He is something.

I just realized something. Not only his words are magic, but also is his face.

Now, here I should mention that I am a sucker for smiles. And cuteness. And swag, attitude and a good and funny character. And Rocky is a perfect blend of all these features. He prefers to underrate his good looks everytime. Only if he knew the majestic aura he emits.

When we met, he was pretty shy. Once he started to talk, I personally kept nagging him to keep talking. I was back in time, when I was a child who listened to whatever stories her friend had to tell with great enthusiasm.

He has a way of talking. A way of making you laugh at the most non-funny things. He even talked to my uncle in a very simple and respectable, serious manner. They were talking about spiritual stuff. That topic never interested me much. He had no inconvenience talking to him. It's a trait he and my niece share; talking to people just the way they wanna be spoken to. It was one of the things about him that made me trust him more.

Never for a second did I doubt that his prominent smile hid many tragedies.

It was the second day of his stay when he introduced his dark side to us. I know it means nothing but I feel a bit happy that he talked to me about his dark life first. My niece, Mohini, was helping the elders with some chores when he first started opening up to me about the gangster side of his best friend whose picture he showed to us not a minute earlier.

First, he started with how his best friend murderer a guy, detaching his hands from his body after following him for nearly half an hour, just because the said guy verbally abused the said best friend's sister.

The humorous atmosphere changed into dark humour all of a sudden. Only, it wasn't humour. Mohini joined us after the story was over. I was still debating as to if I should tell her what I just heard or not. Apparently, I did tell her in details later while Rocky only told her the bits and pieces. I don't think she believed it. Neither did I at that time. We were too busy admiring this amazing new friend we made.

But a corner of my heart was happy to know that Rocky trusted me more with this dark secret of his life rather than my niece. That night, Rocky's revelations about his gangster friends, his role in their gang and their activities awakened a deep rooted dark side of mine. A side that loved what he had, that wanted exactly what he had. In his stories, I felt as if I was present their myself, performing those action scenes he so proudly illustrated. I felt how I usually feel when I am watching an action movie or overpowering one of my elder cousin brothers, or beating my not so obedient nephew. I felt a surge of power within me. And he was the source. Mohini acted as the filter.

The other day, Mohini offered him breakfast while he was doing his duty as a professional DJ. Well, he worked part time as a DJ for a while in the past few years. And mind you, he has a great taste in music. If not for him, my eardrums wouldn't be able to handle it for 3 days. Their local DJ had 0 sense of music.

Post lunch, we 3 went to the rooftop to battle the scorching cold environment with the warm sun rays. Now, here I would like to add, Mohini and Rocky have equal levels of appetite. Even though Rocky is a foot over her height and twice her weight, both consumed the same amount of food. I was thrilled to witness such a lovely coincidence.

An hour later Rocky's family arrived to attend the reception and Rocky reluctantly went ahead to help them. He was wishing for his cousins to never reach the house. Or to us. He didn't exactly like them or dislike them. It's what you call, a complicated relationship that existed between the cousins. I eventually figured out why.

As the evening arrived, Rocky and his second elder cousin begged us to accompany them to the nearby mining dump yard. We were ecstatic. Although, my excitement was interrupted the minute I noticed 3 male figures behind us. The 3 cousins of Rocky who initially refused to accompany, were following us.

For a tiny moment I was scared, not for myself but for my clueless niece who paid no heed to the probable dangers. She is very easygoing and carefree.

I am more inclined towards the over thinker, cautious side.

Thankfully, my worries were erased when my bhabi (sister-in-law) informed that she sent those 3 behind us for sightseeing. And I heard the most ironic warning of my life from her. "Tum dono bhale hi kho jao, magar woh panch sahi salamat wapas lautne chahiye (Make sure all 5 of them should return safely even if you 2 get lost somewhere)."

Ironic because she was worried about their safety while we 2 girls were the ones who were most likely to be endangered surrounded by those 5 brothers.

Actually 4 brothers. I trusted Rocky would be on our side if it comes to that. I already had a battle strategy. I would have taken down the younger 2 while Rocky would have dealt with the elder 2. And, Mohini would have called for help. Or maybe we all would have ran away straight home after distracting the 4. Thankfully, my imaginary battle never had the need to start. All 5 were pretty civil throughout the visit. And we took multiple photographs.

The place was surrounded by red, laterite stone and soil. The raw iron stone were scattered everywhere in big to small pieces. I got myself one of those stones as a souvenir.

