..continued....

Tanmay was tinkering around in the kitchen. While he was at it, Aly decided to walk around his apartment, which was very impressive for a guy like Tanmay, who had just started off on his own. As she walked around the, place, she saw wall almost completely filled with pictures of Tanmay and his adventures, one might call it. His graduation, many, many photos of him and his group of close knit friends and quite a few of him and a girl at various places adorned the wall. It was something titanic for Aly to even imagine having the kind of fun depicted in Tanmay’s pictures. He deserved it. He was always the pushover in the school for his plumpness. People were really unfair to him, and to an extent even she and Rehan have mocked him. She used to talk to him at times out of sympathy and that was it. But it used to make him so happy, he used to follow her around and she had used him more than once to get her work done. She felt sad. He was always nice to her, always there for her. Why did she have to be so rude to him?? She was always there for Rehan, but what good did it do to her?? Where was he today? After all these years, when they finally had the chance to meet up, retrospect? He was ....her thoughts just became a mass of anger, and a she started clenching her hands tightly and digging her nails into her hands. “Oi, What IS WRONG WITH YOU” shouted Tanmay as he down the mugs of coffee he had made and began to unclench her hand. Small droplets of blood trickled down her palms. “Alia, have you lost your mind?? Why would you hurt yourself? What went so bad today? Look, I know you couldn’t talk with Rehan because he was getting busy with that whore, and your ‘devastated’ but come on”. He was so furious that in his fury, he was rattling a stunned Alia very hard. "I'm sorry yaar. I just don't understand why you're so upset about Rehan. He obviously knew you were coming. We all knew who was coming. Neha had sent a guest list with the invite. Its been 3 years Aly. All those emotions, those years of friendship, that closeness, the very thought about coming back to him would have been overwhelming. I know this for a fact, Aly, that you both haven't been in touch after that last meeting under the tree, watching the sunset. He OBVIOUSLY couldn't handle the fact that today he has to face you. TODAY, he had to talk to you, make things right, answer totally legit questions that you will ask him. He knew he'd wronged you and he wouldn't have the courage to face you. Rather he came all drunk and got away from you as soon as possible. You didn't see him come in. You just heard the guys beckoning him. I saw him. I saw the look in his eyes. He was anxious.He was searching throughout, and when he saw you, he went to his friends, and quickly went to the terrace.



