What it is

Sheela sat at the small restaurant, staring listlessly out the glass doors.
“Are you waiting for somebody ma’am?” the waiter came up to her and asked. He sounded reluctant and unsure. Shaking her head without turning to look at him, she dismissed him vaguely. Awkwardly the young waiter walked away, shrugging to his co-worker standing behind the counter.
“What is the matter Rahim?” the owner’s wife; Yasmeen Api, as the young workers at the restaurant called her fondly; came out from the back kitchen, talking to the boy behind the counter. “Why haven’t we closed yet? It’s late...”
Rahim mutely pointed at the lady sitting and staring out the glass doors; her cup of coffee cold and completely forgotten. Frowning, the elderly woman made her way to the younger one who seemed to be lost in a world of her own.
“Excuse me,” Api said politely, “we are going to close down now...”
It was like talking to a wall. Sheela did not respond, did not even show any sign that she had heard anything that Api had said. Api studied the younger woman in front of her. She was a little on the pretty side and only slightly plump - a sign of happiness, Api thought; the condition of her hair and clothes pointed at a comfortable life too. And yet there was a sense of loss in her expression. It was beyond sadness, Api noticed; it was the look of complete emptiness, as if the girl had seen so many sorrows, it had taken away even the smallest of joys from her life. But she looked barely 25, this girl!
Turning around Api signalled Rahim and the waiter, Akash, to close everything down and leave. They exchanged a look and then nodded at her before starting to pack things up. She knew they would ask her all about it later; but they were smart enough to know that it was not the right time for questions. Api could not help the small smile that came on her face. They had only come looking for part time jobs for some extra pocket money a few months ago. But in the short span of time these two boys had become an important part of her small family. They did not have children, Api and Yusuf Sir, her husband; but these boys made up for that.
When the boys had left, Api turned to Sheela again, putting a hand on her shoulder. As if someone had turned a switch on, Sheela looked up, startled. Looking slightly flustered, she got up hastily. “I’m sorry, I’ll just be leaving. I-“
Smiling Api pressed down on the younger girl’s shoulder, forcing her to sit again. “It’s alright beta,” Api said kindly. “Sit. You look worried. What is the matter?”
Sheela stole a glance at the lady who was now sitting across her, trying to suppress the slight surprise at the direct manner in which she had asked her the question. These days it was uncommon; people kept to themselves, and asking prying questions such as that was considered impolite. And yet there was something in the kindness that reflected in her eyes that somehow softened Sheela.
“I - “she did not know how to answer her.
“Do you want something to drink?” Api offered her gently, understanding her discomfort, “your coffee is now useless” she laughed.
“It’s alright... aunty...”
“My name is Yasmeen, you can call me Api.” She told her, getting up to get her something anyway, despite her protests. “Akash told me you’ve been here since noon,” she continued, “Do you not have someone back home worrying for you?”
The moment she said that, Sheela’s face suddenly filled with sadness. Api went in and got out an Indian Thali with delicious looking naan and curies; and a jug of water. Looking at the food Sheela realized she really hadn’t had anything to eat. A quick glance at her watch told her it was almost midnight. The restaurant would have shut down an hour ago at the latest!
“You never answered my question,” Api said as she placed the food in front of Sheela, “isn’t anyone waiting for you at home?”
She did not say anything. What could she say really? Sheela thought to herself. Sighing, she nodded and said “my husband...”
“Eat” Api ordered her gently. And only after Sheela had a couple of bites of food did she speak again “Is that why you are here? Did you fight with him?”
Sheela, her eyes always guarded, muttered “you could say that... I wish we had fought though” she added under her breath.
“What happened?” Api pushed, and Sheela got the sense that she wouldn’t let it go until she told her everything. How would she be able to though?
She felt Api’s reassuring hand on her own. And just like that, it all came out.
“We ... I... cheated on him... with my friend at work... “ maybe it wasn’t everything but at this point Sheela had to look up to see Api’s face. She needed to know what she thought of her. Did she think she was disgusting? Would she ask her to get out now? Api simply nodded and urged her to continue, sensing there was more to tell. So Sheela continued...
“This morning, Rahul, my... friend... he told me I had made a mistake marrying Dev... we had had a love marriage and we were very happy too... in the beginning... I... he... we had ... it had all happened so soon. We had only met six months before we our parents got us married. And in the beginning it was great. He brought me flowers, red roses on Valentine’s, he cut back on his expenses to buy me expensive ear rings; we would have candlelit dinner every night... it was great... and even I...” a pained smile crossed her face “I would attempt at cooking just for him every Sunday, and he would say it was yummy even if it was awful; and at night, we couldn’t stop talking on and on... we were... perfect. But then it stopped... not immediately. At first it started with both of us coming back home exhausted, too tired for anything... no more candlelit dinners, no more home cooked food... no more flowers... and then one day, we ran out of things to say to each other... we’ve been married for two years; and the last conversation I had with him that did not result in an empty silence was ... almost a year ago... mostly he talks about his work, I then say something about mine; and then we... don’t talk... sometimes we don’t talk at all... it is as if he doesn’t have anything to say to me anymore...
“So when Rahul asked me ‘Where is the love? Where is the romance that you once gushed about all day?’... I... couldn’t say anything. How could I have said anything when what he was saying was true? When I knew that the love, the romance; it had all died down and what was left was just this hollow living... ‘a mutual existence’ he called it... and I still couldn’t say anything... and then...” Sheela paused, her pale face suddenly flushing. Api recognized the embarrassment. “He kissed me...”
There was silence in the restaurant. Sheela could not make herself say anymore. And Api; Api watched her carefully. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Api sighed; patted Sheela on her hand gently, comfortingly... and then chuckled.
Sheela looked up at Api, taken aback.
“Oh you kids today!” Api said, still laughing. “The smallest things, you take seriously! Think it’s the end of the world, you kids!”
“...I...” Sheela did not know what to say. What could anyone say really, in a situation like this?
“I don’t understand...” she said finally.
“So why are you sad?” Api asked her, leaning back in her chair and watching her with what looked like amusement.
Feeling odd, Sheela said “Well... what he said was right... and – “
“You are here.” Api cut in. “If what he said was true; then you would be with him.”
There was silence again. Sheela did not know what to say, or how to respond.
“And as for the romance,” Api continued after a while, reaching across and pushing Sheela’s chin up lightly, “it is after the romance ends that, love begins.”
Just then there was a loud knock on the glass doors of the restaurant. Only then did Sheela realize that it had started to rain heavily outside.
Wondering out loud who it could be at that hour, Api got up to open the door. Before that though, the man outside pushed the door open and stepped inside. There was no lock on the door. There was steel shutters outside that Api put down at the end of the day when the restaurant closed down.
“Sheela!” the man said. She hadn’t recognized him immediately because of the raincoat and the fact that all his hair was stuck to his face because of the rain. He was drenched, despite the raincoat.
“Dev.”
“Oh my God Sheela” The next thing she knew Dev had literally jumped on her and was holding her tight enough to choke her. “Where were you?! I’ve been looking all over the place! Do you know what time it is! Your friend at the office Fiza-Zoya- whatever her name is, she told me you’d disappeared in the morning! What were you thinking?! Why did you leave? Why didn’t you call me? Are you alright?” He let her go then; not entirely, but enough so he could see her face. “Are you alright?”
Sheela looked up at her husband’s concerned face. His dark eyes were scrutinizing her face. Was she alright? She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and Dev looked more worried than he had before. Sheela never cried. “Shee-“ Before he could complete what he was saying, she threw herself back into his arms. “I am now.”

Api watched as the two youngsters left, Sheela throwing her a grateful smile that Api returned. “What happened Yasmeen?” Yusuf asked her when Api went upstairs after closing the restaurant down.
“Oh nothing,” Api said, “just met a girl. She reminded me of myself.”
Yusuf shook his head, “you mean when you planned to run away from me?”
Api laughed, “No, I mean when you told me you wouldn’t marry again no matter how much Abu wanted you to.”
They sat together hand in hand, just like they did every night. “I still say one wife is enough of a burden!” Yusuf chuckled. Api punched him lightly on the arm, and then leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder.

Priyanka Story Part 2

I sat in the coffee shop across the street from the building in which I lived; not much of a building really, just a normal one with around 12 triple bedroom flats in Gurgaon; thinking of Aman and everything that I've said so far. Phew! That had been such a shocker for me back then. I was so hurt that I begged my parents for me to go and live with Uncle. I had not even gone to school the next day to give the stupid math test. So I finished my high school there, in New York, and then became a painter.

Thankfully, a good painter at that. Of course, it had something to do with a big, huge chunk of luck. I had just given one of my paintings for a random exhibition where this old man bought it for, believe it or not, 500,000$. AMERICAN dollars! I swear; that is just UNREAL! And I hadn't even asked for that much. The old man told me that the girl in the painting looked just like his dead daughter, and that I looked a lot like his daughter too; and so he spent HALF of his ENTIRE fortune on that painting.

I know, it's like God just showered money on me like that. Thank you Miss. Dead Daughter. Thanks a lot for looking like me. Because that money, even though half of it went to the exhibition people, was not the end of it. News channels covered the story, and people liked my paintings. And there you go, from Pauper to Princess...just not Princess Mia apparently.

What did I do with all of that money? I bought a penthouse and rented it out. Now I earn because if THAT like I have a regular job. And of course, there was the occasional painting here and there.

Yeah, life turned out pretty much okay for me. A penthouse in New York, a nice flat in Gurgaon and a nice set of friends, including Manasi who lived in NOIDA and was a Bollywood stylist, Suman who was Manasi's assistant (she loved Manasi too much to leave her) and married to an actor. Yeah, their lives were on the glamorous side too. And of course, my sweet next door neighbour, Radhika.

It really had been quiet some time since that Aman phase. I was now 27. That would make it 13 years. Whoa! That is a LONG time.

And all right, even though my life may seem all so great, it wasn’t like that. No, it wasn’t like that at all. That was because once you're above 25 and a girl, an INDIAN GIRL, your patents start nagging you to get married. To which I had to say EW!!!!!!!!

This was one of the basic reasons for me to live away from them. Easier.

On top of that, I was the only one who did not have a boyfriend. Hey, I did not want to get married, but what was so wrong with a boyfriend?

Also, the fact that I did not have a boyfriend sort of disturbed me when I went out with Suman and Shiv, her husband, the famous theatre actor (What did you think when I said actor? Shahrukh Khan? We did not get THAT lucky); and Manasi and Aditya (who kept making out - EW!!!!). I was always the lonely one there. And I was not the 'pick a guy at the disco' types. I never trusted any person who would get himself drunk. And EVERYONE got themselves drunk at the disco.

