SwaRon FF: Misfits [Chp 8 Pg 16 8th Jan'14] - Page 9

Originally posted by: Sawyer_Tom

You and me both, sista. I've been mentally harassing myself to find time to read yours. And thank god for Diwali vacations. I'll be getting to your story, soon enough! 😃

I might, I just might know, where I am headed. Hopefully, this makes more sense to you than to me. Thanks for sticking around all of you, despite, you know. Anyway, on with the chapter.

Chapter 5

Perhaps it was the excessive bit of honking or maybe it was that unscrupulous vein throbbing in her head. In any event, the conclusion was incorrigible; Sharon Raiprakash was as mad as she could get.

Sharon wasn't a hot-head by nature. She was stubborn, sure and a tad bit egoistical, but it was all in good sport. She didn't get mad as often as one would think. But time and again, if you were bold and incredibly stupid enough to try to pound on that well-constructed wall of frigid indifference, with an all-mighty sledge-hammer, you'd be well within your reason to expect some nasty repercussions.

At this point, Rey almost felt sorry for Swayam.

"You know, I think that went well." Began Rey, as Sharon swerved sharply to the left, all the while honking unnecessarily.

"Are you kidding me right now?" shrieked Sharon. "Were you at the same party as I was?"

"Well, it wasn't so bad was it?" said Rey tentatively, managing to procure a somewhat encouraging smile. But immediately, he knew he had said the wrong thing for now the vein looked as malevolent as ever and Sharon looked like she was choking.

"Wasn't tha...wasn't THAT BAD!?" rasped Sharon, looking apoplectic. "Let's see. Swayam comes to the party that MY company threw to commemorate the launch of my MY latest videogame, high as hell. Then he "accidentally" pours a glass of wine down the dress of one of my board member's wife and then, he turns around and "accidentally" pushes another one of my board member into a pot of cheese fondue! Oh. And here is where it gets even better. Right in the middle of my speech, he starts making out with the grandmother of the board member's son, with whom I had lunch only this afternoon! Is that friggin BAD enough for you?!?"

"Ok. I get your point." Said Rey, in a pacifying tone. "But I hardly think it was his fault. Plus, I'm a bit worried. I'm pretty sure he had a drink or two."

At this, Sharon deflated. Rey could almost see the anger leaving her body. Rey knew he had hit the right chord. After all, it was hardly a surprise that concern for Swayam's well-being triumphed everything else in Sharon's life.

"Alcohol doesn't mix too well with drugs, does it?" asked Sharon, frowning a bit. "Fine...fine! I'll try to curb my anger till tomorrow when I'm sure he is alright. As it is, I think I'm to be blamed too. I should have known he was high when he came to pick me up."

"Yeah, not wearing pants should have been warning enough." Replied Rey, smirking a bit.

Sharon smiled in return, albeit reluctantly, just as they pulled up in front of Swayam's house.

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." Murmured Swayam, from the backseat.

"Yeah, mate. We're at your home. Up and about!" said Rey, helping Swayam out of the car.

"Rey! Buddy! Y'know, you're more than a friend to me!" drawled Swayam, leaning completely on Rey. "You're like my brother!"

"Ok. Alright. Careful now." Said Rey, guiding Swayam to the elevator, with Sharon right behind them.

"I'm going to go now." Declared Rey, after firmly depositing Swayam on the bed. "Think I'm going to take a walk." He continued, as though hoping the fresh air might drive the bizarre events of tonight, out of his mind.

"Ok." Replied Sharon, only half-listening as Rey left. "Swayam," she said, making him sit up, "you need to drink some water."

"Sharon!" said Swayam, smiling whole-heartedly. "My Sharon Canon!"

"Don't call me that!" said Sharon snippily, as she managed to force down some water down Swayam's throat.

"But you are a canon!" said Swayam, spluttering a bit on the water.

"And on that note, I'm going to go." Said Sharon, turning around to leave.

"Don't leave." Said Swayam, catching hold of her hand.

There was something forceful yet pleading in his voice that made Sharon halt. She looked at him, a bit warily.

"Sharon." He said, accenting the word with a crooked, half-smile.

Sharon felt something change. She couldn't pinpoint what exactly but something was different. It may have been the look in Swayam's eyes, as he looked at her with an odd serenity in his eyes. As long as she'd remembered, Swayam had never looked at her like that. Maybe, she hadn't been looking. But now, it carried an almost alien intensity. It made her shiver in excitement. It aroused an unusual thrill in her. It was electrifying and humbling all at the same time.

And then, for an infinite moment, she saw everything clearly.

She saw him, with his impossibly tousled dark hair, the sharp cut of his jaw, his endearing half-smile, the slant of his nose, the crinkle of his eyes. She felt the heat of his hand on her arm. She couldn't remember when she had moved, but somehow she was sitting on the bed with him.

And then he leaned in a bit, and just like that everything turned into a blur. All she could focus on now, was the vibrancy in his light-brown eyes. Sharon had never seen them look so alive. She felt elated. And the next second, his eyes smouldered into a darker brown. She caught her breath at the change, as though it surprised her. She felt her lips part, involuntarily, as though her body had already anticipated what her mind still hadn't worked out yet.