...to be continued

The fateful party

It had been weeks since her birthday, but Aly was having a hard time believing that. She had an amazing time with her close circle of friends that day, and it just seemed like yesterday. It was like she’d won the lottery!
She was having fun, she even found sometime to flirt around with totally random guys in her college, and now here she was, getting dressed up for Neha’s party. It was the holiday season, and she thought she’d have reunion of sorts with their school buddies, and she had made it clear to Aly that, this time whatever excuse she made, she would drag Aly down to her party. Aly didn’t oppose Neha this time. She was overwhelmed by the fact she had such a darling friend like Neha.
By the time she was done dressing, she looked up in the mirror. She was quite impressed with what she saw. She was wearing a black knee length dress, with a tilted silver belt around her waist, matching boots, and pulled back hair. She was actually happy about how she looked today. Maybe I actually like all this change, she thought. But that wasn’t entirely true. She was getting all dressed up because she wanted to look her best for Rehan, who was expected to be there. The news was that Rehan had had a very ugly break up with his girlfriend of a couple of months. Aly couldn’t help be happy when Neha broke the news to her. She wanted to be there for her Rehan, her best friend, her love. She was wishing that this reunion might spark that friendship of theirs, which had caught dust over the past 9 months.
“Aly, come on, lets’ go, party starts in 5, and I don’t want to leave Harshad alone in the hall to welcome the guys... he doesn’t know any of them and I don’t want to embarrass my boyfriend!!” Al y had been invited over to Neha’s in the afternoon after class so that she could get dressed properly, and so that, the fashionista friend of hers’ could approve of her choice of clothing. She replied in kind and caught up with Neha, who by now was standing with her boyfriend. “Wow Aly, you look really good. You’re going to turn some heads.” You really think so? Aly asked nervously. “Yea, I know you will.... look people are coming in... let’s go meet them. “ While she walking, Aly knew she was interested in turning only one head tonight.
A lot of people had turned up for the party. It was indeed refreshing to meet up with their school friends. While she was chatting with a group, she saw that familiar “out of bed” hairdo. Rehan! Her heart skipped a beat. She saw him going up to his sports buddies and classmates. He didn’t look very healthy.... he was pale, miserable. She immediately wanted to tear away from her current conversation and go hug Rehan and say soothing things to him. But she continued talking to these guys, and then politely made an excuse and extracted herself from the group. She started to hurry towards him, when another group made an entry and they started talking to her and they were in retrospection. All this while, her eyes were on Rehan. He had seemed to be in a hushed conversation with a friend, who after they finished whatever they were talking, seemed to be saying something which made Rehan laugh. They were seemingly having a good time. So Aly started conversing with her own little group and decided to have some fun for a while. She met many, many people from her school, who by now were a little different and somehow more charming than ever. She was hooked onto this one guy Tanmay, whom she met up when she had gone to get some drinks. “So Alia, how are you? What’re you in graduating in? "
“Mass comm.”, replied Aly. “ Oh okay. That’s great.” “What about you”, asked Aly. “What are doing these days?”
“I am in law school.” He replied. “You know, back in school, we never had a conversation this long! Do you remember? Even formalities were uncomfortable! But here we are now, all that in the past. Talking more than we ever did in the entire time we went to school.” Aly smiled. He seemed nice. She was warming up to this cocky fellow, who was obviously smitten by her, and somehow mustered up courage to come up and talk to her.
“Well you know, I don’t remember us ever talking to each other you know. But I vaguely recall this rather tall, plump guy, who always used to come to talk to me, after exams, any special events, etc but was always vary of talking to me, because Rehan used to tease him cheese balls and chase him away.” She was staring into the distance, while recollecting this. “Yea well, you remember it quite correctly, you are indeed looking at “cheese balls” only toned down, and much, much healthier”. He replied with a toothy smile. “Wow, you look terrific now. “ They chatted for some time and then. “You know, we should go out together sometime you know. Just for the heck of it. For good old times”, now this was more of a proposition than a question, and Aly wasn’t surprised at all. He had timed the question well, especially because they had spent the previous 30 minutes getting to know each other and sharing interests and hobbies. There followed a silence, leaving uncertainty hanging in the balance, when a sudden change in music from lounge to alternative rock, jolted them from their reverie. When they looked up at the DJ’s desk, it was Rehan. He seemed to be drunk. He was mixing some awesome tracks, to which people had started dancing. She was just plainly looking at him, when “ You know, if you still feel for him, I don’t mind backing off.”, said Tanmay. Aly was out of words.... “How...what makes.... why would you....? What makes you think I have feelings for Rehan?” demanded Alia. “ Come on Aly, it was obvious to me since 7th grade! But I thought that would just be a high school crush on your best friend thing! I didn’t know you loved him that much.” said Tanmay. “Dude, what makes you think I loved him ‘so much’? You were right about the crush, but love no no! It’s just, it’s been a long time, since we’ve been in contact, so when I saw him, I was just reminiscing the old days.” She sighed.
“ Alia , I have been following you around for most of higher secondary. I’ve seen the look in your eyes when you’re with him, your body language. For me, how you felt about him was confirmed on Farewell Day, when you guys raced to the park and spend those few precious hours on that bench, you with your head on his shoulder. I was there too you know, hoping that, maybe Rehan would go to Sumit’s house for the after-party and you would go alone to the park. I was sitting under the tree, looking at the setting sun myself.” “I let it go then. I thought it was teenage playing pranks on me. It hurt but I moved on. But now, after all these months, when I heard about this party from Neha, I was glad, I thought I was rewarded with another opportunity. Then I came here, and saw you, chatting up with Isha, Sohail and the others. But all the while you were still focused on Rehan. What he was doing? How is he now? Does he still remember me? Stuff like that. Look, if you must, go to him, find out what happened. I don’t mind at all. In fact if anything I said helped I’m glad.” Tanmay sighed hard. “Are you sure? “, asked Aly. “Yea I’m fine. Go on now. I’m going to chat with the others. So yeah, good luck to you Aly. If you ever need a friend, call me.” With this he went away to meet the others and Aly , with renewed confidence, went in search of Rehan, who wasn’t DJ’ing anymore.She started towards the DJ’s desk, and started looking around. Then she saw a friend of his. “Alex!”She called out to him. “Hey! Aly! Where’ve you been?” “I’ve been good, what’ve you been up to?” “Well I’ve joined dad’s business, so that’s that.” “That’s great. Listen I would love to stand and talk, but I need to find Rehan, have u seen him?” “Yea, I did. Hemant hooked him up with a friend of his from school. You might have heard of her, Nidhi. Back in the day Hemant and she was a thing. Anyways, they hit it off extremely well, and Rehan took her to the terrace I think. They definitely went upstairs.” Aly stood there stunned. She felt like she’d been run over by a truck. She reassured herself that right now, Rehan just needed some comforting and company, which she wanted to give, and that Nidhi was just being nice by taking him away from the crowd. She had indeed heard of Nidhi, and she knew the kind of girl she was. She was thinking about Rehan. He was alone, hurt, he had just ended things with a girl with whom he had been with quite a long time and whom he had really, really liked. She didn’t want him to do anything and get hurt again. She wanted to be there for him.

