Snapshots

Chapter Fifteen - A World of Hurt

The drive back to their college was too quiet for Aru's liking. Kara, who'd been on her phone the whole break, was, shocker, still on her phone.

And Aiden acted like his lips were glued shut with superglue.

He hadn't even looked her way since the day she and Kara had gone to his house to give the tiramisu, even though they live just opposite of each other and her window was level to his.

In the light of her newly recognised feelings for him, she felt annoyed at him. Even more annoyed than she'd ever been.

It wasn't like she'd even told him that she liked him way more than friends should like each other. If she had, then she'd understand why he was actively avoiding her.

At their campus, after they'd settled in their rooms, Aru came to a decision that she'd been trying not to take for the whole of spring.

She still didn't want to take it, but if she wanted Kara to be happy and wanted to stop herself from falling for Aiden even more, she'd have to.

Because she wasn't going to deny that she was falling for him. Slowly, steadily, like a river's flow, and also swiftly, like dandelion petals when blown at.

Arundhati Shah was falling for Aiden Acharya, and she needed to stop it from escalating beyond her reach.

There was a knock on their dorm door, and Kara stopped her humming to go open it. Camilla stood there, and Aru saw her sister's face light up when Camilla hugged her.

Aru looked away, missing the blush on Kara's neck when Camilla kissed her cheek.

"I missed you so much, nena, you won't even believe how much. This place is so boring without you."

Kara's laugh tinkled, and Aru felt annoyed that she didn't laugh like that. "I missed you too, Cami."

Aru unlocked her phone, looking through the messages that were sent to her when her phone was powered off.

Mini had sent her a message of her first date with Rudy in the gardens, where they were having a picnic. Aru shot her a congratulatory text.

Her dad had asked her if she'd reached safely, and if she was still feeling guilty. Aru said, yes, they'd reached safely, and she lied through her teeth when she said she wasn't guilty anymore.

And two texts from Aiden, the first asking her if she was okay since she'd been scowling the whole ride, and the second asking her whether she wanted some chocolate.

She left him on read.

It hurt her to leave a guy she'd become close with on read like that, but she told herself again and again as to why she was doing it.

'For Kara's happiness.' She told herself. 'For Kara's happiness, and to stop you from spiralling down a rabbit hole you'll never get out of, that will collapse in on you and suffocate you and everything wrong.'

The biggest stab in her heart was when she realised that Kara could be as normal as ever with anyone, while Aru would have to hide away all that she felt.

"You're Aru, right? We didn't get to talk too much at the Formal. I'm Camilla Rivera, though Kara over here likes to call me Cami. Right, nena?"

Kara laughed again. "Any name suits you, Cami."

Turns out, Camilla was actually nice to be friends with if you looked over her weirdness. It was a default setting, she'd said.

Kara'd said she wanted to go to the grocery store, and Camilla had followed her out.

And Aru felt a dagger twisting in her stomach when she thought of how, inevitably, she was meant to be alone.

***
Aiden thought that, if he concentrated hard enough, he'd hear his heart shatter. Aru was talking to everyone except him, as though he'd done something terribly wrong.

But how did everyone think that she was acting normal?

Anyone could see that the smile on her face was forced, that the glint in her eyes whenever she'd smiled wasn't there anymore, that her laugh was no longer carefree.

Anyone could see that she wasn't being herself.

It hurt him.

It also hurt him whenever she looked at him, whenever she finally spared him a glance, and she'd have that annoyed look brewing in her eyes, except more hostile than playful like it always had been.

His talk with his mom had helped him. He'd started realising that he saw Aru as someone more than just a good friend, but he didn't dare let his thoughts stray further.

Love ended horribly, his mother's and father's toxic romance had shown him that.

Except their romance was toxic.

Aiden knew that he could never be, at least never from his side. Every waking and sleeping moment since he was old enough to see that his parents' relationship was built on screams and manipulation by his father, he'd sworn to never be like him.

Aiden would never repeat his parents' mistakes.

He'd been prepared to tell Aru that he'd seen her as someone more than a friend, but she'd been leaving his messages on read ever since they'd come back to campus.

Maybe she'd found out from when he'd told Brynne, and now she was angry that their friendship was cut short like that.

At least someone's life was going well.

Rudy and Mini never left each other's sides, always laughing and smiling with each other, joking, teasing, and he'd even made Mini bunk one of her classes to hang out with him.

She hadn't needed much convincing, dropping her books on the table and going to the museum nearby with him.

Their instagram was filled with teeth rotting sweetness, and Aiden should've been happy that his cousin was finally dating the girl of his dreams.

Except all Aiden felt was a rusted and barbed wire on his heart, hurting him whenever Aru didn't say hello back to him with that smile he liked so much.

Correction, the smile he loved so much.

She was hurting him by avoiding him, and he didn't know what he was supposed to do.