I was suddenly wary. We had been kids back then, but what had Raghu done? Had he hurt her somehow? Despite my anger at her, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want Raghu to be that kind of a person.

‘I’d like to know, yes,’ I told him finally.

He looked sheepish. ‘Silly things, man. Things to embarrass her more often than not,’ he said with a slight shrug.

‘Like what?’ I persisted.

‘Like I’d ask her to meet me for a movie, but I wouldn’t show up. Or if I did, I’d be dressed very badly. I was quite mean to her when we went on a group outing with her friends,’ he said, looking miserable.

‘How mean?’ I was glad that his ‘revenge’ had been petty and not cruel. But then . . . words are cruel too. This deflated my happiness a little. I realized that I wanted revenge when I was the one meting it out. I didn’t want Raghu to step in and defend me.

‘I said nasty things about how she dressed,’ he said, looking down. He was clearly ashamed of himself and I was disappointed too.

‘And then?’

‘She broke up with me,’ he shrugged. ‘Not that it mattered because I’d lost your friendship by then.’

He turned to me and we looked at each other. There was something different about this moment because he kept staring at me and I couldn’t bring myself to look away. I felt warm and prickly at the same time, and a little breathless as well.

‘I’m glad we’re back to being friends now,’ he said finally.

The spell broke and I nodded, not sure of what had just happened. I realized we were back at the house and I didn’t wait for him as I walked inside. He followed me in silence.

I turned around, just before we went inside.

‘I’m glad you’re here,’ I told him.

His brown eyes darkened and I stepped back in surprise, but he nodded.

When we went inside the house, I was nearly breathless with the need to talk to Nisha about what had happened. Raghu and I were back to being friends, but there was something else going on too. I had a crush on him, yes, but why was he looking at me strangely? I couldn’t believe he was interested in me, so it must be something else, I thought.

All thoughts fled when we walked back inside the living room and Ma looked at me, her face pink and shining.

‘Ananya! Where were you? I kept calling your number!’

I looked at her in panic. I hadn’t taken my phone and gone out. Had something happened? Was it the baby? But Ma was just around five months pregnant. She couldn’t be having it already. She didn’t look very panicked though. In fact, Papa was beaming and Aunty V, too, was grinning away.