It was a school tour. These were the times everyone looked forward to. We were going to Manali. We boys were singing and having fun in the back area of the tour bus. Happy was singing 'Kala chashama' song and dancing goofily. Veer, Varun, Sahil and I and some other guys from the class were dancing to his song and jumping and making noises.

Liya, Sonali and a few other fun girls in our class joined us. I knelt down on the isle of the bus and extended my hand out to Liya for a dance playfully. She slid her hand into my hand and we did dance, together, as I twirled her in my hand and tilted her to my hand by her waist.

Veer did raise his eyebrow. But I ignored him. 

Jai was totally acting like a boy. This is why nobody ever suspected her. She was a boy in all sense. Some girls in our class even have a crush on Jai.

"Keep it down, kids." Sachin sir called out from the front of the bus.

"No way, sir... We are having fun," Jai yelled back. Happy, and Varun joined him. "Yes, sir...we can't just sit quietly when we are going on a tour."

"Yes," I joined in too. 

"It's a tour. We are supposed to make lots of noise." I yelled out. Then I realized that without realizing it, I had let my hand on Liya's waist. She was giving me this stare. Ooops... I took my hand away at once. "I am sorry," I told her. Another big factor in pretending to be a guy is that I have to take care of not extensively touching girls. Because well for them, I am a guy. But Liya just smiled at me. I moved a hand through my hair like Veer sometimes does when he is embarrassed. Copying him to perfection. 

Did she just copy me??? Huh, interesting. So this is how she prefects this act.  

"It's fine that you are having fun." Sachin sir said, "But some of us are getting a bit bored. And it's getting late at night and we are all tired. So how about if we play a movie?"

Everybody cheered. I stretched, my hands and leg were paining from a lot of jumping around and dancing. So I turned to my seat beside Veer. He shifted and offered me a window seat. I slid into it.

"I still can't understand why can't we go somewhere more fun?" Happy said from the seat behind us, and got up and turned to him. He was eating from a Cheetos packet. I put my hand to the packet taking one, "Fun like where?"

"Oye... Don't steal my Cheetos. You go buy one for yourself, rich boy, multi-millionaire." Happy said, hugging the Cheetos packet to his chest. I frowned and put my hand to the packet and stole a few more Cheetos from him. I put them to my mouth with a smile. 

Jai was standing up in the seat. Her butt projected forwards. Great position... I kept my eyes away. I watched Ayisha in front of the bus for a while. She was laughing about something. 

"Fun like Goa." Happy said to me.

"Like they will let us go to Goa." I frowned. Thank god it's not Goa. I can't find an excuse not to remove my shirt in Goa.

"Manali is fun," I said to Happy, munching on the Cheetos.

"But it doesn't make sense to go for a tour from Dehradun to Manali. Both are hill stations." Happy said behind me.

I turned to him, "Just remember, last year they took us to Agra." He groaned in agreement. "Manali is at least better than Agra."

"The movie is starting," Dhruv said from the seat in front of us. Jai sat back in his seat. And most people fell silent. "Do we have something to eat?" Jai asked me.

I searched my bag and fetched out a packet of Lays. Jai nodded. We opened it and began to eat from it as we watched the movie. It was a comedy. 

We stopped to eat dinner at a Dhaba in the way. I was with the boys and we were having an argument about who is the hotter actress Deepika Padukone or Katrina Kaif. Varun and I supported Deepika where are Happy, Sahil and Dhruv were on to Katrina Kaif. Veer had gone to wash his hands. I searched for him to back my argument about how Deepika was a better actress and way better looking than Katrina. I saw him walking back to us. He almost collided with Ayisha. They paused and looked up at each other. And gave each other nervous smiles. Then Veer stepped aside for Ayisha to walk on. She walked on after giving another smile.

Veer came back to us.

"She is totally sending you signals," I said to him.

"What signals?" He asked me, totally clueless. He can be so dumb sometimes. I shook my head. Then I resumed the fight between the boys on two actresses. 

