[Author's Note:

Hey all, 

So finally... Finally, because of your requests (in plural), two more Epilogues of 'Fist Bump' are here. Enjoy...]

I looked around the bustle of the room. Honestly, I felt a bit alone without Jai. Although I was longer in the school than her and knew these people longer than she did, she was indeed my best friend in school and this reunion felt incomplete without her.

"Are you listening?" Happy yelled at my face. "IS Jai coming or not?"

"She won't come here," I told him. "But she asked the four of you to stay back. So as she can come to meet you."

"Why?" Varun asked.

"Well, it's obvious that she does not want our whole class to know that she is a girl," I said. They nodded. I saw Ayisha walk close to us. "Are you guys talking about Jai?" she asked in a whisper. "How is she?"

"She is good," I told her.

"We are meeting her today," Happy mindlessly told her.

She looked so excited.

An hour later, we all started off to another pub to meet with Jai. We all left from the reunion meeting earlier, because we were impatient to meet her. When we arrived at the pub she had not arrived yet. So we began waiting.

"I am almost nervous about meeting him." Happy said. "I have not seen that dude for such a long time."

"Dude?" I scrunched my brow.

"Oh, right... Female dude." Happy corrected. Ayisha laughed. Ayisha came along with us. She was way too curious to meet Gauri as well. I was a bit nervous about that because I had not told Gauri that Ayisha would be with us.

"When is she coming?" Dhurv got a bit impatient. "It's getting late, I have to go to the hostel before they shut the door."

"You all can stay over at my place if you want..." Came her voice, and I saw Gauri walking toward us with a smile. She was wearing a white dress and a high heel sandals. Her hair was open and her makeup was flawless. When she came closer I could smell her expensive perfume even. She looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Happy was looking at her with his mouth hanging open, and the other three looked stunned too. Gauri was carrying four shopping bags. She set them under the table. "Hey guys," she said. And that is when she noticed Ayisha. I saw confusion pass through her face, but she hid it immediately. "Oh... Hi Ayisha" she said to Ayisha.

Ayisha got up and hugged Gauri. And Gauri looked so surprised, and so was I – surprised. "It is very nice to meet you finally... in real form," Ayisha said. Gauri just looked uncomfortable. But we were distracted by Happy bursting into tears. We all looked at him.

"Look at my baby looking so pretty..." Happy cried.

"Your baby?" I asked.

"I raised him." Happy said. "He was such a baby puppy when he came to school at 15."

"What?" I snapped. Everyone else just laughed.

"Aww, Happy..." Gauri hugged him.

"Look she even smells nice." Happy cried more.

"Who are you madam ji?" Dhruv commented, "Where is our Jai?" Gauri playfully slapped his shoulder.

She sat down beside me.

Varun looked uncomfortable. Sahil was still in shock. "Hi, Sahil..." She turned to him. "How is Vidya?"

"We broke up after school." He said.

"Oh... What happened?" Gauri asked.

Shail shrugged. "Just... Long distance." He said. "You two are lucky that you are still together."

"Are you two really dating?" Varun asked.

"Yeah," I said.

Varun looked a bit disappointed. But he looked the least surprised to see Gauri. He was even looking at her with adoration. I felt a bit possessive. So I put my hand around Gauri's waist.

She turned to me and whispered, "What is Ayisha doing here?"

"Sorry, she wanted to come." I told her, "What could have I done?"

"You could have texted me. Now I don't have any gift for her. I bought gifts for all the four boys." She said. "How unfair will that look if I don't have a gift for her."

"What is the secret?" Dhruv asked.

"Nothing. We should order some food and drinks." I told the guys. As Gauri got busy texting someone, and she looked up and said, "On me."

"Are you sure?" Happy asked. "We will eat a lot."

"Shut up and order." She said. The guys got busy with the menu. Gauri was again busy with texting. When she looked up, Happy was looking down at the shopping bags. He looked too curious, so she took them out and set them on the table. "These are for you guys. My apology gifts." She said.

"Bribe?" Dhruv teased her.

"Shut up." She said. And handed each to each of the guys. "I am so sorry, Ayisha. I had no idea you were coming." She said. "Else I would have got you something as well."

"That's okay," Ayisha said. "It's my fault for tagging along anyway."

"No. No. I am glad you came," Gauri said.

The boys began to open their gifts. It was sneakers for all of them. They were the expensive brand sneakers. Very stylish and good quality.

"I hope the sizes I remember are right." She said.

"How do you remember our shoe sizes?" Sahil asked amazed.

"Happy is the same as my size, Varun is the same as Veer's size. Sahil and Dhruv are in between, size 10 or 11. So I got 11."

"I am 10," Dhruv complained.

"Wear thick socks." Gauri snapped at him. Everyone laughed again.

By the time we ordered food and drinks and everyone caught up, I saw Sharma uncle, Gauri's driver walk in with a bag in his hand. "Madam," he said.

"Thank you, uncle." She said and took the bag. I asked her "What is that?"

"Gift for Ayisha." She extended the small bag to Ayisha.

"Oh My God," Ayisha said, "You need not have."

"Nah. My pleasure." She said. "I hope you like it."

Ayisha opened the gift. It was a pendant and chain. Silver, I think. Ayisha gasped. "This is too expensive. I can't accept this."

"Come on. The guy's sneakers are expensive too. Do you see them complaining?" She asked.

"We are just thankful to be friends with a millionaire." Happy replied.