So yeah, that's about the summary of my after-Aman phase. Oh and there had been a random boyfriend in the 11th. After two months, both of us had decided that we were better off just friends.

"Excuse-me?" I was shaken from my thoughts by a small 10 year old "is this seat empty?" the kid asked me, pointing at the seat opposite to mine. I said that it was and the kid dragged it to where his father was sitting with his mother. I could not help but smile. It was kind of cute how the kid dragged the chair to the other table and how the whole family was sitting together and eating muffins and having milkshakes.

Note to self: Must not mention this little kid incident to mom or she will say "Don’t you want a little family like that if your own sweety?"

Of course not! Who wants the extra luggage?

I paid the bill and walked back home wondering which DVD I was going to watch that night. It was Saturday night and Manasi and Suman were out of town.

I reached back home, looked through the DVDs, didn't find anything interesting, put up a notice on the fridge saying 'go to library' and retired to the couch with one of Radhika's books I had borrowed. It had been 3:00 pm when I started and I finished it by 7:00 pm. Not knowing what to do next, and feeling too lazy to finish the painting due for next month's exhibition; I decided I might as well visit Radhika and return her books.

So I went around the whole house and found about 7 of her books I had not returned yet. This was why I loved Radhika. She knew I would return her books someday.

I went up to her door, with a pile of books in my arms, and rang the bell - which was when I realized that it was Saturday night and that she was not coming back until 8:00 in the night because she worked at Microsoft and she was always busy on Saturday nights.

Shit! I always do this! Now I was going to have to apologize to her relative who had come home. Oh GOD!!!

I was expecting some grandma or some pot-bellied uncle to open the door. But I was disappointed. Actually, not disappointed, just SHOCKED OUT OF MY WITS. Because the person who had opened the door had been someone I had seen before. And the first time I had seen him was 13 years ago in the park. I had been listening to a romantic song when he had smiled at me and I had smiled back at him. He was a very, very handsome man who had really dark brown eyes and black messy hair that slightly fell over his eyes. His name was Aman Sharma, my 9th standard math teacher's son who I found kissing my senior Ashita.

"May I help you?" he said. He could not see me because my face was hidden behind the pile of books. Okay, fine. He could not see me because before he could, I HID my face behind the pile of books.

BUT WHAT WAS HE DOING HERE????!!!

"Is Radhika there?" I asked him, miraculously in control of my mouth which had been open since the moment I saw him.

"She's not home yet. She'll be here in half an hour."

I had learnt something in these 13 years and so I was not going to babble on about how it would take Radhika more than an hour to reach.

So like a sensible person, I said "I know. Could you please give these to her?" after which I realized that I should not have said "I know".

Why?????!!!!!!!!!!! Why can't my brains WORK for a change?

And the part about me becoming lucky all of a sudden? Yeah, CANCEL THAT!

I handed Aman the books with my head bent and as soon as I thought he had control of the books, I turned around and attempted to run back to the safety of my home SWEET home. Sadly, all the books fell...and so did my bracelet. I did not turn around immediately. I heard Aman bend and pick up my bracelet first, ever the gentleman that he was, and say "Excuse me? This yours?" I took the bracelet from him, still facing my back to him.

Once the bracelet was in my hand, he bent down to pick up the books. I took one step towards my door when he suddenly said "Priyanka?"

I stopped dead. "Is that your name?" he asked me. I did not say anything realizing the fact that he might have seen it on my bracelet. "That was my friend's name. It's quiet a common name isn’t it?" he said conversationally. Did he not get that I was not in the mood for conversation? But what was I supposed to do? And my stupid heart kept slamming against my chest. In such a situation all I could do was nod.

Thankfully he didn't say anything after that. I ran back in and locked the foot behind me, breathing heavily. HOW DID HE GET HERE??

I dropped to the ground, and leaned against the door, my face buried in my palms. My déjà vu. I should have known. I should have known that this was going to happen. But this was OUTRAGEOUS! I mean, RIGHT NEXT DOOR??! I had not seen him for 13 years and all of a sudden, he lives RIGHT NEXT DOOR?

What if I went out to get the newspaper the next morning and he was there? He would know that it had been ME! What would I tell him? Shit! I should have never ignored him. Now I would have to tell him WHY I ignored him.

And he even remembers me!!!!!! This fact, to my utter annoyance made my stomach do sort of a somersault. I was sure that I was over him, so this thing with my stomach had to mean that I was having an upset stomach. But all I had was half a pizza and a cold coffee. I guessed that there might have been something wrong with the pizza.

Because I was completely and fully over him. I mean, I was only 14 then. Millions of girls have crushes at that age. And everyone forgets them. It was just a phase. Just a stupid phase. And a phase that I had passed a LONG time ago. A very very long time ago.

BUT WHY DID HE HAVE TO LIVE NEXT FREAKING DOOR???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I needed help. Desperate help. I got up and ran to the phone. I picked the receiver up and dilled Suman's cell number.

S: Hi PK.
P: Is Manasi there?

I was hyperventilating over the freaking phone! Oh God!

S: Er yeah...why?
P: You guys alone?
S: Yeah, we're at the hotel.

I heard Manasi's voice from the back. "What happened to her this time?"

Sometimes I swear I could throttle her to death.

P: Just put me on the speaker phone and make sure no one else is around.
M: What up PK?
S: What happened?
P: He's here.

I knew that I was over reacting; and being melodramatic. But I could not bother to calm myself down at that moment.

M: Congratulations! WHO PK?
It was evident that Manasi was getting pretty annoyed.

P: Aman.
M: Who Aman?
S: PK, do you mean...
P: Aman Sharma. Sujhata's son. He's the relative who had come to live with Radhika. I had no idea that she could have possibly been related to Aman freaking Sharma. What am I supposed to do now?
S: Did you meet him? What did he say?

I told them about it and this was how Manasi replied.

M: You are such an ass!
And then she started laughing. What kind of a friend was she anyway?
S: You completely ignored him? You should have at least said hi or something!
P: Yeah. So that we could have talked about the good old times and how perfect he was with Ashita. Oh, and what a great kisser she was. No thank you!
Manasi was laughing harder than ever now.
S: Come on, it wasn’t so bad...
P: Of course it was Suman! I saw him KISSING her. Okay?
M: Whoa whoa whoa!
She had stopped laughing.
M: You can't blame him. It wasn’t like he had promised you anything. It was you who had gone crazy over him and assumed that he liked you back.
P: I did not assume that he liked me back!
M: Either way, it's not his fault. And you can't ignore him forever. It was more than 10 years ago. PK, you need to chill. Just go, grab a coke and switch that TV of yours on. Princess Diaries is on. Watch it and go to sleep. All right?
P: You know perfectly well that I hate watching it...
S: Really? Manasi, which movie had PK here been watching last Sunday?
M: I don't know Suman; wasn’t it something like Princess Party...or was it Diaries of Princesses? Oh wait, it was Princess Diaries!
P: Very funny! Go ahead. Laugh at me. But I swear, I'll get back at you guys for this.
S: What did we do PK? Is it our fault that you can't decide whether you like a book or not?
M: Seriously, you've got to stop letting Aman affect your love for Mia or Michael. Now if you will excuse us, we have to catch up with some sleep. I and my assistant have important work tomorrow at 5:30 in the morning unlike some people who are going to wake up at 11:00.

Okay; so that hardly helped the matter. But they had been right. I should just go and relax. So I did exactly what Manasi had suggested.

As I was sipping at the glass of orange juice (I was out of coke), I suddenly choked on it. That was because I suddenly remembered that I had invited Radhika and her relative home for dinner on Sunday night when I had heard that she was having someone over. Somehow, the juice was no longer as tangy as before. I groaned. Why had I decided to be a nice neighbour? I mean, I was the worst neighbour ever, but the one time that I decide to be a nice one, there you go!

The phone started ringing, waking me up from my daze. I reluctantly picked it up. It was Radhika. Talk of the devil!

R: Hi Priyanka, it's me.
P: Oh, hi!
R: I just called to remind you that I'm having dinner at your place tomorrow night. I know that you're a completely hopeless host, and so I'm going to be nice to you and help you out a little. But yeah, I called to wish you best of luck.
P: Thanks. I needed that.

She had no idea HOW MUCH. A lot more than she thought, definitely.

R: What time do you want us to come?
P: Will 8 be okay? We can have dinner at 9:00 then.

We talked some more after that and then she hung up. I just sunk into my couch lower and lower and lower.
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The next day, Sunday, I had spread myself out onto the living room floor. I was painting. However, it was hard to understand what exactly I was painting - the canvas or myself. I had paint marks all over my face. As I was half way through a strike the doorbell rang. I got to my feet and walked to the door, cursing under my breath whoever it was who had rung the bell.

I opened the door when I noticed that I had a paint spot on my shirt. I swore out loud and started rubbing the spot on my shirt. Why was I so bloody careless?

"Priyanka?!" The bloody idiot who had rung the bell said my name. God!

"Yes, that is me." I said, still rubbing the bright red paint.

"Priyanka!" he said again. God, where had this moron left his bloody brains?

"Yes?" I said annoyed, looking up. The moment I did though, my fingers released the stained end of my shirt. That bloody idiot turned out to be Aman Sharma. Holy mother of God, what did I ever do to you?

"Priyanka!" he said for the third time. I just stared at him like a statue. "Oh my God. It's you!"

I nodded dumbly. Oh man. Why do I have the most rotten luck ever? Why???!!

"It's me. Aman? Remember? From school? Salsa classes?" How could I forget? How could he think I could forget? I nodded dumbly again.

"Oh my God! Where have you BEEN?" As excited as he sounded, I bet I looked as NOT excited. I know because he waved his palm in front of my face when I did not reply and said "Hello?"

I smiled, or forcefully curved my lips, at him and said "yeah...I had left pretty soon after the show..."

He looked ecstatic. And why would he not be? After all, for him, meeting me was basically just a random coincidence. And normal human beings like coincidences like meeting your old friends out of the blue. Was it his fault that for me, meeting him was not a random coincidence with a friend, but a random coincidence with a first crush? And sadly, people, or at least people like me, are not exactly ecstatic in such situations.

"I can't believe that it's actually you. Where had you gone?" he asked me.

I had no choice but to reply to him. "I had gone New York. I lived there with my uncle..."

