Before You

26 | Broken Friendships

"Nothing I didn't expect her to do." Kavya shakes her head.

"I tried to talk to Zivah but she wouldn't speak with me. I know I had hurt her and I had been the bad friend in her eyes, but there was nothing I could do at that moment. I remember I used to cry that she won't talk to me and Dhruv would console me. That's when him and me clicked, and we started dating. It was so random, now that I think of it," I chuckle, sadly. "But I guess it was because he was the only friend I had at that time."

"I'm sorry."

We stay in silence for a few seconds. After a few seconds, I blurt, "Where's the jerk, anyway?"

"Um...who?"

"Arjun fucking Singh. I haven't seen him all day. I didn't see him anywhere at the event so I thought he'd be here in the dorm screwing some girl, but if he's not here, then where the actual fuck is he?" I ask, frowning.

"I... um..." Kavya stutters, probably trying to decide if she should tell me something or no. "I saw him leaving in a jeep."

"What?" I frown, siting up. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw him and Dhruv hop onto a jeep and leave when our show was going on."

"Wow. That's weird," I snort and quickly pull my phone out of my pocket and open my chats and text him.

Kavya peeps into my phone and giggles. I follow her gaze to see she was reading the previous chats. I roll my eyes.

"You guys are cute." She chuckles.

"Cute, my foot." I stare at my phone screen but no message comes in. I groan and shove it back into my pocket.

"Let's go," I say.

I stand with Kavya and Aman among the audience as people still continue to yell and cheer. Nishaant comes in with a bag of chips in his hand with Divya behind him.

"Ahem ahem," the host of the event clears his throat on the mic, receiving an exciting reaction from the audience. "As we all the know that the results are going to be announced in a few seconds, I'd like to say that personally, I loved both the groups...."

He keeps on blabbering some more stuff into the mic. Geez, man. Just announce the freaking result already.

My mind immediately goes back to him as he speaks every word precisely and slowly now. "The winner of the Xavier's Fashion Show ramp for the year 2021 is......" He teases the audience by pausing for a long minute before actually shouting,

"VEDIKA KAUR!"

The spotlight comes on me as fireworks start to lighten up the sky and smoke surrounds the stage. The audience cheers out, shouting on the top of their voices and before I know, I was being pulled to the stage by someone.

On reaching the stage, I was handed a very, very big trophy and congratulated by the chief guest. I look around spell bound as if all of this was just a dream.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Aman bhai standing, his arms crossed against his chest, as he smiles at me. "Proud of you," He mouths. I couldn't really hear him through all the cheering and shouting but I knew that was what he had said. I smile back, mouthing a "Thankyou."

Nishaant jumps onto the stage and pounces at me, throwing his hands around me tightly. "Love you, V," He whispers into my hair.

"Love you more, idiot." I chuckle as tears start falling from my eyes.

From the back, Divya engulfs me. "Knew you'd win it," she says in low voice.

"Couldn't have done it without you." I whisper back with a smile.

I breath for a minute when Nishaant and Divya release me. The next thing, Kavya jumps on me.

I hold her tightly as I my voice cracks, "thanks for everything, Kavya."

"No," she shakes her head, her hold tightening on me. "Thanks to you. You literally changed my life. I wouldn't have done this if this weren't for you," she whispers. I smile as tears constantly roll from my eyes.

As soon as she pulls from me, we get down from the stage. I get congratulated by all the girls from the team. We all hold the trophy together and click infinite number of pictures.

The feeling was surreal.

Holding the trophy in my hand, I think about all the times my dad has told me that I was useless.

Well, I wasn't that useless after all.

"You did it," a voice breaks my from my thoughts.

I turn to see the person I least expected to see.

Zivah Joshi.

Her eyes move to the trophy in my hand and then back at me.

"Congratulations, Vedika." She smiled slightly.

"Thanks," I whispered.

"I knew you'd win," She says with genuine happiness in her eyes.

"Then, um... is there.. any chance I could win your friendship back?" My voice cracks, unable to meet her eyes.

She remains silent for a minute before saying, "Somethings change, Vedika. I guess at the end of the day, you can't win everything."

She walks away, leaving me alone. I let the tears fall from my eyes as I look down.

I turn back to the crowd, cheering and congratulating me.