Here's the first chapter of a new story I'm writing, please tell me how it is... if it's really worth spending time!!
Chapter 1
Keeping your hands off a drunk girl….
I really wonder how anyone could see anything in these dim blue lights, hear what their date says in this ear splitting music, gulp down drinks that are equivalent to the monthly salary of almost 26% people of this country and the most important of them all…. How can someone find some smoke-free oxygen to breathe?? But none the less, I’m here right now, because it is Nikhil’s bachelor party, and me being the roomie, now ex-roomie, actually, (he’s moving in with his wife after his wedding, obviously!) I didn’t have too much of an option to skip this one holy waste of time and resources. I’ve never been the partying and dancing types. I love listening to music, but only the one which plays at a decibel level conducive to my ear drums… the one playlist on my iPod, with 734 songs, suits me just fine. Free drinks, are always welcome, so is bird watching, this is my reason for being at this God forsaken place! Yeah, I’m happy for Nikhil too!
I don’t dance, not even if I’m dragged into a dancing circle, hence to escape the dancing ritual, I decided to sit by the bar and observe the proceedings. I was sipping my Bloody Mary, when this young woman caught my attention. She looked intelligent. Ok pretty types, not very hot… I say that because unless other dames at this disc, she was completely covered… no, she wasn’t in a burqa, not even in a saree, but she had worn a pair of denims and a half sleeve tunic on top (My fashion sense comes from my fashion designer sis, by the way!) No cleavage show… I don’t know why, but I liked the no-cleavage-show in her. She like me, too, seemed out of place, maybe because she was drunk!
“Where the fuck is my margarita I ordered??” She questioned the bartender who seemed like he wanted to enter the Guinness Book of Records for all his fire antics... I’d rather have him serve drinks than indulge in all this scary fire show. Yeah, I’m scared of fire. Terribly.
“M'am, is there anyone you’re here with? You seem a little high” I said, I didn’t want to say, “Dude, you’re drunk… ask you friends to take you home before you throw up!” I would’ve said this had this M’am been a man!
“Who the hell are you to tell me what to ddooo??” She said, and while coming towards me, she tripped. At least 4 drinks more than her normal capacity. Why can’t people just drink Pepsi when margaritas don’t suit them? Of course, like the gentleman that I am, I went forward to help her get back on her feet. I asked the bartender, who by now had thankfully stopped his fire-show, for a virgin margarita… or something that looks like a margarita but doesn’t have alcohol for her.
“Ssank You” she said, or rather, tried to say, or still rather, I attempted to comprehend from her blurred speech.
“Hi, I’m Arjun, can you tell me where your friends are, now that you got your margarita you ordered?”
“I don’t have friends… I don’t have no one… “
“Err, M’am, are you alone?” And drinking?? Man! Women in this city are brave! Getting drunk when they’re alone! I’d kill my sister even if she as much as looks at vodka, leave alone letting her go to a disc…and get drunk…that too ALONE!
“ Hey dude, did you see her with someone?” I asked the philo-fire bartender. He replied in the negative and went back to his fire show. Why?!
“You know, Navya, I hate that son of a bitch, you were always right…. He never ssseserved me….”
“Served you?” I asked her. So Break up it was. Why do people get into a relationship if they can’t deal with a break up, I thought to myself.
“Sssseserved….not serrrvedd…Navya you gone deaf or what?” I comprehended from her blurred speech.
“M’am, I’m not Navya… but if you tell me where she is, I can call her for you…”
“Err.. who’re you then? You don’t look like Anirved…err… no… you’re Anirved…. Anirved… Where’s Navya?”
Drunk women and nagging girlfriends…. They never listen to you. Or no, make that women in general.
“What’s your name?” I asked her, not really expecting anything more than Navya and Anirved!
“Aanaaaaa…..” she replied.
“Aana” What kind of parents name their kids Aana??
“A-H-A-A-N-A” She spelt it out. It is amazing how people remember their names even in drunken stupor!!
“Ok, Ahaana, can I drop you somewhere, you really don’t seem ok”
“No, I’m fineeeee” And there she tripped again!! If my sister does something like this, I don’t know whom I’d kill first… her guy or her!
“Listen, Ahaana, I’ll ask your friends to come and pick you up. It’s not really safe for you to be here, like this.” I picked her bag and her phone and put her hand on my shoulders and led her to my car. The worst part of being nice to a girl, when you’re a guy is that everyone thinks you’re trying to take advantage of her and the situation. I mean give us some credibility, there are some of us, who’re really not like the big bad wolf to a poor little lamb. Even we have sisters and friends and we act with other women how we’d like other men to act with our women! How difficult is that to get. Needless to say, I got a lot of ‘stares’ from people like I had spiked her drink and now I’m gonna rape her!
