::/It's Complicated/::

"Viv, pass me that," Daya gestured vaguely in the direction, and Vivek passed him the TV remote. Daya took one look at it, and groaned loudly. "Not this, Vivek!" He jabbed a finger towards what he had originally meant. "THAT!"

"Oh," Vivek said, looking embarrassed, and hastily passed Daya the bottle of Coke that had been next to the TV remote. Opening it, Daya took a long swig before fixing shrewd eyes on Vivek. "Where were you? Lost in La-La-Land? Or should I call it Tasha-Land?"

Vivek's fair face went brilliant scarlet as Daya howled with laughter. Just then, the door was opened with unnecessary force and Abhijeet strode in looking like a thundercloud.

"What the hell is so funny?" he barked at Daya, who abruptly stopped laughing and gave his best friend a curious look. "What's with you?"

Abhijeet made no reply but to fling himself onto the sofa and scowl at the ceiling. Vivek, understanding at once, shook his head in exasperation, trying not to smile. Daya, on the other hand, took it much more seriously. He scrambled up off the floor and went over to Abhijeet, sitting down beside him. "Dude, what's the matter? Something wrong?"

The 'dude' in question let out a single frustrated growl, and banged his fist on the sofa.

"Why the hell are women so... so bloody complicated!" he burst out, and Daya smacked himself on the forehead as he realised what Abhijeet was so worked up about. "Sheesh! And to think I actually got scared for a minute there!"

That earned him one of Abhijeet's famous death-glares. "And just what do you mean by-"

Vivek hurriedly cut in before the potential battle could start. "Guys, guys! We'll discuss that later! Right now the question is..." he turned to Abhijeet with an expectant look in his hazel eyes. "What. On. Earth. Happened?"

That made Abhijeet change track at once, adopting a mournful-kitty approach instead of the mad-wildcat one he had favoured a few minutes earlier. "We had a fight. And she's probably never gonna speak to me again."

Daya winced. "Ouch. What did you do?"

"Let's just say I accidentally it slip that Maya and Shruti happened to be at Daksh's birthday party yesterday."

"Oh my God." Vivek's jaw dropped. "You did not. Please tell me you didn't."

Abhijeet gave him a look. "Uh, Vivek, would I be sitting here like this right now if I hadn't?" He grimaced, pushing his hair out of his face. "And I may have also let it slip that they were both being a little too friendly."

Despite himself, Daya couldn't stop the wide, incredulous grin that spread over his face. "And you're still alive? Knowing Tarika, I'd have expected your ashes to be in a holy river by now!"

Vivek, however, was more interested in knowing the real story. "So what happened once Tarika found out that Medusa and Snivelly- uh, I mean Maya and Shruti- were there and being-" he made quote marks with his fingers "-a little too friendly?"

"What do you think happened?" Abhijeet sighed heavily. "She told me to go hang out with them and leave her alone to die of pneumonia."

"Pneumonia?" Daya spluttered, choking on the mouthful of Coke he had just taken. Vivek tapped him on the head several times before the Coke finally went down, and Daya stared at Abhijeet disbelievingly. "She has pneumonia? And you're calmly sitting here and talking about it?"

Abhijeet rolled his eyes. "Please. She has a cold. Well, okay, a really bad one, but still... come on, there's a limit to overreaction!"

"Abhijeet." Vivek's voice was patient, the kind usually used by preschool teachers while dealing with tantrums. "Listen to yourself. OK, we all know Maya's the most evil female in school, but Sniv- I mean Shruti, is an entirely different matter. If Tarika had gone to a party without you and some guy she used to like came and hit on her, how would you have reacted?" Vivek shook his head. "Sorry, but it's the truth."

That shut Abhijeet up all right, and Daya flashed Vivek a look of pride before turning back to his best friend. "Look, yaar, there's one thing you have to understand about girls... they aren't like us."

"You don't say?" Vivek interjected sarcastically.

"Will you let me finish!"

Vivek fell silent, and Daya continued, his tone serious. "And I don't mean just physically. Their thinking, their psychology, their emotions, their moods-"

"Particularly their moods," muttered Abhijeet.

"Yeah- and basically everything about them- is totally different. If a girl says 'okay' to something you ask her, she means-"

"Do whatever the hell you want and just leave me alone," Vivek said helpfully.

"Exactly. 'I'm fine' means-"

"My world is crumbling around me and I need a hug but you're too dumb to realise it, you pigheaded moron."

"Bingo. 'It's OK' means-" Daya gestured to Vivek to finish the sentence, and the latter did so with enthusiasm.

"Means I forgive you for the time being, but you can be sure as hell that I'm never forgetting this. And I'll make sure to bring it up and use it as a secret weapon the next time we have a fight."