There was an uneasy silence. I hated uneasy silences. And I hated this one particularly even more than the others.

Aman broke the silence by saying "You know, it's polite to call someone in if they're standing outside your door...” one end of his mouth curled up, making my stomach feel weird again. I tried very hard not to groan at that. And this time, it wasn’t only because of his smile either. It was the fact that he had said exactly what he had said when he had come to my window for the first time.

"Hello? Are you there Priyanka?"

I shook my head. "That's exactly what you said when you had first come to my window..."

"Really?" he said, raising an eyebrow, "So you DO remember. I was afraid you had forgotten."

Yeah right. I would forget him! There was no chance in hell that I was going to forget HIM. I know because I had tried very hard. Very very hard. Sadly, to no avail.

"Er...why don't you come in...?” I said, stepping aside for him to come in. He started laughing to himself, probably at a personal joke.

"What?" I asked him, puzzled.

He started laughing even more. "WHAT?"

"Nothing" he said shaking his head as he came in. He was still laughing though.

"Is it my face?" I asked him, forgetting how much I didn’t want to talk to him, out of curiosity of course. I told you, I was completely over him.

"No, no," he said as I shut the door, "it's just...........can I ask you something?"

"What?" What was he going to ask me, exactly? Why I left? Or why I ignored him last night? Or was he going to ask me why I looked so weird when he rang the doorbell?

"Do you always visit people when they're not home?"

"What?!"
Huh?

"Remember you had come to meet mom and I think you knew that she wasn’t at home. And yesterday, you asked for Radhika...?"

I almost sighed with relief. "Oh, THAT. I sort of remembered that Radhika works late on Saturdays only AFTER I rang the bell...and about your mom too"
He looked amused.

I asked him to sit down and I attempted to move the painting from the room when he asked me if I had painted that.

"No Aman, my cat was painting ME and it spilt have some paint on the canvas! Of course I was painting that. I'm a painter."

"Wow, that's nice. So you get to sit at home all day while we normal people struggle in offices?"

"Hey!" I said defensively, "painting is a full time job. And sometimes, they even invite you to teach others how to paint. And trust me, some of those students are not exactly very nice to you when you tell them that they need to paint with their heart and not move their hands like a robot. Some of them might actually threaten to sue you."

"Someone threatened to SUE you?" he looked at me incredulously. I nodded back. "I remember someone tried to sue me once. But I got myself out of it. That's the benefit of being a good CA."

"You're a CA?" he nodded. "Wow," I said, "you must be a busy man!"

"Nah," he said, "I have my own company. So I make the others do all the work. I used to work in Bombay first, but then I opened an office here, in Gurgaon."

"So that's why you live with Radhika?"

"I don't live with Radhika! I'm here for a week or so. That's all. I live nearby. I'm renovating it and I didn't have any other place to go. So I thought I'd come to Riddy's."

"Riddy?"

"Oh, we used to call Radhika Riddy when we were kids. So now everyone in my family calls her that."

We sat down and talked. Actually, HE talked and I listened. He had apparently studied a lot and become a Chartered Accountant. Helped a lot of hot shot businessmen with their money, a few of whom I knew because they bought my paintings. And trust me; you're better off not knowing them. They almost killed me, they were so freaking boring.

Mostly during his talking and my listening, I kept thinking about Ashita. Had he married her? Or did he marry someone else? Or was he even married at all. I reckoned that he probably was by now because I was apparently the only one who found the idea of marriage repulsive. But he kept talking about his job and the weird people he had to work with.

The door suddenly flew open and in came Radhika. "There you are!" she shouted. She sounded pretty pissed off. "I thought you were helping me with the vegetables! I send you to ask for one freaking carrot, and you ditch me!" she bellowed at Aman. I looked from her to Aman who was cursing under his breath.

"I am so, so sorry!" he said. "You know what? I'll make lunch. You don't need to help. All right? I completely forgot."

"You cook?" I could not help but ask.

Radhika looked at me like she noticed me for the first time, sitting on the couch next to her cousin.

"Oh hi Priyanka. I see you have met my cousin Aman. Now if you will excuse us, he has to cook lunch for me." She gave Aman her famous evil glare and he for one did look extremely sorry. Then his face brightened up all of a sudden. He turned toward me and said "Priyanka, why don't you join us? You know, I AM a killer of a cook, if I say so myself."

I did not know what to do. On one side, I did not want to get involved any further with him, but on the other side, a very big side, I wanted to see how much of a killer cook he really was. What? I was just curious. Okay? Is that so wrong? Plus I figured that he was probably not married because he would not have been living with his cousin then. And Radhika had just mentioned ONE relative living with her. So it was not like his wife was living with them. Then again, he could have been engaged. Probably that was why he was renovating his place. And probably all the new stuff in his house had been selected by his to be. Not that it actually mattered.

Oh man; I really am pathetic!

Sadly, I had no choice on the matter of my tasting Aman's food because Radhika said "PK, you have to come. I'm not letting him KILL me with his Killer cooking alone. I'll take you to hell with me."

And so it happened that I was sitting in Radhika's living room at 1:30 pm on an empty stomach giving Radhika company by peeping into the kitchen with her every two minutes. And the one thing that I noticed was that Aman was bloody luckier than I was because he somehow managed to look bloody great in everything he wore. Which means that, yes, he looked awesome in an apron. And I have never, NEVER seen anyone who looks good in an apron. How foes he do it anyway?

But whatever he does to his looks, he does equally well to his cooking skills. He was not lying when he said that he was a killer cook. Because I went straight to heaven when I tasted his dal makhani.

Why does he have to be so darn PERFECT?!
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Dinner that night was fine, I guess. Since I'm the worst cook that ever lived, I ordered food from a restaurant.

After dinner, while we were having dessert, chocolate ice-cream, I got a call from mom. I had just put a huge spoon of ice-cream into my mouth and signaled Radhika to pick the phone up. The lazy git asked Aman to pick it up. So he picked it up.

A: Hello?...Yes, she is here. Could you hold for a moment? Who is this?...oh, here she is...

I had finished gulping the scoop of ice-cream down by then. Aman handed me the phone whispering to me that I'd was my mom. My hand froze for a moment mid-way and my eyes widened. Aman thrust the phone into my outstretched hand.

P: H-h-hello?
M: Priyanka beta, who was that?
P: Who mom?

I knew who she was talking about. But I was hoping beyond hope that she was not going to say what I knew she was going to say.

M: The boy who picked the phone up.

It had not taken me any déjà vu to have known that she would say this. And she did say it. I hate my luck.

P: Er...that was Radhika's cousin mom. Why did you call?
M: Is he married?
P: Mom!
M: What? I'm just asking! Radhika was telling me that day that her cousin was coming to live with her. So I figured that he was probably not married. Tell me, how is he though?
P: Mom! If you don't shut up about this then I'm hanging up.
M: Okay, okay. I just called to say that Ranveer is coming to Delhi, and he wants to meet you.
P: Ranveer?
M: You don't know Ranveer? You used to play with him a lot when you were little. You used to call him Raccoon. Remember now?
P: Oh my God mom, please don't tell me that you're... What are you thinking of exactly?
M: Goodness Priyanka! I don’t always think of your marriage. I told you because he's a family friend. And he's already engaged. Or he has a girlfriend. Something like that.
P: Well, it LOOKS like you think of my marriage all the time! You can't blame me if I think that you might grab an innocent person off the street and tie him up with me.
M: Priyanka, I had given up a long time ago.
P: Okay, mom. I have to go now. Bye.
M: Wait, I called to tell you that you're coming home to meet them -Ranveer and Ashu aunty on Wednesday night.
P: Okay mom. Bye.

I hung up and looked up to see the two cousins trying very hard not to laugh.

"Did your mom think Aman was your boyfriend?" Radhika asked sounding very amused.

I made a face and said "can we just please not talk about this?"

"You know Aman," Radhika said, turning to Aman, "Pooja aunty wants Priyanka to get married. And Priyanka here hated the idea. You should watch them have thief arguments. It's hilarious."

He looked at me incredulously, and said "Really?! I thought that you loved it. Weren't you crazy romantic? You made me read that stupid vampire love story that night."

I rolled my eyes. "God, just because I read romance does not mean that I believe it actually exists. This stuff looks good in books and movies. I mean it looks great. But it just doesn't happen in real life. All of these couples? They just THINK they 'love' each other. But it's just because of a few hormones here and there that wear out later; and then they break up."

"Hormones?" he looked at me in this weird way.

"I read about that in a romantic novel too, I admit," I said, "and the guy who says that falls in love too. But I really don’t believe it exists. I know because I've seen it happen."

"REALLY?" he said again, "were you not the girl who told ME that I was unromantic that night?"

Before I could say anything, Radhika broke in. "Which night? When did the two of you meet?"

"Oh," Aman said, "I met Priyanka around....13 years ago?" he asked me. I shrugged back, even though I knew perfectly well that he was right. Radhika, on the other hand looked confused.

"You guys KNOW each other?!"

"Of course," Aman said, "What did you think I was doing here in the morning then?"

"I don’t know!" Radhika said shrugging and screaming at the same time. She was the only one I knew who could do that. "I had thought that you were flirting with my neighbour."

I almost choked on my spoon of ice-cream.

"Radhika," I said, coughing, "are you mad?"

"What?" Radhika said, defensively, "Is it my fault that Aman here is a big flirt?"

"I am not a flirt!" Aman protested.

"You are too!" Radhika said, pointing an accusing finger in his direction.

"No I'm not!" Aman said, and turned to look at me for support.

"Aman, I agree with Radhika" I said.

"When did YOU see me flirt?" he asked me with crossed arms.

"Lets see..." I really wanted to say something like 'Remember Ashita?' but I couldn’t because Radhika's cell rang at that time, and she said that there had been an emergency at the office; and she refused to use the metro like she normally did because "What is the point of having a cousin who can't drop you?" And so Aman had to drop her to her office and they left.
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On Tuesday evening, Aman rang the bell. I had been watching a movie then, an old, boring English one at that. Even so, I got really annoyed when I heard the bell ring.

"Can I borrow your apron please?" That was what he threw at me as soon as I opened the door.

"What?!" and that was how I reacted.

"I said could I borrow an apron please? I kind burnt Radhika's..."

My eyebrows shot up. "You burnt an apron? How did you manage THAT?"
He looked a little embarrassed and then said "I am not exactly a very neat cook and I am very bad at making vegetables...and I er sort of didn't see properly while I was Reading a recipe, and the apron sort of slipped into the fire..."

