High School Romance Revisited

Chapter 19 - The Practice

There was a strange silence that was disturbing my sleep. I felt very uncomfortable as if something was pinching me. This feeling only happened when I slept somewhere else other than my bedroom. Be it hotel or a friend's place this feeling sometimes poked me.

I slowly opened my eyes and frowned. I know I had the best sleep in years but why was Chitra staring at me with a wide grin. "You know the best sleeps I ever had was either after making out or smoking joint. Which one was it for you?"

When finally I started to figure out that this was Chitra's room I tried to get up but a sudden throbbing inside my head stopped me midway. "Both!" I muttered.

"Seriously? But whom did you made out with?" a curious Chitra jumped up from the chair and settled herself on the bed. Before she could ask any more questions Rai burst into the room with a glass. "Come on drink this, it works magic on hangover!"

In that moment I would even take a poison to get rid of that headache. I somehow managed to grab it from her hand and drank it in one go and immediately regretted the action. Whatever she fed me was horrendous! "yuck!" I was about to puke but Chitra shut my mouth with a towel, "oh no darling! Don't even think of forcing it out. The only thing that's going to come out from your mouth is the missing part of last night. So that solution stays inside."

It took me few hours and a long cold bath to get back my senses. When I was finally sober Chitra and Rai started their interrogation.

"Deepa, what is going on? Mahen? You kissed him? Why?" After I narrated the last night's event Chitra was more concerned than furious. Rai looked disturbed but not shocked. I had thought they will be angry but they stared at me with deep concern.

"You are in deep shit," Chitra said. I nodded. After a long silence Rai spoke, "Well, whatever is happening needs to stop," she glanced at both of us and then continued looking at me, "don't get me wrong. I am not against this. But I strongly think that before you jump into anything with that Ganguly, first clear it out in your head. And just be honest."

"Deepa, there's a lot of topics that needs to be raised between you two. This is not high school anymore. Gone are the days when we kept hiding things because we were scared. We are adults now, I think whatever be the discussion you can go through it," Chitra had a point. I have to speak up. This was high time but what if–

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock. Elora came inside searching for us, "Everyone's ready, let's go!"

"What ready?" I asked. Chitra gasped, "don't tell me you forgot!"

Now what did I forget?

"Oh god Chitra, cut the drama!" Rai pushed her out of the bed, "Deepa, it's her sangeet rehearsals today. Get up, let's go downstairs, all our friends are waiting in the main hall."

"What? That practice was supposed to start today?" I hurriedly got down from the bed and searched for a spare slipper. Chitra always kept those for us. When I followed them to the main hall my eyes shot up! What the fuck?

"Chitra, you have literally asked everyone to dance!?" I whispered. Apart from our gang some of Chitra's cousins too were here. The hall was packed with about thirty people who looked as clueless as me. As I scanned the hall my eyes met Mahen's and automatically volcanic eruptions started inside my head so I quickly turned away.

Koushik was as usual pulling Chitra's leg and Rai stared at the group trying to figure out how she was going to choreograph non-dancers and dancers together.

"Am I the only one who is excited for this practice?" I turned to see Manish making a grand entrance with arms wide open and a big smile on his face.