Breath of Fresh Air

I am not entirely sure what woke me up. Perhaps it is the persistent ringing of my cell phone. It could also be the midday sun shining fiercely on my face. I do not know. What I do know is that my head feels as though it is being repeatedly hit by a biscuit tin.         

Eyes still closed, I reach out to switch off my cell phone only to find myself on the floor. The thought, “Where am I?” takes shape in my barely functioning brain. I long for someone to turn off the sun. With an effort of mammoth proportion I finally manage to open my eyes. It takes some time for my vision to get adjusted to the light.



“We have been robbed!” is my first instinct. I look around at what used to be our living room. The furniture is in disarray and there is a broken vase in the middle of the room. The floor is littered with cigarette butt, pizza boxes and cans of beer. “Wait a minute. This isn’t a crime scene. There was a party here last night!”

My parents were away for the weekend visiting my grandmother, so I decided to invite a few friends over to hang. May be drink a few beer and catch a movie. But with the booze came the boyfriends. The boyfriends brought along their friends who in turn invited their scantily clad girlfriends. Before I knew it, the house was full of strangers new friends and I was unwittingly hosting my first college party.


I snap out of my reverie when I hear the “pile of pillows” on the other end of the room groaning. My best friend Samira, aka Sam, makes a beeline for the bathroom. “At least I don’t have the worst hangover”, is all I can think over the sound of her throwing up in the toilet.


When Sam finally joins me in the kitchen, I am on my second cup of coffee.


My cell phone starts to ring again. It is my mom calling.


“Beta, we have decided to cut short our little trip. Your dad just got a call and he has to perform an emergency surgery. I will drop him off at the hospital and be home by 4.”


Sam takes one look at my ashen face and swings in action. We have three hours to restore what currently looks like a war zone into the pristine living room my parents had left behind.


Almost two and a half hours of sweeping, cleaning, scrubbing later we almost manage to remove every trace of the party from last night. I say almost because though the house now looks perfect, there is still the funkiest smell hanging around the house – there is the unmistakable stench of booze and fags mixed with what smelt like dirty gym socks and putrid fish!   


A generous spray of aerosol and a pack of incense sticks later, we are still struggling to get rid of the horrid smell in the house. I am not ready to take any chances. Not with a nose like my mom’s. (I may officially be an adult, but my parents will ground me till the end of my college days.)  


Sam has a brainwave and she runs to the store down the street. She returns with Ambi Pur Air Effects Blossoms and Breeze. We just have enough time to hide the can when my mom walks in.


“Hey girls! Good weekend?”


“Sam, you must give me the name of your perfume. It smells so delightfully like spring.”               


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#SmellyToSmiley

“I am blogging for #SmellyToSmiley activity at BlogAdda.com in association with Ambi Pur