I shook my head. Then I burst into fits of laughter. "You really don’t have to make this worse for me, you know."

"Sorry," I said, not able to stop laughing.

"God!" he said, "just get me an apron already."

I stopped laughing, even though I was still highly amused and told him that I didn't have one.

"What are you doing?" I'd asked me.

"Why?"

"If you're not doing anything, come with me. I'm going to have to buy a new one."

"You can cook without one Aman. You don’t have to show off so much."

"I told you Priyanka, you're bad at jokes. So please don’t try. Besides, I told you that I'm not exactly a neat cook. The washing machine is going to break down if I keep throwing in new clothes thrice a day."

I turner around to give the TV a last look and then said "Fine; let me just get my shoes. Come in."

He stepped in as I went inside to grab the only pair of shoes I actually wore, and they were sports shoes. I did own the girlie sandals and also a pair of heels. But I had user those precisely once at a random party I was forced to go to.

When I came out, I saw Aman fiddling with the remote. He was watching the stupid movie, and rewinding it to one of the most boring scenes in the history of cinema.

"I love this movie." he said when I came and stood next to him.

"You have a VERY bad choice. Now are we leaving or what?"

He did not seem like he felt like he wanted to leave the couch, or that movie, but he did get up, frowning.

We went to the departmental store nearby and bought the apron. Even though we did have an argument on which one was better. I had liked a nice blue checked one, and he had liked an ugly green one. Finally we settled down on a blue and green checked one and bought it.

While we were walking back home, I noticed a really pretty poster with a black background and pink leaves, the punk like leaves, not the pretty-pink leaves. When I commented on how nice, Aman read out what was written on the poster. Apparently, this club nearby was having DJ nights on Saturdays and Sundays by some famous DJ. I had never heard of him before, and neither had Aman. What we were doing was laughing at the DJ's name. He was called DJ G.I.Jo-o-o.

We reached home. I was about to close the door when Aman stopped me. "Priyanka?"

"What?"

"Are you going to Delhi, back home tomorrow?"

"Uh-huh. Why?"

"How?"

"I guess Dad will come and pick me up."

"You want me to drop you?"

I was a little taken aback by his offer. "Why?"

"I thought I'd pay a visit to mom. I'll bring you back."

"Er...I don’t think that is a very great idea because, you know how my mom is. If she sees you, she will first drag you in and then feed you till you're dead. And that, she will do because she will be convinced that you are my boyfriend. And I won't hear the end of that; ever."

"I'll drop you at the end of the street then?"

"Tell me why you're so desperate to drop me there?"

"Don’t you know? I'm planning to kidnap you on the way!"

"Very funny."

"Nah, I'm just saving petrol. Have you seen how much our future generation needs it?"

"Yeah, yeah. That's great. Fine. Drop me then. But I sincerely hope that you're not doing this to meet up with your girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" He looked confused.

I thought about reminding him about his girlfriend, the one he had told me about when we had met in detention, but thought better of it.

"Nothing. Good night."
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We reached my old street at 7:45pm. I waved goodbye to Aman, who drove a nice Chevrolet Avio (thankfully the black one, not the orange one).

I tried the door, and it was open. I walked in to see people sitting in the living room. There were Mom, Dad, a lady who seemed vaguely familiar and one hell of a hot guy. Normally, I don’t use the term hot, somehow, I feel repulsed by the word. But thus guy sitting there on my parents' sofa, talking about something and smiling good naturedly; could be called nothing BUT hot. And, I know that this might sound weird, but if given a choice, I would have asked thus guy to get into acting. Even if every movie he did sucked to the core, I knew that the producers would make a lot of money just because of the millions of girls who would watch the stinking movie, just to watch him.

Hey, I told you it might sound weird to you. I really can't help that I felt that way because hey ho, he was seriously
H. O. T.

Oh my God, he was Ranveer. The guy I used to call raccoon was THIS hot? How did that happen? I weighed my chances with him, right there at the doorway. He was much too out of reach for me, but then again, he was an old friend. Did Aman's presence somehow make me meet absolutely stunning guys out of the blue? It looked like that. Because, last time, it had been David; who was my partner at salsa; and now it was Ranveer, a childhood friend. Sadly, Aman's presence only made me meet good looking guys, not get them. Like David had been completely out of reach, and this guy here happened to be engaged, or committed. Oh well, it had been a good thing too. I had seen too many unhappy couples to actually want one so desperately, which was why I did not run in and hug him like I could have. Okay, that would have probably been weird, but what was wrong in fantasizing?

My mother suddenly noticed me standing there, gawking at Ranveer; hopefully just me standing there and not gawking at him.

"Priyanka!" she shrieked in her usual enthusiastic way. She got up, came to me and wrapped me up in a tight hug. And probably I'm too old for it, but I still love it when mom hugs me.

"Hi mom," I said once she released me, my eyes still on Ranveer. Ha! There you go; I was NOT crushing on Aman again. See? Who Aman? What Aman? Where Aman? Oh wait, had Aman drove off already? Or was he still sticking around at the end of the street?
"Just a sec mom," I excused myself and ran out the door. I felt mom's gaze on my back as I jogged to the end of the footpath. I turned around the corner where Aman had dropped me and saw nothing there. He had left. I felt a slight, very slight sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I turned around to retrace my path back home when BAM! I collided with a White wall with blue stripes.

"Whoa, whoa. Be careful." I heard Aman say.

"Hi," I said back looking at the ground, trying to recover from the collision, "What are you still doing here?"

"I was just parking the car when I saw you walking out of the house. I thought you wanted to see me."

"What makes you think that I wanted to see you?" I asked him, looking at his face now. Ouch. My stomach started doing weird things again. I had hardly had any lunch. So I guessed it must have been my empty stomach begging for some food.

"Well Priyanka, you DID come and stand here, exactly where I dropped you."

"I...had dropped my cell phone here... I think." then I pretended to look for it in my bag; I don’t carry a purse because it makes me feel much too feminine for my like. Not that I'm a tomboy. Just that purses irk me. "Ah, here it is. Silly me!" I flashed my cell phone in front of his eyes and put it back, thinking how I could not have been more obvious. But Aman looked convinced, or may be not. Does raising their eyebrows up and nodding once mean that someone is convinced? I'm guessing not.

Sigh.

"Anyway, bye." I tried to escape when Aman stopped me.

"By the way, when are you planning to go back?" I. Shrugged and said that it depended on when my mom would let me, and that there was a possibility that she might ask me to spend the night. He looked thoughtful for a moment and then I suggested that he could leave whenever he wanted and I would drive back home in Mom's car because she hardly used it.

"You know what," he said, "just call me when you're leaving. You have my number, right? And if you're staying the night, tell me. I'll pick you up tomorrow."

"No, it's okay. I'm not such a bad driver." I was lying again. I am a horrible driver. But I guessed that the traffic might be less in the night time; "besides," I added, "You don't need to come all the way here."

"I won't." he said matter-of-factly. "I'll stay."

"Where?" I asked like a total idiot.

"You know, my parents live here?"

"Oh, sorry. But seriously, you don't have to do this..." I wondered why he was being so nice to me.

"Actually," he said, "could you do me a favour? Do you mind staying over? Because then I'll be able to pick you up at around 11:30 tomorrow morning. I was thinking of meeting this client of mine. This ways, you can spend more time with your parents, and you don't need to take innocent lives with your driving. I know how you drive. Radhika told me about the time you almost killed her."

Oh, so he wasn't going to stay JUST because of me. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed because it would have been sort of nice to have someone do so much for you. That ways, you could fantasize about them being in love with you. Oh my God, I did not just say that.

"Yeah, okay. Bye and thanks" I walked back home to be greeted by a suspicious looking mother, a curious father, a smiling aunty and a smiling hot guy.

"What happened?" my father asked my.

"Nothing," I said, "I left my cell phone in the car."

"Your friend's car?" mom asked. When I nodded, she asked me who this friend of mine exactly was. But before I could answer dad impatiently said. "It was her neighbour Pooja. Now let her at least say hello to Ashu and Ranveer."

That was why I loved dad. He always saved my ass. He knew that it had been Aman, Radhika's cousin and my math teacher's son. And he also knew that it was not going to be too good for me if mom got to know that a boy had dropped me. You see, Dad had given up on my marriage the day I had enough to buy myself my own house in Gurgaon. I knew that he was probably scheming something in his own mind. But I would not know that until the end...which I was not sure about either. All I knew was that my guess was on "She will find someone for herself eventually" and Dad has never been good at figuring me our. For example he had never, ever fathomed that I would be a painter, and there you have it.

Meanwhile, I was saying hello to Ashu aunty. The "How are you" s and the "You've grown so thin" s followed. The "I saw you when you were so small" s were there too.

And then finally! "Hi" from Mr. hot. I said hi back and all of us sat down for the usual boring talks, which mostly involved mom, dad and ASHU AUNTY(It sounded so weird, I mean the words Ashu Aunty) discussing in detail about politics. I was so bored that I could feel my eyelids dropping.

Suddenly mom said, "Why don't you take Ranveer to your room Priyanka? Let us old people not bore you." I stared at her for a moment, I was so taken aback. She always did that, asked me to take the people of my age to my room. So I wasn't too sure she had done that to make me want to marry Ranveer. But you never knew with mom.

Not knowing what to do, I stood up and started walking to my room, hoping that he would follow me without ne having to be nice to him or call him. Honestly, I may have painting skills, but all of that is compensated on my people skills, of which, I have none. That was probably why Manasi called me anti-social. Thankfully Ranveer did follow me as I walked to my room. Once we were in I carefully closed the door. Carefully, because I did not want him to get any wrong ideas.

"So..." I said awkwardly, "hi."

"Hi," he said back. "I heard you're a painter?"

"You heard right" I said signaling him to sit down on the bed. He sat down and then we talked at length about my exhibitions and the sort of paintings I did. After that we talked about him. He was an engineer, an IIT graduate (Why am I surrounded by brilliant people anyway?) and worked in IBM in Bombay for 1, 00,000 a month, around what I got for the penthouse I had rented out in New York. He loved parties, and had a liking towards vodka. When I asked him about his fiancé, this was what he had said "Can you keep a secret?"

I said that I could, a little puzzle. Was he gay or something?

"I'm not engaged." Okay, wow. "I kind of lied to everyone that I was; so that they would get off my back about getting married to someone."
Okay, now I liked him.

