Leaves on the Street of the Duncan Road.

Chapter 6: The Dusk.

Nobody slept at night. We were constantly practicing, weed playing with our mind, colors of our house changing, our songs became illusions, and we knew we weren't dreaming, nobody knew this was coming our way, a gig performed by us, with random songs, which have illogical lyrics and baseless emotions.
7:54 in the morning, we decided to take a walk, our minds were so fucked by this point of time. Das was sleeping, and she was looking beautiful, her hair on her face, her eyelashes so mysterious, as if hiding something from me, the sun rays kissing her gently and a smile on her face, that smile could brighten up Kamathipura.
I closed the door slowly and made sure she didn't get up. 
"What if this ends up being really bad?",asked Drish, with pain in his voice.
"We'll never know unless we perform",answered Subash.
I lighted a cigarette.
"I don't think I can do it.",said Drish.
"Don't be silly, we'll be there with you.",said Neil.
"I know, but you're not singing, I am.", taunted Drish.
"Fuck off, I'm on the guitar.",said Subash.
"Guys, can we not talk? We'll see what happens, we'll face it together, we have no other option, we'll fucking nail it, just shut it for now.", I said.
Nobody replied to what I said, but by looking at their face, I knew they were convinced. We have a seat at Chacha's tapri and sip our hot cup of chai. Chit chatted with Chacha and called him at our gig with his wife and maybe his children, three, three children, yes.
When we got back home, Das was awake, she was watching some kind of documentary, I suppose, didn't ask her. Neil eventually changed the channel and we got ourselves engaged in watching Sarfarosh. All of us skipped lunch and instead drank a lot of rum, Das paid!
I wore a blue t-shirt, which Mayuri gave me and a random pair of jeans, it was really dirty though, it needed a wash but I wore it any way. All of us were wearing blue and Kabya was wearing red, a red t-shirt tucked in her high waisted jeans, with her hair in a really messy bun, her lips covered in a burgundy colored lipstick and on her eyelids were perfectly smudged shades of brown with a dark stroke of black eyeliner, she paired that look with some nice silver jewelry and she was looking breathtaking.
The gig was supposed to start at 9 pm, we were there by 6 pm, checking if everything was fine, I met Veer there and we shared a conversation. Veer lived nearby so we went to his house and drank some more rum (Das carried the bottle in her purse!) It was 8 pm and we had a little pep talk. We discussed everything, and how we'll manage to change the songs, the lyrics and some basic crap. This could take us to the sky or be good for nothing, all of us were really tensed, so we smoked some weed, weed made me feel confident, and a better version of myself, that's so cliché, but honestly!
Das told us that there was not much crowd, there were a lot of guys, all young, some with girls and some alone, I didn't like 'funkiness' but these were the only people who showed up, Chacha was there too with his wife and children. There were around 10/20 people and I wasn't happy about it. All my school friends and college friends knew about it and there was nobody I knew, just Chacha. Sad, I know.
It was 9 pm, we had an awkward group hug and we were ready to roll. The crowd was not energetic, it was boring, but as soon as we played 'Our KD' which was dedicated to Das, everybody joined in, everybody started swaying, losing their souls to the moon, clapping and waving, guys and girls making out, holding hands and dancing to the beat, a guy who was alone lighted his cigarette and was singing with the rest of the crowd, Chacha was clapping, his children were too young, but they were dancing, and in the crowd, I spotted Mayuri, in a plain black kurti, pairing it with a denim jacket, with a boho neckpiece on her neck, her hair left open and a pair of shorts, I remember we bought that from Linking Road, Bandra, she was smiling, she was alone. My world turned upside down, all these emotions running through my body, tears in my eyes, my eyes turning red, my mind creating illusions, for a moment, I went blank, I didn't know what to do! I went numb. I saw Das in the crowd and she understood something was up, she gave a gentle smile, and gave me a thumbs up. That worked on me, I don't know something in Das always made me happy, made me feel warm, made me feel myself, I continued singing rest of our songs, one, dedicated to Mayuri, 'That Walk' she knew it was for her, she was blushing, she was taking a walk down the memory lane, I knew it. We switched to Led Zeppelin, and a lot of people joined us, now there were 40-50 people, singing, dancing, drinking, smoking, making out and feeling happy! After our performance was over, Mayuri gave me a sign to meet her backstage. The whole crowd went crazy on how this turned out to be, Kabya came on the stage and kissed Subash, I shouted 'Until next time' and left, I needed a smoke, I was happy on how this turned out to be, there were less people, but the energy eventually grew, I was happy but also tensed about what was gonna happen with Mayuri.
I have a smoke and find her standing with a bottle of beer.
"Hey",she started the conversation.
"What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to see you"
