maria tops the city and the country in the board exams. Shreyas, Maria and Rahul managed to secure seats in Bangalore, while Anjali was sent to Delhi and Vinay to Udaipur. Anjali and Vinay has been going out all the while, but Anjali had posed restrictions because she didn't want to lose focus. Rahul studies hard as he knows its the only thing that'll keep him away from feeling he's a loser.

Now, after the exams are all over, Anjali and Vinay take more liberty, start kissing each other, and become very passionate about their relationship. Rahul is told all this by Anjali herself, and he yearns for love, with desire, but keeps it all to himself. Then, they left Bangalore to do B.Arch, while Shreyas does a B.Tech, while Maria and Rahul do B.Math's.

Rahul is buoyed to the present. Its only now that Vinay and Anjali are coming back to Chennai. He comes outside Anjali's flat and thinks if he should move further.