"I know what you mean," I said, "Why else do you think I live so far away from my parents?"

We then talked about what a pain parents could be sometimes...after which we ran out of conversation. Awkward silence. I hate awkward silences!

"So..."I tried to create a conversation, "Do you go to discos?" I know, how random could I get? But desperate times call for desperate measures, and I was desperate to finish the stupid silence. I thought of the disco from the poster Aman and I had been laughing at the other day.

His face suddenly brightened up and he said "Oh I love them. Do you go?"

"Er...not really. I'm not exactly a party animal, so to speak." I was not lying either. I hated parties and clubs. Therefore, unlike other painters that I knew I was rarely found 'Shaking my booty'; instead I spent all day just painting.

He looked like I ought to not live. "You know what. It is my responsibility now to show you around the most amazing clubs around Delhi. In fact, I'm free on Saturday night. We could go then. What say?"

Even though I truly thought that it was a bad idea, I said "Sure." like the total idiot that I was. And I have no idea why. Was it his hotness? Or was it because just then I thought I saw, just a slight glimpse of, Aman? As Ranveer was saying all of that, something shiny had caught my eye and I looked out the window. Sadly, after I agreed to let Ranveer show me around discos, I realized that the shine had not been Aman's watch as I had imagined. It had been a car passing by. I looked back at Ranveer. He was talking about some hotels and clubs he had been to. I was hardly interested. I had been to one of the clubs he mentioned though. You see, even though I hated clubs, I was forced to go to a few. I had been bored out of my bones. And I was not going to go around dancing with the creeps there, thank you.

But whatever it was, I was stuck with it. And there was nothing I could do I guessed. Besides, thus had been the first time someone so good-looking had asked me to go out with them. I figured going with Ranveer would not be too bad. And he was an IIT graduate. He could be trusted. That was what I had thought then.
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Ranveer and Ashu aunty left at around 11:30 pm and I had retired to bed. I had been so exhausted with the long drive from Gurgaon that I actually fell asleep.

Suddenly I heard my phone ring. I groaned in my sleep and fumble through the stuff on the bed-side table. Actually, my hand fumbled through the stuff, I was dug deep in the quilts I had thrown onto myself in the middle if the night instead of switching the ac off.

My hand found the cell phone and slapped it into my ear. The stupid thing was still ringing. What was wrong with the dumb phone? After cursing the phone company I belatedly realized that I was supposed to press the receive button. I groaned again and pressed the button.

"What?" boy was I so not an early morning person.

"Priyanka? This is Aman? Are you still sleeping?!"

Not any more! He sounded pretty astonished. But not as astonished as I was. I struggled to push the mountain of blankets off me and looked at the wall clock. It was 11:30 am. Oh shit!

"Er...no. No, I'm awake. Er...I'll be ready in a minute. Don’t wait for me. I'll come to your place. I know where it is."

"Er, sure. I'm here. Take your time, all right?"

"Yeah. Bye."

"Bye."

"Oh wait. Thanks."

"Huh? What did I do now?"

I laughed. "Thanks for driving me home, nut case."

"As I said," he laughed back, "I'm just saving lives."

I them hung up, took a quick shower and got dressed. Mom was a little upset that I was leaving so soon; but when I pointed out to her that I was going to leave last night and that I only stayed back because my friend was dropping me only in the morning, she stopped being upset. Instead, she started being annoying. "Who is this friend of yours anyway?" she asked.

I gave in to her and told her that it was Aman, my 9th grade math teacher's son. You should have seen the expression on her face. She was trying very hard to hide her delight and failing miserably.

I said goodbye and walked to Sujhata ma'am's place. When I rang the bell I realized that this was Sujhata ma'am's house. I mean, I had already known that it was her house, but it never struck me that she was going to be there, and that there was a possibility that she was probably going to open the door. And the fact that if she opens the door, I would have to say hello. Because you can not ignore someone you already know. And you can not just walk in on an old teacher and be all "Hey, is your son there? He's dropping me home." either.

Unfortunately, it was Sujhata who had owned the door. But before I could say anything, she spoke. "Priyanka, how nice to see you."

I was a little taken aback of course, but thankfully not enough to lose my voice. "I'm fine ma'am..."

"So I heard you've become a painter now. I spoke to your mother the other day, and she told me that you sold a painting for a lot of money"

My face was burning with embarrassment, and disbelief. Embarrassment because of Mom. Why dies she always have to do such things? And disbelief because, for once, Sujhata was being nice to me. And she was not even giving me detention; which would have been way nicer than her tests, trust me.

"You live next to Radhika?"

"Yes ma'am... She's my neighbour, and a friend. I had no idea that she was related to you."

"Small world, isn’t it? Oh there's Aman..."

Thankfully Aman arrived at the door just then, playing with his keys. "Hi" he said to me.

"Hi" I said back even though that was not what I had WANTED to say. What I had wanted to say was "Can we please get the hell out of here so I don't have to speak to my math teacher who suddenly converted from spawn of the devil to angle?"

"Bye mom," he said to Sujhata and walked out. I just stood there and watched him walk to the car. What was I supposed to do now? Say goodbye? Or wait for her to say goodbye? Or wait for Aman to drag me to the car?

Thankfully, she said "Okay then, see you beta..." which is just another way of saying "Get out of here before I get too tired of standing at my door". Oh well, either way, she was doing ME a favour.

I waved goodbye as I walked to the car, and as soon as I reached the door, I jumped inside.

On the way back, I was listening to the fm. Suddenly in the middle of one of the songs; Aman said "So...how was your meeting with that guy?"

I had no idea what he had been talking about, so I went "What guy?"

"The one you came here to meet?" I still did not get it. I was about to ask him what he had been talking about when I realized that he was talking about Ranveer. Unlike last time, I mean the 13 years ago last time, I was not going to misunderstand Aman's genuine curiosity with jealousy. So I said "It was okay I guess. He asked me to one of the clubs somewhere in between Delhi and Gurgaon. He apparently loves discos. He's an IIT grad."

"That IS impressive..." he said like he was admitting something very sad. My déjà vu, (or is it called intuition?), told me that he was having a sort of an ego problem. I had read an article in a Femina or seventeen or one of those Lady magazines, that men have a lot of ego issues. So my déjà vu, or intuition, was telling me that Aman was dealing with one of those at that moment because of Ranveer. It was probably because of the whole IIT thing; even though technically, what he had studied is equally respected in the society. Oh well, it was not like my trying would make me understand anything that he thought. The day a girl understands a boy's mind will be the end of days, according to those magazines. Then again, since when did those magazines ever solve anyone's problems?
For example, the advice column had said that you should talk to the bullies and try to resolve the matter peacefully because mostly, bullies bully people because their family life was messed up. I had tried to speak to this bully in the 7th grade and she just threatened to hit my nose until it caved in. So much for peaceful.
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That night Manasi and Suman had a party...at my house. And whenever that happened, you could bet your life on the fact that the two of them would arrive at my place 5 freaking hours earlier. Reason? No, not because they want to help the pseudo host. No. They came to give the pseudo host a makeover. And I can bet MY life on the fact that it was that pseudo host's worst nightmare.
Of course in 13 years I had pretty much learned how to escape their evil clutches whenever there was a party by pretending that I could not go or by going back to dear mom's place because she wasn't feeling too well. Once I even told them that I had to fly to Australia immediately because my painting was being auctioned; because of which I actually bought tickets to Australia and spent two days roaming about the place, mostly shopping for souvenirs.
Sadly, this time; I had been so exhausted from the trip back to Gurgaon from Delhi that I had forgotten everything about the party; which was why an hour after I reached, the doorbell rang and in walked the two evil witches; Manasi, the witch of the west, and Suman, the witch of the east.
Seriously, I could understand that it was their job and that they were great at it; and that they probably MADE the most famous actors and actresses who they were; but what was up with their obsession with giving me makeovers?

"Get up!" Manasi had ordered as soon as I had gone back to my painting on the floor. I looked up at her and asked her why. Suman threw three very heavy bags onto one of the couches and said "Because we have to get you ready."

"For what?" I asked them, puzzled. They looked back at me like I was crazy. I had thought that they were doing that because of the mess I had made of my clothes and my face. Oh, and my hair. I was probably looking like a multicoloured peacock; or a peahen.

"For the party?" Suman said. "What do you think we're doing here then?"

"I don't know" I said "I thought you guys just came....oh wait. No! Shit! You guys are SO freaking NOT getting ME ready. The party's supposed to start at 8:00. And why does it have to be at my place? I hate parties!" I had started with talking, and then went on to screaming and then whining.

Manasi sighed out loud. "Suman, there's nothing we can do now." and then as swiftly as a hawk, she swooped down and snatched the bottle of paint away from my hand and held it over my painting threateningly.

"DON’T!" I shrieked.

She looked back at me, a tinge of evil reflected in her eyes. "Oh yes Priyanka... you get that ass off the ground or this green paint creates a river on your canvas..."

"Manasi..." I whispered, I was shivering so hard, "Give that back to me..."

Her evil grin became larger, looming over my innocent painting, and the bottle in her hand tilted a further 15* so that a drop of the dark, sinister green was almost leaving its container.

"Okay, okay!" I shrieked, "I'll do it! Take it off! Take it off!"

A satisfied smile spread over Manasi's face, replacing the evil grin; as she tilted the bottle away from the canvas and moved the bottle just a little off the painting that was probably breathing east now. My poor, poor painting!

Seriously, I know that I get highly annoyed when someone says this because I've heard it so many times; but who needs enemies with such friends? They're pretty much competent enough to be your worst enemies. For example, Suman was standing behind Manasi and laughing her guts out.

So anyway; this was how at 7:30 pm I was standing in front of a big mirror, whatever it's called, in my room, in a greenish-blackish knee-length DRESS with a square neck and a small collar, shot smart sleeves, and sort of pleated bottom edge; and knee high boots. I kind of liked the boots; but why the dress? Oh, and the excessive make-up. I was probably looking nice, but at that time, I was too busy screaming at the two of them like a two year old baby that I was not going wear this if the party were to be at my place. The two just laughed at me.

I repeat; who needs enemies with such friends?
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Varsha; Suman's cousin; and Harsh, Varsha's husband gad already arrived and I was bringing out the snacks, in those awful clothes (Suman and Manasi would not let me take it off) when the bell rang. None of the lazy bones were ready to answer the door. When I solemnly refused to get the door because by hands were full, Suman obliged. I later the snacks on the table in the living room and looked up to see Suman jump at Shiv, her husband; and kiss him on the lips. I almost barred at that. "Guys?" I said hoping that I was loud enough for the two of them, "Hello? Do you know that there are other people in this room?" The other people I had just mentioned were hooting, including Aditya, Manasi's boyfriend; who was doing exactly that just seconds ago. Talk about hypocrites...

