I groaned at the continuous noise, that was violating my right to drown into a good deep slumber after all those hours of hard studying.
It flashed 12:20 a.m. on my bedside digital clock.
For good heavens!
"Who the hell wants to get thrashed at this point of night?" I squinted my heavy eyes and searched for my ringing cellphone on the bed.
I only had a few hours to sleep before starting off early for school the next day and no one had tried to call me all the time I had stayed awake-which was a hell lot of time in the day.
Emergency? Hospital? Mom? Father? All the ideas swirled around my head, draining all the weariness out of me. I sprang up on the bed in the pitch dark room.
I had no idea where the heck I was scrounging for my phone. I had no idea if I was sleeping upside down. The only thing I cared for was to keep my eyes closed and sleep peacefully for the next four hours which seemed impossible with that thing blaring on in some corner of my bed.
Once in my grasp, I flipped the phone and without even glancing at the number, I answered the call. A loud scream shook the bed beneath me thereby draining the sleep off of me immediately.
I had always been that invisible nerd in school who did nothing but study. I just had a phone for my mother to check-in and sometimes for my namesake best friend to call and discuss about studies. All these years in St. Louis, no one had bothered to take notice of me, let alone ask for my number. So, midnight calls were pretty much rare for me and I was honestly glad it was that way until that night.
"Vee Vee.. Sannviiii... Vee Vee!" A girl slurred out loud against the loud thumping of the bass in the background.
Oh! Of course it had to be the nerd's crazy 'Miss-I-will-definitely-become-popular-in-highschool-oneday' best friend.
Typical? Try telling that to the thousands of rich Romance novelists.
She and I were weird kind of best friends. I was even kind of surprised that she managed to stay by my side all these years. The teacher made us bench mates in sixth standard when Veronica transferred from another state. Since I was the monitor of the class, she thought it better to make the new girl stay by my side since I was the only one in the class who actually preferred education over anything else.
Veronica was this clueless and lost little girl and I helped her with her studies. From then on, quite surprisingly, she stuck by my side. Although over the years, she did manage to make few more friends.
I didn't have any problem with her mingling with other students so long she didn't push me into joining her on 'friend hunting'. She respected my boundaries and I couldn't complain about her being sweet to me. I, at times, felt bad for her because somehow I felt like I was restraining her from socializing.
Moreover, me being the school nobody, I often wondered if that didn't effect her reputation in school. But the girl still stayed friends with me after all these years despite my very appalling idiosyncrasies. I had to give her that for her endurance. She was the closest I had to any friend, other than any fictional character (Sad, I know) so involuntarily, she became my 'best' friend.
Plus, she was absolutely crazy.
"What the effing heck is wrong with you Veronica? It's one in the morning for crying out loud!" I stood up on my bed with a jolt, hearing my best friend slurring out nonsense and the loud music in the background.
"Vee Vee! My bestieee! You knoww.. Whatt?... I am so freaking happy!" Her overjoyed voice made me smack myself on the face, cursing myself for not stopping her from going to that party she mentioned on Friday in school. She was certainly having the best time of her life, judging by her voice.
"This is soooo awesome! The house is humongous! They have shrimp, bro. Shrimpppsss! But I miss you soooo much! You love shrimps right?" I cursed out loud and immediately clasped my mouth shut the next moment.
"You would've loved them. They were so tastyyy! Wait let me get you some, where's my shrimp purse? Why didn't you comeeee? Bad Vee Vee!!" She was indeed badly drunk.
She had previously tried to convince me on joining her but a nerd's gotta do what a nerd's gotta do right? Remain antisocial and stay away from parties? I was doing my part in the narrative.
To be honest, I was least interested in mingling with anyone in that school, neither in any party outside and honestly, not even during the school hours. I would have let myself be homeschooled if I had that option. All Veronica got from me was a stern look and she instantly backed off while rebuking me for being a party pooper.
St. Louis was filled with snobby little rich brats who threw parties every now and then ( Typical? I know.). Veronica was a total people's person and loved to attend those parties even though she didn't know half of the students in our senior year. We had a minimum of 100 students in each section, for crying out loud.