After dinner, we all got on the bus. Most girls and teachers went to sleep. After teachers were asleep, Harsh and Pari, the hottest couple in our class, claimed Happy and Varun's seat [back seat], sitting together, talking in soft voices and making out. Jai and I were immediately in front of them. It was awkward. When Harsh and Pari totally started making out, Jai pushed me away and went to Happy and Varun who were cramped in with Dhruv in one seat. I followed Jai. It was not good to sit in front of Harsh and Pari. "Let's play some game," Jai told the boys.

"I am tired." Happy complained yawning. Jai punched him. "Wake up." He yelled. I leaned on to the seatback. "Yeah, you can't sleep after coming to a school trip. Wake up, Happy... Let's play something."

So we all played a game for a while, and after that, around midnight Happy fell asleep. When I looked back, Harsh and Pari were sleeping as well. So we went back to our seat.

We just sat there for a while. Happy was now snoring with his head on Varun's shoulder and Varun was drooling over Happy's turban. Happy is going to get so angry tomorrow morning for getting drool on his sacred turban.

"I am bored," Jai complained. "And I can't sleep."

I did not feel much sleepy either. So I took out my mobile and put on some music. I pushed one end of the earphone to Jai's ears and sat back. Almost everyone on the bus was sleeping by now. It was silence inside the bus. But the silence was soothing. Jai sat looking out of the window. We sat listening to music for a while. And then I did kind of feel tired after all that jumping around and fun. I tilted my head to Jai's shoulder and looked out of the window too.

Now, I didn't understand why I overreacted to Jai's gender revelation. Because I felt Jai was just Jai. Jai was just the same as always. I didn't lose him anywhere. He was still here. He was the same Jai who was my best friend, my brother for two years. Being a girl had not tarnished him anyway. If not, it kind of made him better. The truth made us closer, I guess, in a way.

I smiled. I felt peaceful and happy.

It was nice. 

In a few minutes, I felt that Veer had fallen asleep. I looked at him. He still had his head on my shoulder. So I didn't move in case he wakes up. I turned my head to look out of the window. I thought about my dad. How I felt sort of okay now... It's been two years. But for some reason, I felt like the wound in me had closed and healed now. "I am fine now, dad" I whispered in my mind. "Is it okay if I be fine?" I felt guilty to have gotten over the pain.

But my dad seemed to be whispering back to me, "it's more than okay, baby girl. Be happy." I smiled. The song from Veer's headphone was a calm soothing one. Soon I fell asleep with my head supported on Veer's head. 

My eyes fell on the leather bracelets on the display of the local shop. It was black leather intertwines together tightly with a metal band in the centre that had a symbol. They looked really cool.

"It's supposed to bring luck." The shopkeeper told me when I was examining the bracelet.

"Hey... Come here." I called over to Jai who was goofing away with Happy a few feet away. Jai came to me, "Sup?" He asked. I put my hand around his shoulder and turned his head to the leather bracelets. "Cool, huh?" I asked. "Cool," He grinned.

"It can act as friendship bands as well," The shopkeeper said eyeing us. "It can bring luck to relationships."

"Well, I don't believe in luck," I said to the shopkeeper. "You are probably saying that to sell your product." The shopkeeper gave me a look.

"The symbol here is called an Endless Knot." The man explained. I looked at the symbol. It was a rectangular, or more like diamond shape symbol of lines all interlocked together forming small squares. "It's the symbol for prosperity and eternity."

"In what world?" I asked.

But Veer was already Googling it. He held his phone in front of my eyes. I saw the symbol on the bracelets on Veer's phone screen. The symbol indeed represented eternity in some Tibetan culture. The symbol was supposed to be auspicious.

"But printing it on a bracelet does not mean it will have some magic," I said to the shopkeeper. He again looked at me with a 'go away if you don't want to buy the thing' look. "They look cool though," I added. 

"Let's get them," I said before Jai could further piss off the shopkeeper. "Two of them, uncle... We are going to use it as a friendship band as you suggested."

"Okay," the man moved to get the leather bracelets. "It will bring protection and luck to your friendship and mark it eternal."

"But they don't actually work," Jai said again, irritating the shopkeeper.

"Will you stop being an asshole," I whispered in her ears. "They don't have to work." She rolled her eyes at me. "It doesn't matter." I shrugged at her.

