Black Out: Part 2

Varun replied in the affirmative and started getting ready. He was already ecstatic that they were having their first date in ‘The Geisha’, a trendy South Delhi Restaurant and Lounge. He had dreamt of taking Priya to that place, but if she did not have the eye for great guys, like Natasha, it really was her fault. He told himself that he was not gonna drink anything , because he wanted to remember their rendezvous tonight. He already thought of a plan to tell his parents how he was going to fill up a form online of an university at Sunny’s house as the University was in US, the time to fill it was also according to US time zone. It was a lame excuse but he knew it could work, because it involved admission into a University.

He called Sunny to tell him of his excuse at home but he was more ecstatic to tell him his last night sexcapades! Sunny picked up,

"Haan bhai, kya kar diya tune aisa jo hum log 3 saal mae nahi kar paye?”

Varun then went on to tell whatever Robbie had told him.

“Oye hoye , Kamaal kar ditta … Panty faad ke rumaal .. Haan beta tabhi dekhu, pehle tera phone aaya raat ko, tab main phone utha nahi paya, maine call back kiya to Natasha nae uthaya, boli tu busy hai. Mujhe kuch samajh nahi aaya, tujhe dhunda to dekha kee Natasha tujhe kheech ke kahi le ja rahi hai. Ab samajh mae aaya kee baat kya thee!”

They chit chatted for some more time, sunny asked for more explicit details but Varun skirted the issue saying that he wasn’t the type of guy who would kiss and tell. Sunny hung up saying he would come back tomorrow and meet up with him.

Varun dressed up his best and reached The Geisha at 9.30, trying to be fashionably late. As he was about to make his stylish entry he was obstructed by a black mountain, he looked up to realize it was the bouncer who mumbled “Entry by invitation only”. He asked to him to look up Varun Sharma in Natasha’s guest list but he said there was no Varun Sharma in anybody’s guest list. Frustrated he decided to call Natasha and explained it to her that he was stuck outside. She said she was coming out. “How sweet”, he thought, “she was coming out to take me arm in arm. Natasha is definitely the better choice.”

She came out dressed in some serious designer wear, even her shoes looked like more expensive than his entire family fortune. He said ’Hi’ in his well rehearsed ‘smooth latin lover style’. “Ya tell me quickly what you wanted to know about last night. I think you don’t remember anything you did last night.” She said very curtly. This was not the reaction Varun was expecting.

“Ummm…. Ya I don’t… I was a little high… What exactly happened last night? Can we go in and talk?”

“No, I have friends and cousins from abroad waiting for me inside. And especially after how you behaved in my party last night, you should be thankful I am letting you inside 10 feet of me! Now hurry up, ask what you wanna ask.”

“Huh? What … What did I do last night?”

“Oh you forgot? How convenient? Well let me jog your memory. You got very drunk on the free booze, then you started harassing the girls out there, you even tried to hug some girl from behind, you became such a big nuisance that I had to literally pull you from the party. And if that wasn’t enough, you puked, on yourself. Oh god how disgusting it was! I had to call Robbie to get you out of your clothes and put you on bed in one of my rooms. You ruined the whole night for me!”

“But I… I am sorry but I don’t remember… Oh shit … Look I am so sorry …. I was sad about something and I had drunk a lot…”

“Well not my problem. Now that college is over, there is no need of showing me your face ever again”

“But Robbie told me something else last night and I … I don’t remember puking …”

“What did Robbie tell you? And of course you don’t remember, you don’t remember anything from last night”

“Well Robbie said that last night you and me … Like … You know … We … we got together … As in…”

“What? How could you even imagine something like that might happen? I would rather die than do something like that with you. Robbie told you this? That sick bastard!”

“But … But I had called you last night … And Robbie too last night, he said I asked him for a ... And you even left your Accord waiting for me to drop me home today morning. And I had this women’s perfume on me”

“Oh so it was you who happily took the ride in Accord, well that was for my Cousin Varun from The States who had also stayed back there in the night. He was stranded there for an hour and I almost fired my driver! And you tried to molest many girls out there, who knows where you got the perfume from?”

“But why did I call you and Robbie?”

“You didn’t, I did… When you puked on yourself I called Robbie to help me out from your cell. My phone was with him.”

“Oh … Look I am so sorry… I didn’t realize what was I doing last night.. I swear I don’t remember any of this… Shit… But why did Robbie say something like that? And do you recognize this no?” Varun showed her the weird number he had dialed the last that night.
Natasha took a glance at the number and said“ Nope, never seen it before. Who knows what were you trying to do last night? And about Robbie. He did that because he is a sick bastard! He thought playing this prank you would be funny! Now I have friends waiting for me inside, so if you could please .. Get lost!”

“And yes, if you remember anything at all from last night have the decency to call back immediately and apologize”

Varun felt like he fell from a ten storey building. Minutes ago he could not believe his good luck, now he was not able to believe his bad luck. Making a scene at the farewell party, getting that much drunk, trying to hug some girl, puking? His chances were over at this college, not only with Priya or Natasha but with every girl in the college and their friends. Ha had had black outs many times before but he had never done something like this before. Maybe it was because of Priya showing up with a date and he trying to enact ‘Dev D’ at the party with the Smirnoff bottle.