"Oh? Um"
"Yes, I know these couple of months haven't been the best for both of us, but I just want to tell you that I still love you"
"No, you don't. You don't. You don't. You love him, you're gonna marry that bastard, how dare you come up to me and tell me all this?"
"I'm not marrying him",she said this and came closer to me, took my hand and kissed it.
"Huh? What? Why?"
"Because I love you, Aaryan"
"Don't ever say that again",I withdraw my hand, and take a step behind.
"That's the truth, Aaryan. I want you to trust me"
"I won't trust you. You are a bitch, you slut, you left me for that guy, do you have any idea how all this time I've needed you? Only you. When I was crying, you were spreading your legs for that asshole"
"I know you're high right now and you don't seem to process all of this but please think about it, don't you remember all the time we've spent together? All our moments? All our walks? All our beach dates? The time when we sang 'Kabhi Kabhi' on the road? The time when we walked in Colaba, hand in hand? The time when we made out at Hill Road in front of hundred people? The time when we didn't eat anything for days and just drink Teacher's? The time when we had sex in the movie theater, while watching 'Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani'? How can you forget all this? How?"
"I haven't. But no, not anymore. I'm done with you, you always fuck me up, fuck my mind, I can't stand you anymore"
"Aaryan!",she shouted as I left her alone in the dark of the night. I didn't meet anybody and left, left for a walk to Girgaon Chowpatty. I walked under the moonlight, with a cigarette in my hand, so many questions in my mind, so many answers lost inside me, I felt like I was drowning, I was looking at my shoes, laughing at myself, counting my footsteps, humming Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, waiting for someone to hold my hand, waiting for her give me a hug, waiting, waiting, maybe that's how I'll die. The words "I be home soon soon soon
Soon cry on your shoulder
Your shoulder against my burning tears
Tears of a waiting man
One two three four one two three
I wait every moment
I wait, wait for my chance
I wait for my friend to say
Hello, you waiting man" by King Crimson were all of a sudden so relatable. I didn't know what time it was because I left my watch at Veer's pad.
I'm sitting on the sand, lighting my sixth cigarette, looking at the water, I sat there for a long period of time, my packet was over. I walked back home and saw everybody waiting for me inside, by now, I guess everybody knew my routine, my ritual.
"What went wrong?", asked Das, she kept her head on my shoulder.
"Nothing",I replied.
"Aaryan, I met her",said Subash.
"Great"
"No, tell us what happened between you two"
I told them what happened and they told me not to trust her again, that's not what I wanted to hear, but that was the truth, I couldn't afford to trust her, again. Subash told me that they had a small conversation. A conversation about me, indeed. They fixed my mood and we opened a bottle of champagne on our success. This time, Drish paid, more like, Kabya made him pay. It was 6:18 am when we started drinking and I remember sleeping on Neil's shoulder at around 10.
I woke up at 6 pm, everybody were up, watching CID and making fun of the show. I had a cup of chai and got involved with them. At night, Veer decided to come over, we were making Maggi for dinner, Veer told us how everybody loved our show, he talked to someone and got us another show, I was really content after hearing that, I loved our performance and didn't mind doing it again. It was Monday, our next show was scheduled on Saturday. We had enough time to practice, to invite people, to make connections, to write new songs and to listen to new music. We started working on Tuesday, we came up with a song 'Maybe' it was a song about drugs, sex and a bit about betrayal. Drish practiced his vocals, Subash had his guitar, Neil practiced drumming and I came up with new songs, Kabya was in charge of making chai. For dinner, we ordered some butter chicken and naan on phone with a good amount of beer. Trust me, GOOD. Wednesday and Thursday went pretty much the same, but I fell sick, didn't write much and visited the doctor with Neil and Subash. On Friday, Veer came to meet us with this tall handsome guy, I could tell by Kabya's face that she was into him, leave Kabya but Drish told me in the kitchen how this guy was really good looking, I just laughed at him, what else am I supposed to do?
His name was Aditya Chauhan and was signing us a contract, we were to be paid for performing four gigs in a month, every Sunday at the same place, we were getting 16,000 for a month. EACH! Four thousand for each gig, I don't think that's a bad deal. The contract was for six months and we were called The Skulls, our band was known as The Skulls.

It's been a couple of months, and we have started to record new music in a studio, we are paying our rent on time, and have started to live quite a good life. Drugs, sex and dope music, the funk is in Bombay and isn't gonna leave us. Something really cool is in store for Neil, what is it? And what happens to Drish, all of a sudden? What about Das and Subash? Do I like Das? Am I over Mayuri? I don't know. Keep reading!
- Aaryan Ahuja.