Chapter 35: The Pact Joints
Veena’s mind was still recovering from all the happy memories from the brief history and before she could control it, her mind dived right into the territory of doubt. Maybe she didn’t love Anand. Maybe it was the pot. Maybe it was the alcohol. Or was it actually Anand? That was exactly when her mind blurted out loud enough for it to resonate inside her skull: He Kartricked you. You were dumber than that Electronics girl who works a boring IT job! You fell for it. Veena’s dilated pupils contracted to focus on Anand, who was still painfully trying to finish Avantika’s dumb grape-flavoured cigarette.
— “What?” The lines on his forehead got firmer with his question.
— “You…”
— “What?”
— “Okay, seriously…” Thankfully, Seher interrupted the two. “If either of you is going to spiral, dragging the other one with you into a cage match, let it be on the record that I am not playing.” Her eyes scanned her small bag as her hand explored its depth for a single cigarette she had tossed in there.
— “What are we playing?” Anuj, along with Kartik, just reached where Anand and the girls were standing. “Any of you carrying tissues, wet wipes?” He had pulled off his glasses. His face was still sticky with the drying orange juice.
— “You failed to commit, didn’t you?” Avantika smirked as she handed him a packet of wet wipes.
On receiving a stinker text from Ishani, Anuj had called her, asking her to see him in the building atrium and Kartik decided to wait with him. And as Seher had predicted, he did get a drink thrown in his face. A screwdriver to be more precise, with the words: “That was fucking insensitive, Anuj!”
— “Nobody is playing anything. Good that we are all here.” Veena opened the car door. “Seher, let’s go.”
— “Hey, hey, hey… Where are you guys going?” Kartik’s brain was now bearing the burden of not one but two crises.
— “Tsk. For a drive, we’ll see you at the next party.”
— “And what are we doing?” He turned to Anand, hoping that his answer would make more sense for a party night.
— “We are going for a walk, buddy.”
— “Nobody is going anywhere.” Anuj worked the wet wipes on his skin like a girl cleansing the foundation off her skin before calling it a night.
— “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Seher was this close to socking Anuj in the face.
— “Nobody is going anywhere till we roll a joint each for the two factions of the gang.” Anuj pulled out the tiny plastic bag of hash from his coin pocket. Something about Anuj’s diva actions⁶⁶ provided a certain authority to his statement.
— “Not the time for it, Anuj.” Veena tried the pacifist route, knowing well that Seher’s brute force would not work against Anuj.
— “I don’t care. You guys have been whining about your love lives all day. I just died in there.” He paused for emphasis. “For the second time tonight. I couldn’t have died in there. It did not seem possible when I had just arrived here. I couldn’t have died in there without all of you.” (Avantika coughed.) Anuj corrected himself. “I couldn’t have died in there without Avantika. She’s psycho. Also, these are not your average joints. These are pact joints. By rolling these and taking one each, we are making a pact that we will see each other at the next party. No matter what.”
— “Chupp! Don’t be stupid. Veena just needs to clear her head up. The events of this evening have been a bit of a shock for her.”
— “Oh yeah? What about Anand here? He tossed his entire life out there and literally put it at her foot, in the middle of a party.” Kartik’s pitch was high as he looked at Veena, while avoiding any kind of eye contact with her.
— “See, this is the game I was refusing to play. Can’t we just agree to give this a couple of hours?”
— “But, but…” Kartik was stopped by Anand’s palm which weighed down on his shoulder.
Veena was trying to think of Fevicol ads because she didn’t want to end up dragging Kartik in the middle of this, which she knew would happen if she blurted her “Kartricked” accusation out loud. Seher and her stared at Avantika because she was busy rolling with Anuj. Both of them were working on two separate joints.
— “What? Niyati said this wasn’t a bad idea.”
— “Also, I have to die once more before midnight. And if there is one thing I have learnt tonight, it is that I cannot die without you guys.”
— “Fine.”
— “Fast.”
— “Do you need roaches?”
— “Why do my palms smell of mango?” Kartik made everyone laugh with this observation as he sniffed his palms once again just to be sure.
— “That’s just my body butter that rubbed off on them when you yanked me off Anuj.”
— “Oh. Smells nice.”
