One for the night

I never get high, at least not after a couple of drinks. But that day was special for me. Very special.

I got placed in an IT company in final year of my college and I joined it after a few months of the final exam. While on work we had planned a picnic/trip/whatever you call it these days to a nearby place for one weekend.

We reached there in the afternoon and refreshed ourselves with some beer and had a fun pool time. Then came the big night.

I started with Whisky then we had the dinner and then some vodka shots followed by a variety of cocktails and 'chakna’. Then had a few drunk games and songs, some drunk walks and drunk talks. That night I recited ‘the breathless’ one of my favorite songs and many more songs.

Around 4 a.m. I went to sleep in one of the few dormitories we had booked.

After some time suddenly I noticed that, she in a black and white peplum was trying to wake me. I was astonished to find her at that place, but anyways I was happy to see her there. I woke up and went to a place where a cool breeze was blowing, and now the birds had started to twitter. I guess, it was almost 5 o'clock. It was still dark but the sun would come soon. We had a beautiful talk for almost an hour and sorted out the misunderstandings and fights we had. I told her that she's the one I wanted to be with my entire life.

By now the sun had started peeking from the land. We decided to go to the beach as none of us had ever seen a sunrise from a beach. We went inside the water. Now the water was reaching up to our knees. As I did not know how to swim, I advised her to walk back. On our way to the shore, she sensed something on her left feet. As the water flew back on a low tide we noticed that it's a jellyfish. She was stung by a jellyfish.

We both are huge fans of the site on F.R.I.E.N.D.S and we straight away knew what is to be done. And the rest is history.

As we both we embarrassed by the incident, she went away and I too went back to my bed again.

As I said earlier, I usually never get high. But I was not sure about the last night. Though my friends said that last night I wetted a wardrobe besides my bed. But I knew that they were kidding. Because if I had done so I would remember it.

All I knew is jellyfish sting is fatal. And when Googled I found that “There's no proof that the urine helps neutralize toxins from the jellyfish or bring the stingers to the surface of the skin. Urine probably won't harm the sting, but it definitely isn't healing it.”

A race to the end..

That was a very delighted day for me. I was going to meet one of my best friend after a long time. Recently, he got a job in one of the major IT firm in the suburbs of the city. And he moved there. This was after almost a couple of years.

We were best buddies in college but after the college ended we hardly meet each other. But this was a huge moment for me. We planned to meet at 5 O'clock in the evening in a cafe uptown.

I had already reserved a table for both of us. I reached early and was waiting for him. There he came, wearing a dark blue shirt with folded sleeves, a grayish jeans, a pair of brand new Snickers and smoking a cigarette.

I knew that he smokes a lot and heard various tales of him. Once, he finished a couple of dozens of cigarettes while having a pitcher. Another time he consumed the entire stock he had in a night. He had became a chain smoker and so on.

We sat and remembered the glorious days from our past, the fun we had, the lectures we didn't attended, the things we should have done then, the things we shouldn't have done, etc. We also shared the experiences we had on all these years of our lives when we weren't together.

And then something he said that ripped me apart. He said, “I am sorry but I had to tell you this”. He had now became an addict to smoking and drugs and alcohol and every other things his parents wanted him to stay away from. He would not live without smoking half a dozen of cigarettes a day. He couldn't live without having alcohol for every alternate reason. And perhaps he was detected with lung cancer but couldn't help. Everything that was making him feel alive was in fact killing him.

I asked him to promise he that he would get rid of these false pleasures gradually if not at once. Now I understood why people say that these pleasures doesn't make you happy, they just borrow happiness from your future.

As he raised his hand to promise I found that he couldn't keep his hand still. His hand used to be Rock steady when I used to ask to make promises back in college. His hand was shivering and so was I.

This was the day I decided that I want to quit of all the analgesics from my life and lives of everyone I care of, I want to end the race before it ends us. I want people to Stay healthy and ftw. And stop paying for their deaths.