A Tale Of A Few Friends

Part 1, Chapter 1

Hi guys, this is my first attempt at a book. Most of it was written many years ago when I was in high school. Hoping to finish it off now.

Some of the language in the original write-up is in Hindi/Punjabi – so to keep the authencity, I’ve left it the way it is and translated it in brackets. I hope this isn’t too much of a problem, and I’ll be sure to use just English here on.

Hope you enjoy.

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

"I wanna stand with you on the mountain..."

Rhea raced up the stairs as her cell rang over and over again.

“Comingggggg!” Rhea shouted as she searched around her extremely messy room. “Ya hello, bolo?” (say?) She panted into the phone and gasped for air.

“Hey Ree kidaaan? (what’s up)” Rakshay replied, in his deep, husky voice.

“Oh Rakshu you made me run up the stairs again! I swear I’m gonna die of a heart attack one day while running up these stupid stairs to hear you go ‘Hey Ree kidaan?’!!!”

Rakshay laughed, “Itni jaldi nahin marne doonga… nahin to mere se shaadi kaun karegi?” (I won’t let you die so soon, otherwise who will marry me?), Rakshay replied in the sexiest voice he could muster.

“Rakshay!!” Rhea rolled her eyes.

“Okay okay sorry baba. So what’s up?”

As Rhea reached for a glass of chilled water, Rakshay prepared himself to hear about how uneventful her day was. Waking up really early, thanks to someone's (namely himself) SMS, having *yuck* dahl roti saag* for lunch, doing homework …

“I met Mehr today…” Rhea started off with a gulp of water. Rhea and Rakshay had a big friend circle, and Mehr was one of their close friends. “She called me while I was at Starbucks and started crying over the phone.”

“What happened? Why was she crying?” Rakshay asked worriedly.

“Wait, let me finish… So yeah, her parents left last night for the weekend so she had told me that she’d be meeting Aryan for the night…” Rhea trailed off

“Ree... don’t tell me what I think you’re gonna tell me…” Rakshay said in a stern, worried voice.

“Rakshay… listen … I went over to her place … and well as soon as I entered her house she broke down crying… Rakshu her eyes were all red and it was obvious she had been crying all day … so well she told me that after her parents left, she got ready and she left the house…” Rhea started re-telling the whole story to Rakshay. She knew he would be pissed off at the end of it, but she had to tell him.

“She and Aryan were meant to meet at the Starbucks down the road… so Aryan was there yeah with two of his friends… so when she got there they split and she and Aryan went off to eat something. She said the dinner was really romantic and he bought her flowers and a pretty silver necklace. After dinner they went to the downtown club where they had a few drinks and danced for a couple of hours. Rakshu you know how Mehr can’t handle much alcohol so after a couple of shots she was totally wasted and she smoked a joint…”

“What? She would never smoke up willingly. That son of a…” Rakshay shouted angrily into the phone.

“Yeah I agree Rakshu, but I guess her drunk brain was not working very well. Anyways, so then they drove over to her place knowing that it would be empty and once they got there you can guess what happened. So then after their wonderful steamy night … he left!”