"They do look cool," Jai admitted.

"Yeah. And I wanted to get a friendship band." I said. We need to strengthen our bond after that almost fall out. I think a friendship band and might do the trick.

"Here you go." The shopkeeper handed us our leather bracelets. "Everything will work if you have faith in them. Trust and faith is the most important thing." He said. 

I get what the shopkeeper is saying though. It's not because of some leather and metal that works the magic. But the leather and metal bracelet will symbolize our friendship, giving it a higher level of solidification. The same way wedding rings or 'mangalsoothra' works. Marking a relationship with something tangible will remind the people in it constantly of the relationship making it a bit more...integral?  

I got what he is saying. Trust is the most important thing in any relationship, even in friendship. If we believe that our friendship is strong enough it will be strong enough. And I wanted this friendship band with Jai. To make us more strong.

I paid for the leather bracelets and turned to Jai. I took her hand in my hand and clasped the band to her hand. She grinned looking at it. She took the other bracelet from my hand and clasped it to my wrist. "Brothers forever." She said. I nodded.

When we walked out of the store, I put my hand around Jai and whispered. "You don't have to say 'brothers' now, you know."

She looked at me. "Have I become your 'sister' now?" Jai asked with a frown.

Nope. That's not what I mean. I did not want her to be my brother or 'sister' now. Certainly not sister. No way is that is gonna happen. That feels weird. Or more like I don't want that.

I shrugged. "Can we shed the whole 'brother' thing?" I asked.

"WHY?" Jai yelled so loudly that I backed off. "It was our motto. Brothers forever."

"Yeah, but you are no longer a male," I whispered to Jai. "So...technically..."

"Oh fuck technicality," Jai yelled at me. "It's going to stay brothers forever. And FYI, best friend, I am still a guy." She grunted. Yeah... She acts like a guy. And insist on being a guy. I get all that. And sometimes even I forget that she is NOT a guy. But so happens that I can't get the image of his boobs out of my mind either.

But Jai has this obsession of being a guy. So I guess I will just let her...HIM roll with it. I better think of her as a 'HIM' to keep us with her – His act.

Jai held up his hand for me to grab it. I thought what the heck and clasped my hand to HIS hand and did a ceremonial handshake that ended in a fist bump. We did this from time to time.

"So?" He grunted at me.

"Fine. Brothers forever." I told Jai. He grinned at that. He is so cute sometimes. Dork.

We showed our bracelet to the other guys outside as they kind of made fun of us.

"Oh, you two are so damn soulmates," Varun said. "Always showing off about your deep and moving friendship."

"Until you came around, Jai, Veer was eternally lonely and unhappy. His life was a wait for you. You came and saved him. And now it's Jai-Veeru forever." Dhruv said.

"Stop it." I frowned. Though that part is sort of true. I really did not have any best friends till Jai came. I was close with the boys, but it was after Jai came that I got a best friend.

"We should be envious of your PDA friendship." Varun said, "But..." He gagged. "It's so cheesy. Go get a room guys."

"You two should just go get married," Happy concluded.

Jai laughed out loud at that. But that kind of pulled a string somewhere inside for me though. I mean, I would have laughed it off if Jai was indeed a guy. We were made fun of like this before as well. And it never bothered me before. But it bothered me now. Jai was a girl. And a guy and girl can get married. And do similar other things.

I put the appalling thought away into the dark corners of my mind at once. 'Brothers forever' – I reminded myself.

My eyes wandered and settled on Ayisha. She was walking in the same direction we stood. She was looking at me, at us – Jai and me. She smiled at me. I smiled back.

"Cute bracelets." She said as she passed us.

"Thanks..." I said moving a hand over my hair involuntarily.

"Are they friendship bands?" She asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded. Jai spun around and joined me.

"Where did you buy them from?" She asked pleasantly casually.

"There." I pointed at the shop.

She nodded.

"See you around then." She said and she and her friend walked off to the shop we brought the bracelet from.

"' Thanks', 'Yeah', 'there'," Jai said to me. I turned to him. "Why do you speak in one word when you speak with her? Can't you manage even full sentences?"