As Suman and Shiv headed for the couch; the bell rang again. It was my turn. I put a wafer in my mouth from one of the bowls and walked to the door. When I reached, I swallowed, opened the door and almost passed out. Yes, you guessed it right. Outside stood Aman looking like a God in a plain black shirt and slightly faded jeans, his hair falling into his dark eyes as usual. I had the sudden urge to do exactly what Suman had done a minute ago and would have done just that if Aman would have not spoken just then. "You look great Priyanka..." I LOOKED GREAT? Did he not SEE himself in the mirror? If I was looking great then he was looking like God. Oh wait, I already said that he was loping like God. I just kept looking back at Aman like a three year old glued to an episode of Sesame Street.

"Hello?" Aman said smiling, my stomach lurched AGAIN.

"Hi..." I said, miraculously finding my senses as Radhika approached us after succesfully locking her door. "Come in..."

I don't even know whether I closed the door behind me or not because I just followed Aman like a puppy dog.

We sat down and talked and talked...until the topic of School Days cane up. That was when, curse them, Manasi and Suman remembered the salsa classes I used to go to.

"You went to salsa classes!" Varsha said with wide eyes.

"Aman went too," Suman added. It was pretty evident that she was enjoying herself.

"You both went together?" Varsha asked us. I was too stunned to say anything at all. I had a bad feeling that they would make me dance. But I did not have to say anything because Aman said "Yes...well, sort of."

"We didn't dance together" I added quickly, in case anyone was getting weird ideas and questions about the 'sort of'. My heart was beating faster every second. The look on their faces told me that they were dying to see us dance. My déjà vu, I mean intuition, was telling me that they would... And as always, it had been right. They, all of those wretched morons, begged for us to dance, including Radhika.

I was shaking my head and outright refusing when Aman said "Come on Priyanka, be a sport!"

"Not you too Aman!" I glared at him. He looked back at me innocently. When I continued to say no, he said "Am I THAT a bad dancer?"

What was I supposed to do? I just sighed and agreed. Everyone cheered and helped clear the table out to make some space for us. Manasi her cell phone ready (She had taken the salsa song from Benjamin on the day of the show), she had probably thought of this from the beginning and put this song into her mobile.

I took my chunky shoes off, and the music started. I looked at Aman nervously. I hadn't had practice for so many years and I hardly remembered the steps.
Aman nodded reassuringly and moved his finger in circles to remind me one of the individual steps. We had to shake a lot and then move in circles. I broke almost ever step and Aman was just a little better than me. It really had been a long time ago. But as the beat got faster, and it was already fast let me tell you, we sort of got into the thing and sort of remembered more. With each new beat we got better; well better for someone who did not know the S of salsa. Technically, we weren't all THAT good, but everyone else was enjoying it.
Then came the couple part, where the boys and girls had to dance together. That was the point about which I had been nervous, very VERY nervous. Aman took my hand in his, my eyes moved to meet his like they were enchanted; and then Aman tugged me closer. We were both standing very close, chest to chest, my face tilted up to his face. He took one step forward, and I one step back, he took the same step way back and I took it way front, our hands in each others hands, our eyes in each others eyes. We were moving fast, feverishly fast, like we had to hurry; like if we missed one step, we would miss out eternity. The lights dimmed around us and Aman twirled me around. One moment, I was twirling and the next, I was being pulled towards him. He took me in his arms and turned me sideways, sliding his arm down my back so that I arched my back and bent backward as he bent forward with me, our faces just a few inches apart.

That was when I did a horrible mistake. I looked into his eyes. And to make things worse, he looked into mine.
The music drowned off, the lights were completely out now, the hooting had miraculously vanished and the world had suddenly disappeared. It was just me, stuck there in Aman's arms, looking into his eyes; Aman, standing there, holding me in his arms and staring back; and a slow trailer of that night outside in the park. I felt my breath slow down, slower and slower and finally stop. I tried very hard to look away from his eyes....and I finally looked away. Sadly, my eyes moved only from his eyes to his mouth. Oh shit! I looked away and thankfully I looked down at the floor. However I did not have too much time to look at the floor because just then I heard someone clap loudly.

I broke away from Aman like he was on fire and almost tripped when AMAN got hold of my hand and steadied me. "You okay?" he asked me. No! Of course I was NOT okay! I was just staring into a guy's eyes like one of the helpless damsels in distress I had read about in so many serious romances. And they annoyed me to no end. I mean, just go ahead and kiss the guy already!

But I was not going to kiss Aman! Oh my God! No! I would never be caught dead doing that! So why did I somehow feel...attracted to his lips just a Minuit ago? EW! Something was really wrong with me. And no, I was not okay.

"Yeah, I'm okay." that was what I had said. What? I could not say that I was not!

"Wow Priyanka;" I heard someone say, "I didn't know you danced so well."

I almost screamed when I saw who it was that had clapped. Almost. Thankfully, I had lost too much breath in Aman's arms for that much of noise to have come out of my lungs. It was Ranveer. I had forgotten than I had invited him.

"Hi Ranveer;" I said, letting air into my lungs. I then introduced everyone there to him and him to everyone. I could see that all the girls, including the already married ones were taking in his hotness. I somehow was not as taken by him as I had been the first time probably because my hormones had been excited enough for the day, thank you. But it was pretty amusing nevertheless.

It was around 10:00pm when I served dinner, from a restaurant, of course. As Suman put it, I would most probably blow the kitchen up if I went in to cook anything. I was just getting the plates out when Aditya sneaked up behind me. I was about to scream out of fright when he shushed me. "What are you doing here?" I asked him, "Besides freaking me out, I mean."

"I need you to do me a favour." he said, and started to dig something out of his pocket.

"What is it?" I was getting impatient.

He finally dug out a small navy blue velvet box. It was a ring. My jaw fell to the ground as he opened it to reveal a platinum ring with a pale pink stone. It was a simple, but VERY pretty ring. "Oh my GOD!" I almost screamed again, "YOU'RE PROPOSING!"

"Shhhhhhhh!" he shushed me again. "Yes, and I need your help."

To say that I was shocked would be THE understatement of the year because Aditya, like me did not believe in marriage. Well, he was not opposed to it, unlike me; but he never really planned to, or so he claimed.

"You total ditcher!" I pointed an accusing finger at him. He looked back at me embarrassed. "What happened to our pact?" He looked even more embarrassed now.

"Don’t make this worse for me okay?" he said.

"All right, what do you want me to do?"

He gave me the ring and whispered what I had to do into my ear. By the time he was done, I was mighty impressed by his sense of romance.

"Okay, I'll take care of that. Now go. I have to get to work." He thanked me and ran out the kitchen.

I turned around and was taking the plates out when I heard someone come in. I turned around to see Ranveer standing there looking puzzled.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," he said, "but did I just happen to witness your marriage proposal?" I had no idea what he was talking for a second. Then it struck me.

"No way! Where did you... No! Oh my God, no! He's Manasi's boyfriend and he's proposing to HER and I'm HELPING him!"

He looked funny for a moment then looked relieved. Why?

"Good then." he said. Okay...?

"Why....?" I asked him slowly. My déjà vu or intuition was not giving me good vibes somehow.

"Oh nothing..." he said, "Guess what?"

"What?" what was he about to tell me, exactly? My déjà vu, I mean intuition was giving me warning signals. But I really never got to know what exactly he was trying to tell me then because unfortunately or fortunately Aman entered at that point.

"Hurry up will you," he said, "we're all starved." Then he noticed Ranveer standing there and said hi. Ranveer looked a little bit annoyed, but only for a second, and then said hi back. I got the plates out and walked past them, out of the kitchen as fast as I could. My déjà vu, INTUITION, was ringing giant bells in my head, and I had a proposal to fix. Too much for me to handle!

It was as we were having dessert that Manasi choked on the ring from the chocolate mousse.

"What the- Priyanka, did you cook? I think you dropped something." that was what Manasi had said before Aditya snatched the ring away from her and said "I think....isn’t this an engagement ring? Manu, someone just proposed to you and my guesses lie on PK."

Everyone started laughing. Yes, word had spread and EVERYONE knew about it, except for Manasi that is. Manasi glared at Aditya. You could tell that she was blushing very hard and trying to hide it. "What's going on Aditya?"

"Nothing Manu. PK just proposed to you. And these flowers" he pulled out a huge bouquet of red roses from the sofa, "are from her too...I think...Wait. It says something. 'Will you marry me?' See?" Then he showed her the flowers and the card on it.

Okay, this was the worst proposal I had ever seen in my life, but you had to give it to Aditya for trying. To put it in simple words, he was not exactly very romantic.

Manasi looked at Aditya in a bored sort of way. "It says Aditya here, Aditya." Aditya acted shocked and then looked into Manasi's eyes and said "And so will you marry him? He seems pretty to really love you..."

Manasi looked at him in a very amused manner, "Aditya, you do know that it's the lamest proposal in the history of proposals don't you?"

He nodded at her like he was proud of it, "So, what do you say? Wanna make history with me?"

Manasi shook her head to herself and then said "Okay, but there's one condition. You are not to use that line EVER again. Seriously, wanna make HISTORY with me?"

Aditya pretended to be thinking for a while and then said "I guess I'll survive" and then she gave him a BIG hug which Varsha joined, followed by Suman followed by Radhika and then finally me.
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I was Reading the newspaper when my phone rang on Saturday evening. It was Ranveer. He had called to remind me of 'the date', as he called it, and told me that he was going to pick me up at 10:00pm. I was a little surprised that we were going to go out so late; but according to him; that was when the real party started. Oh well.

After I spoke to Ranveer, Aman called to ask me what I was doing. He was apparently getting bored. I told him that I was going out with Ranveer to this club called Nirvana at some random hotel; the club where G.I.Jo-o-o was the deejay. He was apparently great. Aman then asked me whether Ranveer was the same guy as the one in the party two days ago. When I told him that he was and asked him why he was asking he just said "Nothing, all right. Bye." And then he hung up on me. Seriously, I was destined never to understand him.

I got ready by 9:30pm and switched on the TV. At around 9:45 the doorbell rang. Thanking that it was Ranveer, I switched off the TV and went to get the door. It was Radhika.

