11 Baklava

"Friendship is like peeing in your pants, everyone can see it. But only you can feel the warm feeling inside."

- Robert Bloch

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Gauhar's POV

"Stop spouting non-sense and get into your room already." she opened the door and roughly pushed me inside.

Only when we were comfortably seated on our bed did I actually notice what she was wearing. The pink dress she wore brought out the green in her hazel eyes, which she had paired with a lighter pastel pink hijab. The hijab which was now discarded on my bed.

So this was why he was calling her pinky. But I must admit, that girl knew how to dress herself to her advantage. She always managed to look amazing no matter what.

As I took in a bite of the heavenly baklava, I realized that I had made a grave mistake indeed. I shouldn't have agreed to share this with him.

"Gosh Daniya this is so good, I could get high on this sugar and die a happy woman." I groaned in appreciation.

"No problem, just kill your brother, it will be all yours then." She advised me, a smile forming on her lips that could be only described as smug.

I swallowed the food in my mouth and grinned at her "Oh, look at you talking about murder and stuff. Finally my good influence is rubbing off on you."

"That still does not negate the fact that you are exceptionally bad at assassination." She calmly pointed out, popping an entire piece of baklava into her mouth.

I grimaced to myself as I internally acknowledged the correctness of her words. There went my hopes of being a ninja….why was life so cruel. Friends always knew your weaknesses and how to exploit them to their advantage.

Damn them.

I leaned back into the pillows and stretched my legs in front of me "That's just because I haven't tried hard enough. Personally, I think that Muqeet is adopted, I mean he is practically an alien with that freakish liking for math and his efficiency at computers."

"C'mon don't start making excuses now. And actually….liking math is highly attractive." she averted her eyes from me and started playing with the imaginary fraying threads of my blanket.

"Of course you'll find math attractive." my eyes widened in realisation as I sat up straight, "Wait, this means that you like my brother!" I covered my mouth with both my hands. Making sure I exaggerated my surprise to embarrass her further.

Daniya suddenly started coughing. I hit her hard on her back, to curb the sudden fit. It was absolutely not because I enjoyed hitting her when I knew she wouldn't hit me back.

"Are you insane Gauhar, don't say absolute crap like that again. Damn..." She ran a hand through her hair as she laughed to herself.

"What is that blush doing on your cheeks then?" I nudged her cheek, causing her to raise her eyebrows at me in surprise.

"I-I am not blushing….wait of course I'll be flushed. I nearly coughed to death just now. Didn't I? Stop making things seem like they aren't Gauhar." she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Whatever you want darling, whatever you want." I said airily, at which she rolled her eyes.

"Where is that green jumper that guy gave you?" she got up from the bed and started rummaging around in my closet, looking for the elusive piece of clothing.

"I have absolutely no idea what guy you are talking about, and I own no green jumpers." I smoothly lied, calmly placing my hands behind my head and leaning onto the headboard.

"I must say that it was an absolutely disgusting attempt at acting oblivious, even I could do better than that." she said as she started walking back towards me, apparently tired of searching for the ridiculously bright green jumper.

She plopped down on the bed beside me "Don't tell me Gauhar you forgot about that man who helped us out today. Even you cannot have that bad of a memory."

"Excuse you, I have an amazing memory. And I never said I forgot about that guy. I am just failing to comprehend how that guy could be of any relevance to our conversation right now."

Daniya jumped up and sat on her knees "Didn't you see the guy? He was so handsome, and the way he helped us…" she started fanning herself, causing me to hold my head in my hands in exasperation...here she went on her dreamy rants about handsome guys.

"I'm telling you Gauhar, he was exactly like a knight in shining armor."

"Soooo, are you prepared for the exams next week?" I interrupted her fantasies as I raised an eyebrow at her, effectively curbing her monologue about the fairytale hero we met today.

She sighed and laid down on the bed "Will you kindly not remind me of the exams? It is bad enough that I have to see my books more than once in the day because of it, I don't want to have you rub it in my face as well" she whined.

Crisis averted! Sometimes I'm too clever for my own good. I tried hard not let the smugness show on my face as I internally patted myself.

'"Finance is a lot easier than law." I pointed out, making sure I maintained a poker face though all I wanted to do was laugh at how fast her face from dreamy to worried.

I suddenly remembered my classes today, and shook my head to get rid of the gruesome recollections. Who the heck allowed these thoughts to sashay unbidden into my brain.

History really did haunt our present.

She glared at me "Don't you dare say that! I'll have you try accounting once, I'm sure you'll have nightmares after it." her tone did indicate the pain she had been through, but it was nothing compared to what I had endured…. I highly doubted that anything could phase me after history of English law. I could take on anything, I was practically invincible now.

"Don't worry it's your last semester anyway. After that you'll be freed of the obligation of studying." I pointed out to her.

Daniya held her head in her hands, her chestnut hair standing on end due to the amount of times she had passed her hands through them "There's nothing to be happy about it, after college work awaits me, do you get it? Work! Sometimes I think we were actually better off as kids."

"Don't we all" I sighed sadly, popping the final piece of baklava in my mouth "Don't we all."

"Your exams aren't that later than mine, am I right?' she asked, hugging her knees to her chest.

I sighed and draped an arm over my eyes "Yeah, they start in about a month."

"Aren't you afraid?" she asked raising an eyebrow at me.

'"No, why would I be?" I asked opening one eye to register the surprise on her face.

"Of course, look who I'm talking to." she chuckled to herself, poking my face with her finger "Why would you be? Being the straight A student that you are, I'm sure you are actually looking forward to them."

I opened my eyes and grinned at her "Well yes, I actually am. But I still have another semester to go till I'll be done with it."

"And I was being called the freaky one." She leaned back on the head board and turned her head towards me "At least I can gloat on the fact that you'll still be slaving off in college when I graduate. That at least, is something to be happy about."

As the comprehension dawned on her that I would have another semester of suffering to endure before my graduation, her face split into a grin. She looked considerably cheered by the prospect of my misery.

"I'm so happy that you derive such satisfaction from my agony." I wryly pointed out, trying not to smile at the expression of pure bliss on her face.

"Don't mention it." she said airily, waving a hand in the air dismissing my gratitude "That is what friends are for isn't it?"