The Guy with the Handkerchief

XI: The Chat

22:00 Hrs, On the Streets

Looking into the text from Shreya, Arindam forgot to book the cab. He probably walked down a couple of mile to reach my house just chatting on the phone.

Arindam: It's nothing Shreya, stop embarrassing me more.

Shreya: Have you realised something? Since the time we have met, we have been talking about everything regardless of the fact that we hardly know each other.

Arindam: Yeah! You didn't give me the scope to ask you what you do for a living.

Shreya: Hahaha!!! I am an English Honours student here at St. Xaviers University. 1st Year. And what about you.

Arindam: English Honours. Awesome. Few of my friends too are at Xaviers. As for me, I am a computer guy. Boring Engineers. Jadavpur University. We do everything other than studying about computers. Hehehe!!!

Shreya: What are you saying? One can't be more nerdy than an English Honours student. But you can help me out with setting up my PC at my house. Actually my house is still in a mess. Am unsure of what to do without help. And since we are friends now, Umm... I hope we are... you can probably help me out. Will you?

Shreya wants us to be friends? Does she want me to be her friend or the 'gay me' to be her friend? Maybe the second one.

Arindam: Oh yeah sure. I would love to help. And yeah we are friends, you don't need to doubt that.

Shreya: Okay Arindam. I have reached home and I am pretty tired.

Arindam: Oh Okay. Get some sleep. Good night.

Shreya: Good Night. Take Care. Bye.

When Arindam looked away from his mobile screen after the chat, he found himself just fifteen minutes away from my house. When he reached my house, it was already midnight.

He rung the bell. When I opened the door, I was shocked to see him.

"Arindam? What are you doing here. Its so late. Come on in.", I told him. "How was your potential date? I see you still are in the same dress. Did you not go to your house?"

"Abhay, have so much to talk to you about. I called my mom and told her that I am staying with you tonight.", Arindam softly said.

"Arey yaar, I am so happy. Just like old days. Come on in. Wait let me give you some comfortable pajamas of mine for the night.", I ran to my wardrobe to give him a pair of clothes. He changed and we sat together to talk.

"Arindam, do you want beer?", I whispered him.

"Beer? Now? Where will you get it from?", Arindam whispered back.

"I have it in stock, in our secret storeroom upstairs.", I confirmed.

My parents were deep asleep as we escalated silently to the terrace. My terrace was like our heaven. We had so many memories there since our childhood. From discussing our first crushes to exchanging porn videos. From my first hookup to my first breakup. This terrace has seen it all. And only one person had always been a part of all these incidents, Arindam. However, since we started our college life, terrace visits had become seldom, almost none to be honest. This was probably the only place which had seen us cry, laugh, get angry and experienced all the other emotions which were most of the times not allowed by us to express in public.

I passed Arindam a beer can and as we boozed, Arindam narrated his whole experience at the restaurant. I was baffled by Shreya's interesting assumption and was unable to analyse the situation.

"Listen Bro, What I feel right now is that I somehow need to make her realise that I am a completely straight person and I am not into men.", Arindam seemed worried.

"Arindam, I am not sure what your destiny is written as. But as much as I can see it,you are on the verge of getting 'FRIENDZONED'. If you reveal to her right now that you are not Gay, I am pretty sure you will be friendzoned immediately. However, you can really avoid the situation if you just pretend to be Gay. I mean, true that you will still be considered to be a good friend of hers but that would not be 'Friendzone'. That would be being the 'Gay Best Friend of a Girl', Both are very different things.", I explained.

"I guess you are right, Abhay. But I am not sure for how much long I would have to pretend.", Arindam exclaimed.

"Tell me something Arindam, why do you have to pretend atall? What do you find in her so intriguing? Cos the way you were describing her, it clearly showed you have started getting feelings for her.", I asked him.

"I guess, I really don't know. I just find her magical. Will have to explore more to find this out!", Arindam said with a sigh and a smile on his face.