She wasn’t really heavy… you can call her underweight for her height, or maybe she was starving herself because of her ‘son-of-a-bitch’ guy. But then, that’s none of my business. All I wanted to make sure was that this girl reaches some place safe quickly. I was glad that none of my friends saw me exiting the club with a girl, drunk at that! I walked her to the parking lot, that’s where my car was and helped her sit in the back seat. I was happy that I didn’t have to carry her and that she didn’t throw up. Men can’t stand women when they cry, are in labor or are throwing up!! I fished her handbag, which was quite a small thing, didn’t really have the ‘girlie’ materials in it… just her wallet, cell and a hairbrush! No make up! That really confirms my idea about her being of the intellectual types…. !! I checked her last dialed list and without any surprise, I found Navya’a number as the most dialed number, closely followed by Anirved’s. Thought of calling Navya. Didn’t want another guy asking me what I’m doing with his drunken friend! Guys, I tell you!
“Hello…”
“Babessss…. Ahaana… who’s on your phone?” Navya replied, shocked at a guy speaking to her from her friend’s phone at 2 am!
“Err, Navya, right? Hi, I’m Arjun… I happen to be at the same place where your friend is right now, and she’s quite drunk…”
“DRUNK!! Where is she??” Why don’t women let men complete their sentences? Wouldn’t it be much easier for them to get things at a stretch?
“She’s at Poison… and apparently alone, I couldn’t see anyone with her…and she was kind of talking to me, thinking that it was you… so I thought, I’d call you to pick her up… or I can drop her to your place if you can’t get out at this hour…”
“Fuck! What the hell is this girl upto. I’m killing Anay…. Bloody son of a bitch…”
“Excuse me??” I was puzzled! Was she drunk as well?
“Err…. Ssorry, I was talking to my husband. I’ll come and pick her up… that’s so nice of you to be there.. You know… thanks a ton… where exactly are you?”
“In Poison’s parking lot… in a black Swift…. The number is 6798.” How long would you take?”
“I’m just leaving… I’ll be there in like 20 minutes. Thank you so much.!!”
“Err… that’s nothing, please don’t thank me.”
A red Skoda stopped near my car. And a girl, same as Ahaana’s age come out of the car.
“Hi.. Err.. Arjun?” She asked.
“Yeah, Arjun…” I gave my hand to shake. Her husband, too came out of the car and I was introduced to him.
“Arjun, my husband, Anirved…”
“Hi.”
“Hello… Thanks a lot, man! This really was a very sweet gesture!”
“Please. It’s nothing…. Ahaana kind of feel asleep..she’s in the back seat”
“Oh ok.. I’ll take her.” I opened the door for Anirved and he carried Ahaana in his arms and put her in his car’s back seat and came to where we were standing.
“Thank you so much, Arjun. I really can’t imagine what would’ve happened had you not been there. I mean she never told us where she’s heading, you know. We were so worried about her, she’s just a little… you know… bad time..!” Navya said.
“I understand….she wasn’t exactly quiet in her sleep… she talks a lot!!”
“How much did she drink??” Anirved asked.
“I don’t know… I saw her when she was already drunk and tripping…but must be 4 drinks more than her normal capacity for sure!”
“She drank for the first time!” Navya added. Then turning to her husband, she said, “ I’m telling you… Anay really needs to see this… what has he done to her… I mean Ahaana goes out alone at night… she drinks…gets sloshed…this is not her… I can’t see her like this…. That bloody asshole…jackass…uurrgghhhh”
“Control, Navya… she’ll be fine tomorrow”. He said, placing his hand around her shoulder to calm her.
“Arjun, thanks once again, seriously…” Anirved said
“Come on man… it’s ok… even I have friends and sisters… I just did for her what I’d do for them…It’s no big deal, seriously…”
“That’s again, sweet of you. Thanks… Good night. I’ll have Ahaana talk to you tomorrow.” Navya said, waving a bye and opening the door of her car.
“Just look at her, Anirved…. Look what’s she done to herself, and you are asking me to control myself? What’s with today’s guys? Why has your blood stopped boiling for people who matter?”
“Navya, my blood will always boil for Ahaana, and even you know that, but why make a scene in front of a total stranger? We’ll talk to Ahaana tomorrow, maybe it was a weak moment today and she drank a little”
“Maybe you’re right. I’ll just check her phone if she called Anay in her stupor. I can’t find her phone….”
“Navya, your phone’s ringing”
“Hello, Oh Arjun, yeah I just realized it… I’ll have Ahaana pick it up tomorrow… yeah, thanks again! You’re just being humble, Arjun. Good night to you as well”.
“What happened?”
“Such a nice chap, this Arjun guy. Her phone is in his car and her bag too. I think I’ll ask Ahaana to pick it up from him. She’ll get a chance to thank him as well.”
“Yeah, nice guy”
“You know, Ahaana said, that Anay always told her that a girl should always be with a guy who’d keep his hands off her when she’s drunk…..”
“God! Now, even you’ve started talking about Anay! Ahaana in these 6 years wasn’t enough?”
“No, but tell me no, how’s this Arjun guy… I mean a guy review of another guy?”
“Pretty decent man. Really, to inform us that Ahaana is drunk and then make sure she’s safe and keep waiting for us…I mean… it speaks of a person’s character….!”
“You think he’d be single…”
“Thinking of marrying again?”
“For Ahaana…”
“Let her decide that”
“We all know how her choices turn out to be…Anay…. Close your ears… I want to abuse in Hindi…”
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