Everyone were busy talking to each other and I guess all of them had forgotten about those glasses. They had theirs in their hands, but no one discerned them. Well, I was beside Priyanka. But we didn't face each other. Everyone had started walking towards the door, and I was hoping that something should happen between me and her! I wanted an interaction. Few steps we took, but no interaction happened. My ears felt the sound of ticking of a clock with extreme bass. I felt everything was in slow motion. A moment of present was what I could sense, but in that moment, there wasn't any significant change. The typical 'hold your breath' moment was what I felt, because for one reason which I was predicting about that if nothing happened between me and her back then, then maybe I'd lose her forever.
Priyanka was continuing to walk without looking at me when she finally stopped when I did. We had eyes on to each other, maybe thinking of ways of how to end everything on good terms, but hardly could we match our eyes.
"I want to hug her."
"I want to hug him."
"No, she won't and its not appropriate right now."
"No it's not appropriate right now."
"But then, a handshake?"
"If not a hug, then a handshake maybe?"
"God, this is so difficult."
"It's so difficult!" we thought.
But then, for one more moment, our eyes clashed each other and they held that moment where we knew we wouldn't be able to say anything, but we actually wanted to. At least, that's what I thought.
"Oh come on! For god sakes, just tell each other!" Franky said form nowhere.
We looked at him.
"What?" she said.
"You were sleeping." I said.
"Yeah, but I wasn't dead. And how are you two guys! Ridiculous! Just become friends again, even I know you both want that to happen. What's all this fiasco about 'Oh god, I want to hug him; Oh god, I can't; Oh god, everything's over! Blah blah blah blah and blah! You guys are such a pain in the ass! All this awkwardness between you two has lasted since " he said.
Then I looked at Priyanka and she looked at me, and we were sort of in a moment where again, we wanted to say so many things to each other but we couldn't, for some reason.
"Oh god, not again! Forget it, I'm going back to sleep." Franky said. And that's when it hit me that no, I was dreaming. Franky didn't get up and blabber about all that tension between me and her. I was losing my mind into imagination. She continued moving out of the house. And I also followed her. We all were on the road outside Shlok's house. And yes, some guys among us were crazy enough to think of getting a local cab at that time of the night. But the moment was stirring differently for me.
In the silent and empty night under the yellow tint which was born from those street lamps, I stood in front of her. I held her hand and turned her towards me. I felt it necessary to decrease the space between us so I pulled her closer to me. So much closer that our lips...
* * * * * * * *
I jolted off my bed. The sun rays disturbed my vision through the window and the fan on top of me didn't really make any difference to cool me. In that typical everyday situation, I felt that worst ever thought of me kissing Priy...
It was morning then. And for a while I just tried to digest where was I and all. I rubbed my eyes and sat on the edge of the bed.
"What was I dreaming?!"
While I was brushing my teeth, I couldn't resist thinking about that dream. When I went to have a bath, I came out of the bathroom without the towel. Later, when I was having my breakfast, I was still thinking about that dream. I was so much into it that I couldn't put a spoon full of my breakfast in my mouth correctly.
The whole day went more or less in travelling across the city. With each mile I covered, my mind added up a single question. Especially when I stopped at a traffic signal, looking at the red light, first thing came to my mind was where did everyone go? I mean, I tried calling each of them (except Priyanka, ofcourse) but no one picked up my call. Then again when I stopped at another traffic signal, once again when I looked at the red light, another thought came to my mind, "What happened last night?" I mean, have you ever felt this way? I mean something happens in reality but you don't remember anything of it. Rather you almost start believing that incident which you saw in a dream. A fucking dream! Life's hard.
Well, I could've went to Dev's, Shlok's and everyone else's houses, but I don't know, in a way I didn't really wanted to. I just don't know why.
At night, when I came home after a moving day,
"Manav! What are you going to have for dinner?" my mom asked me as I entered the house.
"Anything would do" I said in a very low tone. I could sense she felt worried that time. I was in my room. I had switched on a few lights. You know somehow you just don't want any brightness in life when you are sad about something. With an arched back and head down, I sat on my bed and my mom knocked the bedroom door. She came in and sat beside me quietly.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Nothing" I said. The typical answer anyone would give.
She smiled and rubbed my back with her hand.
"Is it something about yesterday?" she asked. And I just suddenly looked at her as if something came to my mind.
* * * * * * * *
"Oh god, not again! Forget it, I'm going back to sleep." Franky said. And that's when it hit me that no, I was dreaming. Franky didn't get up and blabber about all that tension between me and her. I was losing my mind into imagination. She continued moving out of the house. And I also followed her. We all were on the road outside Shlok's house. And yes, some guys among us were crazy enough to think of getting a local cab at that time of the night. While those guys were busy trying to get a cab, Shefali was smart enough to book one online.
"Guys! I've booked a seven seater. It'll be here in sometime, so stop trying to get a taxi and come here." She said.
"What dude, you should've told us first, shouldn't you?" Dev said.
"Just come here! Don't loiter on the road." Shefali said pointing to her toe. So we all were waiting for the cab and neither me nor Priyanka could ignore the fact that we had to stand beside each other. I had pretty much decided that I won't open my mouth and let the time pass and let time itself heal everything.
