"Where were you?" Dev said.
"I'm sorry. I got up late." I said.
He sat behind me on the scooter and we left to Shlok's house. He had finally come back.
The lift gates opened up and we had reached Shlok's house. The door was open. We entered and I saw shoes laying around at the door. I understood everyone had come. As we came to the living room, I saw Shefali, Priyanka, Omkar and Tanmay drinking juice as they were seated on that same sofa where we played that game which Shlok forced us to play.
"Hey you guys!" Dev said to Omkar and Tanmay. I assumed no one had met them recently. I don't know why. Omkar and Tanmay got up, had a handshake and gave a hug to Dev and me.
"It's been some really long time Manav, I haven't seen you for months." Omkar said.
"Well, even we didn't see him." Dev said and he looked away to Priyanka and Shefali.
"Dude, I heard you started smoking." Tanmay said, coming close to me so that no one hears. But it was loud enough for Shefali to pay attention to. I turned behind and gave a look to Shefali. She smartly acted as if no words had fallen on her ears.
Then Shlok came.
"Hey!! I'm so happy to see you guys!" he said to me and Dev.
We smiled and hugged and tapped each other on our backs.
"Here, have some juice." He offered us. We all sat on the sofa somehow. We adjusted. Shlok sat on a separate chair.
"So how's life there Shlok?" I asked.
"It's amazing. I mean, its good. I've met a lot of people there."
"Great!" Omkar said.
"By the way, any American girl you met?" Dev asked with a hint of lusty smile.
"Haha...not yet." Shlok said.
"Oh come on Dev, he's there to study Engineering not for 'Being Dev' program." Shefali said. Dev tried to ignore and took a sip of juice.
"Tell me, what's up with you guys? I've come after four months, didn't you guys miss me? And Manav, you didn't even call?"
"Well, I did." Dev said and he raised his hand.
"Shut up Dev." Shefali said. "We all missed you here Shlok."
"But who was the first one to know that he was coming?" he said and then he started pointing himself.
"No no no, Dev, you weren't the first one to know." Omkar said.
"What?"
"I was the first one." Omkar said. Well, I must say, he took pride in being the first one there.
"Oh come on, it was none of you guys. It was me." Tanmay added his participation.
"Okay, okay, calm down everyone. I had messaged each one of you at the same time. It really doesn't matter." Shlok gave the final verdict.
"Then, if that's the case, I was the one who saw his message first." Dev started an argument. Truly, when your best buds group comes together, some of your friends start behaving as if they were three.
"I'll just bring some juice and something to eat." Shlok said and he got up to go to the kitchen.
"I'll help you." I said and plunged out of there.
In the kitchen,
Shlok was searching for some snacks. And I thought this would be the perfect time I could talk to him about Naina. After all, it was his party back then.
"Any help?" I asked.
"No, not yet." He said. "So Manav, what has been for you after I took off?"
"As in?"
"You and Priyanka."
"Oh, actually a very good thing happened. That night you showed me the way. You told me that my presence will make everything alright between me and her. And that's what happened." I said.
"Wow! That's really great. Now you happy then, aren't you?" he opened the tetra pack of Tropicana.
"I am, but..."
"But?"
"Okay, let me just ask you. Do you know about Dev and Naina?"
"Dev and who?"
"Naina. That gossip girl."
"Oh yeah, right. What about her?"
"Dev is dating her."
"What the hell! Seriously?!" he stopped pouring that juice.
"Yes!"
"Woah! Too much has happened here in my absence." He said. "Tell me more."
"So, like this was surprise to me, that how did they get along and all. And then I thought that you guys might also know her. You guys did right?" I asked.
"Yeah, like we met a couple of times."
"Yes, so I had this question, that why wasn't she there at the party that time? I mean was she invited, or she wasn't?" when I asked him this, he paused for a sometime.
"Oh...umm...let me recollect. Well, as far as I remember, I had invited her, but...oh yeah, she was busy. She said, she wouldn't make it."
"You sure?"
"Well, yes, pretty much. But why so much thinking about Naina all of a sudden?" he said. I understood he suspected that I asked him for a reason, but I didn't want to tell him the reason.
"Actually, she's in my college. And now Dev is dating her. I just had this thing in mind, that's why I thought of asking you." I covered up.
"Okay." He said. I nodded.
"So did you guys find out about those chits?"
"Well, yeah. Last night me and Priyanka shared what we had written."