I heavily doubted if she herself was aware of where she had gone to and gotten mindlessly drunk like that. Which idiotic student even held a party on the last day of the weekend?
"Veronica! Stop this nonsense! Just tell me where in the hell are you? Is there anyone with you or did you go alone? Do you even know how late it is? How are you going to return home? What about your curfew? Uncle and Aunty are gonna be so mad at you! Tell me?" I barked the questions one after another not noticing that the line had already gone dead.
"Hello! Hello? Veronica? You there? Hellllooooo!!"
The constant beeps of the cut line seemed to have induced a sudden worry in me. It didn't take me two seconds after that to realise that I was freaking out. Her highly strict parents probably had no idea that their precious little girl had snuck out of the house at night to visit some random party.
Veronica did make her share of troubles for me but she had never done that. I had managed to tolerate her visiting a few parties and then blabbering about how they went, all day long, quite a few times. But she hadn't gotten drunk in any of the previous ones and pulled any stunt like that. I had absolutely no idea of what I should have done right then. Obviously, she knew other people but I highly doubted they'd care enough to take her home in one piece.
Distressing situations started popping up in my head one by one, making me bite my nails in nervousness.
What if she got into some kind of trouble? What if she did something stupid? What if someone took advantage of her drunk self?
What should I do? Whom should I call to check on her? Why did she even switch her goddamned phone off? What bad deed did I do to be bothered by such a trouble?
I was pacing across the entire room in serious tension.
"Where even is this goddamned party?" I groaned, running my fingers through my dark brown hair.
I was trying really hard to think of someone I could call at that point.
If only I was a bit more sociable. I barely had fifteen contacts on my phone. I was the one to blame for my ineptness.
Suddenly something clicked in my mind.
Veronica did mention that she was going with a guy from the other section. A guy, I might have had actually known.
I hurriedly took my cellphone, tried searching his number. I might have saved or rather HAD to save for the combined physics project the year before. I just hoped that I didn't delete it afterwards.
And Eureka! I found it in the blink of an eye. Quite a short list I had. Sad? No.
After pushing the call button, I furiously paced around my room, careful enough not to wake Mom and that man sleeping downstairs.
"Pavan!" I heaved a sigh of relief on hearing the same loud music banging against my ear from the other side.
Never thought I'd ever be happy to hear a batchmate's voice that much in my life.
Thank God, he was with Veronica! He was, right?
"Hello? Yes! Who is this? Hello?" A manly voice bellowed through the phone. That dumbass should at least have had the courtesy of moving away from the music at that moment.
"Pavan? It's me, Sanvi! From section-A? Remember me? We did a physics project together last year." I bit my tongue hoping he would remember me. The project was a combined work, yeah. But I divided it among both of us to do on our own. And I wasn't proud to say this but I was quite rude at it. I didn't really know him but then again, I had one excuse of a friend named Veronica. I'd judge me too. He might have deleted my number with a grudge against my misbehaviour. But hey, I was a bitch and I didn't care. I couldn't let myself care for what other people thought of me. Thinking in that house was a luxury, you see.
Silence
I felt him move away from the music but he took his sweet time to reply. I patted my knee in fixation, hoping he wouldn't cut the call. He was probably taken aback at the sudden call.
"Oh yes of course! Say, Sanvi? What made you call all of a sudden at this hour?" Pavan's voice sounded weirdly friendly but highly sober. But then what made my mad best friend get mad drunk like that? Wasn't he her date for the evening? Or did they go just as friends? I should have had listened more when Veronica spoke! Was the even important right then?
"At this hour? I don't think I have disturbed your sleep considering the blaring music through the phone, am I right?" I bit back from uttering even harsher retort at his conception, at least not to the person I was going to directly ask a favour from right then.
"Yeah I am at a party. What made you call me?"
"Well, it's a bit urgent. I need your help on one thing." I bit my lower lip nervously, choosing my words cautiously. How could I ask for help from a boy I had hardly interacted with?
