When you Say Goodbye

One Truth

"Let's play a drinking game," Manav called out, he had been staying in Madison, Wisconsin for last three years and he had to come to his cousin's housewarming party cause it just two hours driving.

"We are grown up adults, we should play something else," said Arjun.

"Let's play 'two truths and a lie," Manav's wife Vedika piped in. "That always yields some interesting confessions."

"What could anyone possibly confess," asked Aditi, "that we don't know about each other already?"

"I never understood that game," Dhruv grumbled quietly to himself.

"Of course you do," Vedika said. "The idea is to bury an embarrassing confession to a series of implausible statements. The more implausible the lie, the more implausible the confession."

Arjun nudged Aditi's shoulder and leaned closer. The proximity of their body did not help Aditi, but it only started to flush her cheeks.

"You don't have to play if you don't want to," he whispered in Aditi's ear.

"No. I think it'll be fun," Aditi said, nudging him back. Arjun gave her a half smile before responding to Manav. "So how do we play?"

Manav strutted into the center of the circle, addressing everyone as if he was the proof the game.

"It's simple. You say three things about yourself or your life. Whatever, and one of them has to be a lie. We will try to guess which one is the lie and if we get it wrong..." he, said as he grabbed the bottle of cola from the table.

"We have to drink."

He glanced at Arjun who gave him a chuckled. "Like I am saying. you don't have to play."

"Yes, he will play," Aditi insisted with a twinkle in her dark eyes.

"No. It's cool. I wanna play!"

"That's like my Arjun Bhai," Ditiya grinned. "Listen, I'll go first and show you all how it's done. Since we all know each other pretty well. You can't give any hints." she said, pointing to the rest of the circle. She paced back and forth, tapping her cheek with a finger in thought.

"I speak four languages. I lost my virginity to someone in this room, and emm... I have a mole just above my belly button." Ditiya declared proudly. Everyone looked at Aditi almost at once, putting her on the spot.

"What? I just say which one I think is the lie?" She asked to stall for time.

"Yup," Her one other cousin sister replied with her hands on her hips. "Which one do you think it was?"

She glanced to Ditiya for help, giving her sister a cute poured face elbow in she wouldn't give her a clue. All of the options seemed weird for her. So she opted for the one she considered impossible.

"You didn't lose your virginity to someone in this room," I said slowly.

"Nope!" She swiftly unzipped her sweatshirt and lifted her top till her belly button and there was no mole.

"Wahe Guru, Ditiya," Vedika laughed beside her husband. "Any excuse to before you taking off your clothes."

Dhruv's cheek managed to grow hot, gut twisting. And oh god, did she just declared that Ditiya lost her virginity to him? He needed to leave this game, get some fresh air, and call Shreya.

Aditi looked a little displeased, and said, "you lost your virginity?"

"If you say so, Di," Ditiya said, shrugging. Dhruv caught the smirk on her face, and he didn't know whether he would rather slap her or kiss her.