“Absolutely.”
“And you cried.”
“I had dust in my eye.”
“For twenty minutes?”
“Very dusty day.”
Their laughter filled Room 304.
Outside, Patna continued roaring.
Inside, time began folding over itself.
College had been the real separation.
Not physically at first.
Emotionally.
At eighteen and nineteen, the world expanded.
Hostels.
Cheap cafés.
New cities.
Late-night phone calls.
Internet packs.
Private rooms.
Adult curiosity.
This was when conversations among the three changed.
They talked about attraction more openly.
About dating.
About adult relationships.
About sex in that boastful, uncertain way common among young men who knew considerably less than they pretended.
All three discovered adult pornography sometime after turning eighteen, though none admitted it immediately.
Raja eventually confessed first.
Not because he was brave.
Because Vivek caught him closing his laptop too quickly.
“What were you watching?”
“Movie.”
“Which movie?”
Raja paused.
“Documentary.”
“About?”
Another pause.
“Europe.”
Vivek stared at him.
Raja stared back.
Then both started laughing.
By the time Sanjay entered the room, neither could explain what had happened.
Those college years were full of awkward discoveries like that.
They learned desire privately before they learned intimacy with another person.
They learned fantasy before communication.
They learned what relationships looked like on screens long before any of them understood what made a real relationship survive.
And eventually each one fell in love.
For real.
Or close enough that the difference did not matter.
At eleven thirty, the whisky bottle was considerably lighter.
Their jokes were becoming philosophical.
This was never a good sign.
Raja lay across one bed staring at the ceiling.
“So basically,” he announced, “three grown men.”
“Debatable,” Vivek said.
“Three employed men.”
“Technically.”
“Three men who have had girlfriends.”
Sanjay lifted one finger.
“Complicated.”
“And all three are still virgins.”
Silence.
Raja sat up.
“What?”
Vivek looked at Sanjay.
Sanjay looked at Vivek.
Then both looked at Raja.
Raja blinked.
“Wait.”
Sanjay started laughing.
“No way.”
“You too?” Vivek asked.
Raja pointed between them.
“You?”
Another silence.
Then the room exploded.
Years of assumptions collapsed in approximately fifteen seconds.
Vivek had assumed Raja had slept with his college girlfriend.
Raja had assumed Sanjay and Naina had.
Sanjay had assumed Vivek definitely had during his two-year relationship in Delhi.
None of them had.
For five minutes they conducted an increasingly ridiculous investigation.
“You dated for two years!”
“Long distance!”
“You went on vacations!”
“With friends!”
“You had your own flat!”
“My roommate existed!”
Eventually Raja raised both hands.
“Gentlemen.”
They became quiet.
“I believe history has brought us together for a purpose.”
Sanjay narrowed his eyes.
Whenever Raja used the word purpose, trouble followed.
“What?”
Raja leaned forward.
“We solve this.”
Vivek frowned.
“Solve what?”
“Our situation.”
Sanjay began laughing again.
Raja remained serious.
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow what?”
Raja lowered his voice despite there being nobody else in the room.