"Help? From me? What a surprise! What kind of help?" He sounded genuinely surprised at my request. Why wouldn't he be? The last time we spoke, I had almost snatched his share of the project and asked him not to worry about anything from then on. Seriously, I needed to tone down this reclusive attitude of mine. People took it as a rude gesture. What they didn't get is that I was actually a wimp who wanted to stay away from any sort of human contact. Pathetic. Poor Sanvi, no friends. Ugh.
I pondered a bit over the question of asking him to drop Veronica home right away. But then refrained myself from that considering how strict her parents actually were. They would legit flip if they saw their precious daughter drunk like that, being dropped home by a teenage boy in the middle of the night.
"Just that.. Um. Can you tell me where you are and is Veronica there with you? She just rang me up and she sounded awfully drunk. Please can you check in on her for a moment?" I sat on my bed, picking on my bed sheet and ardently hoping that he wouldn't turn out to be one of those guys who held grudges for life.
"Oh!"
Silence
I bit my tongue, cringing with awkwardness.
"Yes. She's here with us. Infact she came to the party as my date. You know how things go wild in these parties right?" I heard him chuckle a bit at his end.
No. I didn't know and I would never even want to know. I only wanted this trouble to subside from my knowledge.
"We were playing a few games and one thing led to another and right now she's dancing over a piano? What the fuck?" Pavan's voice trailed away and my eyes widened at his tone. What on earth was happening?
"Pavan? Pavan? Hello? What's going on?"
"Veronica, get the fuck down from that piano! Guys stop encouraging her! I said get down now!" I heard Pavan yelling on the other side.
I held onto the phone tightly when I heard him talk to me again.
"Um, Sanvi? Seems like she is totally wasted. I might have to drive her back home."
"NO! Don't!" I screamed but the next instant slapped my palm on my mouth.
"Hey, don't worry! I didn't drink tonight. I can drive. I would take care of her and make sure she makes it safely inside her house." I heard him croak out.
"No it's not that. I know you surely would but I don't trust that crazy girl and surely not when she's that drunk. You have no idea what her parents would do to her if they find out about her midnight rendezvous with you guys and seeing you with her might enrage them more, believe me!" I hushed in an urgent tone.
Pavan was a decent guy. Not a pervert, that I could have attested to. I had gathered that by working with him on the project and I had the feeling that he wouldn't cross any line. But I wouldn't take the risk. I had to be the mature and responsible one when Veronica behaved crazy like that. We might not be like other best friends but I still liked that girl. My thoughts were interrupted by Pavan's voice.
"So what are you suggesting?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose and cursed the moment I decided to receive the call of the disaster.
"Text me the address.." I voiced out, feeling defeated.
"I'll come and pick her up."
"What? Sanvi, I don't think that's a good idea. I mean the party is on full swing and it's hella crammed with people. I hardly think you'll find us in this mad crowd. Besides I assume you must be completely new to this whole arena. Will you be able to manage all these at this late hour?"
Haha.
I appreciated his concern for me.
For the girl who was so rude to him.
But I had to see for myself that the girl was safe in her home.
I could at least do this for Veronica.
"Don't worry, I'll text you once I am outside the venue. You can just bring her to me. I won't go inside."
"Okay then. I am messaging you right away." Pavan surely was surprised at my bravado.
Who would have thought that a 'nerdy-goody-two-shoes' like me would get so riled up for my friend's safety that I would right away agree to crash a stranger's party at that point of night?
I cut the call and closed my eyes.
"Only if Veronica was a bit mature." I murmured annoyingly and hurried to the closet. I quickly changed into a simple jeans and my one and only decent Pokemon tee-shirt. I didn't even bother to have a look at the mirror because I was in a hurry. I hadn't ever imagined myself visiting a highschool party and definitely not in that absurd situation.
It was quite ironic that Mother was scolding me to be more mature and right then, I was going to rescue a girl who should have gotten herself stamped as an immature person in every possible scenario. Only if Mom knew that maturity had different implications for different people.
"It's gonna be a long night!" I sighed, clutching my scooty keys and tip-toeing out of my house, careful enough not to wake anyone up. I knew I'd be dead if I get caught but once I produce a crazy fixation over one problem, I wouldn't have peace until it is solved.
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To be continued.