by vidit chopra
Chapter 10: When we tried to fool them all.
I was trying to sleep when my phone rang. The call was from an unknown number and I presumed it to be from a call centre calling me to buy a credit card or an insurance policy. The funny or rather the irritating thing was such calls arrived when you are on roaming and you have to pay for attending such calls. At first, I had no intention of picking it up but given my happy mood, I picked it up. I was so happy that I might have actually bought a credit card or a policy from the person on the other end of the phone! May be that’s why these people operate all the time. They are in search of that happy human being who at the given moment is happy and sees everything around him with a positive outlook, even those credit cards and policies irrespective of the fact that he cannot see the * sign of Terms and Conditions apply on the phone which is the catch, he buys it only to regret it the day when everything goes wrong.
The phone had already been ringing for good twenty seconds so I picked it up before it got disconnected.
“Hello” I said in the best possible way as I could, trying to show the other person that I was happy.
“You appear to be happy.” The voice on the other end said.
“I pretty much am. So what are you selling me today?” I asked presuming it to be a girl from a call centre.
“Sir, our company is a lot different from all the other telemarketing companies. We have an offer you just can’t resist.” The voice said trying to make it as exciting as possible.
“Go on. I am listening.” I said.
“We are glad to tell you that you are the lucky winner of one thing that we sell and is in top demand all across the globe.” The person said.
“Okay. So what is it?” I asked.
“Sir, you might freak out a bit but try to be cool when you listen to the offer. Sir you are a proud winner of a heart.” The person said.
“What the…..What do you mean by that?” I said.
“Sir as I said do not freak out. I am giving you a number. Kindly call on that number to understand the offer better. I will call you up in another hour till then it’s up to you to decide you want to take it or leave it. Kindly take down the number.” She said.
“Okay.” I said for I had no better reply.
“Sir the number is 99XXXXXXXX.” She said.
I noted down the number. It looked pretty familiar.
“Just a second.” I said to look at my phone screen. The number she gave me was the same number from where the call had come.
“You are such an idiot Tanya.” I said.
“Oh so you finally recognize my voice. I am not an idiot, you are an asshole.” She said.
“Shut up dick head.” I said.
“You shut up fuck face. You didn’t even recognize your girlfriend’s voice and now you have the balls to swear at me.” She said.
I laughed.
“Why are you laughing shit head?” She asked.
“Here the word girlfriend in my context kind of freaks me out. I never thought I would have a girlfriend, in fact I never wanted a girlfriend.” I said.
“Oh really? You never thought of this huh? I can bet you had sleepless nights because you were thinking of me.” She said.
“Well I would be lying if I say that never happened because it did but it’s not that. I never thought I wanted a girlfriend till the time I met you. When I did meet you all I wanted was you!” I said.
“Someone is getting all romantic.” She said.
“Shut up. I did what most boyfriends find difficult to do.” I said.
“And what is that?” She asked.
“Flirt out of a fight!” I replied and laughed.
“Fuck off. I am nothing like those bitches. I am different and that’s the reason I am with you.” She said.
“Someone is trying to get romantic.” I said.
“Yeah yeah.” She replied. I presumed she would have been blushing.
“Sometimes it feels so unreal, how life can change so much in a matter of hours. Two hours ago I hated you, at least that’s what my brain told me to do. Then, the video comes up, the heart starts to speak and look what happens, from hating each other we start loving each other!” I said.
“Excuse me. I never hated you. It was you who hated me.” She replied.
“But you didn’t love me either.” I said.
“I liked you. I tried to hate you the day you told me that you hated me but it just didn’t happen."She replied.
“Someone is definitely getting romantic.” I said.
“Fuck you. So did you tell them what happened?” she said.
“For the first part tell me the time and place. I am all yours. For the second part, not yet, I want to play. They have troubled me enough. It’s their time to rack their brains to try and understand what happened.” I said.
“Shut up for the first part. For the second, I too won’t tell them till you do or want me to. Till then let’s just pose in front of them as if we aren’t talking at all now. What say?” She said.
“Yep let’s do that!” I replied.
“Okay then. See you in around an hour. Mom is calling now. Bye.” She said.
“Bye. See you then.” I replied.
She didn’t cut the phone but didn’t say anything either.