"Hey," she said as soon as I opened the door.

"Hi," I said, "What are you doing up so late?"

"Late?" Radhika looked confused. She checked her watch and then said "It's just 9:45. Since when did 9:45 become late for you? Your lights go off at 2:00 in the morning!"

"Sorry," I said, "I'm just going out so I'm a little screwed. That's all."

"I heard," she said, "You're going out with that guy from day before yesterday's party right? Aman told me."

"Uh-huh..." Did she have a crush on Ranveer? It was hard not to. And both of them were from the same field...isn’t it? Aren't computer engineering and normal engineering almost the same?

"Er...do you mind if I er....do you mind if I tag along?" she looked a little embarrassed. I smiled. Oh yes, she DID have a crush on Ranveer.

"Someone's crushing on Ranveer?" I said. She looked at me like I was crazy.

"No! I mean, he's cute enough. No, actually; he's very VERY cute; so, so freaking cute...sigh..........I think I'm losing my point. Oh yeah, that's not why I want to go."

"Come inside." she walked in and I closed the door. I then asked her to sit down.
She obediently sat down and I stood with my arms crossed across my chest in front if her. "Now you will be nice and give me the real reason for you to suddenly want to go."

She frowned. "All right," she said, "But you're dead if you tell Aman; who is being dragged along too, by the way. There's this guy; Raj, who works with me. And he goes to Nirvana every Saturday. And he's going to be there tonight too. I just wanted to see what's so great about this place. Not that I like him or anything. He's double dating my friend. And I'm hoping to take pictures...you know. Just to prove to my friend that he's cheating her."

I looked at her for a while. Something told me that Raj had more to do with HER than her friend, because she was not looking me in the eye. Why else would she have asked me not to tell Aman? But why was she bringing Aman along?

I just told her that she could ask Ranveer and that if he was okay with it, she could go.

Ten minutes later, Ranveer arrived right on time, and the four of us left for Nirvana.

You know what, the other reason for me to have let Radhika and Aman come along was that I was not exactly sure I wanted to go to a club all alone puke that, and was glad that Aman and Radhika were going to be there with me.
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The club was great, amazing, fantastic, and the worst place I had ever been to in a very long time. There was loud music, VERY loud music; which was completely fine with me, I love freaking out with loud music. But not when the person standing right next to you is probably going to throw up on you because he's an underage teen who's trying to show off to his friends. Oh, please do not get me started on the smokers. I thought I was going to die with all the smoke.

Sorry for sounding like such a Grandma, but this was not, by far, the place for me. But of course, it was not like I had any option but to sit at the stupid bar and order a coke every two minutes and wait for the rest of my companions who were having the time of their lives. Aman and Ranveer were great friends now and Radhika was talking to some random guy in the crowd and LAUGHING. Where was RAJ anyway?

Ugh! And the place was just so freaking dark. God, did I hate myself for getting me into such shit or what.

"Priyanka!" I miraculously heard Ranveer's voice over the loud music.

I turned around to see him standing in the beginning of the crowd on the dance floor. Oh boy, he was calling me in. I shook my head, but the idiot kept calling me. I finally got my butt off the stool and walked toward the dance floor. I decided it was at least better than sitting with all the drunken fools, half happy, half sad and a few drinking for the sake of it.

"Why are you sitting there all alone? Dance!" he said enthusiastically. I just smiled at him. I'm already here; do I have to dance too?

After 5 minutes of him trying to make me dance and me trying very hard to make it look like he was enjoying, he asked me "You don't like all the doped here, do you?"

Finally! I nodded while rolling my eyes. He said "It's all right. Let's go over there," pointing toward the other side of the dance floor. "There's a better crowd over there." and then he dragged me along. I was just waiting for my so called friends to show up and ask for us to go back home. But there was no sign of either of the cousins. Back-stabbers!

However, the crowd at the other side of the dance floor was sort of better...I guessed; they were less drunk anyway; and I sort of started enjoying myself. The music really WAS good. Hey, this wasn't too bad.

Another minute later, I was dancing like a mad person and no one could stop me. I could just go on and on and on. If the morons would let me, that is. Radhika had to come just at that time and say that she was hungry. And Aman, ditcher, had to back her up.

How mean!

And so it was that at around 12:15am we were sitting at a table and ordering food as I looked longingly at the dance floor. Yeah, life officially sucked. To make things worse, Aman was sitting right next to me and no matter how much I tried; my stupid leg would keep colliding with his.

"Any drinks?" the waiter asked us.

"Er, one vodka for me," Ranveer said, and looked around the table "You guy's? Priyanka?"

Aman ordered a Champaign and Radhika a beer. When I ordered coke, Ranveer looked shocked. "You don't drink?"

"Why is that so shocking?" I asked him.

"Okay..." he said, still not looking convinced, "I guess that was why you weren't comfortable down there…"

Aman looked at me incredulously. And because I was being conscious of him like the bloody idiot that I was, I said "No I wasn't! I was dancing when you guy's so rudely brought me up here."

"You were sitting on that stool for half an hour PK." Radhika said. I was going to kill her.

"Look," I said, "just because I don't drink does not mean I mind drunken people. Because I don't." That was a complete lie. Okay not a complete lie because I really did not mind my friends drinking; just not getting drunk.

"Really?" Ranveer said, "But no wonder you don’t drink. You were always the good girl."

"I was not!" I snapped. Hey! I used to have a guy in my room in the middle of the night! Where was the good girl there? Not that I was doing anything with the guy; but there was a guy nevertheless!

"You were PK" Radhika said.

"And how should you know that?" I snapped back.

"You were worse than Aman!" Radhika said. "Aman was such a goody two shoes. But you were even worse than him."

Goody two shoes, my foot. I caught him kissing a girl in the 11th grade. That's goody two shoes?

"How can you be so sure?" I asked her again.

"Manasi and Suman."

There were going to be three murders tonight.

The waiter went away and Ranveer excused himself. Radhika spotted someone in the crowd and went away leaving me and Aman alone. Not again!

"You know Priyanka," Aman said, breaking the silence between us, "I know that I should probably not comment on your personal life, but I think you should reconsider your engagement with Ranveer. Or at least think it over once more."

"Huh?" that was what I had said when Aman said that. What engagement?

"I mean," he said, "He's a nice guy and all, but he just isn’t your type"

"My type?" I asked him, surprised, "How IS my type?"

"I don’t know..." he said, "just...he...there's something sort of...you know. You guy's just don’t click."

"Click?"

"Like; for example. He's presently mixing alcohol in your coke at the present moment"

I turned around but could not see Ranveer any where. "How do you know?"

"I know because I'm a guy Priyanka. And I know other guys."

"Aman, he's my friend. And I know that he won't do any such thing." I assured him; even though I had doubts of my own.

"Fiancé." he corrected me. I shook my head and said "friend. I'm not marrying him. I'm not marrying anyone Aman. I don’t believe in marriage. And as for him, he's engaged. Or so he claims to the rest of the world."

I explained to Aman Ranveer's little situation. "See," he said, "I was right. He's a fraud."

"He's just trying to get away from marriage. Look at me. I live AWAY for the same cause."

"But you don’t lie, Priyanka."

"Why are we having this conversation?"

"Because -" but before Aman could compete what he wanted to say, Ranveer came in with the drinks and Radhika walked in smiling.

I eyed the giant glass of coke and then looked at Aman. Aman shook his head. I shook my head back at him and grabbed the glass from the tray. Aman chuckled to himself. Why was he so amused anyway? There was going to be nothing at all in my drink and when he would know, I would be the one laughing at HIM.

I took one swing from the glass, and took GREAT pains NOT to spit it out. It tasted AWFUL! Aman had been right. There WAS alcohol mixed in the coke. But I was not going to let it out. Even if I had to drink the whole thing down, I was not going to let Aman know that he was right.........only HOW?

The stuff tasted awful. It was probably the worst thing I had ever tasted. But all I did was smile at Aman, and ignored Ranveer as much as I could; and Aman raised his eyebrows. Ha!

Halfway through the glass, I kept it aside and said that I was full.

"What's wrong Priyanka?" Aman asked, trying very hard not to burst out laughing, "Something wrong with the taste?"

I glared at him, and pulled the glass back toward me. "There is nothing wrong with the coke." I said through gritted teeth. Ass!

I cursed Aman and Ranveer after every sip and by the end of it, I stopped. That was because I felt like dancing. I stood up and started dancing.

Aman got to his feet and said that it would be better if I went home. How silly. He thought that I was drunk. I just wanted to dance. Was that so wrong?

"Aman," I said, my feet were already moving to the music, "I'm really not drunk. Okay? Let me dance na!"

Ranveer stood up too and said, "I think we should really go back now Priyanka. It's late."

"It's not late!" I told him. Was he mad?

"Er..."Radhika also stood up and grabbed one of my arms.”We can dance at home PK. We'll switch the music player on." and before I could protest, she dragged me out of the club and into the car.

I was just sitting in the car waiting for the rest of them to enter the car but no one did. I looked outside to see Radhika shouting. I stuck my head out and heard Radhika say "...and just how much of it did you put in her drink?"

Ranveer replied looking sheepish, "none...there was no coke in it...the whole thing was-"

"YOU WHAT!" Radhika had seriously lost it. It was really funny. Hey now, I really WAS drunk! How did that happen?

Aman saw me, and settled the two of them down; and then made the two of them sit in the car. Ranveer drove us back home. And I giggled all the way back home. All of them looked so funny! Aman laughed with me. See? I was genuinely laughing. I wasn't drunk.

When we reached Ranveer came up with us and was going to help me in, like I needed it. Idiots! But when we reached the door, there was a huge pile of boxes in front of Radhika's door.

"Shit! Those guys send the computer in the middle of the night!" Radhika shrieked.

Ranveer then suggested that he take me in and Aman help Radhika with the boxes. Radhika outright refused and forced Ranveer to help her out with the boxes and Aman take me in. And in all this while I had already opened the door and was inside. Aman stepped in before I could close the door and said, all strictly "Priyanka, I want you to go straight to bed right now."

I laughed at him and closed the door. "With whom?" I asked him and laughed some more. He raised his eyebrows and said "Preferably no one at the present moment. Now," he then grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my bedroom. "You don’t need to change; just get in and sleep." He then left my hand and waited. I stayed where I was.

"Do you want me to tuck you in Priyanka?" he said sarcastically. I laughed again because he said what he had said right before our pillow fight. "What happened now?" he asked me.