"Well, I had a feeling that day. That this was gonna change your life. I'm glad it did." He smiled. And I thought, did it really?
* * * * * * * *
Me and Shlok took those snacks out in the living room and everyone jumped right into them. While we all were engrossed in eating, Priyanka asked,
"For how long are you here?"
"I'm here for a week, because, project submissions are gonna start next week." Shlok said.
"Oh, great! We should hangout this whole week!" Omkar said. And we all agreed.
After sometime, we were watching a film which Shlok wanted to see. The name of the film was 'The Usual Suspects' and I heard from Shlok that it was a hit when it released. It's basically about a murder of some guy, and then there are four suspects who are taken into custody. The film plays with your mind and at the end it is revealed who's the actual murderer. Well, I had figured out who was the actual murderer after watching half of film.
Later, we all were being quite lazy enough to get up and go home. Somehow, we manage to get ourselves up and we were almost leaving.
"Hey, Manav, would you drop me home today?" Priyanka asked. Everyone looked at me.
"Chill guys, we are friends again. Everything is alright now." I said. "Yeah, I'll drop you."
"Should we go for a night out today? What say?" Dev asked Shlok.
"We'll see. Have some work here, once it's done I'll give you a call." He said.
"Okay, cool."
Bye, bye, bye...we said to Shlok and left his house.
I stopped my scooter at Piyu's house. She got down.
"I'm so happy that he's here." I said.
"Who? Shlok?"
"Yeah."
"Nice. He always felt something for you." She said. I didn't understand.
"What?"
"I mean, he always understood you." She said. "Now bye. I need to go home and sleep."
"Bye."
* * * * * * * *
I came home. I freshened up. And then I went to my happy place – my room. It was post afternoon, so mom and dad were in office. So I was alone at home. But he was there.
Rishi was busy looking at my plants outside my window. And that's when I remembered I had to water them. I poured water on them and he said,
"Manav."
"Yeah?"
"You need to ask Priyanka who is Arush."
I kept the mug of water on the window pane.
"Have you lost it?" I said.
"Arush is that guy."
"He can't be that guy."
"Why?"
"Because, all this time, I was trying to find this guy, and then only an hour of internet browsing tells me that you've found this guy? How is that even possible? Four months to one hour, you calculate the ratio." I said.
"Sometimes, life shows you that what you were thinking of something huge and jaw dropping, was actually a simple, small truth." He said.
"You know Rishi, you told me that I stopped telling you what was happening in my life. But what about now? I came from Shlok's house and you didn't even try to read me and ask me that did Shlok asked you about Priyanka and your friendship? Didn't you tell him about Dev and Naina? Doesn't he know Naina? No! no! no! You only started off with this suspicion over this guy Arush. And now you want me to ask Priyanka who is this guy?!"
He only kept looking at me. I was pissed off. Why did he care so much about my life? Doesn't he have his own life?
"You know what Rishi. Come, sit here." I gestured him to sit on the bed. "You've always been there talking about my life. Let us today talk about yours, okay? So tell me. How's life? What are you doing nowadays? What's been happening around? Any relations you might have kept with anyone? And oh, are you following Mark Zuckerberg? Because he also wears only one T-Shirt as you wear. He wears a plane grey tee, and you a black one having that line 'Think Out Of The Box'. Come on, tell me something about you."
He didn't utter a single word. I thought, he understood what was he doing. But the next thing which he told me, shattered me like anything.
"I must leave."
"Oh, you are going somewhere?" and he got up and went to the main door. "When are you going to be back?" I asked.
He turned back, looked at me, and he said,
"Never."
And he slammed the door.
* * * * * * * *
"Yes, why did you call?" Priyanka said. "I was with him."
"Actually, its good you called. I wanted to tell you...that...friendship with him has grown thick since we started talking again. And I don't want to keep anything from him now. I just want to tell him who did I date back then."
"No you can't! You know he couldn't bear that!"
"But..."
"I said you can't! Now listen. You only be a good friend to him. You know about his condition. Take care of him."
"Wow, I never heard you care about anyone so much."
"There are secrets Priyanka, you only need to gulp them down your throat."
"What do you mean?"
"Do whatever I tell you. I'll be looking over him in college."
"Okay."
"Yeah."
"And, listen..."
"Yes?"
"Thank you for doing this Naina." Priyanka said. But Naina didn't utter any word. And she hung up the phone.