Right. I just spoke in one word. Why the hell do I keep making a fool of myself in front of Ayisha??? I cringed.

"Dude, she keeps dropping you so many signals to urging you to make a move," Jai said.

"Huh?" I asked.

"You totally missed that, didn't you?" Jai asked wide-eyed.

"When did she drop signals??"

"She smiles at you, and talk to you now..."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"Well, the way she looks at you is different than the way she looks at any other guy. That has to mean something." Jai said. "It's all the in the eyes. Like the way, you look at her. It's totally evident that you are smitten by her. Even she can see that. That is why she is responding. And you Mr Coward, you can't even speak a word back to her. What the HELL is wrong with you?"

"I don't know. I get tongue-tied when she is in front of me." I said. I have to do something to improve on that.

"Get back on the bus, kids..." Sachin sir called over. "It's getting late..."

"What?" Everyone yelled out. "Can't we stay for a bit more time?"

"No." Sachin sir said. "We have to get to our hotel before 8. And it's almost 6 now. So all...get back in the bus..." 

Okay, taking a bath in the hotel room was not that easy for me. I mean, it meant, I had to reuse the same chest binding I had used yesterday. I could not simply bring in a chest binding and take it along with me while I go to a bath. Usually, when Veer was around, I just tuck it inside a t-shirt and hide it. But when I was taking out my clothes, Happy was hanging around chatting to me and refused to move back. So I just had to bring in one t-shirt Bermuda pants and a towel. And by the way, it was 5 people per room. 5!!!!

I felt kind of weird when Jai had gone to take a bath. Happy, Varun, and Sahil were in the same room. And she was bathing, getting naked with the separation on just a wall. So I was jittery the whole time. Happy and Varun were having a pillow fight and I was just sitting in the bed, looking at the door or the bathroom. She will be okay, right?? I could not just calm down.

After a while Jai came out, drying her hair with a towel. 

Veer was looking nervous. He got up when he saw me. "All okay?" he asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah," I said. "Obviously."

Only if he does not make it so unnatural by being conscious about the whole 'girl' thing no one is going to find out that I am a girl. He needs to relax. I have done this for two years.  

She is clueless about how she smells after a bath. She totally does not smell like a guy. She smelled nice. Girl nice.

I was not going to let the other guys smell her 'girl' smell. They can pick it up so well. No sane and normal boy can mistake this smell for a guy's smell. Well, I did for two years. That makes me abnormal. But now...no. I knew Jai's girl smell now. I am not risking the guys to get any doubts.

So I picked up the t-shirt I was wearing all day and rubbed the smelliest area on Jai's arms. 

"Ew... What are you doing?" I yelled at him.

"You smell like a girl." He plainly said in a low voice. I do??? I have never noticed that. I smelled myself.

"You know what? To be safe..." Veer said. "Just wear this." He handed me his t-shirt.

"No thanks," I said. I am not going to sit there in a t-shirt he wore the whole day. "I have a fix for this." I went to my bag and took out my integral weapon. It was aftershave lotion. While Varun and Happy watched, I put on the aftershave lotion slowly and extensively. 

I snorted. "Like you get any hair to shave," I grinned. I always used to wonder before why Jai's face was smooth and he never gets any facial hair to shave. Now I get it.

After he displayed manliness through the aftershave lotion, Jai yelled out a war cry and joined the guys for the pillow fight. Wow, he is a natural... He manages this so damn well.

Jai threw a pillow at me. I yelled and went and grabbed him in a headlock. He just smelled of after-shave now. So that was better. If he smelled like how he smelled before, I would not have dared to go for a headlock, for various reasons.

Jai pushed me off andsettled on the ground. 

"Guy... Guys... I have a surprise." Sahil said. Veer sat down beside me. I looked over to Sahil curiously, as Sahil took out a bottle from his backpack.

"Oh my damn god..." Varun whistled. I sat up excited.

"Is that?" I asked, excited.

"Oh, God..." Veer groaned in a scared way.

"What?" I turned to him. "You can be so boring sometimes." I went and grabbed the Royal Stag Whisky bottle. This is the perks of being a guy. I have drunk beer before with the guys. But Whiskey was a first.