* * * * * * * *
"Manav? Are you there?" my mom said.
"Huh...yes, yes I'm here." I said.
"What were you thinking?" she said.
"Umm...nothing."
"Tell me honestly, what's going on in your mind?" she said.
"Mind?" And I drifted away to a person who stood in front of me in a white blank and bright space with a black tee embedded with the line 'Think Out of the Box'. And he just looked at me and smiled for the first time I guess. And then it was back to square one!
"Manav! Manav! Where are you in this world?" my mom said. She was getting agitated then.
"I love you mom, truly!" I said and I hugged her tight!
"What? What is all this?" she said.
"It's nothing, well not nothing...basically, I just imagined you and your life. The way you've lived it! And most importantly, the life after the time when I was born! Thank you to show me this world!" I said and left the room hurriedly. My mom got puzzled for a while. Then I came back to the room because there was one thing which I left behind. I grabbed that thing and left my house while my mom was yelling on top of her voice trying to get information about where was I heading to.
Speeding up the scooter, there was a different kind of smile on my face. I never felt this way before. And while I rode my scooter I only thought of the last night.
* * * * * * * *
"The taxi is here guys." Shefali said. Everyone of us headed in.
I was sitting on the front seat and those three guys Dev, Omkar and Tanmay sat on the middle seat and Shefali and Priyanka sat on the last seat. We were on the way, the taxi fellow had put on some old melodious song. Well, in that sort of a drunken state, the guys were enjoying it a lot. Shefali was as usual not at all bothered about it, and she only enjoyed the view outside. And Priyanka, well, she was looking out of the window, but when I observed her, she was actually in some thought. What was she thinking? Not an expression on her face but inside her mind, there was something going on.
Rather than overthinking about her, I continued glancing the road ahead. The road in front of me lined up all those memories which I had, and then suddenly they vanished away. There was just the road that I could see. Maybe, my half work was done. Work of learning something, at least something about relations in life. Well, I'm not boasting about myself, but I'm just saying what I felt that time. It was different. As in the silent night the wind blew past me, making one of my ear cold, I put my head out of the window, closed my eyes, and just imagined that awkward moment which I experienced few minutes ago before leaving Shlok's house.
"Aha! What a song man!" Omkar said.
"Mohammed Rafi is the new cool bro! He's even better than that singer...what was his name? I can't remember." Tanmay said. "That singer guys...the 'shape one'. The one who loved his girl's shape."
"Ed Sheeran, dumb." Dev said.
"Yes, yes, that guy 'Has-She-Done'" Tanmay said.
"It's Ed Sheeran, not 'Has-She-Done'" Dev said.
"That's what I'm saying."
"No! you are very wrong. Repeat after me, E-D S-H-E-E-R-A-N!" Dev said.
"Come on guys, Mohammed Rafi is swag right? Just listen to him!" Omkar said as he was totally into the rhythm which Mohammed Rafi had created. Suddenly from nowhere, Tanmay started cuffing. So, Shefali removed a water bottle from her bag and gave it to him. Consequently, Dev and Omkar were also thirsty, so they also had some water. In the middle of a watery passing-the-parcel, I heard someone call me.
"Manav"
And I just looked here and there, even outside the taxi. It was a girl's voice and a familiar one. I chucked it. Then once again the same voice called out my name.
"Manav" and this time, I happened to realize whose voice was it, but I wasn't sure enough. I thought it was her voice. Priyanka's voice. So I turned behind to check. And how on earth had this happened?! I couldn't believe my eyes. I couldn't believe my ears. I just couldn't believe anything. She had seriously called out my name! And this moment was automatically stored in the most precious moments of my life in my head.
"Can you give me some water?" she asked. Fortunately, I had a water bottle which I had brought from Shlok's house and passed it on to her. No one moved. Not even their eyes. They were shocked to see this miraculous miracle. And I turned my head ahead. I had a smile on my face which I realized later. I didn't know why and how she did it, but I was just so happy about this moment that she made a constructive interaction with me.
* * * * * * * *
So on the scooter I was, as I said, and I felt glad about last night. It wasn't a kiss, but just a great and sweet gesture from her towards me. Honestly, when she asked me for water, I really felt so great that it meant as if now I had a permission of really being present in her universe. Well, that thought went way too far, but I liked it that way. I stood in front of the sea at Worli seaface. Gazed the view in front of me which only consisted of darkness. A total black view. But those waves of the sea geared me up for a next segment in life. A segment for which I was waiting for so long, not directly, but indirectly. I had a confidence with me now.
When I thought about that whole thing, I even understood that why no one picked up their phones. Because probably, all were in deep sleep due to a hard hangover. Whereas I wasn't. Well, then I thought about Shlok. He flew away the next morning, and no one actually went to depart him to the airport. I don't know why, but characters like Shlok actually caught my attention. Anyways, I knew at that point of time that something good was up ahead from that day. Because, if you remember, while running out of my house, I went back to get something really important which I had forgotten about. Well, that thing was nothing but the chit, on which Priyanka wrote about me. It stood still with me in my hand and joined me in feeling the beauty of the sea.