“I think you are supposed to say something.” She finally said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“I will have to tell you that as well?” She said pretty much irritated.
“But if I don’t know what I have to say then how will I say it.” I tried to be practical.
“Shut up. Love you. Bye.” She said.
“Oh ok. Shut up. Bye.” I said and laughed.
“Very funny. I hate you.” She said.
“But I love you.” I said.
“Someone is getting good at being romantic! I seriously got to go now else mom will kill me.” She said.
“Okay then. See you in an hour. Love you. Bye.” I said.
“I love you too. Bye.” She replied and disconnected the phone.
My head was still paining a lot so I had a quick nap so as to be able to get up before Tanya’s return.
In an hour Tanya was back in the house. The others were still shocked by what was happening and had no clue whatsoever of how they should react in such a situation. They did have the fear in their mind that I and Tanya had a fight and the final decision we came up with was that we should completely stop talking to each other. That’s how we portrayed it in front of them.
After a while Tanya was back. When I entered the room she didn’t even look at me, which was completely in sync with the plan needed. Anyone who tried to make some small talk finally had an answer in about five minutes and the room will fall silent yet again. The awkwardness was felt by Ayesha, Kabir and Simran and not by us which was the reason why we loved it because earlier it was us who were always on the receiving end of it. While this was happening, the small talk and the awkward silence Tanya and I kept texting each other enjoying whatever that was happening thoroughly.
“Whom are you messaging?” Ayesha asked Tanya.
“Oh. No one. Just a friend.” She replied.
“Which friend? I didn’t know that you are friends with someone I don’t even know.” Ayesha said.
“She is a very old friend from my kindergarten days. She had left town but now is back on a vacation so she wants to meet me.” She replied.
“Oh okay. So when are you planning to meet her?” Ayesha asked.
“I don’t know. I was just asking the time from her. Will meet in a day or two because then she has to go back as well.” She replied.
“Go to your room. I want to talk to you in private.” Tanya texted me.
I gave a nod as a reply instead of replying to the message.
“I think I would rather sleep the day off. I am still not feeling good about myself. The head ache is persisting. I am off. Sorry.” I said and walked off to my room.
I sat on bed waiting fo
r Tanya to arrive. The seconds looked to be minutes and minutes looked to be hours. It had been ten minutes already since I was waiting but still there was no sign of her.
“Where are you? Are you coming?” I texted her.
No reply came back. I waited for a couple more and then finally decided to lie down. I as it is wasn’t feeling good. After a minute or so the door opened and someone entered. At first I closed my eyes tight so as to show that I was sleeping just in case it was someone else.
“Get up asshole.” The voice said. It obviously had to be Tanya for no one else would ever call me by that name.
“I am already up. You don’t have to speak so loudly what if they all hear us.” I whispered.
“They won’t. They all are engrossed in watching a movie.” She said rather softly this time.
“What took you so long?” I asked.
“It takes time for people to get engrossed in a movie. I sneaked out with the alibi of going to the washroom.” She said.
“This is not the bathroom.” I joked.
“Very funny.” She replied.
“So what did you want to talk about?” I asked.
“I wanted to talk about something really important.” She said.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I wanted to tell you something that you just can’t share with anyone. Anyone means anyone. You can’t tell it to anyone. Okay?” She said.
“I promise. Tell me.” I said.
“I wanted to say that.” She said and paused.
“That?” I said.
“That…” she said and came close to me.
“That?” I said more softly.
“That…” She said coming all the more close.
“That” I said again. We were just a couple of inches apart now.
“That……..your face resembles that of a chimpanzee.” She said and started laughing.
“Fuck off.” I said and lay back in my bed.
“Oh come on don’t be angry. I was just joking. Sholy.” She said sweetly.
I smiled. She looked me in the eyes and yet again we were lost for a couple of seconds. She then came close and we kissed again. Just then the voice of the door opening came from the living room which meant someone had come out.
“Oh shit.” I said.
Tanya started laughing.
“What’s there to laugh about? Hide somewhere.” I said all panicked.
“No.” She replied bluntly.
“Why?” I asked.
“First say you love me.” She said.
“Shut up. Hide. Someone is coming in.” I said.
“That’s not what I asked you to say.” She replied.
“I love you now please get lost.” I said.
“Say it from the heart else I am going out and telling everyone about us.” She said.
