Indhu's pov
I wasn't in school that day.
Fever had this annoying habit of coming and going, like it couldn't decide whether to leave me alone or not. So I stayed home, half-asleep, half-scrolling through my phone, already irritated that I was missing another normal day. Charlotte wasn't there either, which made it worse in a strange way—whenever both of us were absent, things always went weird.
I found out later how weird.
Apparently, it had been a quiet morning. Too quiet. Just Swetha, Aditya, and Rohan in the classroom, enjoying what Rohan proudly called "peace." Typical. As if silence around him ever lasted.
They went to the library, did their thing, came back—and that's when it happened.
Someone had written Leonor on the board.
Big. Centered. Impossible to miss.
When Swetha told me about it later, my chest tightened instantly. Not because of the name itself—but because of everything attached to it. All the things Leonor had said before. All the comparisons. All the unnecessary comments. And now her name was just… there. On the board. Like a joke. Like nothing mattered.
Swetha said Leonor noticed it the moment she walked in. She asked who wrote it. Aditya apparently panicked and blurted out something useless, and Rohan did what Rohan always does—talked before thinking.
That was it for Swetha.
She snapped at them. Properly. Told them they had no sense, reminded them of the things Leonor had said about us. About me. About all of us. And suddenly, Aditya and Rohan realized they'd messed up.
When Swetha texted me all this, I swear my fever spiked out of pure anger.
I typed back without thinking:
"Seriously?! I can't believe this. BP is skyrocketing. I'm fuming!"
I was.
The next day, I dragged myself to school. My head still felt heavy, my body tired—but my mood? Worse. I saw Aditya in the corridor, walking toward me with that familiar awkward smile he uses when he knows he's in trouble.
"Hey… um… Indhu, about yesterday—"
I didn't even let him finish.
"Don't. Just… don't."
He tried again, quieter, almost careful. "I promise, I didn't mean—"
That was it. Something snapped.
"If you want to know about yesterday," I shot back, my voice louder than I meant it to be, "go talk to your bestie Leonor! That's all you need to know!"
I walked away before he could say anything else. My hands were shaking, my eyes burning—not just with anger, but with hurt. Because it wasn't about the board. It was about how easily things could cross a line. About how trust could feel shaky for just a moment.
For the rest of the day, I stayed at the far end of the class. I could feel Aditya trying—hovering, hesitating, looking for the right moment. Rohan and Swetha watched everything unfold like it was some dramatic serial episode, whispering and smirking.
And honestly? I was still mad. But I also knew myself.
By the time the day ended, the anger had softened into something else. Familiar. Warm. Tired.
I forgave him.
Not because he was right—he wasn't. But because I knew us. I knew that no matter how much we fought, it never really broke us. Somehow, it always stitched us closer together, stronger than before.
That's how it's always been with us.
And that's how I knew—this, too, would just become another story we'd laugh about someday.