"You know," I said, "you're VERY mean."

"And why is that?" he sounded tired.

"You don’t like me." I said.

"Of course I like you Priyanka!" he said, placing his hand on my back, pushing me towards the bed.

"Liar!" I shrieked at him. "You like Ashita." By now he had already made me sit on the bed. And before he could get me to lie down, he said "What?!" he sounded shocked.

"You LOVE Ashita!" I said, pointing an accusing finger at him; "you LURVE Ashita."

"What are you talking about?" I laughed at that.

"Liar!" I said, "You kissed Ashita! You love Ashita! I saw you!"

And then I passed out. The last thing I saw was Aman's confused face.
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Ouch! Ow! My head. Ugh. Why in hell's name was it hurting so much? And why on earth was I wearing my jeans in bed? And why was Aman sitting next to me? In my room? What was going on?

"Good Morning!" he said not sounding too good himself.

"What are you doing here early in the morning?"

Aman raised an eyebrow and said "Early in the morning? It's 10:00 in the morning. Not so early."

"10:00?!" I said, "That is sort of early..." Aman laughed, shaking his head at me.

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

"So since it's nothing; I shall assume that you're talking a walk in my bedroom?"

He laughed again and my stomach did the weird thing again. Man did he look good laughing or freaking what. "Do you know how weird it is to find a guy in your bedroom as soon as you wake up?" I asked him.

He shrugged and said "I do. I was in a boy’s hostel. But I'm guessing that's not the feeling you're getting. I once saw was a roommate in his underclothes, if you know what I mean, and it wasn't a very pretty sight."

"Ew!" I said, sitting up in my bed despite my headache. "That is really not the first thing you want to know the first thing in the morning."

His lips curled up into a half-smile. "Priyanka, do you remember anything from last night?"

"Ugh...no idea. I just have this bloody headache. I feel like I'm hung over or something. Like I got drunk..........HOLY SHIT!" I screamed as the events of last night flooded my memory. Oh my GOD!

I dropped my head into my palms and groaned. And then everything I said to Aman came back to me. I screamed, and I did not care if my headache just got worse. Aman got off the chair he had been sitting in and sat next to me on the bed.

"Go away Aman" I groaned into my palms.

"You remember everything don’t you?" he asked me. I did not reply. "That's not even half of what you said in your sleep. I looked up at him with wide eyes.

"I WHAT?"

"You spoke in your sleep." I store breathing. He was kidding right? What had I said?

He was about to say something else when his cellphone rang. He picked it up and jumped to his feet. "I'll be right there." he hung up, turned around to face me and said in a hurried tone. "Priyanka, you stay right there. You need rest. I'll have to leave now. One of my friends is critical in the hospital and I need to see him. I'll be back as soon as possible. You stay right there and don’t worry. Okay?" and with that he jogged out my door.

Stay right there? Was he bloody mad? I don’t care what he heard, but it was enough that he had heard it. Enough to make me jump out of bed, pack my things and leave for Delhi. I was going to have to leave. Fast.

DON'T give me that look. Okay? I was not going to sit through another Ashita moment. One had been enough, thank you.

I took my car and drove back home; from where I got myself tickets to Chennai and flew there. Bye-bye second Ashita moment and hello Chennai and its rented apartment in Gopalapuram.
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I was sitting in the coffee shop next to a theatre near my apartment when my cell rang. It was an unknown number. I picked it up uncertainly. I had not had too many calls from unknown callers.

P: Hello...?
Caller: PK, what in the world do you think you are? Queen of freaking England?
P: Manasi! How did you get my number?
M: I told you, you're not Queen of England. Anyone with brains and with a name that is not Aman can call your mom up and get your number. Oh and call from a borrowed phone. Why on earth have you been ignoring our calls?
P: I was busy...
M: Yeah. Right. I don't even want to know the real reason for you to vanish into thin air PK; but I'm not having you missing at my wedding.
P: Wedding?
M: You utter moron! MY wedding! I'm getting married. To Aditya.
P: When?
M: Next week. And you're coming. Like it or not.
P: Manasi...?
M: Oh my God. I am NOT listening to you. I'm hanging up. You're coming and that's final.
And then she hung up on me...which was how, a week later I was sitting at 1:35 in the bloody night in Manasi's room helping her get ready with Suman and a hundred of her Manasi's cousins. Honestly, the pandit just had to choose the ceremony time to be at 4:27 am. I mean, did he not have a wife to get back to?

Sasha, Manasi's 12year old cousin came running in screaming for me. "PK di! PK di! Someone's calling you." I groaned. It had to be Manasi's aunt who had taken this liking towards me because I had told her that I don't believe in marriages. Don't get me wrong; she was happily married. She just wanted ME to be happily married. I swear; dies it say on my forehead that please force Priyanka to get married. Aargh. She must have found another photo to show me.

I ran behind Sasha who was leading the way. But instead of taking me to the room where all the ladies were sitting, she took me out to the empty lawn of Manasi's Farm House.

I followed her outside looking for whoever it was who had called me. But I saw no one. Suddenly, the lights outside went off. It was pitch dark and I noticed that the lights inside the farmhouse were on. I figured that the phase of the outside lights must have gone off. I attempted to get back in but when I reached the door, it was locked. I realized with horror that the brat had locked me outside. Shit!

I could hardly see anything and I kept knocking the stupid door and shouting but no one even opened the dang thing. Suddenly I saw a candle flame coming closer. I thanked God, and called out "Excuse me!" five times till I was sure that the light was coming toward me. As the person got closer, I could sort of make out his facial features. He seemed to be around my age, a few years here or there, seemed damned good looking from whatever I could see and he was wearing a sherwaani. All in all I would have totally been 'Checking him out' if of were not for the sorry fact that I had already checked him out ages ago and the fact that I had made Manasi promise that he was not invited. I should have known better than to trust Manasi.

I looked around me for escape routes, but thanks to the pitch darkness, had no such luck. I had no other option than to listen to him.

I stood there, freezing to my bone in the January wind, in a freaking sari of all things.

"Hi Priyanka. Long time, no see?" he was smiling, and despite the biting cold, I could feel my face grow warm.

"So," he said when I did not reply, "How’s life?"

I had re-winded and replayed that night a 100 times in the past month. The night I had been drunk. And by now I knew exactly what I had said to him. And that had been exactly everything. There was no point in hiding it anymore. Might as well get it over with. He was probably feeling bad that he might have hurt me or something; I guessed that was why he wanted to talk to me.

"Look," I started; but he cut me in.

"Priyanka," he said softly, "Shut up. First, it's my turn to speak. You've spoken everything you needed to, if not more. And second, you are the most annoying and irritating girl I have met in all of my life.
"First, you leave me hanging there after the salsa dance; when I want to say so bloody much to you; and then you ignore me and take off to the US of freaking A. Then, you meet me 13 years later and finally, when I get a second chance to tell you; BAM! You're off! I mean, honestly; how much more do you think I can take? Huh? What do you take me for?-"

"But Ash-" I tried to say when he cut me in.

"Ashita was my FRIEND. I have no idea what you thought was going in between us, but I never even thought of her that way; and neither did she. Hell, I think she dated that partner of yours after that show. Apparently the sweet-heart he had been speaking to was his baby sister. And as for that kiss; I had no idea what you had been talking about that night. I thought about it for two whole weeks and realized that you must have seen us when she was showing me the correct way to do a step I had done wrong, and her necklace got stuck in my sleeve. All right?"

"Oh." I said.

"Oh is right." he said, running a hand threw his amazing hair; "And yeah. The first time I saw you, I knew who you were. I saw you in the park, your ears blocked with headphones. I knew you because my mother kept talking about you. And when I saw you that day, I couldn’t believe that YOU were Priyanka. The Priyanka. The one who was driving my mother insane because she knew everything and still wouldn't study. You were so much more than that. And then that day when you came home and asked for mom when you knew that she wasn't there; yeah that's where you got me. I was like 'What the heck is she doing?' when you were making those silly things to your maths questions, and I just had to tell you how to do it. And I liked being with you, because you always talked and talked and talked about everything that did not matter. I couldn’t sleep so I came to your freaking window. I mean, that isn’t even sane, but there you go. That's Priyanka there, and there's her window. Jump in. And there I was. I mean, it was so easy to talk to you. I could come up to you in the middle of the night and ask for a pen. I could play Sir Lancelot with you and you would actually laugh. And when I danced with you that day in class, I loved it. It was not the best dance, it was never ABOUT it being the best dance. It was just dancing...with you.
"That day, after the show; I wanted to tell you...everything. I wanted to tell you about what you meant to me. But then you just left. You never came back to school and then you just weren't there anymore.
"I tried forgetting you; got three or four girlfriends. But none of them were you. Because that's what they were. Just girlfriends. Not my friend, not a friend I could go to in the middle of the night and trouble and pillow fight with.
"And then when I saw you again; you have no idea how I felt. I went mad with joy...I could not believe my luck. And at the party, I could not have missed the chance to dance with you again...”
And then he laughed. “And I even made Radhika tell you that she wanted to go with you to that club; just so that I could keep a watch n that Ranveer guy.
"It was so perfect....but I wasn't sure. I wasn’t sure whether you liked me back or not. I knew that you did once; but did you stop? That's why I never told you.
"And then that day when you told me, well not me, but blabbered in general in your sleep, I was shocked. I was happy; but before I could tell you anything, you ran away. Again. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that you had no idea about how I felt. I mean, EVERYONE knew it; Radhika knew it, your friends knew it; even your DAD knew it when I called him up to find out where you had gone.
“Which is why I'm here to tell you that you are the most annoying girl I have met in my entire life.
"And the bottom-line of this long story: I have been in love with you since before you even knew me and you are still the most annoying person I've ever met."

I stood there quietly looking at him. "You knew." I said, "You knew that I liked you back then; and you didn't tell me?" I had stopped breathing normally ages ago and my heart would probably need surgery to start working at its normal rate again.

He shrugged, the candle still held in one hand and the fuse plug in the other hand, and said "I wanted to tell you after the show..."

"And because of that," I ignored him, "I suffered for THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS?"

He smiled a self satisfied smile and shrugged again, "YOU suffered? Well then I’m glad about it..."

"You're a sadist" I told him.

"I know" he said.

"I hate you" I told him.

"I know" he said.

Then he kissed me. On the mouth. The fuse plug and the candle fell to the ground as I kissed him back and everything was engulfed in darkness...
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PS: My déjà vu sucks.