The place had its own small lake whose water was unfortunately toxic. Fortunately, none fell into it. The sunset made the red hill and lake shine in the midst of twilight. The sky resembled a golden yellow blanket tucked around the brownish red earth. And don't ask about the water. It was as if we were in a fairytale. And the water was the pathway to the fairly land. Or better, a gateway to another realm. A gateway to hell, maybe.

We scattered to get ready after we came home. When I went out, I was surprised that Rocky was wearing a Red t-shirt and black formal pants. I had a red Anarkali on me. But the red he wore made him look like devil incarnate. A handsome devil. I never thought anyone could look so good with a pair not-so-new of formals and no efforts at all. From head to toe, he carried a swag, an aura of attitude only he had the copyright to.

I miserably failed to imitate that aura. In the same colour, I looked like a red football. Not just me. Even his brothers were no match to his aura. And 2 of his cousins are better than him in the department of looks.

The eldest of the cousins had the perfect physique of a model. With great looks, hairstyle and obviously the killer eyes.

And the second youngest one looked better than a Disney prince. He was the fairest of them all with greenish brown eyes. He was slim. Very slim. The exact level of slim that Rocky is.

The youngest one was a brown skinned cute, babyfaced boy who was in high school. But don't be fooled by his age or cute face. He can spell slangs like they are a daily requirement of his vocabulary.

The one only a bit older than Rocky was more like a cute, average guy. He was even cuter than the youngest cousin. And he talked nonstop. That too, without any sense of direction.

Moreover, Rocky's physical appearance was as enigmatic as his psychological self.

Rocky offered me and Mohini a chocolate bar that he bought himself. As it was my favorite brand of chocolate, I willingly accepted his parting gift. Mohini shared the bar among Rocky, me, his talkative cousin and herself. If it were for me I wouldn't shared it with anybody except for my dear niece.

Of course his gesture led to a spark of jealousy among the other 3 cousins.

But who cared? I didn't.

They were the ones who preferred to not interact with us. I did my best to strike a conversation. But they didn't pay us any heed. So they might as well not get a share of the delicious dark chocolate. It's entirely their fault.

We were planning to have a group dance before they left. But good times only last for a certain amount of time. Rocky had to leave immediately with his family. Though we knew we'd keep in touch, I missed his physical presence. That night I did something I never did. I literally forced our younger family members to dance in the reception hall. And they did.

I danced till my feet hurt. That too, in front of a hundred strangers who eyed us as if we were appointed for their personal entertainment.

That was my first hit of the residue of the drug named Rocky.

The next evening, when we were supposed to leave for our respective houses, Rocky called. Mohini and I had a good time talking with him. We shared a heart laughter. We both missed his antiques all day long.

After Mohini left for something, he started talking about his past. His family. For the longest time I couldn't believe it was as fucked up as he described. Neither did Mohini. I mean, he does have a fun streak.

He said that he has doubts as to if he is really the biological son of his parents as his blood group is O negative but both his parents have positive blood groups.

We shrugged it off saying he was thinking too much. I mean he does look like his father and the resemblance between him and his cousins are very noticeable.

At the beginning of our conversation on the first day of his arrival, he did mention the many innovative ways in which his father punished him. Throwing cold water on him to wake him up, beating him with PVC pipes, giving milder electrical shocks and what not.

In the society I live in, parents do give some intensive kinds of punishment to their children. So I didn't see much problem with his father's methods of punishment. I have seen and heard worse.

After coming back to home sweet home we started talking on a daily basis. We would at least text once a day. And it was great to talk with him. His life story held chaotic adventures, daredevil friends who worshipped Raavan and Lord Shiva. Every single day he had a new tale of chaos, adventure and mischief.

There was one particular thing that he kept mentioning. And me being a curious, nosy girl decided to get it out of his system. Finally after an effortful 3 days he finally confessed to having a serious crush on a girl. And the most coincidental fact is that she is an acquaintance of mine.

As requested by Rocky, I am going call his dream girl Reena.

She is a distant relative of mine, a couple of years younger to Rocky. She attended the reception party of my nephew and niece-in-law. That's where Rocky met her. And there happened something. A little thing called first love. Rocky saw her from a distance and lost his heart to her. She had no idea of Rocky's presence. Whereas, Rocky was aware only and only about her presence.

He saw. She didn't. He knew. She didn't. He felt. She didn't.

He loved. She didn't.