~**NEW: Chapters 39-43 posted on page 6!**~ - Page 3

"What is it Leher? Why are you so tensed and under pressure? You wanted to tell Rashmi something, didn't you? Well, can I know about this too? Or is it some secret about me?" Suman asked as if she already knew it.

Leher remained quiet.

"What is it that you wanted to tell Rashmi, Leher?"

Leher still remained quiet.

"You want to tell her that I want to steal Veer from her, steal her happiness away from her, and ruin her life? Alright, go ahead and tell her. Do you think she will believe her rich best friend or poor best friend? How do you know how our relationship is like? You don't know your Rasham anymore, she's mine now."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Leher.

"Doing what?" asked Suman in a slightly-mean tone.

"Why are you trying to ruin Rashmi's life?" Leher started shouting. "Can't you see that you've caused enough grief already? She trusts you, Suman! And you want to betray her trust just to get the boy that you gave up for her? What are you, her personal demon?"

"Excuse me? How dare you talk to me like that! Poor people have no right to talk to us like that! If I wanted to I could kick you out of this mansion, but no, I can't because you are Rashmi's friend. Suman stared at Leher's arms. She knew she was hiding something from her. "What's that behind your hands?" she asked and tugged on her arm.

She grabbed the photo and heart-shaped paper from Leher. She gave her an angry stare and left the bedroom. Leher was in the bedroom alone, frightened. She put her hands on her head and groaned loudly. She had to do something and do it quickly.

"Oh God, please don't let anything bad happen to Rashmi! Good people like her don't deserve to not get what they want. I guess I'm going to have to tell her without any proof. I hope she will still believe me."

Chapter 22: Does The Plan Work?

Later that day, Rashmi was downstairs praying in the family room where they put the statue of a Hindu god. Leher hustled down the stairs towards Rashmi.

"Rashmi!" she yelled from the staircase. "Rashmi, I have to tell you something!" She scurried from the end of the staircase to the prayer area. She was breathing very loudly and Rashmi looked at her wanting to know what happened. The servants, who were on the opposite side, noticed the worried look on Leher's face, but didn't care about it. Leher sat down and continued breathing loudly.

"Oh my gosh! Leher, what happened? Are you okay?" Rashmi asked, worrying about her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Nothing happened to me," she chanted. "But I'm worried about you Rasham! Something is going to happen to you tonight! I just know it!" she yelled, shaking Rashmi's arms.

"Ssh, calm down Leher! Just tell me everything nice and slowly," Rashmi said quietly, trying to calm her down. "Now what is it that you wanted to tell me?"

"It's something about Suman. Well, before I went into her room to tell her to come downstairs, she was saying something in her bedroom about how she likes Veer and wants to ruin your life again and steal all your happiness away from you and turn you into a sad sack!" Leher said speedily.

"Leher, what are you saying? Suman promised me she would never do something like that ever again. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"Rashmi, it wasn't a dream! It's reality! That girl seriously hates you and wants to turn you from being a happy sweet girl to a lonely, sad sack! I have a feeling that she'll do something weird tonight at your Joraa. Just promise me that you won't fall for her tricks, and just to let you know, rich people never keep promises- they ignore them."

"Leher, I really don't think she..." Rashmi began to clarify.

"Just promise me you won't listen to her!" Leher returned, trying to point out the problem.

"Okay, alright, I won't!" Rashmi said, not believing that such a thing would happen again.

While she was busy talking to Leher, the make-up specialists that Mrs. Thakur called to do Rashmi's make-up for the night arrived at their place. A servant mistakenly told them Rashmi was upstairs in her room. Suman noticed the specialists were there from the staircase. She immediately approached Rashmi's room to get her make up done to pretend she was her.

The specialists came in Rashmi's room and noticed a girl sitting in front of her mirror,fixing her hair.

"Are you Rashmi Gupta?" asked one of the specialists.

She nodded.

"Wow! A girl like you doesn't even need our help with getting ready. Well, just sit tight and we'll do some minor adjustments."

She sat there for five minutes, while the specialists continued their work.

"Rashmi, have the specialists come yet?" asked Mrs. Thakur as she came into the room, and noticed Suman was there instead. She looked at her daughter awkwardly.

"Suman, what are you doing here? Where's Rashmi?"

"I'm getting my make-up done for tonight."

"Well sweetie, the girl who's having her Joraa is supposed to get her make-up done first."

Exactly Ma, that girl is me! I'm going to have my Joraa tonight- not Rashmi!

"Oh, I'm sorry Ma. I didn't know," she lied.

"It's okay. Can you go call Rashmi?"

Suman brought Rashmi upstairs and the specialists did their work on her instead. After they finished, she looked completely different. She had changed from simple to extraordinary.

"Wow Rasham, you look beautiful!" said Ammo.

"Yeah, you look awesome!" said Suman. But not as awesome as me! she thought.

Once everyone had left the bedroom, Rashmi was alone in her room with Suman. Suman seemed pretty bored and depressed so Rashmi decided to ask her why she seemed that way.

"What's the matter? Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Why are you worried about me, Rashmi? Today is your Joraa, isn't it?" Suman pointed out with a hint of jealousy.

"Yeah, it is. I think I know what you're upset about. Today I'll leave this house and I won't come back until summer is over, and you'll be alone without me."

"No, It's nothing like that!"

"Oh, maybe it's because you wanted to have your Joraa too? Why didn't you ever talk to your dad about Karan? If you would have opened that mouth of yours maybe we would have been planning for your Joraa too."