She reached the landing. There were two rooms there, and there was a staircase which led her to the terrace. She didn’t have to search at all, because she looked up and saw the door to the terrace was slightly open, and she quietly went out onto the terrace. Now the terrace wasn’t what she quite had in mind. It was wide and quite windy. She walked around and soon enough she could hear some sounds, and she walked in that direction. The night was starry, and she felt it couldn’t be better. Tonight, she would pour herself to Rehan. And everything would work out just fine and finally maybe her life could be back on track. She was walking, when she thought she heard some rushing sounds. A pillar was blocking her view, and she could just see a hammock tied on the other side of the pillar, and she tried to look hard for Rehan and Nidhi in the direction of the sound. She moved slightly to see where they were, and she caught a glimpse of something, that made her eyes go wide. She was rooted to the spot.
She had heard stuff about Nidhi, and some stuff about Rehan too. But she’d refused to believe it about both of them. But what she saw made all of those things too true. Her eyes welled up, and she felt like her heart was being ripped off. She wanted to cry, but she felt like her emotions were dead. She got up slowly, leaving the other two to their business. She walked downstairs, thinking, wishing that the night would have gone differently. A single tear rolled down her cheek, making a mess of her makeup. She moved through her friends who were all dancing to an awesome DJ. A few of them even asked her if she would like to dance. But she didn’t hear them. She went straight to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Just like her makeup, she was a terrible mess. She just wanted curl into a ball do nothing. But she had a duty to her friends and Neha, who had tried so hard to make her happy. So she fixed her makeup and walked into the party and went straight to get some drinks. She’d decided that she had to keep Rehan out of her mind. Today, she couldn’t allow him or that bloody bitch to ruin her life, not today at least.
She looked out for Tanmay, but couldn’t find anywhere near. She gulped down a couple of Vodka shots. She gulped down 6 more and was finding it hard to concentrate. Aly decided she should dance, and as soon she got up, she stumbled down, but was caught just in time by a guy. “Thankss for helping me”, she said. “My pleasure”, said a familiar voice. She looked and saw it was Tanmay. “Oh it’s you!! I’ve been all over for you. Where were you?” asked Aly. “I was just chatting up with the guys. I was going to get some drinks when you fell on me. What were thinking of doing anyways?”Asked Tanmay.
“I was just going to dance you know, when you came along! Want to dance?” she asked him. “I’d love to Aly, but are you sure you want to? You look pretty drunk to me.” said Tanmay doubtfully.
 “Yea I wanna dance. Come on don’t be the spoil sport.” So off they went to dance.
The mood in the room had changed as the DJ was now playing soft music. There were few couples dancing slowly , while people were soon gorging on the food, and some who had had their fill were taking their leave from Neha. She was thanking them showing them out, when she saw Aly dancing with a guy. She was wide eyed, and Aly signalled her that she would tell her everything later. Neha smiled and went away. They were dancing on for some time, when “So Aly, I assuming things didn’t go down too well, with Rehan.” said Tanmay.
“Why would think that?” Aly asked, with her head still on his shoulders. “Well, for one, you don’t seem the same person, who took leave from me, a few hours ago, and then I know when I see a person who has just had their heart broken. Trust me, I’ve been there.” Tanmay said.
There was silence. After sometime she looked up at Tanmay. She saw the way he was looking at her. She saw affection and attraction in his eyes. Here she was, dancing with a guy, who was in love with her since 7th grade and who cared about her, and there she was madly in love with a guy, her best friend since she joined school, for whom she’d saved herself, who didn’t even care to talk to her, at a reunion party, but instead decides he’s better off getting over his breakup by hitting it with another random chick he met at the same party just hours ago. She decided it was time to stop hurting herself over some guy. She looked up at Tanmay and said “So, what about getting that drink together eh? You wanna get out of here?” “I know a place” said Tanmay. They agreed to meet up outside in 5. Aly wrote a note for Neha and stuck it on her bedside lamp. She met up with Tanmay and they went a pizza parlour.
“Tanmay? Is this the ‘’place’’ you bring all your dates to?” Aly asked him with a sly smile. “Well you know, this place has awesome pizza. And it’s affordable too.” They ate delicious pizza, spend time reminiscing school days, and talking about their life so far. Soon they left, because the place had to close. Tanmay left his car there and decided to walk Aly home. They were walking hand in hand. There wasn’t much of a crowd, since it was 3 in the morning. Tanmay’s place was halfway through to Aly’s place. “So let’s go to your place”, said Aly. “Wow, are you sure?” asked Tanmay. “Yes I’m sure, and don’t tell me I’m drunk. I know what I’m doing.” They reached Tanmay’s place.