“Shut up.” I said.
“Wrong words again.” She said shaking her head.
“You are impossible.” I said.
She gave her devilish smile
“Ms. Tanya Sharma I love you from the core of my heart now will you kindly hide because if you don’t then the three of them will come to know and all the fun will end. So please if you love me hide or find a way out.” I said.
“That’s better.” She said.
Just then the door of the room opened. I lay back pretending to be asleep. Once the door opened, I opened my eyes just a little bit to see who it was.
“What are you doing here Tanya? I was looking for you.” It was Ayesha.
I didn’t move.
“Oh I was just looking for my earring. I lost it last night I guess so I thought I will check it here.” Tanya said trying to make up a story.
“Oh but you didn’t sleep in this room last night. We slept in the other room.” Ayesha said.
“Oh I thought we slept here because last time when I came over we slept in this room only.” She said.
“Actually that was the plan originally but you and Vishal were doing a lot of nasty things so we thought that we should rather move to the other room.” Ayesha said.
“Will you all keep quiet. I am trying to sleep out here.” I said trying to speak as if just being woken up in the middle of sleep.
“So you are awake. Tanya you sure you were here looking for you ‘earring’ only.” Ayesha said with a naughty smile on her face.
“Shut up Ayesha. I have nothing to do with this idiotic, egoistic cousin of yours. He doesn’t deserve me.” Tanya said.
I gave her a stern look. Her eyes had that notorious spark in them which showed that she was joking.
“Whatever. Now get out of my room. I want to sleep.” I said playing along.
“You don’t have to be rude to her Vishal.” Ayesha said.
“I am being rude? She called me idiotic and egoistic. But you don’t have any problem with that. You have problem with me asking her to get out.” I said surprised.
Tanya laughed.
“What’s there to laugh about?” I said.
“Nothing. Nothing worth sharing with you anyway. Let’s go Ayesha. Leave the loser alone.” Tanya said and walked out, grabbing Ayesha’s hand.
“You are rude.” I texted her later.
“I love you! ;)” She replied.
No matter what you say or what you do, in a new relationship during the honeymoon period i.e. the first three or six months of a relationship, the term I love you works every single time you fight! It’s a whole different story then on!
I tried to sleep but just couldn’t so I went out to the living room to join the others.
“I want to meet you alone.” She texted.
“We did meet ten minutes back.” I replied.
“Not in the house ahole. Outside. Somewhere in the city.” She said.
“Like where?” I replied.
“I don’t know. We are meeting tomorrow and that’s final. I will let you know the place.” She said.
“How am I supposed to get out of here and that too alone?” I said.
“Think of something. Say you are going to meet a friend.” She said.
“Okay. I will take care of it.” I said.
We both kept pretending to ignore each other for the rest of the day making the others feel all the more uncomfortable as we enjoyed it all!
We did have our moments though, those seconds when we were either alone in the room or when we saw each other while moving in the house. Our eyes spoke most of the time rather than the mouth! Those brief moments of intimacy were magical indeed!
The day ended and Tanya decided to stay that night as well. The girls were sleeping in uncle’s room while Kabir and I were sleeping in our room. Kabir was a sound sleeper so it wouldn’t have been much of a problem sneaking out. The problem was for Tanya because Simran was there. Simran was one of those who would wake up even by the ticking of the clock so it was hell tough to sneak out for Tanya. We kept messaging each other late into the night in the hope that Simran will sleep and Tanya will be able to sneak out.
At around 3.30 in the morning Tanya was finally able to sneak out without anyone noticing. I too moved out of my room. We sat in the living room close to each other, Tanya’s head resting in my lap while she was lying. I was playing with her hair. I had already started loving that. She had long silky hair, they smelled awesome as well. We spoke about life and remembered the previous trip where something similar happened, the night we became friends and slept together!
We occasionally kissed, occasionally hugged, sat close to each other as it is it had gotten cold with the thunderstorm setting in. We spoke about everything that came to our mind. At around six, after dawn broke, it was almost bright outside, we both went back to our rooms even though neither of us was in a mood of getting up and spoiling the magical moment but if we wanted to enjoy the awkwardness the rest were going through, we had to do it.
Uncle and aunty arrived at around 10 in the morning while I was fast asleep. I woke up at around noon, greeted them both, and freshe
ned up to have the breakfast cum lunch.
