A friendship and A Virgin!

It was the New Year ’s Day. The Dusty floor was sticky here and there because of the wine and vodka that had spilled during the house party last night, condom box lying by the foot they cuddled in one blanket as the sunlight crept into the room and on his face through the gap in the window. She squint her eyes to look at him sleep blissfully. A friend for life, a friend with benefits, a friend who wouldn’t judge her choices and a friend who cares about her, someone who will not tie her up in the name of commitment. The relationship they shared cannot be explained nor did they seek a meaning. They were in love, a love beyond commitment, a love not so ordinary and futile. A love that is strong that it let them choose their own path yet bring them back together in the haven called friendship. She looked at his face up so close. The innocence while he slept and even otherwise. She smelled his manliness as she kissed his cheeks. He smiled with eyes still shut yet he looked blissful and divine. She climbed on top of him and planted long wet kisses on his neck hearing him moan in pleasure. His eyes still shut.

The little phone blinked at equal intervals. It was not the call that distracted her but the name. The person who was trying to call her after 3 long years, she bit his ear a little. He smiled again. She got up to pick the phone and he pulled her hand and made her fall on him. She laid on top of him pressing her breasts against his chest and whispered in his ears, ‘Give me 2 mins, baby! I will be back’ she kissed his lips and licked them with the tip of her tongue. He did not let her go, instead he pushed her down and laid on top of her kissing her neck and slowly caressing her breast making her lose herself. She tried to push him but the attempts were futile. She smiled and asked him to leave her for only 5 mins. He laughed and bent to kiss her neck. She screamed in pain. He laughed and turned towards the wall pulling the blanket all for himself. 

She dialed the number again from her call history looking at the mirror to see a bruise near her neck. She kicked him when she left the room. As the phone on the other side rang she expected that she would be nervous but she wasn’t. She acted normal rather she was normal. No excitement, no happiness or there was happiness a bit of it, like crystals of salt on the rim of a glass of margarita. He finally picked the phone.

‘Hola!’ she took a deep breath as she walked towards the balcony wearing his t-shirt. The cold breeze made the tiny hair on her thighs stand up. There was silence on the other side. She waited for him to talk.

‘I miss you. I am sorry’ He said, no pleasantries exchanged. He hit the crust, directly.

‘oh!’ she said briefly.

‘I want you back in my life’ he said ‘as a friend’ after a pause.

She guffawed. ‘I have enough friends! But if you say so! Happy New year’ she wished still wondering where the wild side of her vanishes everytime, every single time someone who hurt her in the past came back to her seeking apology. She never understood why she took them back only to ruin herself a bit more. A very close friend of hers once told her that she has a huge heart. She took him back too, after he ripped her apart. Her best friend who is sharing her bed right now calls her stupid. She believed him. She is stupid rather a self destructive sadist!

‘Does this mean we are friends now?’ He asked gleefully at the other end reminding her of what he said when she told him yes the time they decided to be in a relationship. “Whoa! Are we a couple now?” He had exclaimed jumping from one post to another at college.

‘If you say so’ she smiled and realized he wouldn’t know she did.

‘Where are you right now? I want to meet you immediately’ he asked which reminded her of the man who is waiting for her to come back and make love with him. She smiled again because he called it making friendship for calling it love made both of them nervous.

‘Listen, I am at a friend’s place and I cannot meet you right now. But I can meet you for dinner!’ she said positively fiddling with his mobile phone that went off last night. They agreed upon meeting for dinner. She dropped off the call and went back to making friendship with the man she loved in a weird way for that moment. She told him about this friend with whom she tried being in a relationship but they broke up because he was still a kid. He listened to it intently while sipping his cup of coffee at the balcony.

‘Should I tell him that we are living in the same apartment and sharing the same mattress?’ She asked biting her lower lips.

‘You are not allowed to say that and also about us emptying boxes of condoms every weekend or on a stressful night. But yes, you can tell him about my greatness’ He winked. She pouted. He read her mind like no one else did. It scared her at times. When they had sex the first time on the cold floor of his terrace under the bright and twinkling stars he made her promise that this whole thing will be their little secret.‘It is for your own good! We live in India remember?’ He had told her. She pulled him closer and kissed him wildly and passionately. He lifted her a little above the ground and returned her passion for the kiss.

In the evening, she wore her favourite yellow dress that ended at her knees; she covered her neck with the scarf to hide the hickey given by him the night before. She wore his favourite perfume so she can come back and they can have long, dirty and wild sex the whole night! They never tired each other. She wore the bracelet that she considered lucky and a beautiful diamond stud that her mother gifted her for her birthday. She wore the boots and arched her eyebrows posing like a model. He clicked a pic of her and gave her a kiss. She rolled her eyes for her lip gloss was gone again.