Suman shook her head and looked in the other direction. "I don't want to have my Joraa right now. I think I'll wait for some other time."

Chapter 23: The Shocker

Evening had struck and it was time for the Joraa. A lot of people from their families were gathered from the party, that was at Veer's place. Rashmi couldn't go since it was against the rules and she had to get dressed.

Meanwhile, Suman was downstairs with Veer, and she with some other girls planned to play a prank on him by making him sit on a pillow that had a whoopie cushion under it.

"Veer, please come here and sit on this pillow," said Suman.

"Why? I don't need to sit."

"Oh come on, just sit here," she said as she made him sit. A loud farting sound came out of the pillow which made everyone burst with laughter.

"Oh gosh Veer, what did you have for lunch today?" asked a girl as she continued to laugh.

"Suman, I had no idea you could pull a prank like that. I didn't know you were that mischievous."

"Keep watching Veer, you'll see what I'll do next," Suman foreshadowed.

A photographer wanted to take some photos of Veer with some other guests, but Suman stood next to him in every picture. Once he was done, Suman believed now was the time for her to admit her love for Veer.

"Veer, do you want to see the face of the girl you'll have your Joraa with?"

"I'd like to, but I can't. I don't want to break the rules."

"Forget these rules. Do you want to see her or not?" Suman asked convincingly, with her big eyes.

He nodded. Suman spied at every corner to make sure no one was looking at them.

"Follow me," she said, holding his hand.

Suman took Veer upstairs and brought him into the guest bedroom. Veer stared. The room had beautiful flowered decorations hanging on all the walls and candles lit everywhere. It looked as if it was made for a newly wed Indian couple after their marriage. Suman locked them both in the room while he continued staring at the decorations. When he heard a click from the door, he turned around to see what it was.

"Why did you lock the door?" he demanded.

"So no one else will know about this and so we won't get in trouble."

"Where's the girl I'm having my Joraa with?" he asked impatiently.

Suman came as close to him as possible. She wrapped herself around him, staring into his dark chocolate eyes. "She's standing right in front of you."

Chapter 24: Will Veer accept Suman?

Veer got startled on what he just heard and put an 'are you serious?' look on his face. He pushed Suman away from his chest. "What kind of joke is this? Telling me I'll change my mind and choose you instead?"

"This isn't a joke Veer! This is true! I really love you Veer!" she shouted as she shook his arms.

Veer pulled at her arms. "I love Rashmi! Only and only Rashmi!" Veer screeched at the top of his lungs. Veer's complaint echoed throughout the room. An immediate silence followed the ending of the echo. Suman began to speak after a couple moments of silence.

"When I decided to ditch you, you decided to accept Rashmi, right?!" she shouted.

"You've gone crazy! Let me go!" he said as he struggled towards the exit.

"No wait! I have to show you something!" she said as she brought him to a cupboard in the room. She opened it and brought out some pictures.

"Veer these are some pictures of you that I have. I talk to your pictures day and night hoping that one day you'll be mine. I love you!"

"That's it Suman! Just quit acting and spill the beans!"

"You want to know the truth, Veer?! Well here it is: Whatever Rashmi is today is because of me! The person who accepted her into this house as only a friend to play with was me! And what do I receive in return? She stole everything I had in life wanting to be like me! She stole my place as the only daughter of this house, would always get whatever I got, and now, she wants to steal you away from me! I can't tolerate that little-miss-goodie-two-shoes! It makes people pay more attention to her which I don't like! It's like I don't even exist! My parents have always been more concerned about her since the day she was accepted into this house! Don't you think what she did to me was wrong? Don't you think I deserve to get what I want? Don't you see a difference between Rashmi and I?" Suman cried.

"First of all, I would like to say thank you for being the most dirty, down-low, selfish, idiotic, and downright crazy person I have ever met in my life! How could you think of such a thing about your best-friend? You should be ashamed of yourself to call yourself a rich man's daughter! I could have never expected that from you. Down-low people like you can't see the beauty and love in an innocent, loving girl like Rashmi. If you had a soul in yourself, you would have seen it by now. I'm sorry but down-lows, especially you, don't deserve to ever be happy! If you'll excuse me, the guests are waiting. But before I go, I want to clarify one thing: If you dare have the guts to do anything weird, unexacting, or obnoxious, then I won't stay quiet. I'll confront you in front of everyone if I have to!"

"You don't know me Veer. The one who has no heart is Rashmi! She's the one trying to ruin my life! I'm not scared of anyone! I'll have my Joraa with you today! Go ahead and confront me in front of everyone! Let's see who they will end up believing!"

"That's it! I'm leaving!"

He was moving to the door unpleasantly as he was being tugged on his leg by Suman. She was laying on the floor begging him to have his Joraa with her.

"Please Veer, have your Joraa with me! I won't cause anymore trouble in our lives! I'm sorry about before! Please don't leave me Veer! I love you so much more than Rashmi does!" Veer leaves the room and she screeches his name. "Veer! I love you! I can't live without you! I will die! Come back! I love you!" She starts crying and shouting, repeating herself over and over again.

Meanwhile, Veer went downstairs trying to ignore what just happened. Everyone was downstairs wondering why Suman hadn't brought Rashmi downstairs yet. Ammo came upstairs to her room and saw that she was still there.

"Rashmi, where's Suman? She never came to get you?"

"I don't know. She never came here. I don't know what happened."

"Come on, I'll take you downstairs. Everyone was wondering why you aren't..."

"Go to the guest bedroom quickly you witch!" Nani ran in and screeched at her, standing at the door. "Go see what you have done to your best friend!"