Her Birthday..

It was dusk. A cold slow wind was blowing. Aly felt so enervated inside.
The chrome sky was turning into a gloomy canvas. She sat on the couch at the balcony. Something makes her to get lost in past in these solitary moments. Eyes closed, slow breathes, somewhere deep in her mind she was in the light of some other day…

She was walking hastily on the city street, rushing through the traffic, and at last she reached the school gate; “Get in fast, you’re late!!” exclaimed the watchman. She entered, the final bell rang and that seemed the sweetest sound of the world for her.
She stopped at the door of the prayer hall, as expected, it was Rehan, and he was standing beside the door with his back supported against the wall, chewing a gum. 
“Late as always”, Rehan smiled at her.
She was busy tucking the falling hairs behind her ears, “That’s my only specialty buddy!” she was going to push the door…
“Happy birthday anyways!”
Aly stopped and turned at him, with mouth open and face dumbstruck.
 “You remembered! My god!!”, an amazing smile waved on her lips.
“Nope, my cell phone reminded me” Rehan grinned.
“Lame!” she turned her face away dramatically “Though your phone is the only one to remember my birthday else mom. Thanks to him!”
“My phone is female.”
“Bleh.” Aly shrugged.
“Come on. No more bad jokes, only fun today”, Rehan tried to convince her.
“Pay me to eat. Will ya?” she turned her tongue out at Rehan.
“Yeah, let’s go to Ramu’s teashop!” Rehan blinked his eye.
They laughed out together. Prayer was missed. They went to the office’s storeroom and got out of school from the backdoor that was their personal school-bunking-route.

They were eating burgers sitting on the riverbed. That narrow stream-like river was drenched with colors of the setting sun. 
“It’s my best birthday you know!” Aly exclaimed with a suppressed joy, staring at the river. “Why? We had a great fun at the food plaza last year and that movie?”, Rehan said, unmindfully. 
“Not like that Rehan….it’s just…it’s” she mumbled.
“It’s something you can’t defy right now.  We are making memories for the future Alz.” He put his hand on her shoulder, comforting her.
“There you go Mr. Right!” she smiled softly, and a beam of faith painted that smile, a radiance of friendship, a strong emotional bond…

...Aly opened her eyes; she heard a knock on the door.
The drowsy she went to open the door slowly.
“Happy Birthday coconut-head!!!” they shouted as she opened the door, her three old friends, or may be the only friend she has carried from her old days, Rita, Avantika and Vishal.
Aly stood like an idiot seeing them standing with a candlelit birthday cake and balloons.
Finally she spoke up blankly, “Are you guys nuts?”
“For sure” Avantika grinned, “let’s eat it coconut-head” they shouted again.
“Come in morons. I want that chocolate cake!” Suddenly she was back there, that old girl, smiling.
The cold wind changed its way, it was warm there.

