Network Romeo Series

Chapter-1

“Hey Shalini so you are coming to Coimbatore tomorrow evening?"

“Yes Maradona I’m coming along with my friend Gayathri for the Christmas event”

“But that’s a slum area! You will close your nose and create a scene in that place! Why coming and wasting your time?”

“Stop it you idiot. Just come tomorrow okay? I don’t know anyone here except you that’s why I’m asking. Otherwise why should I call you?”

“Ok fine will come to the train station tomorrow”

I cut the phone call. That cheeky little Rajasthani! Why do I have a cousin? Silly relatives and relationships!

After all relatives are there only to laugh at failures, stick like a mosquito and drink our blood when we are successful. Shit the relatives!

The next day, I went to pick her at the Railway station. After waiting for a long time, I saw her approaching and speaking with another girl. That girl……. Gosh…. How come the Rajasthani’s are so hot?

I took a minute to see her. She was wearing a blue tank-tops and skinny jeans. She had a pixie-haircut and her face was almost covered by her big nerdy glasses.

“Hey Maradona how are you? Long-time no see…..btw this is my friend Gayathri”

“Ya good Shalini… oh! And yeah…. Nice to meet you too Gayathri so where are you guys staying?”

“We have told the organisers to arrange a hotel room and it’s somewhere near Gandhipuram”

“Which hotel?”

“Alankar Grande I think”

“So you will be leaving tomorrow after the function is over huh?”

“Yeah so how are we going?”

“Taxi or bus”

“Shit Mara! You don’t know to drive still?”

“Mind your business shit Shalini”

“Ok ok..stop it.. let’s go”

As we got into the cab, I saw that Gayathri was giggling whenever I scolded or tried to fight with Shalini. To be honest, I started to irritate her just to make the Pixie-cut smile.

I carried their luggages in the room which they were staying. When I was about to leave, Gayathri told that she wanted to speak with me.

“Maradona? Am I pronouncing your name right?”

“Yeah! What can I do for you miss?”

“I… well…. you… can… come… function…Christmas.. tomorrow”

“What the fish? Be clear Gayathri”

“Can you please come to the Christmas function tomorrow? Well…. you are the first south-indian guy that I’m speaking with so”

“So what… Go with Shalini..I have work”
“Like what work?”

“I have to eat Bhai kada( Bhai shop) Briyani and sleep”

“Ha ha!! You know what? If you come with us to the function, you can eat whatever you want and it will be my treat”

“Ok you touched the most sensititve part of my heart (i.e food) so ok…. I’ll come”

“Great! It’s almost 8:30pm so I will get Shalini ready and yeah.. you are getting your treat tomorrow… happy?”

“Shit! I feel like kicking Shalini right now”

“Ha ha why?”

“A cousin of mine itself didn’t ask me this much”

“Ha ha that’s ok Mafia! Shalini must be tired. She didn’t sleep for days”

“Mafia… how… Gayathri…stop it.. Please don’t call me by that name”

“Why are you getting this angry Mafia”

How dare she calls me like that! I got furious and was about to slap her when Shalini came and stared at me.

“Now you mind your business Mara… This is my friend….she is not like me.. she gets hurt easily so better be careful”

I came into my senses. I get on my nerves most of the time! I apologised to them and left the hotel.

I reached home thinking about what the hell I did wrong. I went in to my room and switched on the computer. As I logged into the facebook account, I saw that I had received 5 notifications, 1 friend request  and 1 message.

I was shocked because this happened once in a lifetime for me. The message I got was a normal message from Yash. I opened the notifications and saw that it was the shitty tags of friends profile pictures. Why do all the facebook friends have to tag me for their face in that?

Shit..shit…shit… infinity shit. I opened the friend request page and found that a girl named Gayathri Venugopal had sent me request. I saw that her profile picture had a small cute puppy. Yes.. it’s the same nerdy pixie-cut profile! As I was about to go to her about page, I received a Pop-up message! It was her!!!

“Hey Maradona you online? This is the girl you met half an hour back.. Remember me Mafia?”

“Shut up Gayathri… I told don’t call me Mafia…. If you are going to call me by that name, I will unfriend you right now”

“Chill dude! Why are you so angry with that word?”

“Why should I tell that to you? You are a stranger”

“Me.. Am I stranger to you? Why can’t we be friends?”

“Na it’s not like that! I find it hard to trust girls and I recently had an issue….. you make me remind that”

“Well anyways I won’t call you by that name again.. So tell me.. Will you come tomorrow for the Christmas function?”

“No I won’t… Shalini will take care of you don’t worry”

“You know what? She only helped me find your profile… She was just tired as I said and to be honest, she doesn’t know anything about this place so please”

“Ok Gayu I’ll be there tomorrow morning don’t worry”

“Ha ha ok Maru”

“Maru….! What the fish?”

“You call me Gayu… I call you Maru silly fellow”

“You are weird and you know what? I like that!”

“And as I promised today, I will give you treat tomorrow afternoon then okay?”

“Woah! Awesome! You are a foodie?”

Yeah! So take me and Shalini to the best restaurant in your place tomorrow afternoon okay?”

“Sure Gayu”

“Ok so see you tomorrow funny guy! I’m sleepy. See you tomorrow bye”

“Before you go… I just wanted to say sorry if I had been rude to you by mistake”

“Nothing like that Maru! Have a nice sleep”

I seriously couldn’t sleep because I was too much excited for the next day. Girls surely know how to a keep a boy waiting!