Club You to Death by Anuja Chauhan (books to improve english .TXT) 📕

She takes a drag from somebody’s joint and stares at him with strangely shining eyes. Then she raises one solemn arm.

‘Guys gimme a beat.’

They oblige at once, and she turns back to look at Kashi, swaying a little.

‘Un-dress! Un-dress! Un-dress! Un-dress!’

‘Unbelievable.’ Kashi mutters under his breath. She always claims to hate this scene – and she even does – but whenever she ends up with this crowd she feels the need to be the absolute throbbing heart of the party.

Staring across the pool, Kashi feels a sudden intense dislike for the entire chanting group, including Bambi – so rich, so privileged and so utterly spoilt.

Then he remembers his Goa abs, lurking under his vee-neck tee.

Very deliberately, he raises his arms and tugs it off.

The gang across the pool whoops loudly.

Locking eyes with Bambi across the water, Kashi unbuttons his chinos, drops them and kicks them aside.

‘I can die now! Maine Kashi ke darshan kar liye!’ he hears somebody declare as he dives into the pool and the water splashes around him, shutting off all sound.

Reaching the other side, Kashi pulls himself up and sits down beside Bambi, shivering a little. The night air is definitely a bit chilly.

‘Arya at eleven o’ clock,’ she whispers in his ear urgently.

Surprised at her totally sober voice – she has clearly been fake-inhaling the joints – he looks as casually as he can in the direction she has indicated. Yes, there he is – across the pool, sitting with his legs dangling in the water and staring at the waves like a zombie.

‘No hurry,’ Kashi whispers back to her. ‘We’ll get to him in a bit.’

‘So you guys are like, back together now?’

Sia Kapoor is very drunk. She’s lying on her back on the Italian mosaic floor by the poolside, her long legs propped up on a deckchair, surrounded by most of the people Kashi and Bambi went to junior school with.

There’s a chorus of general snickering at her question, and some low-key cheering. The TVVS batch of 2012 has always been unhealthily obsessed with Kashi Dogra and Bambi Todi – it’s the price you pay for pairing off early, when the rest of the class is still hanging out in clearly demarcated ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ groups.

Bambi is sitting next to Kashi, their thighs almost touching through their towels, but at this question she straightens up like she’s received an electric shock, saying hotly, ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sia, get a li—’

Kashi’s arm descends around her shoulders, holding her firmly to his side.

‘Yeah,’ he says calmly. ‘Bam and I are friends again. We’re gonna stay friends for life.’

This is met with a cheer that is not low-key at all. The TVVS gang appears disproportionately pleased. Sia Kapoor’s face spasms oddly. She looks, suddenly, close to tears.

‘I’m so glad,’ she says fervently. ‘When I see you guys together, I feel like everything is okay with the world. And the world is just so fucked up, you know? There’s like so much competition, and all these pushy chicks from Ghaziabad, and horrible men who stare at you if you’re showing even a little side-boob, and my favourite boy bands keep splitting up, and my favourite brand of mascara just got discontinued, and it’s so hard to remember to eat healthy and sleep on time and work out, and then there’re pandemics and terrorists and crippled people and poor migrant workers whose kids spend their whole year looking forward to eating just one McDonald’s vanilla cone on their birthday!’ She lets out a long, shaky breath. ‘It’s too sad, ya – school was really the best time of my life!’

‘Wow, that’s deep, Sia.’

‘You have so much soul.’

‘C’mon, I’ll show you some midget porn. That’ll make you laugh.’

Sniffling, Sia allows herself to be led away. The group, considerably sobered, breaks up and wanders off to get a drink or swim. But Kashi and Bambi continue to sit and stare at the dancing water.

‘What are you thinking?’

‘I’m thinking …’ he says slowly, ‘that my girlfriend won’t like us sitting like this. And so …’ Very reluctantly, he lifts his arm off her shoulder and slides a little further along the deckchair. Continuing to hold on to her hand, he grins at her. ‘This is safe, I think.’

Bambi sticks out her tongue. ‘You’ll never be safe from me, Kashi Dogra.’

His brown eyes glow. ‘That,’ he admits, ‘is probably true.’

He stares at her across the space that divides them, feeling suddenly, idiotically happy.

‘Hey, I read up on that case you won,’ she says. ‘Good job, Kashi!’

He gets the uncomfortable look he always gets when people praise him, and glances away at the pool. ‘Thanks.’

Bambi continues to stare at him, her eyes warm and approving. ‘You got all those jhuggi dwellers their rights – it was awesome.’

‘I had a lot of help,’ he replies. ‘I worked with this really committed NGO – they did all the research.’

‘I want to help people too.’

He turns to throw her a smile. ‘Cool!’

She hugs her knees. ‘No, no, I’m serious! I have this whole plan and shit!’

‘Tell me.’

She hesitates, then shakes her head decidedly. ‘No. You’ll judge me.’

‘T’fuck!’ He laughs. ‘When have I ever been judgemental about the shit you do, Bam?’

It is she who turns away to gaze at the pool now. ‘You don’t know half the shit I’ve done, Kash.’

A cool gust of wind swoops down on the poolside, causing goose-pimples on their flesh. Bambi gives a little shiver, rubbing her palms on her bare arms. ‘Where’s my dress?’

A little later, towelled and dressed, they start looking around for Aryaman Aggarwal. When they finally spot him, he is passed out on a deckchair, under a pile of damp towels, lying flat on his back, staring up at the stars blankly.

‘Shit!’ Kashi pulls back. ‘The guy is wasted.’

‘Standard Arya,’ Bambi whispers with a shrug. ‘Everybody agrees that he’s practically a vegetable. Into really hard drugs, and living totally in la-la land. Apparently can’t even get an erection any more.’

‘He didn’t seem