As much he wanted to deny this scenario he realized that this was far more plausible than him sleeping with Natasha especially after the way she behaved with him. Coming back from the ‘The Geisha’ he started to think that new scenario explains everything too, the calls, Sunny’s message, the waking up naked, , the women’s perfume, the stench and the supposed sweet behavior of Natasha towards him. When Sunny had seen him with Natasha he must have not realized that she was not trying to drag him to bed but instead dragging him away from other people in the party.

He was very embarrassed, but more than that he feared two things, first was facing Priya, no wonder she was not replying, she must have heard about him. And secondly telling Sunny that whatever he told him was a prank played on him by Robbie, he hated that asshole even more now. He couldn’t sleep the whole night trying to remember what had happened last night and what was this number he had dialed, he had dialed it again and it had come up that this number did not exist.

The next day Sunny came at his house at 2 o’ clock. He was still in bed, he had told his mom he was sick, which he actually felt at the moment. Sunny came in and jumped on the bed.

“Abey abhi tak bed mae hee hai? Aisa kya kiya Natasha baby ke saath kee abhi tak thaka hua hee hai? Ya fir kal raat fir ‘ding dong’?”

“Tabiyat theek nahi lag rahi ha yaar, aur Natasha koi meri baby waby nahi hai”

“Abey kya hua? Do hee din mae takraar, ye kaisa pyaar?”

“Arey usi ke baare mae main terese baat karna chahta tha, jaisa maine tujhe kal bataya tha raat ko waisa kuch nahi hua…. Robbie saale nae mujhe Chutiya banaya tha… Saala kal raat ko bahut bura hua tere bhaai ke saath ….

Then he went on to explain ‘the real story’ what Natasha had told him. Sunny fell off the bed laughing, after laughing at him for what seemed like an eternity he said,

“Ab samajh mae aaya kee Natasha tujhe kahan le ja rahi thee, aur usne ye kyun bola kee tu busy hai. Tu Ulti karne mae busy tha ! Ha ha ha ha…” Sunny started laughing again when he realized that Varun wasn’t thinking it was funny.

“Chal bhul ja kaake jo hua, waise bhi tujhe un logo se ab kaunsa milna hai. Aage kee soch”

"Arey yaar yaad to mujhe waise bhi kuch nahi hai, par yaar mujhe kuch cheezen samajh mae nahi aa rahi, ye number dekh aur bata kee kya ye tere samajh mae aata hai kya?” Varun showed him the number.

Sunny shook his head and said “Nahi to, na to ye number landline ka hai na hee mobile ka, apni tharak mae kisi sex line ko to nahi mila diya tha tune? Aur saale aisa hee ek message tune mujhe bhi bheja tha kal raat ko”

Sunny showed him the message sent to him on the farewell night. It was a random string of numbers.
‘77766622444330…….’

Varun couldn’t make out the head or tail of the number string, after staring at it for 5 minutes he gave up and said “Pata nahi bhenchod raat ko nashe mae maine kya kya kara yaar”

Sunny’s face hardened and he said in a serious tone “Yaar tujhe daaru peeke kuch yaad nai rehta ye mujhe pata hai, lekin tune kabhi aisa kuch nahi kiya ye bhi mujhe pata hai, pata nahi parson raat ko tujhe kya hua. Mereko lagta hai ye sab kaam kharab Priya ke us bande ke saath aane ke kaaran hua tha, main tereko kaha bhi tha kee ho sakta hai wo uske saath jo dusri chinky bandi thee ho sakta hai uska boyfriend ho, lekin tu mana nahi. Bekaar mae mood kharab karke daaru peene laga tha itni. Tereko yaad hai parson tu pura ek Smirnoff ka quarter neat pee gaya tha direct botal se?”

Varun faintly remembered that. Anyways he was in no mood to analyze what all he had done last to last night. He just wanted to move on and look towards things in the future. He discussed some other things with Sunny for a few hours and then Sunny got up to leave, as he was leaving he suddenly turned back and said

“Yaar waise to maine hee kaha tha kee parson ke baare mae baat nahi karenge lekin tune kaha kee Robbie aaya tere kapde utarne aur tujhe sulaane ke liye, par wo to party se nikal gaya tha raat ko dhaai - teen baje. In his new Audi Q7 ‘BOSS’”

“Boss? Ye kaunsa model hai Audi Q7 ka?”

“Abey model nahi, gaadi ka number tha – 8055, ‘BOSS’. Kya sexy gaadi thee yaar, itni sexy kee uske saath jo sexy bandi thee main to uski shakal tak nahi dekhi”

“Sexy bandiyon shakal to tu waise bhi kabhi nahi dekhta hai”

Both started laughing after this and Sunny left.

Varun much relieved after talking to Sunny and tried to forget the farewell night’s incident. But the last lines Sunny had said got stuck in his head. “8055, Where have I seen this number recently” he kept on thinking. Then suddenly it flashed to him - ‘8055’ these were the last 4 digits of the number he had dialed ’3555122278055’!

to be continued ....