#3 - Next Day...

To the surprise of my parents, I woke up early next morning (I was a nocturnal animal, the kind who hibernates during day and stays awake whole night long). Not that I was excited about Nisha’s treat or anything, I had other plans on my mind. I got ready and reached the nearest PCO as fast as I could. I called up Nisha and told her about what was going on between me and Raina (editing out the part depicting me as a sex maniac).

“If you don’t mind, could you please invite her too, I would really owe you one.”

She seemed a bit hesitant, but said, “OK I will, if that’s what you want.” She seemed somewhat sad, I felt something was wrong, as if she didn’t really want to call Raina, but I thanked her anyway.

Next thing I did was to call up Shine to ask him to pick me up. As expected, he was in wonderland of dreams. His mom slapped him outta there, he seemed quite pissed.

“Dude, you see, I got slapped by my mom… and for this? I don’t believe this, why don’t you take your own bike man?” How rich, as if I didn’t know that I had that option.

“I’ve got something planned, don’t fuck time and just do as I say.” But of course, this was Shine, can’t shut him up that easily, so I had to tell him my whole plan.

It was really simple, I lure Raina to the party indirectly (she couldn’t and wouldn’t slam the phone on Nisha), then I do everything I can to win her heart back (she can’t just run away from there), and if the time during the party isn’t enough, I will do it while she drops me back home (since I had no other way of returning, and I have been driving her to and from the parties in past, I kinda deserved a lift back home in such a time of need).

“That’s your plan? Man, it sucks big time. And why should I drop you there anyway? You get the food; you get the girl, what is there for me?” I offered to treat him later on.

“Hey, I don’t need no treat from you, just gimme cash, I’ll treat myself.” Whatever…

So that part settled, he dropped me near the parking lot of the market, and I gave him the money. “What the fuck man, 50 bucks, what am I, a bloody beggar?”

“Dude, what else do you expect? Who am I, Bill Gates? You know what, I get…”

“Ya ya, now don’t gimme that I-get-10-bucks-a-week shit. Just get the fuck outta my face you cheapo!” See what I had to bear for Raina? And she thought that I didn’t love her..!!

Anyway, I went inside the restaurant, and hi-helloed everyone. Formalities completed the usual chatting and gossiping session began. But my mind was just not there. Everybody had come except Raina. As soon as I got opportunity, I asked Nisha about her.

“She asked if you were coming too, when I told her, she said she was a little busy, but will try her best to come.” No need to say, I was dejected. Maybe Shine was right, my plan sucked!

About an hour later, everybody started to say goodbyes and all. By the end, it was just me and Nisha. I was feeling really bad, and it was showing on my face.

“Hey Will, don’t make such faces yaar, everything will be alright.”

“Yeah…” I sighed.

“I see you don’t have any vehicle with you, I can give you a lift back home if you want.”

“Yeah…” I sighed again (at least I had a backup to get me back home). And that was when she came really close to me.

“I know how bad you must be feeling right now Will, but I think it’s about time you started looking somewhere else.”

Now, due to the fact that I was at the zenith of depression, or maybe ‘coz she took me by surprise I didn’t know how to react. So I just let it be and went ahead with the things. She was looking into my eyes and I was looking into hers (to be honest, I was looking at her lips, but whatever!!). A holy saint (under the influence of ganja) once said, “Life screws you from behind while you are busy fiddling with condom.” Something like that happened to me too, that day. It took me a while to come out of that trance, but when I did, and become aware of the surroundings, I found Raina standing there. Damn, I was screwed. Second time in a single week, I found myself wanting to kill myself. I wanted to kill Nisha too for seducing me, but none of those could have saved my ass. Raina went to her car and I ran after her. Nisha tried to stop me, and with my head about to explode (not to forget all that confusion), all I could say was “Fuck you!!”

Before I could stop Raina, she had sped away like Schumacher, and with her, all my plans went down the drain. And that was when I realized what I had done. I turned around; Nisha was nowhere to be seen (there went my backup too!). I felt like a guy stranded on Temptation Island, minus gals, or even worse (such a guy will at least have coconut trees to smash his head into, I didn’t even have that).

I guessed I had had enough excitement for the day. I wanted to introspect (how could it all go wrong?!) but I decided against it. I had one more thing left to do after all. I hated it more than anything else at that time. But with no other option left, I entered a nearby shop, lit a cigarette, and made that call…

“Hey Shine, could you please come and pick me up?”

“Well, well, well, now what do we say in such situations..?!”

We say fuck you!! But of course, I kept quite.

Told you, life is a compromise!