Diatribes of dreams

Chapter 3

                      Chapter-3
                    The meeting
It’s the last day of October, so the work load in office was much more than the rest of the days. Aamir was silently sitting in his chair furiously hitting the keyboard and thinking about Viraj’s party today. When he saw Raghav inviting the friends mutual with Viraj. Raghav came to Aamir and asked ‘Can you ask Vedika to come.’
‘Already done.’
Raghav coughed mockingly and said ‘Ahem, I see what’s going on.’
‘Buzz off Raghav.’ Aamir said in an irritated tone. ‘And you better finish your work.’
‘Oh! Dammit I almost forgot.’ He said and dashed towards his cubicle.
It was now 5pm and they were already off too their homes to get ready. Aamir got ready around 6:30 and called Aayan
‘You ready?’ he asked
‘Yup’
‘Will pick you in 10 minutes.’ He said and hung up. After picking Aayan, they headed straight to Viraj’s which was  a 20 minutes destination.
The party was held at Viraj’s bungalow it was a party just for his friends and no one with formal relations was invited. At about 7:20pm two extremely beautiful girls stepped in Vedika was one of them dressed in a black party dress of knee length, glittering high heels. The other was Viraj’s girlfriend Ananaya, who was in a baby Pink top and a blue denim. She is a really beautiful girl with an average height. A round and cute face with soft pink cheeks which Viraj admired the most. She had long and bouncy hair ending with curls and tied them in a ponytail running alon the length of her neck. She was the girl, whom he met in first year of college and were really serious about their relationship. She was from eastern Uttar Pradesh and had a different accent. Soon Ananaya left Vedika and joined Viraj who was Receiving greetings and was pulling of a tea green shirt with a pair of black trousers and black shoes . Aamir who was with Raghav and Aayan, got up from his table and accompanied  Vedika. After a while of gossiping around Vedika gave Aamir a nod which he took as a sign to look towards Viraj and Ananaya
‘What do you think? When are they gonna marry?’ asked Vedika.
‘I don’t clearly know but Viraj was speaking about proposing her soon.’ He replied hunching his shoulders.
‘I wonder when will I meet  a man who will be with me for life. Who will truly love me?’ She exclaimed and let out a gasp.
‘if I had the guts.’ Aamir murmured while softly staring her face
‘What?’ she replied still looking
‘Um, nothing just saying what a great couple they would make’
‘True!.’ She replied.
Then a man in his early thirties who was taller than anyone else at the party a clean shaved face with square black pair of glasses and  in a formal black suit  standing in a corner caught Aamir’s eye. He went towards the new guy.
‘Hello! Aamir’ Said Aamir with a hand extended towards the unknown
‘Hi! Vikram Rajawat’ the man replied returning the handshake and leaning a little.
‘So how do you know Viraj?’ Aamir asked.
‘Oh I don’t actually know him. I organized the party. A party planner.’ He said staring right into his eyes ‘And you?’
‘A friend, A close one.’ Looking around the party place trying avoid his stares.
‘Ok see you later.’ Aamir said and turned to move.
‘I’d say we are destined to meet later a lot.’ Vikram Said in a mysteriously deep tone.
Aamir turned back ‘Excuse me?’
‘Did I freak you out? Did I?’ Said Vikram  and burst into a laughter which Aamir can tell was fake ‘I love freaking people out.’

At around 10 most of the guests left and it was now just Aamir,  Ananaya, Raghav, Vedika and Viraj sitting at a table gossiping about the party when Aamir talked to them about the weird chat with Vikram. After about an hour Vedika stood up to leave when Viraj said, ‘I’ll drop Everyone you girls and Raghav home. Aamir you have your bike. Right?’
Soon Aamir was on his way back, a bit scared, not hoping to see the hooded guy again. After 15 minutes of ride, he was home changed to his shorts, laid on bed, thinking of how exquisite Vedika was looking that evening and soon he was in a deep sleep.
Everything was fine now and a fortnight passed. Its now Diwali and everyone was busy with decorations. Keshav, Aayan and Raghav had gone to their native towns for celebrations. Vedika and Aamir stayed back in Delhi and decided to celebrate with Ananaya and Viraj. The spent the whole night bursting crackers, roaming on streets in Viraj’s Car and finally sitting on roof of Aamir’s building talking about life. It was now 2Am and they had a couple of beers in when Aamir suggested that now they should go home. Viraj dropped Ananaya and Vedika home and went to his house.
The next morning Aamir woke up at around 8 am. It was a misty day. Fog can be seen at a distance sun peeping through not so dense fog. Cool breeze blew across Aamir’s face as he opened the window. He took bath and slipped into pajamas and sweatshirt and went out to roam the streets. He was thinking about the dreams he was having a few days back and the mysterious man who used to follow him. After roaming around for about 20 minutes was at the place where the hooded guy was standing on the night of Viraj’s birthday, remembering those shining eyes peeping into the car he was standing on the exact location where he was, staring at ground. He stood there for a couple of minutes then headed back towards his home.
On his way back he was awestruck by the mess last night has made but he already had a lot to worry about. ‘Where has he gone? Why I suddenly stopped having dreams? Had the killer got caught?’ he murmured to himself. He was really bothered what might have happened to the hooded guy, when  suddenly a voice he heard,
‘Aamir? Isn’t it?’
Aamir turned to look who it was. And he saw the person he would have expected least at such a time. It was Vikram, the party planner. He nodded and said, ‘Vikram?’ In a very friendly tone Vikram said,
‘Thinking about me, you were. Weren’t you?’
‘Not actually.’ Said Aamir.
‘Yes you were, trust me.’
Aamir looked confused and said, ‘Excuse me?’
Vikram turned his back towards Aamir and wore on his hood. At once Aamir was wide-eyed, stubborn, and taken aback.
In a shivering voice staring directly into his eyes now and asked, ‘Who on the earth are you ?’
There was an awkward silence for a couple of minutes and Aamir was still shivering, tears of fright rolled down his cheeks and he felt extremely weak as his worst nightmare has just come true. He came back to his senses when an arm curled itself around his waist and Vikram started to laugh,
‘Toldya! We were destined to meet again.’
And he started to walk with Aamir now almost melt on his shoulders.