Life with(out) him

Chapter 3

Mira

One of the distinguished things about HardRock, apart from the booze was the music. It was so loud that everything in your life, all the worries just seemed to vanish in its melody. I reached earlier than the other two as usual. Earlier in the sense, right on time. That was one thing I hated about anybody. Punctuality. I mean when you tell someone they'd meet you at 7, well it is expected that they see you there at 7. The clock was invented solely for this purpose. Apparently some people never realise its use. I let out an exasperated sigh and decide to just move on and enjoy the music inside instead of getting bored staring at the usual vehicular traffic and arguments on the road. And sure enough just as I was about to head inside I heard someone call out my name, and I turned around to see Radha and Shweta. 'Why're you both sweaty and out of breath?' It actually seemed like they had just run a marathon. 'We're scared of Hitler!' and before I could counter that Radha gave me the look – the look that specifically asked me to shut up and move inside, the look that told me how shattered Shweta was. Wait what shattered! She broke up him, why should she be the one to be shattered!? Did he break up with her? Noo! This cannot be happening. He cannot win the relationship.

Two things here, when you're best friends with someone you kind of develop this habit of talking through looks, which I just did with Radha. We've known each other since high school. Right after Vikram left me all shattered, Radha became the shoulder I could always rely on. Forever together was what we always told each other. And we stayed by that till today. She knew about Vikram, and also the unsaid theory of never speaking about him ever. And second, when in a relationship if you break up with someone it means you've won half the battle, the second battle is when you move on and get over the other before he does. And whoever wins the second part definitely wins the relationship. Here it seemed like it already was a lost battle, with Manav breaking up with Shweta. God! I needed a drink badly.

I stomped off inside without waiting for any explanation leaving Radha to do all the consoling and wiping the tears. Blimey! It indeed was very crowded inside today. 'It's saturday night what did you expect?' I nodded my head slowly as I looked around to find a booth for us to sit in, 'I already asked to book one for us you know, and since we're kind of regulars here, Sameer reserved it for us.' 'I have to give his one to you Radha! You're surprising me a lot today!' As soon as we sat down the song suddenly changed down to a romantic one, which would've been wonderful if it were any other day but today. Tears started streaming down Shweta's face immediately, 'Is there anything wrong with me? Why did he break up with me? What wrong did I do?' No. No tears. Well only the people close to me know what a sucker I am for tears. I feel horrible when someone cries. 'Sweetheart it wasn't anything that you did. You're the most wonderful person anyone can have. Don't do this to yourself because of one guy.' Radha looked at me as soon as I said those words. A look that said – look who's talking, and what did you do 'because of one guy? Thankfully the look died as soon as it had come up. 'Okay stop now Shweta. None of that crap here! He was a jerk and today is a total no-guy night for us! He broke your heart and you definitely didn't deserve that. Heck no one does. Let's begin with out of life. Out of mind.' For once Radha let go of what she had in mind regarding Vikram and agreed to what I'd said. 'Well said Mira! I cannot agree more!' Well it at least got a smile on Shweta's face 'Now that I see a smile on that beautiful face, let's not waste any more time. Let's celebrate the No Guy evening. Drinks on me! I'll go arrange for some beers!'

Little did I know that this No Guy evening was going to turn out to be an exact opposite of what I'd thought. 'Hey Sam, 3 beers for us at the table.'
'Sure. The jerk broke up with her didn't he?'
I smiled at him, so the whole world was aware of Shweta's relationship with a jerk. I smiled at him. 'Well, about time. She didn't deserve him anyway.'
I looked around at the crowd. It seemed different than every day and Sameer caught me looking around.
'The crowd's different today, army men are back from their long commitment at war, and cherry on the icing no stupid college boys here. Just proud men of the country.' I smiled at that. I always had a thing for army men. Smart people who dared to put the country before anything in the world. It must take tremendous amount of courage to do that. Not to forget the bravery to face the warfare and the commitment to stay away from their loved ones for long. They indeed were something. Especially when compared to people like me, aimless and couldn't figure out what to do in life, they stood out as people with goals and ambition in their eyes. I shook my head jerking myself out of these thoughts unaware of a smile pasted on my face ready to join my friends back at the booth when I realised my way was blocked by a tall, handsome man. Who for some reason seemed familiar to me, or was he? I frowned as I tried to recall in vain and decided to let go. I tried to make my way back to the booth moving to the right so as not to dash into him, again in vain as somehow I ended up finding him standing right there in front of me. 'Well, could you please excuse me?'
'Oh! Sorry young lady, I didn't mean to block your way or anything. If at all I was making a way out for you.' Young lady! I wish men like these stayed here long enough to change the minds of people out here. And probably then jerks like Manav would cease to exist, such chivalry was beyond imagination. 'I'm sorry to bother you, and maybe I could even sound like a jerk right now, but could you maybe help me out here?' And yes today was supposedly a no-guy night. But heck he was smart and handsome. Wouldn't just a conversation be okay? I mean Shweta couldn't even probably see me, right? I tried to steal a glance at my friends who were giving me daggered looks by then, but well the handsome guy had to win anyway.

'I'm not sure I should be staying here helping you out since you belong to the category that break our hearts and stomp away without even a second glance.' He laughed at my explanation, a wonderful magnetic laugh I noticed! 'Let me guess, a guy broke your heart!' I raised my eyebrows to that, 'Well if that were the case then I definitely wouldn't be here drinking and sulking but would've actually done something about it.' Who was I kidding, I would've never really let it get to that. So doing anything about it would hardly matter. But god knows why I wanted to hear that laugh again. And I did! God that laugh really was contagious. The eyes that seemed to sparkle whenever he laughed, the skin that wrinkled at the ends of his lips! Why did everything seem familiar somehow? But wait that's beyond the point, where was my head getting at, lips!? His voice thankfully got me out of that weird thought. 'So let me get straight to the point before your friends out there decide to do something about me! My friends here think I cannot pull off this dare they've given me, and I agree! But I do not want to accept it to them.' He actually had my attention by this time, what dare? And what help was I to him? I prodded for him to continue. 'So could you possibly give me your name and number and I could shove it into their faces.' He finished this with a smile pasted on his face.
'So let me get this straight, you want me to give my number to a total stranger!?'
'Well, now that you state it bluntly it didn't come out quite right I guess, I'm from the army and my fellow men call me The Wall. That's got something to do with being there for them, support you know, physically and emotionally! And don't worry I'm the man of our nation! So I guess we aren't strangers anymore'
I had to admit this man had some weird wiring in his head and before I could come up with something witty to fire back at him, 'You don't need to give me your number as such, any number just to shove it down their egos!' And that's how I gave him a name and a number (my number) which I hoped that he'd figure out. I guess that honesty melted my heart, or maybe even his seemingly familiar face! No who am I kidding, it was his smile downright!

Note: Keep commenting! Any guesses about who the stranger could be?