It had been a couple of weeks since the disco fiasco. Life had gone on, but it wasn’t the same. Dimpy had become something more than a regular chick for Rehan. That he was serious about her was becoming more and more obvious to Alia,and she couldn’t take it. He’s mineeeee! , she whined. How come some girl came out of nowhere and stole him from her. Urghh! She knew it was pointless. Who was she kidding? She decided that she’d move on. Riding on these thoughts, she reached her journalism class. Mr. Mathur was there, waiting for his students. Today, he was going to cover writing methods . She plopped down on a chair near the window. Interesting as though Mass Comm was, she wasn’t too happy with the way things were going on in her life. She looked around for Neha, her only close friend and confidante for some time now. Humph, she might be on one of her dates; Aly thought grudgingly. Wherever she looked, everyone was falling in love, and to top it all, her mom was remarrying, which made things very weird for her. It was difficult because she wasn’t able to tell all this to someone. Neha was her only relief. But she was away most of the times and Rehan was in an altogether different college at the other end of the city, enjoying life with his girlfriend. Soon, the all the students had taken their seats. The class started. Physically, she was there on that chair, but her mind was wandering. Suddenly, the words that Ayush guy had said hit her. ..”Then you must be loveless”. Suddenly she came to a conclusion that maybe, just maybe she should take Neha’s silly advice about moving on from a dead end like Rehan and be open to dating other people. Maybe things would be different if she were in love? She decided, next time Neha calls her for a party, she wouldn’t turn it down. With this thought in her head, she managed to smile, something which was hard to come by. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

In The Disco

She sat before the bar counter; the music was loud; the spirits were high; everyone was dancing on the floor.
“Can I have your order ma’m?”, the well-dressed bar-tender asked politely.
She looked up,
“One Bacardi please”
“Okay ma’m”
That track ended, the DJ turned on a soft track. There were little blue and red lights, making a mysterious romantic atmosphere, she looked at them, they were holding each other and dancing closely, so close to feel each other’s breathes.
‘Wish I were there, in his arms’ she thought and smiled poorly to herself and turned back to the bar.
“You seem sad you know…”
She looked at the guy sitting beside her, ‘where did he come from?’ she thought with a little irritation.
“Ohh, sorry, you don’t know me, I’m Ayush…and you..?” he chuckled noticing her raised eyebrows.
“Aly, I am Aly. And I’m not sad.” She told boldly.
“Then may be you’re loveless”
“What’s loveless??”
“An out of dictionary word you know, I keep making those…ha haa..it means, you are not getting love or may be lack of..”
“Your drink ma’m” the bartender served her drink; she nodded to her and looked back at Ayush, a bit of disgusted she was, without a reason may be.
“Look, whatever that is, I don’t care, because I am happy. And you are no one to be concerned about me, okay?” she snorted.
“Whoa, don’t be angry girl!! I think I should go, you probably dislike me!” Ayush said, but still with a smile on his face. ‘He looks cute’, Aly thought.
“Umm, I didn’t mean to be so rude. It’s just that…that I’ve a lot of headache. Never mind.” she felt awkward.
There fell a moment of silence between them in that loud music.

“Hey buddy, enjoyin’ eh?”
Aly looked back, it was for sure Rehan with all of his teeth out.
“Yeah, why not? Look, I’m sitting here being surrounded by freaky unknown people and enjoying!!” she emphasized upon ‘enjoying’.
Rehan felt a hint of temperament.
“hey, I didn’t mean to leave you alone here. But you didn’t want to dance yaar!” Rehan shrugged his shoulders. ‘Does he even care?’ another thought bubble of Aly.
“Well, it’s not your fault, its mine. I should have known that Papa’s nice boy would not go to school’s farewell-party, rather he would visit the disco with his girl embarrassing his best friend” this time she was truly disgusted that anyone could understand that from her face.
“How..how would I know that dad would be at my place to force me to go to that sucking party? And you came over my place to go with me?”
“I didn’t know that you would turn out to be so selfish!”
“Am I?”
Aly looked at his eyes, so cute, his appearance, so hot, and he was someone else’s…
“Dimpy is waiting.” she tried to smile, “Go or she would come over here. You know I don’t like her.”
“heyy Alz, this girl is really so damn good. I…I really like her! But you’re still the best you know, may be that's why you dislike her, ha ha..”
“Whom do you think is not better than me? Go idiot” she laughed, that was what Rehan was waiting for. He went.
She sat alone; suddenly she looked around, but Ayush was not there; good guy, she thought. But that sentence was echoing in her head ‘you’re still the best’, it was the most enchanting line for her, as she considered.