"Me first." Happy grabbed the bottle along with me.

"No. I claimed it first." I said.

"Guys, it's my bottle," Sahil said. "And everyone gets a share."

"Okay..." I sat back. 

The idea of Jai drinking made me feel nervous. What if he gets drunk and makes a mistake? I looked at him nervously. He noticed my glare. "Chill." He put his hand around me. "Relax. It's fine."

I looked at him. "You are not going to do anything stupid after getting drunk." I hissed at him. "You are not going to tell them you are a girl or remove your clothes..."

"I won't." He held up his hand.

"Okay fine," I told him. Plus... I wanted to try the whiskey as well. Just try it. For the sake of curiosity.

Sahil handed over a glass to everyone and poured the whiskey and a bit of soda into everyone's glass.

"We won't get caught will we?" Varun asked nervously.

"The door is locked, right?" I asked.

Jai checked the door. "Locked and bolted."

"But then there is the smell," Varun said.

"Going to that..." Jai said and went to his bag and took out a deo spray and sprayed it all over the room. It was one of his expensive stuff that smelled so strong. I now understood why she smells like herself only after showers. She uses male deo. The room smelled like the deo now. Mostly. "Does that help?" Jai asked.

"You have a fix for everything," Varun yelled at Jai. "You are a fucking smart."

Jai shrugged.

I know Jai is smart. That is how she managed to pull this off for two years. Jai settled back beside me and took her glass.

"So... Cheers?" She asked.

"Cheers..." we clanged our glasses together.

I took a gulp of the whiskey from my glass. It burned my throat. But yeah, we were drinking. It was adventurous and exciting. So we kept drinking.

But after a while, I did kind of started to feel funny. Is this what getting drunk is all about??

Happy rolled off first, falling asleep on the floor.

And after a while, Varun excused himself and flopped on the bed and passed out.

Sahil, Jai and I were the last ones left. Sahil got a call on his mobile from his girlfriend, Vidya, asking him if he can go meet her. And then he got yelled at by her because he sounded drunk. Then he had to sit and talk to Vidya trying to get her to calm down and not be mad.

After a while, I began to feel kind of sick. Really sick...

"You okay?" Jai asked me.

"No..." I ran to the washroom and puked in the toilet. Ugh... I am never drinking again. Why do people drink? It feels kind of... Well, it did feel good for some time. But... I puked again. After I threw up a lot, which included the dinner we ate as well, I kind of felt sober. My head was kind of clear again. Better. I stood up. The world was no longer swirling.

I poured some water over my head. Now it felt a whole lot better. Yeah, I was sober.

I went back to the room.

Jai had crawled up to the bed and was sleeping now. Beside Varun. I frowned. Something about that made me feel mad, irritated, angry and uneasy. It lit a fire inside me. I wanted to growl.

I got on the bed and pushed Varun off. He did not budge. So I pushed him off more forcefully, even painfully. Get the hell away from her. He groaned and moved over. So I settled in the small space between Varun and Jai.

Better.

She is not going to simply go to sleep beside some other guy. If she is got to sleep on the bed beside a guy, it's going to be me. 

My head felt like it is going to split open... I clutched it as I leaned against the bus. Happy beside me was holding his head as well. "Never make me drink again." He said to Varun. Varun grunted. He was hungover as well.

"How come you are fine?" I asked Veer. He was looking okay.

"I threw up the whole thing last night." He said. "It's not like I feel fine." He rubbed his tummy. "I need food."

"We all need food," I said. I looked away. I tried to ignore it today morning. When I actually woke up I Veer's arms. Well, pretending that it never happened is better.

But I could not forget it. When I opened my eyes this morning, Veers face was so close to mine. And his hand was over my waist. And he was asleep. I could see his face up so close. His eyebrows, his eyelashes... lips.

"You okay?" Veer asked me, coming closer now. There was concern in his eyes.

"Yeah," I said.

"You will feel better when you get some food in you." He said.

"Yeah," I said. Thank god he was asleep and I got out of bed before he could wake up. Else this could have been a whole lot awkward.