Beer & Whiskey

"Genuine friendships are rare these days, don't you think? " I asked my listener who was already in a world of her own.

"Yeah," she replied sipping her 3rd glass of whiskey.

This was how our routine went on most Saturday evenings. Whiskey for her, beer for me, sitting near the balcony and talking about life. Though this might sound like two good friends just chilling with each other, it was actually way far from reality. We were pretty much flat mates, existing with each other, so that rent could be shared in the money sucking city of Hyderabad. Our relationship, if something like that did exist, was built on in depth observation. I would catch her watching me closely on Saturday evenings like today, where I release all my frustration over my bloody boss and my bloody journalistic job through beer while I watch her on Friday nights where she would whisper poetic profanity about the 'n' th guy that cheated on her in the last week. Just the casual old routine.

"Why did you ask about friendships all of a sudden?" My listener asked me, knowing very well I would have a backstory to tell.

 "You remember the 12th grade reunion I went couple of days back? It was kind of nice to see all of them after what like 6 years or so...but what surprised me most was this group of 4 girls... they were like the best of best friends. You know that from 'childhood to growing up and doing all shit together'. Yeah, that kind of thing. Well, they went to college together and even after that was pretty much together most of the time. That is what I heard. The weirdest part is all of them seemed so happy before the party was started but towards the end, they were shouting and actually hitting each other. And it was not the one time fights that friends usually have. It was physical and it looked really bad. Really really bad."

"Hmm, weird." My listener voiced out with interest and skepticism printed on her face. She becomes skeptical when she is clueless. I needed to show their photos to provide more context. Hopefully my phone is somewhere over here. Yup, got it.

"So, these are the girls I was talking about. This is Elize. Literal allrounder. That one with the curly hair is Neha. Introverted and artsy. Then the one winking. That is Evelyn. Definition of confidence, And the one taking the selfie is Maria. Beautifully arrogant.

"Oh, so she is the bitch queen!" My listener remarked with a chuckle.

"Pretty much," I replied with a small laugh and took a sip of my beer to continue the story. "So, they were my classmates in 11th and 12th okk and we had this annual fest that the 12th graders are supposed to organize and it's like a big thing for the school. So that year what happened was money was collected from the students, and it was kept safe with the associate head girl but somehow it went missing and no one had any idea on where it went! That was like the first time such a crisis happened and everyone was blaming the girl and you know calling her irresponsible and all those things but somehow that year the fest didn't get cancelled because these 4 got some sponsors from the sky and the funds were arranged and from that time onwards these girls have been praised by literally the whole school even in the junior batches too. Can you believe that?!"

"Oh, I definitely cannot," my listener replied while nodding her head affirmatively. Maybe the girl is drinking too much or maybe I just had too much beer.

"Well, the thing is, this associate head girl I told you right her image was like kind of ruined among her batch and she became pretty distant from a lot of them. Then they passed out and went their separate ways but not many were interested to keep in touch with her because of that incident. Motherfuckers. And for the girl that inner frustration was kind of like eating her from inside. Then a couple of years later she met a guy called Yousuf and her life changed. You know he was actually Maria's ex."

I paused my narration to see if my listener was reciprocating my disbelief but to my surprise, she just became expressionless. The whiskey was definitely doing its job now.

"And then the girl became friends with Yousuf. Actually, more than friends because they shared the bed and life for a solid 8 months and later, she realized he was a jerk and dumped him but while they were dating, he did give her a lot of interesting stories. About how he cheated on Maria with Evelyn and then later Elize, how Maria manipulated Neha to steal the money and blame it on the associate head girl, how Elise and Neha spread rumors about Maria in college which made everyone think that she was a slut and etc etc. The best part is none of them actually knew or even suspected the other one was doing all this shit. And they were such good actors that they remained the prime example of friendship for the world."

 Maybe tired of the story, my listener stood up and stretched her body and walked towards the balcony rail. She lit her cigar and spent a minute or so looking down at the Hyderabad traffic. Or the twinkling stars. Or thinking about her ex or the whiskey. How do I know. She is a goddamn writer. She thinks too much. 

" How does it feel?" She asked. Holding the cigar in her right hand, her body facing me while still looking at the traffic below. Since when did the traffic become such a fascination for her?

" Feel what?" I asked, trying to be as clear as possible. Oh boy, I had too much beer today!

"To finally give them a taste of their own medicine. I have so badly wanted to get revenge on those brainless idiots who dumped me, but I never couldn't. How did you manage after so many years. How does it feel?'

The moment my listener said those words, I gave a small smile, stood up and joined her. Taking a puff from her cigar, I looked down at the traffic below. The lights and the car now seemed fascinating for me. Weird.

" Revenge is such a strong word. It is wrong to use that. I just got a lot of information from authentic sources. I got a nice opportunity, and I used it. That's all. I just gave a spark for a small fire, spoke to the girls individually and added little fuel to it. That's all that I did. It is not my fault they became violent with each other once they found out about buried truths of the past. They didn't realize that they themselves were basically each other's enemies." I replied and got a small laugh from my listener.

I took the whiskey glass from my listener and gulped down what was remaining. My listener wasn't happy in sharing, but she knew whiskey wasn't something that I constantly chose to drink.

"You asked me how it feels right?" I asked my listener who gave a slight nod. "At first revenge burns your senses and then you feel fucking high just like this whiskey and I. I love it."

And that's how the conversation ended. 2 flat mates standing near the balcony rail looking at the traffic below in the money sucking city of Hyderabad. With too much of whiskey and beer in their bloodstream. Just a casual old routine.