CHAPTER 2 -"THE WAY WE WERE"
833 Words
When eight strangers became a dangerous kind of family…
Previously: Eight individuals now live scattered across the globe, but a Message group chat threatens to bring them together again. Each has dark history, broken relationships, and secrets too dangerous to share. But this didn’t start with betrayal.
It started in a university hallway—with one glance.
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4 Years Ago — St. Morvell International University
Switzerland, Hidden in the Alps — A University Where Only the Brilliant or Broken Get In
Snow dusted the gothic rooftops of St. Morvell. The campus looked like a place where dreams were sculpted. But beneath its ivy-covered stone walls were stories soaked in obsession, rivalry, lust, and betrayal.
They didn't meet at once. They collided—chaotically.
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THE FIRST DAY
Avanee was already famous for hacking a US defence firewall during her scholarship interview. Everyone whispered about her. Everyone feared her. She moved like she owned the servers—and everyone in the room.
Aishi noticed her first.
“Cyber goth girl with daddy issues,” she muttered to Dhruv.
He laughed.
But his eyes followed Avanee for a second too long.
That was the first fracture.
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THE FIRST FRIENDSHIPS
Dhruv and Harry bonded instantly on the football field.
"That was a tackle?" Harry laughed, brushing dirt off.
"You're built like a tank," Dhruv replied.
They became brothers. Until they fell for the same girl.
That girl was Aishi.
Who, ironically, was too busy arguing in philosophy class with Shreya, who hated her at first sight.
"You think logic wins everything?" Shreya snapped.
Aishi smirked. "Logic survives. Emotions burn."
That burn lasted two years. Until they became best friends. Or so they thought
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THE FIRST SEDUCTIONS
Avantika was the kind who dated professors for power, then dumped them before midterms.
But she wasn’t heartless.
She was just hiding from something.
The first time Ruhan saw her, she was smoking on the rooftop in a red coat.
“You know that’s not allowed,” he said.
She turned. “Then arrest me, soldier.”
He didn’t.
But he never left her side again.
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THE FIRST NIGHT OUT
It started with a dorm party.
Loud music. Red lights. Cheap vodka.
Avyann, the Navy kid, was quiet in the corner, sipping neat whiskey.
Avanee joined him.
“You look like you’ve killed someone,” she joked.
He stared straight ahead. “I have.”
She didn’t laugh.
And he didn’t stop watching her since.
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THE SECRET
Second semester. Someone went missing.
A student named Rehan.
He was last seen arguing with Aishi, then spotted outside the cyber lab with Avanee, then later that night—someone said they saw Avantika hand him a USB.
The police were called. No one was arrested. Rehan was never found.
None of them talked about it again.
But someone in the group knows the truth.
And someone is ready to expose it.
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Falling Apart Before Falling in Love
Dhruv + Aishi
She hated football.
He loved teasing her.
One day he skipped practice to attend her poetry reading.
She never smiled like that again.
They started dating. It was fire and wildfire.
Until she caught him… texting another girl.
(Or was it worse?)
They broke.
But never unloved.
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Harry + Shreya
He stitched her hand once after a lab accident.
Then never left her side.
They fought like soldiers, kissed like storms.
But once, she kissed someone else.
Harry never spoke of it.
But he never forgave it either.
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Avantika + Ruhan
They were a power couple.
Late-night debates, mock UNs, secret hookups in the library.
He planned their future.
She planned her exit.
When he found her deleted texts with someone from an AI summit...
She said: “You wouldn’t understand.”
He said nothing.
But she cried the whole night. Alone.
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Avyann + Avanee
It wasn’t supposed to happen.
But they saw each other’s darkest pieces.
When her hands shook after a cyber mission, his steadied hers.
She whispered one night, “You scare me... because you see me.”
He replied, “And you terrify me, because I love what I see.”
They were never just lovers.
They were weapons. A dangerous bond.
And someone… wanted it broken.
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Traces of a Buried Secret
-Someone got expelled in the final year. But no one remembers why.
-A suicide note was once found in the chemistry lab… but vanished.
-Avanee’s laptop was hacked. No one confessed.
-A file marked “REHAN CASE – DELETED” was recovered in Shreya’s old tablet last year.
-Ruhan once warned Dhruv: “If they ever find out, we’re done.”
But find out what?
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Present Day — Back to Reality
Their lives changed. Their hearts hardened.
But none of them healed.
Because whatever happened in St. Morvell... never stayed there.
And now, the group chat buzzes again.
A reunion.
A vacation.
A death trap.
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- Writer
