REWINDING US

Ch5: The scattered pieces

Manik

Maddy has thrown a usual party that he keeps doing to stay connected to his friends. But the speciality of today's party is that he has called many of our old school buddies too!

It's been ages since the school got over and honestly, we were never really fond of our school or school memories like most other people are. Like Nandini was.

I didn't know what really was wrong with me from past few days. Why am I missing her so much. This has never happened to me during all the 5 years when she was away, then why now?

I really need to have a drink and stop thinking this nonsense.
I went to the bar, ordered for a drink when I saw Soha arriving with her own bunch of friends. Our break up was a mutual decision. We continued to be friends after that but parted ways after school. I have nothing against her because, as I grewup and matured, I realized it wasn't Soha who was at fault as far as mine and Nandini's breakup was concerned. If she tried to trap us, we should have played smart. The decision was ours after all, mine in particular.

"Bhai kya baat hai akele akele shuru ho gya?" Maddy came and sat beside me.

"Tu pehle apne important guests ko toh attend kar le"

"Abe tu toh aise bol raha hai jaise koi formal party chal rahi hai! Bro, this is a party for us! For brothers!"
Cabir, Abhi, Dhruv everybody joined us for the drink.

"Ohhh betteeeee, look who's here! That's Mukti, right?"
And there we saw a gorgeous looking girl entering through the door. Wohaa! If anyone would have told us back in school, that she'd look like this after some years, we would have been after each other's neck to date her. Well, I feel bad for Maddy though. They could have an equation back then. Everybody knew that Mukti had feelings for him but Maddy never considered her more than a friend. Well, Mukti was one of the smartest girls, she could easily move on.

"Ahem ahem! Kyaa baat hai aaj toh Mukti is in the house? What's upp buddy? Pehle toh kabhi nahi invite kiya ise?" I whispered in Maddy's ear teasing him.

"Saale tu meri taang baad mei kheechiyo! Apne liye nahi Abhi ke liye invite kiya hai", my eyes shot open after listening to that! What the hell? Abhi's eyes were glued to her. He was looking at her unblinkingly. Bloody hell!  I had no idea about this.
"Yeh kab hua?" I asked Maddy in surprise.

"It hasn't been much longer. Chill ! I didn't break the 'bro-code'. I'm telling you!

"Ya-Yaa!"
I couldn't accuse him for breaking the 'bro-code' because I was the one who broke it long back! I sighed thinking about it.

"Abey yeh Cabir kahan gaya?" Dhruv asked making us all aware of his absence.

"Voh I think Riya ko pick karne gaya hai."
Among all of us, it was only Cabir who was finally having a stable relationship.  Him and Riya have been dating for almost 3 years now. We all really like her. She's a sweetheart.
Well, that reminds me, I've dated her best friend too which was assumed to be my most serious relationship, umm somewhat true that is, I really started developing feelings for her but before it could get to the next level, she had to move away from the country. And long distance just wasn't my cup of tea.

She was a lot like Nandini. A hell lot. May be that is one of the reasons I actually liked her.

"Yeh Cabir ka toh sahi hai. Iske paas fixed date hoti he hai. But tonight, none of us have to be left alone. I've called all our ex-es too. Koi na koi toh maan he jayegi",
Maddy said and winked at us.

Dhruv left to attend a call and Abhi went after Mukti leaving me and Maddy alone.

"So, all our ex-es, huh? Lot's of memories man!",
I smirked at him that he evenly returned.