‘You look sexy this way’ he said slapping on her butt and snatched the lip gloss.

He dropped her at the 5 star hotel in his sport bike. He had asked her to be careful and ring him when she leaves the hotel.  Her ex was waiting by the entrance wearing a crisp coffee brown shirt with a formal white pant. She smiled and thought that he never changed a bit. She adjusted her long lustrous hair that he liked; that she used to wrap her naked body when she wants to get his attention from the video game. She gave him a hug and withdrew quickly.

‘God! I am hungry! What are we eating tonight?’ she asked him still adjusting her hair that she thought was a mess. He was looking at her intently.

‘God, how did I miss you? You look gorgeous and you have lost a lot of weight. You look very sexy’ He winked. She somehow felt irritated when the “sexy” comment came from him. She just smiled in return.

‘So who is the guy who dropped you out? Why did you come in a bike?’ he asked as they went into the pub. She ignored his question. The pub was themed based on a library. There were huge book shelves on the sides of the wall. Couples and friends sat on the table whispering conversation. The bearer attended us and we placed our orders. I ordered a martini while he ordered whiskey on the rocks. Never changed! She thought. They discussed about work, life in general and the things that changed in the last 3 years. But every now and then he kept insisting to know about the man who dropped her.  They had their drinks while discussing about his plans of moving to US for the nth time. She had listened to it when they were in a relationship and it was really exciting then. But even after 3 years it seemed like he was only planning. That night he proved her that few people neither grow up nor change. It seemed like he was falling for her all over again but she cannot reciprocate the feelings. She had moved on. She cried, got hurt, scraped her knees and now she’s walked far away from the place she fell that she had even forgotten the way back to the place she fell.

They had their drinks and decided to take a walk around a beautiful fountain in the hotel. The moon was full and bright making the stars shy away in a clear sky! She kept looking at the moon every now and then. She asked him to look at it too but all he could do was to stare at her. At her beautiful shadow falling on her own face making it more beautiful, he grabbed her by her waist and kissed her slowly.

She smiled and told him about her best friend. But she was careful not to reveal the things that should not be revealed. She told him about how they met, how they got into a fight and how the fight turned into a beautiful friendship that led to weekend outings and their first getaway in his newly brought sports bike, about how much he love bike rides and how much he cared about her. She told her about their cooking ventures, the epic failures and the best baked cake, their first homemade cocktail that tasted like pee. She told him how she helped him talk to the girl he liked. She told him how much this friendship meant for her and how they never developed feelings for each other inspite of being with each other for so long. When she told him the stories one after another she realized the tonnes of memories she had bagged in 3 years with this amazing man she wakes up to everyday.

‘So you stay together? Why don’t you stay at a hostel? Much safer, isn’t it?’ he asked after saying so many beautiful things about their friendship. This turned her off yet she put a smile on her face and told him that she will not feel safer anywhere than the place she stayed at right now. He didn’t seem to care about what she told him. Now that he knows about this man who was so close to his ex girlfriend and that she has spent so many years with him under the same roof, he was concerned about something else. And so he said, ‘you know what? I am saving myself for my wife. I wouldn’t stay with another girl unless I am sure I want to marry her and stay with her every night!’

‘What does that mean?’ she asked her voice turning sterner with every word she uttered. She was sure she didn’t want to be in a relationship with this man anymore and she was sure she was talking about the relationship between her and her best friend. It infuriated her. Because behind every word uttered by him he had passed a judgement about her.

‘I am sorry to ask this but are you a virgin anymore?’ he asked quickly. Her anger danced at the brim of her eyes in the form of tears yet her lips curved upwards. She was urged to spit on his face but she slowly moved away from him, releasing his arm that was around her waist and suddenly she laughed out loud, louder with every step she took away from him, attracting a couple who were coochy cooing near the fountain. She clapped her hands and smacked her palm on her forehead. She laughed louder and ran away from him towards the sea that reflected the beautiful full moon. He ran behind her and finally caught up with her when she stopped to feel the waves touch her feet. She kept looking at the moon, her hair flowing in one direction, her eyes glistening like 2 beautiful diamonds. She hugged herself and did not mind him standing next to her. She stood there in silence for a very long time which threatened him.

‘Say something’ He finally asked after gathering all the courage he had.

  

She turned towards him with that subtle smile on her lips, hair falling all over her face making her look like a ravishing angel that just landed on earth, boots in one hand, feet still waiting to play with the waves she said ‘You will never know’ she turned towards the sea again and never looked again to see if he was still sdtanding there.