Lonely as you

"It gets terribly lonely man, don't ask" said Dilip, as he rested non-chalantly on the circular slab of stone jutting out of the ground, the ones you commonly see at the entrances of parks/playgrounds.

"Uh huh?" Karthik nodded solemnly, trying to be mature but unable to hide the inquisitiveness from his eyes. His ears were on full alert, soaking in every word of his illustrious, enigmatic, cool cousin. This was one topic which he'd like some hindsight about!

"Its that phase when you're no longer just a teen, but aren't married yet?" went on Dilip, taking a deep, melancholic puff. "It gets pretty damn lonely man...That craving that you get...Its unbelievably strong...makes you long for somebody...terribly lonely u start feeling"

At this point, Karthik's mind was like K R Market on a day before a festival...swarming with questions...Is he talking about the craving that I think he's talking about?? And why that period, for one to feel terribly lonely anyways? And how terrible can it get after all? You've your friends, your family, your workplace, your relatives, your neighbors etc etc. Won't work keep you busy and occupied most of the time? And...

"Wanna take a drag at this?" was what broke Karthik's reverie at 7.50 pm near the bus stand there. Dilip was offering him the King! Giving him equal status almost! But wait....was he just testing me? Should I say no cos I'm too young? But it'd make me cool if I DID take it...Oh but dad n ma...Oh no...DAMMIT!

"Uh no...I don't smoke any more...it was a long time ago and I didn't like it much so I stopped" said Karthik, to avoid sounding lame...He felt lame after completing the sentence though...

"Oh ok...sure" said Dilip with a smirk as he finished it off, and popped the minty into his mouth, starting to walk back towards home...

Karthik felt annoyed at having been so immature...One bloody puff! You could've walked home with him, with the victorious minty in your mouth matching strides with Dilip, the cool one!

As he rounded the corner, the angel donned a lawyer's robe at the same time and started saying "why's it so cool to smoke anyways? what's the big deal? It hurts anyways...And whats this loneliness that he was talkin about? the craving and the longing? and why...................