"Angad, man." a voice slurred next to him. 

"Nishant," Angad said. 

Besides Aditi, he was probably the only person he didn't wanna see tonight. He was the obnoxious dudebro from his class who thought they were best friends for some reason. 

"Where's the whiskey bro? What's all this Vodka and Gin. Girly drinks." he scoffed. 

Angad straightened up off the table.

"You know what? I think I have some Whiskey in my car. I'll go get it for you." 

He speed walked away from Nishant and went straight to the parking lot. The party wasn't going at all as he had expected. He couldn't drink, he couldn't have fun, he couldn't hold a conversation with the one girl he wanted to. 

He was tempted to drive home and leave his friends hanging here. They would eventually get home. It's not like his car was the only mode of transportation. Maybe he could say he didn't feel too well and had to leave. Or that his mother had called. 

It would be awfully mean. 

Sounds of retching broke his train of thoughts as he realized he wasn't alone there. He walked in the direction of the sound and found a girl struggling to stand as she threw up the contents of her stomach in the flowers. 

"Hey are you okay?" he asked with concern and then realized it was Meera's friend. 

He rushed to her aid when another bout of retching began. He felt partially responsible for her state because they had allowed freshers to their party that served alcohol. Maybe this was why they had that rule in the first place. 

"Hey!" called out a voice in the parking lot and Angad immediately recognized it. 

 "What are you doing?" Meera demanded walking towards them with purpose. 

Her pace slowed when he turned around.

"Angad?" she asked puzzled. 

"Hey, could you help me out here?" he said and threw her his car keys. 

"There is a bottle of water in the cup holder of my car, can you get that? It's that red one over there next to the--" he said but Meera cut him off. 

"There are three cars in this parking lot, I think I can spot the big shiny Audi among them," she quipped with a smile and unlocked his car. 

"Right, of course, you can." he said still preoccupied with the sick girl. 

"Here," Meera said handing him the bottle of water. 

He grabbed it, unscrewed the cap and passed it to her friend who had mercifully stopped throwing up. At least it wasn't alcohol poisoning he thought to himself with some relief. 

Meera smiled suddenly, immersed in her own private joke. He caught her eye and asked what she was smiling about. 

"Nothing, I just think it's very nice of you to help Vahni out here," she said, "And it's very chivalrous of you to open bottle caps for damsels in distress,"

Angad stared at her in amusement. She seemed a lot friendlier now than she had at the table. 

"And I think you have a nice car," she added after a pause. 

Now he couldn't help it. A full blown grin made its way on his face as he said,

"Why thank you m'lady."

Then he cringed internally. "M'lady? Really Angad?" he berated himself internally. 

Meera didn't react probably because her friend spoke up,

"Meera, I feel better now. Let's go." 

Meera chastised her friend as she begged her to save it for tomorrow and call a cab so they could go home.

Then it occurred to him that he could drive them. And for the first all night he wasn't miserable that he was the only sober person here tonight. 

He offered but Meera declined. 

"Oh no, I insist. I'm the designated driver today so I'm completely sober. And it'll be much safer this way. Come on," he insisted. 

It seemed like she wanted to say more but snapped her mouth shut and made her way to his car Vahni was already seated in the back.

"Thank you so much, Angad for the ride, the bottle cap, helping Vahni, just everything," she said earnestly. 

"It's no problem at all. Least I could do for our juniors," he smiled and drove out of the college gates. He wanted to add that her company more than made up for it but refrained. 

"Mmm... I was wrong about all of you," she mused. 

"Wrong about us?" he asked, confused at the sudden segue. 

"When I first came in here I thought you all were ... how do I put this... massive jerks with inflated egos. But then I discovered that you all are actually very, very nice." she said.

And that was when he realized where all this friendliness and candour was coming from. He recalled the two consecutive shots she had drank just a little while ago. She was at least tipsy if not drunk. He chuckled and asked, 

"By 'you all' you mean our band, don't you?"

"Yes," she exclaimed, "Siddharth was a maaajorrrr jerk to me on the first day."

Of course he was. Siddharth was a jerk to everybody. He had almost cost them Meera's company. It's a good thing he managed to get her to come or Angad would have given him a piece of his mind. 

"So you based your opinion of all of us on that one interaction with Siddharth?" he asked.

"I mean, I guess I did." she admitted. 

"That isn't very fair to the rest of us, is it?"

"I guess not," she pursed her lips. 

"I'm just glad that we rectified that," he replied with a satisfied smile.

The conversation came to a natural end as pulled up to the address Vahni had given him. 

Meera woke her friend gently. It took some tries to finally rouse her. When they finally managed to get her out of the car he turned to Meera.

"Make sure she drinks loads of water and eats something, the hangover will pass eventually but she must be dehydrated. Order in or cook or whatever but get food in her system." he paused for a second and then added, "Actually, that goes for both of you. You seem to be tipsy enough."

He chuckled and Meera said,

"Wow, you seem like you know what you're talking about."

Was she... flirting with him? 

He was confused for a moment but then switched back to his default state. Flirting back. It came naturally to him.

"Yeah, well I've handled my fair share of drunk friends so," he said with a brilliant smile.

"You have a pretty smile," she mumbled. 

That threw him. His heart stuttered and he said somewhat awkwardly,

"Thank you, m'lady." 

Then cursed himself for pulling out the 'M'lady' again. 

Then what happened next made Angad's brain blow a fuse. Meera leaned in and Angad could swear he saw it happen in slow motion. Her lips met his and she started kissing him. 

Angad couldn't believe what was happening at this moment. Meera Sehgal was kissing him? After snubbing him at the party she was kissing him barely half an hour later. 

Then he took over. He cupped her cheek started kissing her back. Meera seemed to really like that as she put her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her. The cool night breeze tickled his hair and it felt amazing to be there just kissing her like there was no tomorrow. 

Something nagged at the back of his brain for a second till it struck him full force.

Meera was drunk.

With a sinking heart he realized his responsibility as the sober, functioning adult here and grasped her shoulders. 

"Meera, you're drunk," he said pushing her away as gently as possible. 

"And?" she asked carelessly but Angad disentagled her hands from around his neck. 

Meera stared at him with such intensity that he had to look away. He didn't trust himself to be around those eyes and not give in to every single one of her demands. Drunk or not, he would kiss her again if he wasn't careful. 

"I would love for this to continue but maybe when you're sober," he managed to utter. 

She began to protest but her friend walked out again calling out her name. She sighed and walked away as Angad fought the urge to pull her back in. She paused and turned around looked at him again. 

Angad felt the same flutter in his heart that he had felt before. This wasn't anything like he had experienced in his life. Eye-contact with this girl was giving him warm, fuzzy feelings? And yet, he couldn't help the slight feeling of regret. 

He tried to reason with himself that if this was going to lead somewhere then this was the right thing to do. They would have plenty of chances after tonight, right?

This was only the beginning.