Episode - 8

Obviously, I didn't know what to say to that. I wish I could tell him that all I wanted to do

was to have a bunch of kids with Sarah and keep her away from the world because she was so god darn hot, but I decided to go with something cooler.

'Break up with her,' I said, as dispassionately as I could.

'Yes! That's what. Everyone has been telling me otherwise. But I knew you would say

something different. You get me. Those fucking nerds, I tell you. I mean, Sarah is good, but I can get better, right? This is college! I've got to move on.'

'Yes, you do!' We shook hands and smiled at each other.

I patted myself on the back. I was not a nerd. Certified by someone who himself wasn't.

Red-letter day for me. He's breaking up with Sarah! He's crazy!

A week later, he broke up with her. Many conversations followed, and though he never

wanted to go back to her, he often felt guilty and sad about the whole incident. In the next

few days, I knew everything about their relationship. Sarah used to call up Arnab and

remind him of all the times they had spent together in an attempt to get him back. But Arnab didn't budge. It was cool to have broken up. I had told him that. I—the cool guy who had never ever had a conversation with a girl.

Though I have to admit that the day he told me that they had kissed, I was shocked. (Let

me remind you again—2004.) For many days after that, I had replaced him in the kissing

scene with myself and fantasized about Sarah.

'You have kissed?' I asked, shell-shocked.

'So? I am sure you have, too,' he said.

'Umm … yeah … but … then you shouldn't have broken up so brutally.'

'What?' he said. 'We have done other things beyond that too … but I am not going to tell

you that.' He nudged me with his elbow and smirked at me. He looks stupid; I am a mix of

shocked and jealous and nauseous.

'What? What have you done?' I asked, almost sweating.

'I won't tell you. And neither would she,' he said.

'But won't her next boyfriend mind?' I said, innocently. I forgot to be cool. How could I

have been cool? The guy in front of me was hinting that he had seen his super-hot girlfriend, like, without her shirt, or whatever! I was freaking out. Or something close to that. My mind was in shambles .

'She won't tell the next guy, for sure …'

'Who knows?' I said. I figured it was the right thing to say, remembering suddenly that I

wasn't a nerd anymore, except that I really was. I reminded myself that I had kissed and

done stuf , and with time, I had started believing in my own lies. My false confidence had gone sky high, and I had started using words like fuck, fucking, asshole, fuck it with unmatched gusto, as the popular kids did.