“Will you pay now ma’m?” the bartender again.
“huh? Ohh wait…” she was going to open her purse when she noticed that she hasn’t yet had the drink.
“But where’s my drink?” Astonished, she asked the girl.
“I put it here ma’m. I told you while serving you.”
“Oh, I remember. But I didn’t have it. The glass ain’t here even!”
“May be someone took it behind your attention.” the girl hesitated “So, the bill…”
“No no, don’t worry, I’ll pay that” Aly assured her.
“Okay. Thank you ma’m” she smiled.
“Your welcome” Aly smiled back, but she was even more disgusted inside.
There it was, set for her, she spend the evening sitting alone and watching her love dancing with some idiot hot-bod and now she was going to pay for the drink she hasn’t even tasted. ‘It’s just too messed up!’ she closed her eyes, trying not to hear the music, the sound of Bon Jovi telling “I would give anything/ My blood my love my life/ If you were in these arms tonight …”.

The Beginning -

Two friends were standing before a wall in the hall room of St. Christine High, a girl and a boy, two besties.
The wall was filled with colorful handprints of students.


“Mine looks better Aly!”
“Are you blind? Mine is the best, even an idiot can see that!!” Alia turned her tongue out to Rehan.
Rehan raised his eyebrows “no no! Showing your tongue doesn’t make yours better anyway. Does it?”
“No, it’s because my hand is lovelier than yours duh!”, Alia grinned wisely.
“Doesn’t matter, I’m a boy you dumbo…” he laughed out loud.


“What’s going on here Alia? Aren’t you leaving yet?” A voice came from behind.
They turned back; it was their English teacher Nisha ma’m with her ever-charming smile.
“We are just...figh...err…discussing about whose handprint is better…” Alia stammered a bit.
“You should not. By the way, where is yours?”
“Here, the green one…” Alia turned back to the wall enthusiastically.
“Here are three green handprints girl”, Nisha Agarwal gave a sweet smile again.
“I don’t know…I…I don’t remember which one is mine. They are so congested, I mean…” She again stammered and she looked puzzled this time.
“Look Alia, Don’t ever fight on such things. You are growing up and Rehan, you too. You know what, this wall is the symbol of your unity and friendship. There is no place for individuals. Okay? Go home now.” The teacher was about to go.
“Yes ma’m. We will remember that.” Rehan and Alia told in chorus.
“Good for you.” The teacher went away.
They took a sigh of relief.
“Can you spot out mine?” Alia asked.
“Actually I can’t even find out mine. Ha ha haa…”
“You know what Rehan, ma’m was right. It’s the symbol of our integrity. And also the record of our fun days spent here. I will miss them. And you too…”, A shadow fell on Alia’s face.
Rehan was chocked, “hey, don’t be so serious buddy! We will always be together and have fun. This school ain’t the end. Though I’ll miss those days too. C’mon now, we’re getting late.”
“Yeah, let’s go. And you will drop me at home Mr. Smarty Pie!” She smiled naughtily.
“Ok ma’m”


They passed the empty hallway together. It was their last day in school. It was their farewell.

Introduction to this blog

A few months ago, I had an idea about writing a story with all the imaginations in my head. Just for fun and giving it a try. I honestly know that I'm not at all a good writer. But it's not about writing a perfect story. It is only about letting it to come out of your heart. play with the characters and their lives. They are all in your hand. So I decided to do this in a blog and i would like other people to join me to. I would love to say, "Lets make a story together"!

p.s.- i'll be posting the first part soon. :)