I drink occasionally.Hum aise hi baate karte rahe, aur pasand na-pasand poochte rahe. Fir maine joint bana kar phoonk bhi dala. Aur jaise hi joint kha...tam kiya, to uska message aaya-Shivani: Tum kuch dino se udaas dikh rahe ho college mein. Kya hua hai?Me: Breakup ho gaya.Shivani: Arre aap dono to college ke sabse zyada charche wala couple the. Kya hua?To maine usko poori kahani batayi, ki kaise uske gharwaalo ne game khel ke humko alag kar diya.Shivani: Koi nahi.Me: Haa yaar usko mujh par. My voice has recovered, but my pride hasn’t. The night felt like a breakup. Maria chose Reyna, or whoever that person is now inhabiting Maria’s body. I lost her. And I almost lost Carl. He’s been quiet since the dinner, but he hasn’t shown any concerning behavior. As far as I can tell, I saved him before any brainwashing became permanent.Looking back now, the whole thing was stupid. I had no idea what I was thinking. I walked right into Reyna’s seat of power and tried to defy her while I. "So, what? You idiots planned a gift exchange and didn't tell me?" You planned a trip to an exotic island and didn't tell us." Yann retorted."Hey, my harem, my trip." Yeah, well too bad." Juan chuckled. "We got you something anyway." Idiots." I sighed, trying not to be moved or touched or any of that shit.I noticed, when they finished distributing and sat down that there was a box in front of Jhon too."Guys, you didn't have to do this!" He protested."But we wanted to." Janos explained. "Ja, so. In the end, we spent over an hour on the phone – I half expected her to give me a hard time for not being entirely up to speed with whatever tricks Debbie was planning to pull at The Meeting but quickly realised that she was a bit out on a limb at her end, too, not yet having taken back full control of her own business. So in the end it was a slightly inconsequential conversation, however nice it was to be in contact with her again, which didn't really help much – except that I now knew that.