“I have to go out today. A friend of mine lives here now. He shifted a year back. He has invited me over.” I told everyone, already trying to put forward the story so that there isn’t any problem later.
None of them had any doubt. Simran did ask a couple of questions who it was and all but I pretty much tackled them all without her raising an eyebrow. The story was set, now it was all about Tanya telling me where we had to meet. In an hour, she texted me to meet her at ‘maggi point’, a famous place in Dehradun. I told everyone that I was off to meet ‘my friend’ at maggi point and later he will be taking me to his place. Tanya had already told Ayesha that she won’t be able to come today because she had to do some work with her mom. This meant we both had set up an alibi and given our attitude towards each other none of them would have even dreamt about what we were up to!
I took a cab and reached the place in around twenty minutes. As is with women, men are always made to wait and if by chance you end up being late, that is going to be the worst day of your life because ultimately every discussion aka argument will end up being because of your being late!
I waited patiently and she arrived around twenty minutes later. She was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans, simple wear yet she looked stunningly beautiful.
“Hi.” I said.
“Hi.” She replied and smiled.
The general talk followed. We ordered two plates of maggi, took a seat and kept talking. It was nice spending time with her. Life was so simple around her! No tension of anything whatsoever and if I had any, her smile was able to calm me down in an instant.
As soon as the waiter brought our order, from a distance, I saw a car which looked pretty similar to that of Kabir’s. When I saw the person who came out of it, I instantly jumped up from my seat. It was Kabir. Soon, the other two doors opened as Ayesha and Simran came out.
“What happened?” Tanya asked seeing my weird reaction.
“Run” I said and held her by her hand to make her stand quickly.
“What’s wrong with you?” Tanya asked still confused by my reaction.
“They are here. We gotta leave right away.” I said, paid the bill hurriedly as we ran.
Tanya started to laugh again.
We hurriedly took a cab and sat in it. She just kept laughing.
“What’s with you in moment of crisis? Why do you laugh at such moments every single time?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It happens to me itself. I find it funny.” She replied.
“You are insane.” I said.
“That’s why I am with you.” She said and winked.
“kaha jaoge bhaiya?” The cab driver asked.
I asked Tanya where to go. She told the driver the destination. It was her second most favourite place after the place from where we just ran off. Now that we had already met the three of them at Maggi point and were able to dodge them pretty easily there wasn’t a remote possibility of finding them at the other place.
We reached the place and took a seat. It was a beautiful and serene place. The scenery was awesome, and it was calm, the kind of place I love.
We ordered two cups of coffee; some caffeine was badly needed. I was much more relaxed at this place after having eliminated the possibility of getting caught. I took a sip of the coffee, it was awesome, just the way it should be. It was kind of a perfect setting for a perfect evening with Tanya. We kept talking of the east and the west. It was surprising how we were never short of topics to talk about! One topic always lead to another hence the conversation kept flowing smoothly.
“Well well well. Look who we found here.” A familiar voice said from a distance.
I turned back to see who it was. It was Kabir, again! The nightmare had come true.
“Oh Kabir what are you doing here?” I asked trying to buy time to think of a story for Tanya and me being at that place.
“Isn’t the wrong person asking the question?” Kabir looked back and said to Simran and Ayesha who were standing close by.
GAME OVER the words that came to my mind.
“I am um..” I said with no reply whatsoever in my mind!
“We just ran into each other so were having a cup of coffee. That’s it.” Tanya said.
“Oh really? Is that what happened at Maggi Point as well?” Ayesha said.
“GAME OVER” Maybe those are the words that would have come to Tanya’s mind as well.
Tanya started laughing as expected.
“So who is going to do the talking? I presume it would be you Vishal because Tanya is busy with her laughing act.” Simran said.
“Okay.” I said.
I told them everything that happened while we were locked up in the living room, apart from the kiss and hug thing! I answered all their questions, was sworn at by Kabir, beaten up by Ayesha and remarks of disappointment from Simran for keeping it a secret.
Hence ended the fun of enjoying the awkward silences but as was expected the three of them were happy for us.
“By the way how did you find us?” I asked.
“I am Tanya’s best friend first if you remember.” Ayesha said.
Tanya smiled again. One of the agonies of having your cousin as the best friend of your girlfriend!