I heard the blurred voice of my phone ringing, and I tried to open my eyes only to shut them again.
A throbbing pain pulsed through my head.
"Ugh, it's hurting like hell," I muttered, grabbing my head and massaging it.
I lay there for a while before finally waking up.
My phone was still blaring, and I scanned the unfamiliar living room to find it below the table beside me.
Answering the call without checking the caller ID, I lazily said,
"Hello."
"Hello bhai!" a familiar voice exclaimed.
I looked at the caller ID and realized it was Arush, my brother.
"Helloooo bhaii, are you there?" he continued from the other side.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here. What made you call me all of a sudden?" I asked, acknowledging the rarity of our calls, considering his finals and my involvement in a new project.
"Oh, actually, I have a surprise for you," he said, grinning.
I frowned. "What?" I asked, confused.
"I'm in INDIA!!" he exclaimed.
"WHAT!" I yelled, excitement surging through me.
"Where are you right now?" I questioned eagerly.
"I'm at the airport, taking a taxi to your place," he replied.
Glancing at the time, I realized it was almost afternoon.
"Wait, how much time will it take you to reach?" I asked.
"Almost an hour, because the airport is in the outskirts," he answered.
"Okk, I'll be home till you reach," I said.
"Okay," he replied, and we bid goodbye, ending the call.
Sighing, I leaned my head on the couch, palming my face and messing up my hair.
The throbbing pain persisted, and then the thought struck me.
"Wait, first of all, where am I?" I mumbled, looking around and taking in the unfamiliar surroundings.
Several photo frames on the side table caught my eye, and one particular photo of Siya, Veer, and Shreesha when they were young drew my attention.
Lost in thought, I heard the door opening and looked up to see Siya emerging from one of the rooms, holding her head and groaning in pain.
She walked towards the living room, not noticing me at first.
"Hey," I said, startling her.
She looked up and finally saw me.
"Wait, what are you doing here?" she asked, confused.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Where is Shreesha?" I inquired, scanning the room.
"In my room," she replied, pointing to the room she had just left.
I nodded, and she sat on the couch beside mine.
"What happened last night? I only remember us drinking in the car," she exclaimed, holding her head.
"I don't know. I remember getting drunk and driving off somewhere. After that, everything is blank," I said.
We both looked down, confused, trying to piece together the events.
The silence was broken by a thud from her room.
We exchanged glances and rushed towards it, finding no one inside.
However, we heard groaning from behind the bed.
I hurried to the other side before Siya and found Shreesha lying there, groaning and holding her lower back.
"What the hell!" I exclaimed, walking towards her.
"How did you end up here?" I asked, picking her up and settling her on the bed.
"Must have fallen in sleep," Siya chuckled, scolding her for not sleeping properly.
Ignoring us, Shreesha held her head, groaning in pain.
"Uhh, it's hurting," she exclaimed.
"Yeah, I'll make hangover soup for everyone," Siya said, leaving the room.
I looked back at Shreesha, who was still groaning and holding her head.
"I swear to God, I won't ever drink again," she declared, confused about the surroundings.
"But how did we end up here?" she asked.
"I don't know, even I have have been thinking about it" I said shrugging my shoulder
We sat in silence for a moment.
"Oh yes, I remember. My brother is coming; I need to leave," I said.
She looked at me.
"Now?" she asked, lifting her eyes.
I nodded, and she hummed.
Just then, the doorbell rang, followed by Veer's voice.
We stood up and walked towards the living room to see Veer sitting there with Siya.
"How are you guys?" he exclaimed, noticing us.
I just nodded.
"Guys, I need to leave," I announced.
"Why? You can stay for a while," Siya said, looking confused.
"No, actually, my brother will be arriving home anytime soon, so I have to be there," I explained.
They understood and nodded.
"Okay then, drive back home carefully, and drink this before going," Siya said, offering me a glass of hangover soup.
I quickly drank it, placed the glass on the table, bid them goodbyes, and kissed Shreesha's temple before rushing outside.
Getting into the car, I drove towards my house.
He left, while I sat on the couch beside Siya. "You did a great show yesterday," Veer said, breaking the silence. We looked at him, confused.
"Wait, let me show you," he said and got up, connecting his phone to the screen.
Siya and I looked at him silently while I laid on her shoulder. Finally, after he was done, he came back and sat in his place and played a video.
The screen displayed a video of us means me, siya and ayansh dancing like mad people. I sat straight and looked at the screen, shocked.
"What. The. Fuck," Siya and I said in unison. After watching this, I started getting some glimpses of last night.
I looked at Siya; she too was watching it with her mouth hanging open.
"You guys were hilarious last night," Veer said, laughing hard.
We silently watched the videos, and one came up where Ayansh, Siya, and I were playing chidya udd while sitting on the road.
"Bro," I laughed watching it.
We eventually laughed way too hard.
There were many videos of us dancing, laughing, running around, and even one where we were crying sitting on the road.
Siya and I laughed harder on that one.
"You both were okay, but Ayansh! He was such a giant kid; I had to do so much struggle to get him into the car," he said, reminiscing about the incidents.
At last, there was a video where Veer was recording Siya and me observing something keenly on the ground.
He zoomed in.
Oh! It's ants having a feast on a dead cockroach
"eww!" Siya exclaimed.
After that, Veer handed me the phone to hold, and then started talking to Siya, suddenly lifting her up. All the time, it was getting recorded by my drunk self.
He got up with her in his arms in the video, then it suddenly turned, and my face came into view.
I looked startled; there I was making faces and smiling, showing my perfect 32 teeth, then threw the phone.
"Omg," Siya exclaimed. I couldn't help but laugh at it.
"Thank god it landed on the grass, or else my dear phone would have been in pieces by now," Veer exclaimed, glaring at me.
I just shrugged my shoulders.
It was the last one.
"Send it to me; I'll show it to Ayansh," I said. He nodded, getting back his phone.
"And one thing, why did you guys drink without me and Shree? When did you start drinking?" he said in an offended tone.
"What do you think we will call you when Uncle and Aunty were at your place?" Siya said, slumping back on the couch.
"Yeah," I joined, shrugging. "And I was just in the mood yesterday," I continued with a grin. He just pouted and whined.
Like that, we spent the whole day hanging out. It had been days since we three hung out.
Today was weekend, so no work. Veer had already dropped off his mom and dad this morning, so the whole day we were free. I didn't call Ayansh, as I thought to give him his time with his brother.
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