Need a Drink?

 “Finally, your house”, I pointed. Isha looked at me.

“Yeah, so here we end up your birthday celebrations”, she told, with genuine happiness. She extended her arms to hug me. I smiled and hugged her back.

“So, straight to sleep or you’re going to text with your sweety ah?”, I laughed.

“Shut up, he’ll be drunk. It’s ‘Even’ Saturday, right?”, she looked into her phone.

“Ahhh, 19 years of my life. Wish I get to drink too”, I looked at myself in the car's rearview mirror. I looked grown enough with the unshaven beard.

“You haven’t touched alcohol?”, she looked shocked. Well, I was shocked too.

“You’ve drunk? Did he make you drink? Was it even your decision?”, my eyes widened. She never told me before.

“Stop blaming him for everything. Why I shouldn’t drink myself ah? Why men are like this!”, she grunted. I hung my head low.

“Sorry! Don’t hate me on my birthday!”, I kept my eyes as soft as possible.

“Forget it. Let’s drink?”, her eyes widened, in excitement.

She told me to switch from the driving seat, and she took up the seat. I fastened my seatbelt.

We came to Off The Record, Nungambakkam. I looked at her, hesitant.

“Ummmm. Well, I don’t know am sure”, I was afraid. I agree.

She looked straight into my eyes. She has these big eyes, with a dark outline, to make them look bigger. She had dark circles around her eyes and pimple bumps on her cheeks. She uttered a swear word at me, and the lips delivered it out excellently. She pointed up and told me to follow.

She adjusted her crop top, which did its work, by not covering her whole abdomen. I followed her to the rooftop. The neon lights filled up the whole setup. It had this nice ambiance, with soft music and some privacy. We took a table adjacent to the bar. Convenience.

I looked at the bartender. There were no people in the restaurant, but he was busy with something. He looked terrifying. He looked familiar. I had various thoughts. What if he was the senior I punched once, in my high school? What if he mixes poison into my drink? How will Isha take me home? Who’ll let Pavithra know about my feelings for her?

Isha slapped me to reality. She looked pissed off that I zoned out.

“I freakin’ hate Rahul. Why is he saying me what I should do? I’m done.” She told. She was emotional, but God only knows whether she was tearing up or she was angry.

“What happened? Sorry, I zoned out.”, I admitted.

“You didn’t hear me shout at him, over the phone?”, she was getting more irritated.

“Am sorry, I was thinking about something else”, I admitted. Or else, she’ll find out. It's better I admitted.

“I swear I’ll lose it if you were thinking about that Pavithra. Wait, is that why you want to drink? You’re sad she didn’t come today?”, she asked me.

“Nah, no, nope. Don’t jump to conclusions. Leave that, what am I drinking today?” I diverted the topic. She looked at me but decided to spare me. She ordered an Estrella Beer for me, as she felt it would be better if I start with beer. She didn’t order anything for herself, stating the reason she was driving. Valid.

The bottle was in front of me. Isha took the opener, kept it aside, and opened the bottle with her mouth. The bottle fizzed out the gas and gave a weird smell. She smelled it and told its beer, which was written on the label itself. The shocking thing was, I didn’t know she has this much knowledge about alcohol and stuff. Flabbergasted.

I touched the bottle. It was chill, and I had goosebumps. I prayed to God that nothing should happen to me. Wait, was that even okay, to ask God to help me drink safely? I placed the bottle’s mouth on my lips and tilted it down. The bitter fluid passed through my tongue and entered my system. It was dense, so bitter but fine. I had a few more sips and felt something going light. Isha asked if I was fine, and ordered another after I signaled her I was fine. She kept silencing her phone while I was romancing with my bottle. Why was he calling her again and again?

The bottle mouth felt like Pavithra’s lips when it rested on my lips. Tears flowed out of my eyes, as I began to lose my senses. I mean, I was aware of what was happening around me, but I was becoming dizzier, as time passed by. Oh Pavithra, why am I even drinking. Wait, was that Rahul approaching my table?

He came straight to our table, and snatched the bottle from my hand, only to break it across my head. I fell down sideways due to the impact and couldn’t really have control over myself. I looked up, they both were arguing. I sat and looked at them. I licked the beer dripping from my hair and stood up. The beer tasted denser this time, with the blood coming out of my head. I couldn’t stand steady. Isha caught me and made me sit on the high stool nearby. I sat and looked at Rahul, he was fuming looking at her helping me. Now I understand why he broke the bottle on my head. God, help these tiny brained people understand this is not ‘cute possessiveness’.

He swore something at me, or her, or at us, I don’t know. But that was the point, she got really angry. Poor boy, I bet he didn’t see that slap coming straight onto his face. Before he could revive from that slap, she caught his hand and twisted it real hard. He lost balance and sat on his knees. She gave a fierce blow below his stomach which made his legs shiver. He fell down and could barely speak.

“Another word you talk about him, you’re dead”, she sounded like Uma Thurman from Kill Bill. Everything made sense then, one doesn’t have to be in love with you, to care for you. She did have an eye over everything I did, and she cared for me like I was her 19-year-old baby. That Rahul got up and started talking to her.

“Stop, let's talk this out. I was about to gift you something, I really like you. I just couldn’t stand the fact you were with some other boy”, he stuttered a lot and with great difficulty, he took out a ring from his pocket. Seriously dude, after all this? I was eager about what she was going to do.

Ayo, she extended her finger towards him. She dragged me from there, after slashing some money to the bartender.

My confusion was, why did she extend her middle finger instead of her ring finger? And why was he angry instead of being happy that she was accepting his ring? God, I can’t even think straight after hardly two beers.

She took her hoodie from the car and tied it around my head. Oh, I was bleeding, right. It felt good. I felt no pain. Blood, Pavithra, Career nothing seemed an issue anymore. I looked at Isha. My hero smiled at me and told me everything was going to be okay.

Not all superheroes wear capes, right? Some are in crop-tops too.