"Sharon." Said Swayam.

His breath was cool, mingled with his own smell of lemon meringue and black pepper. It was all too heady and happening too fast. Sharon wasn't sure what she wanted. It was all too much.

She felt his lips touch her.

"I once stole a juice box from a 5 year old kid." Blurted Sharon.

Sharon could never explain what made her say that at that very moment. Swayam's expression changed to that of amusement as he took in what she said. Just to be safe though, Sharon backed up all the way across the room taking deep breaths to regain her wits.

"Well, while we're confessing to our crimes," said Swayam sheepishly, "You remember that PSP you lent me 5 years ago and I told you that my nephew had broken it?"

"Yeah?" said Sharon, for the lack of anything better to say.

"It wasn't my nephew." Said Swayam, guilt splashing across his face.

"Ok. Well, then. I should go." Said Sharon, not processing the information.

She could faintly hear Swayam call out her name but she walked out the door, afraid to look back.

*******

Rey remembered a time, back in high school, when the three of them were deemed to be social misfits. Each of their personalities and temperament were of an unapproachable nature and everybody unanimously agreed that it was impossible for them to fit in any specific social strata. It had pricked Rey quite a bit before Sharon pointed out that they were so uniquely carved that they were only meant to fit with each other. The thought only managed to further depress him and he resolved to be more outgoing and work towards expanding his social circle. After conducting numerous social experiments and having way too many intolerant conversations, Rey eventually learnt that he didn't mind having a humbling total of only two friends.

He was grateful to be a Misfit.

Then college happened. And inevitably, they made other friends. And though they had managed to remain on socially acceptable terms with most of them, there were a few others who had further perpetrated well beyond the societal norms to be deemed as best friends. And two such friends happened to be Simmi and Nilesh.

Rey had known Nilesh from his beer-drinking, English majoring, dorm-sharing college days, though at this point all he knew about his college days was an expansive blur of events. Even through that haze, Rey had managed to recall Nilesh and had, quite impulsively, invited him to his hometown for one particular summer.

This summer happened to coincide with the one during which Swayam had, under mysterious circumstances, invited an exquisite hottie named Simmi to the aforementioned hometown. During the course of that summer, Swayam had kept mumbling that she had invited herself while with each passing day Rey saw Simmi and Nilesh getting overly fond of each other.

At first, it seemed strange. For Simmi, underneath all those layers of self-control and poise, was a vivaciously wild human being. She had adopted Swayam as her project in order to "activate his inner wildness". Swayam, however, resolutely kept to his distant nature, and over time Simmi had given him up as a lost cause, internally hoping he wasn't.

On the other hand Nilesh was, what you'd call, a practical joker. He was blunt to the point of being offensively yet honestly rude. Their love story had been bizarre and it had never made much sense to Rey. Yet, before he knew it, they were married. They had hung around for a couple of years, before their work had shifted them abroad, Nilesh being a journalist and Simmi being a psychiatrist. But a few months back they had relocated back in town and had invited him, Sharon and Swayam for a Thanksgiving Dinner.

So it was, that Rey found himself, sipping cold beer in the Mascarenas' living room, while his two best friends were giving each other the cold shoulder.

"What's up with Sharon and Swayam?" asked Nilesh, coming up beside Rey. "Sharon looks like she'd very much like to through that vase at Swayam's head and Swayam looks like he'd be very much obliged."

This exactness of this analogy made Rey smile, despite himself.

"Yeah, well, let's hope it doesn't go down like that." Said Rey.

"Yeah, that's a very expensive vase." Deadpanned Nilesh.

Rey cracked yet another smile and decided that he had very much missed Nilesh.

"Honey, could you grab the pie?" came Simmi's voice from the kitchen.

"On it," said Nilesh, running to help his wife.

"Are you sure we can't help?" called out Rey, glaring in turns at Swayam and Sharon for not being more involved.

"No, it's fine." Said Simmi, brushing off his feeble attempts to help. Her gaze lingered a second longer on Swayam and Sharon's freakishly immobile figures.

"That's it." Said Rey. He grabbed Swayam and Sharon and shoved them into what looked like a utility closet.

He locked the door behind him and they were engulfed in darkness for a brief moment before Rey found the light switch.

"Now let's get it out of our systems." Announced Rey. "Tell me what happened."

"Swayam broke my PSP." Said Sharon.

Swayam snorted and said, "But that's not why you're mad."

"And he also kissed me." Added Sharon, looking torn.

"I didn't kiss you. I tried to kiss you. Either way, it doesn't matter. It was a mistake. I apologise. And I promise it won't happen again." Said Swayam, keeping his face neutral.

Sharon, for her part, looked taken aback. Whatever she had been expecting, it sure as hell wasn't this.

"Right." She said, uncertainly.

"Good. Now that that's solved can we go out and have a nice decent dinner that Simmi so painstakingly made?" continued Swayam, already halfway through the door.

Sharon mumbled something and followed him out the door.

Rey stood there for a minute or so, contemplating how it was going to blow up in all of their faces before going out. After all, conversations that ended like that were just the beginning.

*******