on to someone.” For the first time since I met him, I saw an aging man with a broken heart.
“When you are young and heartbroken, you easily decide that you’ll live alone all your life. Trust me it doesn’t feel good to be alone at my age, so... take your time to heal your heart, but someday, when love knocks on your door, open it!” He said as he got up from his chair.
“Okay? now enough of the storytelling. You go to sleep and I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said and walked away into the darkness of the silent white sand beach.
I sat between the dancing fairy lights hung all over the resort feeling the cool breeze and listening to sounds of the sea. What Awesome said made perfect sense, but at that moment, I just wanted to be alone.
Give yourself some time, you’ll survive, I told myself.
The new year’s eve party at Trinity was a glamorous affair. Awesome had converted the whole resort into a dance floor; six DJs that he flew down from Amsterdam created euphoria with their music while skimpily dressed sexy models serving alcohol at bar counters located at every hundred feet made sure people got drunk. A huge digital clock showed the time. Awesome kept a watch on his party with the security head from the gallery built beside the DJs’ console. Either it was the party or there was something about Goa that made otherwise shy girls go wild smooching and hugging random strangers when it hit midnight. The boys and I were dancing with one such group of girls.
After three hours of dancing, we took the girls to our room for a joint session which ultimately ended up in six bodies sexually romping in pairs of two. Shashank took the huge bed with his Delhi girl, Raghu took the smaller spare bed with the Delhi girl’s US return friend, and I took the couch with a little plump Firang friend, of the friend, of the Delhi girl. As horny teenagers we had wished for an orgy, but I never thought it would actually ever happen, at least after meeting Hrida. A while later, I realised that the firang tongue wagging inside my mouth had disappeared and I opened my eyes to see the girl kissing Raghu. I almost puked at the thought of the same tongue slobbering our mouths at the same time. Swaying and swinging, I left the room.
An hour later, Shashank and Raghu found me on the beach.
“Come hither my love, let my lips kiss you,” Raghu said as he fell on me trying to hold my face. Shashank jumped on us and we began to laugh.
“Do you realise we kind of kissed each other?” I said grimacing.
“But why the fuck would you guys kiss the same girl?” Shashank said as he got up.
“Because I don’t like copulating with dead bodies,” Raghu yapped. “Bloody dork started snoring half-way man,” he said while we guffawed. “Anyway this moron was going nowhere beyond first base, so I jumped in.”
“Oh fuck you, I just gave her up for you,” I said.
“My girl knew her stuff man… pure pleasure,” Shashank boasted.
“Seriously speaking, I don’t think I’ll be ever able to sleep with anybody else,” I said. “I keep seeing her every time I’m making out.”
“Poncho, lose the cheesy crap, man, its freaking me out now,” Raghu said slurring.
“I love her, man!”
“It’s been around three months now, and she is gone .” The last part of Raghu’s sentence hit me bitterly, but I stayed quiet.
“You are not the only guy who has been in love and has got his heart broken,” Shashank said.
“Ah, this coming from you a guy who simply broke a girl’s heart just because you ‘thought’ you were incompatible.”
“Oh come on, don’t you lecture me over Neha now.”
“You just deserted her without trying. Very convenient; you’ll be cursed.”
“Cursed?? Arjun, what is wrong with you man! You seriously need to go see a shrink, there is nothing like a curse. Hrida is gone, and she is never coming back. She is probably dating somebody already or preparing to get married,” Raghu’s words were
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