After that, the gang just stood there, next to the car. Anand and Kartik had their butts pushed against the edge of the hood, with their arms folded, making it a comparative study in the size of their biceps. Veena stood with her fingers stuffed into the door lock, waiting to click it open. Seher, who was halfway to the driver’s side, returned to hop backwards to sit on the hood, putting the two boys between Veena and her. Anuj and Avantika were busy crushing the maal, like preachers from the “Monastery of Party”, silently murmuring prayers for the other four while counting beads in their palms.
After both the pact joints were lit, the gang waited till the joints had done one circle each before returning to Anuj and Avantika. The girls got into the car, drove deeper into the lane till they turned around at its end, right below Prajapati’s building. The guys walked towards the exit end of the lane. Seher slowed the car down when she neared the guys. Veena brushed her hand against Anand’s. He smiled as he watched the car and Veena’s waving hand turn left and go out of sight.
— “We don’t have any booze.” Kartik kicked a pre-littered empty can of beer into the open manhole on the lane. It missed the manhole but thankfully hit a compound wall and fell right into the gutter below it.
— “We do have as much hash as we want.”
— “We are fucked.” Anand patted his pockets to check if he had any cigarettes. He knew he wasn’t carrying any but shock can make people regress.
— “Fine, we have quite a bit of weed as well.” Anuj saw Anand give him one of his finest glares. “Anand, I am at a phase in life, where I am not exactly sure if there is such a thing as a great love story. Or even just a love story. Or even just love. Or even just a story.” He passed the pact joint to Anand. “Except I am sure of one thing: Veena and you are good, man.”
— “Things are NOT good.” Anand jumped up and kicked a pre-littered diet coke can backwards as it took flight and dropped into the same open manhole that Kartik had missed.
— “Wow, you still got it.” Kartik referred to Anand’s football days.
— “Dude!” Anand emphasised to make sure Kartik didn’t forget that things were more messed up than the amount of happiness from him still having ‘it’ could cure.
— “Do you want to talk about what just happened? When did you decide you were going to propose to her tonight?”
— “I would have told you but you know how sometimes you think something is about something when it is actually about something else? I didn’t want Veena and you to be in a situation when she was talking about something and you presumed that she was also in on the surprise meant for her.”
— “Yes, that could have happened.” Kartik nodded and smiled at every pause Anand made. “Good that you didn’t tell me.”
— “I’d like to make a declaration.” Anuj put an arm around Anand to hang onto his shoulders. His feet slowly taking the trio to the centre of the lane.
For the first time in ever, Anand realised that it didn’t matter if Anuj and him had grown closer as friends over a period of time. There was nothing the two had in common. There was obviously gang stuff like the two had a secret bitch club when it came to venting about their respective girlfriends when Anuj was with Seher. Kartik was usually there too, drinking with the two when they launched into these conversations.
— “If this thing with Veena comes crashing on you…”
— “Don’t jinx it.” Kartik interrupted. “We’ll see the girls at the next party and Veena and Anand will kiss and make up.”
Inside Anand’s head, he was prepared to give his entire relationship a breakdown. He had already made the four columns of SWOT — Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats — like he would have made for any client, before the first meeting. But before he started putting parts of him and Veena into those columns, Anuj had to finish his declaration.
— “If this thing with Veena comes crashing on you and consequently the entire gang, I am on your side.”
— “What about Seher?”
— “We are over.”
— “You know…” Anand took the remainder of the joint from Anuj. “We haven’t really spoken about it ever since the two of you called it quits.”
— “Yeah, why would you still hang around with us if you and her were over?”
— “Because I love you, Kartik.” Anuj slowed down just enough to be one step behind Kartik. “You are my one true love.” He massaged Kartik’s shoulders as he said that.
— “Fuck off, man!” Kartik jumped forward as his skin broke into goosebumps.
— “Ha! And there we thought we had cured you of your homophobia for good. When did that relapse?”
Anand laughed as he remembered the time Seher’s friend Gay Jasbir had come over and Jasbir had decided to test everyone’s gay quotient.
⁶⁶ According to Actorography, diva actions are actions performed with extreme levels of swagger. Diva actions only work if the actor truly means them. Else they look very over the top.