Ayisha seemed too reluctant to accept the gift. She looked at me. "I really can't," she told me.

"Please do. Otherwise, Jai will be sad." I told Ayisha. And I can't see her sad.

So Ayisha accepted the gift, although reluctantly.

"We should plan a holiday together," Jai said, taking a sip from her cocktail to everyone, as the night was coming to an end. "Beach Holiday."

"That is a brilliant idea," Sahil admitted. "But don't tell me you will bear all the cost again. We can't allow you to do that as well."

"Why not? I am rich." Jai said. She was a little tipsy. "You should come too, Ayisha."

"If he is rich, he should pay." Happy was fully drunk. "Right, man?" he turned to Gauri.

"Yup," Gauri high-fived with him.

"We can afford Goa, Jai," Sahil said.

"Yeah," Dhurv agreed.

"Speak for yourself." Happy jumped up.

Varun was silent the whole night. I looked at him. He did not say anything.

"I was not talking about Goa," Jai said. "Do you all have passports?"

"Woho...wait. We are not suddenly going to Santorini or somewhere are we?" Dhruv asked.

"I was thinking Bali or Maldives. But if you want to do Santorini, we can do that as well." Jai said. She was definitely drunk. I pulled her closer. "Don't be ridiculous. Goa is fine." I said.

"Yeah... Yeah..." Everyone agreed.

"Are you sure?" Jai asked.

"Yes." Happy said. "I have never been to Goa anyway. It is my dream."

"Fine... Goa trip then." Jai said. "Plan... Who will plan?"

"I can," Varun said. I looked up at him. "I will plan," Varun said.

"I can plan. That will be better to coordinate." I said.

"Yeah." The others agreed.

"I need to go to the washroom," Gauri said and got up. She almost stumbled, so I caught her. She steadied herself. "I will take you," I said. And got up.

"I am not a kid." She pushed me back to my seat and walked off.

I watched from where I was, and then the other guys got up and walked off to pee too. I was left alone with Ayisha.

"You look happy," Ayisha said.

"Thanks," I said.

"I am happy for you," she said.

"How is Doughnut?" I said, remembering her dog's name.

"He is great," She laughed. "He hates me as usual. Do you want to see his photos?" She took out her mobile phone. I sat closer to see the photos of a grumpy pug.

When I looked up from the photos, I saw that a few feet away Varun was talking to Gauri. And something about that unsettled me.

But they just finished talking and came to the seat and Gauri sat beside me and Varun sat where he sat before.

"Let's call it a night then?" I asked. "I will contact you all about the Goa trip," I said.

"Sure," Sahil said getting up. "Ayisha, where are you headed? Should I drop you? I have a car." So Ayisha went with Sahil and the rest of the guys dispersed too.

Gauri and I got in her car, while Sharma uncle was driving. Gauri immediately snuggled with me as we got in the backseat of the car. "You drank too much," I kissed her forehead.

"I feel really happy." She said.

"You are glad you met the guys, right?"

"Yes. I am." She said. "Really happy." She closed her eyes and breathed me in. Like I do sometimes. Just her smell calms me down at times.

I dropped her home and was about to leave when she turned to me and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Hostel," I said. "I have class tomorrow." I was doing my MBA these days. And so was Gauri. She managed her studies and job simultaneously. She mostly did not go to her college and had slaught special case privileges. She attended the exams and submitted all the projects and assignments on time and had good grades. But she could just skip tomorrow's class, I can't.

"Stay," she said. "Stay the night."

"Hm?" I considered.

"Come on...." She tugged my hand. So I just decided to stay over. I can wake up early to travel to college.

I changed my clothes to the pair I had at her home and got to bed. Gauri had changed to a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I lay down beside her and she turned to me and cuddled with me.

"Feels nice." She said. "Now this feels like home. I wish we can live together." She smiled. It's not like I have not considered that.

"Hm... Gauri..." I said I had been thinking about this for a while. This was certainly not impulsive. "Shall we get married?"

She opened her eyes suddenly and sat up. "What?" she asked.

I sat up too. "I mean this is not like an official proposal, but... I was thinking...."

"Veer. We are 22." She said. "Who marries at 22. That's crazy."

"It's not crazy in our case," I said. "It's not like we will eventually break up." She looked all confused. "Will we?" I added.

"No," she said.

"Then..." I took her hand in my hand. "Marry me, Jai."

"Woah." She said. "Is this a serious proposal?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Again... we are young."

"I know. But I was thinking like after our MBA gets over... 23. That's fine, right?"

"No." she frowned. "I am too drunk and tired to talk about this right now." She said. And flopped down on the bed. I felt a bit irritated.

So I turned around from her and lay on the bed. And felt a bit weird. I didn't think she would react like that. I knew she would be surprised. Even a bit shocked. But... I don't know what is wrong with me. But I felt hurt and pissed off.

"I thought we could be a family," I said.

"We are family. I think of you as family." She said. "Are we not family already?"

"Not legally," I said. "Not in others eyes. Plus, this is just half true but like you, I don't really have a family either. You know how things are with my parents. And... The only one I have really got is you. And.... I just... feel like we should actually be each other's legal guardians or responsible for each other by law."

She turned to me and blinked.

"You know... if you get hurt somewhere... like before. I want to be the first one the paramedics or the police calls." I said. "And I want us to be each other's home."

"Fine. I will think about it." She said.

I smiled. She came closer and cuddled with me again. I kissed her forehead. "I love you," I whispered.

"Same," she said.