Abhijeet was now at a total loss for words as he looked dazedly at Vivek. "Dude... how?"

Vivek smiled modestly with a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders. "One of the perks of having a girl for a best friend. Some people make fun of me for it, but they're the ones getting dumped the next second because they 'just don't know how to treat girls'."

Abhijeet and Daya laughed, and suddenly Daya's mobile vibrated in his jeans pocket. He pulled it out to see a new message.

"Ah, look who's texting Daya," Abhijeet said, smirking, and Daya snatched his mobile out of his best friend's view. Unfortunately for him, this movement brought the text message straight into Vivek's line of vision.

"You can go and tell your precious best friend that he's lucky I'm not coming there and breaking his face for breaking my best friend's heart. Better keep him safe, there are way more desperate girls out there than Maya and Shruti... and as we all know, he can't defend himself against girls to save his life." Vivek let out a long, low whistle. "Whoa, Muskaan must have amazingly flexible fingers if she actually typed all of that!"

Daya shot him a glare, and Vivek held up his hands, grinning. "Don't worry, I already have a girl whom I love very much. Well, she doesn't know it," he admitted, his face falling slightly, "but still."

"Why don't you just tell her?" Abhijeet asked. "I mean, for goodness sake, how long are you two going to friendzone each other?"

Vivek raised his eyebrows at Abhijeet. "So says the guy who was so scared to tell Tarika he likes her that he tried to get me to make Tasha tell her for him?"

Abhijeet buried his face in his hands, and Daya burst out laughing. "Yaar Vivek, no one told me it was Give Abhijeet Constant Nosecuts Day!"

"With friends like you guys, I sure don't need enemies!" Abhijeet snapped from in between his fingers.

/\\/\\/\\

Meanwhile, a similar gathering was taking place in another room, in another area of the city.

"I just- hic- wish I'd never asked him- hic- how Daksh's party wen... wen... aaaaaccchhhhhooo!"

Well, not exactly similar.

"It's a good thing we're not in school right now," Muskaan growled as she paced back and forth around Tarika's room, "else I'd have brutally murdered Medusa and Snivelly!"

"Muskaan," Tasha said in a long-suffering tone. She was sitting on a beanbag beside Tarika's bed, one hand on her head in exasperation as she watched Muskaan storming around. "Please. You're acting as if they're the only girls in school who hit on Abhijeet."

Tarika burst into tears all over again, and Tasha looked horrified. "No, no, no! I didn't mean it like that, honestly I didn't!"

"You may not," Tarika wailed, angrily scrubbing at her face with the crumpled handkerchief she was holding, "but everyone else does, don't they? Because the popular opinion, in that jungle we call a school, dictates that girls who spend half their time in the chemistry lab aren't allowed to have lives-"

"Oh, shut up, princess," Muskaan scolded. "If that was true, then girls who spend every waking moment practicing the martial arts would have to be locked away in a tower." She did a swift kung fu move to vent her feelings.

"And girls who practically live in front of a piano wouldn't be considered human beings," Tasha put in dryly. "So I think I can safely say that the fact that you're the smartest girl in our grade has nothing to do with the fact that every female in school under the age of nineteen drools over Abhijeet like a dog over a fresh bone. With the exception of me, Muskaan and Niyati, of course."

"Because Niyati is way too cool for any guy in our school," Muskaan agreed, grinning. "Plus Tasha's always been Abhijeet and Daya's little sister, and I would rather die than betray my best friend." She hugged Tarika, who smiled briefly through her tears.

"And anyway, Tarika," Tasha continued, a frown twisting her pretty face. "I can't believe you're being insecure over Maya and Shruti of all people. I mean, come on! You're so much better for Abhijeet than-"

"Maya doesn't even have to be considered a problem," Muskaan snorted. "I could take her down with a single slap any day. Shruti, on the other hand..." she glanced at Tarika, who hung her head, her curls tumbling forward to fall over her shoulders.

Tasha bit her lip awkwardly. "I know." She shook her head in bemusement. "I always wondered what on earth Abhijeet saw in her. Not to mention..." she broke off with a slight grin. "I probably shouldn't be saying so, but she kinda looks like a female version of Robert Pattinson. From Twilight, of course," she added mischievously.

Muskaan and Tarika giggled in spite of themselves. "You're right, actually!" Muskaan observed, chuckling. "Same complexion, pretty much the same hair colour, and definitely the same expressions." She pulled a long-suffering expression truly worthy of Shruti as well as Edward Cullen, and Tarika smacked her lightly on the arm, though she was grinning broadly. "Don't be so mean, Musi."

