Say You're Mine (Lovestruck In Bangalore #1)

Chapter 7

I VIKRAM I

Despite being tired from yesterday, I woke up at four in the morning. And seeing the beach, I couldn't resist, so I took an early run. There was no one but me and the waves. As I was walking along the shore, I thought about Karthi and Shraddha. Two of my bestfriends were getting married in a few days.

There used to be a time in college when Karthi and I promised we'd be bachelors our whole life. Living life one day at a time, going to new places, meeting new people, new food and cultures, seeking adventures. The list went on. But we wanted to look back at our college days and feel no regrets, we wanted to be proud of ourselves for living the fuck out of life.

But then, in our senior year, Karthi met Shraddha and things changed. It was like his axis was slowly changing. At first, I was a little scared. I was scared because even though I had a ton of friends in college, Karthi was different. He was my best friend, my brother, the one who kept me sane. I was afraid Shraddha would take him away. When I was their third wheel the first month of dating, I was afraid Shraddha would take my bestfriend away from me. But soon, I realised I wasn't losing my bestfriend, I was gaining another one whom I'll treasure lifelong.

Shraddha and I became close friends and soon the three of us were unseparable in the last few months of college. I did make sure to let them have their alone time, but either Shraddha or Karthi always dragged me to places with them, ignoring my protests. And I realised, Karthi was changing. He became a bit more sensible even though he was an idiot compared to Shraddha. When we graduated and got hired at Infosys through campus placements, we met Rudra and Varun.

Varun was late on the first day of work and has continued to be late ever since. I don't think there was a day that he was on time. He was punctual about that. Varun and I clicked immediately and Karthi had another dickhead to worry over. Varun introduced me to Rudra, "the pretty guy" who was hired along with us.

Rudra was a tough nut to crack. He was a loner. Extremely introverted and always brooding. Varun and I constantly tried to get him to sit with us during lunch, since he was the only newbie who sat alone. But he always politely declined, much to Varun's annoyance.

But then, one day, while we were discussing playing Dungeons and Dragons at my and Karthi's apartment, Rudra suddenly asked, "You guys play Dungeons and Dragons?"

It was the longest sentence he has ever spoken to any of us. And I could tell that he regretted asking that question a moment later, when Varun started grilling him with questions, not letting a chance to befriend him go. He was tense and hesitant at first, but soon he started sitting with us diring lunch and often joined us in gaming sessions. So thus, Rudra became the dad of the group and Karthi, the mom of the group, finally had someone to complain about our stupidity.

Rudra still didn't talk much. But you could tell, just from looking at him that he had a past, a painful one. And we saw the scars on his body. But we never asked. We knew he'd tell us if he wanted us to know. It was almost a year after we met that he opened up one day.

We were taking a break from playing at his place and Karthi was talking about our highschool days and Varun shared all the stupid things he did when he was a teenager. Then it was silent for a few moments and then the miracle happened. Rudra opened up to us. He told us about his childhood and after hearing what he and his family went through, if his bastard of a father wasn't dead already, I am sure the three of us would've beaten him to death with a cricket bat.

By that time, Shraddha was close with Rudra and Varun too. And when Shraddha didn't have classes, she sometimes came over to our apartment, mainly to hang out with Karthi, but sometimes she joined us in games, though she was shit at it. Then, a year after Shraddha graduated and got a job at her company, she moved in with Karthi.