"Whatever it is," Tasha said, smiling, "the fact we're trying to prove here is that you have no competition. Not from Shruti, not from Maya, and certainly not from that creepy Samara female who just transferred here from Goa." She shuddered at the very thought.

"I know!" Muskaan exclaimed vigorously, her eyes wide. "You wouldn't believe it, but Niyati actually told me she saw her following Abhijeet around the other day, telling him how much he looks like her ex-boyfriend Manoj."

"Are you serious?" Tarika sat bolt upright, staring at her best friend. "She's stalking him?"

Tasha giggled. "Don't worry. I saw her yesterday, trying the same trick with Sachin. Only this time it was her childhood sweetheart Dhruv."

All three girls burst into peals of laughter, and suddenly Tasha's phone rang. She quickly reached over and picked it up. "Hey Vivek." Her brow furrowed as Vivek said something. "What? Why?" She glanced at Tarika and Muskaan, who were looking questioningly at her. "OK... OK we're coming."

She hung up, shrugging her shoulders in bewilderment before her friends could ask her what the matter was. "Vivek said we have to go out onto the balcony right away. I tried asking why, but he wouldn't tell me."

"Well, let's go find out," Muskaan said, getting up from the bed. Since Tarika's pyjama top was sleeveless, she tossed a sweater at her. "Put this on, you don't want your cold to get worse."

Once that was done, the three girls went, as per Vivek's instructions, out onto the balcony, squinting in the sudden sunlight. Once her eyes had adjusted, Tasha immediately broke into a wide grin. "Tarika," she said, tugging at her friend's sleeve. "Look."

Tarika looked, and a gasp escaped her lips. Abhijeet was outside her house, sitting on his bike. When he looked up and saw her, he got off the bike, knelt to the ground and clutched his ears in apology, gazing pleadingly up at her with his best Puss In Boots expression.

"Oh no, not that!" Tarika couldn't help smiling, and shook her head down at Abhijeet. "Why do I always end up falling for that? I must be crazy!"

Abhijeet grinned. "Well, of course you are. You're crazy about me." Muskaan and Tasha laughed and nudged Tarika teasingly, and she blushed and buried her face in her hands, exactly as Abhijeet himself had done a while ago.

"Uh, girls, could you tell her to hurry up and get down here already? My knees are hurting!"

Tarika's head snapped up at that, and Tasha gave her a small shove. "Well, what are you waiting for? New Year? Go on!"

/\\/\\/\\

"Of all the times for me to get a co... co... coaaaaaccchhhhhhhooo!"

"Your own fault," quipped Vivek as Abhijeet's watering eyes glared at him over his handkerchief. "We didn't ask you to kiss her, did we?"

"As I recall, she protested quite a bit too," Daya drawled, not taking his eyes off the cricket match he was watching on TV. "But the power of raging adolescent hormones was too much for our poor little Abhijeet to fight."

"Oh, shut up!" Abhijeet said heatedly. "I'm not made of cardboard, for goodness sake! And anyway," he continued, a dangerous glint entering his eyes, "we'll see who's talking about adolescent hormones when you and Muskaan finally admit that you're madly in lo-"

"OK, OK!" Daya said loudly, and sighed in immense relief when there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it!" He hurried over and opened the door, and Abhijeet's face lit up at once as Tarika sailed into the room, looking like she'd just won the lottery.

"Guess what!" she sang, jumping onto Abhijeet's bed and grinning from ear to ear.

"You got into Harvard?" Vivek asked, smiling.

"You won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry?" Daya suggested with a smirk.

Tarika rolled her eyes. "Come on, guys!"

"OK, what is it?" asked Abhijeet, and Tarika beamed. "My cousin's getting maaaarrrriiieeed!" she squealed, bouncing up and down on the bed like a toddler. "Next week! And we're all going there!"

"Nice!" Daya said as Vivek nodded in agreement. Abhijeet, however, was focusing on the latter part of what she had said. "You're all going there? Going where?"

"Delhi, of course!" Tarika said happily. "That's where my cousin lives, remember?"

"Wh- Delhi?" Abhijeet's jaw dropped. "For how long?" he asked weakly, dreading the answer.

"Two weeks-" Tarika broke off in mid-sentence with a startled gasp as Abhijeet fainted clean away. "Abhijeet?"

"Oh, God," groaned Daya as he picked up the water bottle that was thankfully placed on the bedside table. "I don't want to live on this planet anymore."

/\\/\\/\\

A/N: Well, how was the first chapter? Yay or nay? Like or dislike? Please review! (It's the only thing that keeps me going.)

And by the way, no offense meant to Shruti fans and Twilight fans! Sorry! :)