Saving A Stranger from A One-Night-Stand Gave Me A Lifelong Friend

The right thing can often be the hardest one to do.

It was back in May 2012, and I was a 23-year-old starting out at my first full-time job. It was the day of our new hire orientation.

There was a group of about a hundred of us, graduates and postgraduates alike, all of us in our first month at the job — and hence a common orientation program. I had made a friend who lived in the same apartment complex as me. She was in a different part of the firm than I — she was a graduate and I was a post-grad hire.

I am not the most social, party-goer type person, while this girl, let’s call her K was a 21-year-old fresh out of college party-loving person. She introduced me to a few of her friends — most notably for this story, V and O (both girls) who had joined with her from the same college.

We chatted a bit over the networking lunch and all became acquainted with each other — acquainted is the right words, we were far from friends yet.

Fast forward to the end of the orientation, V and O proposed going out clubbing — I said yes, probably a bit too soon. I soon realized that K had other plans while most of my friends were too tired as well.

So it was going to be me headed to a club with V and O in a city I was new to. Two fun-loving 20–21-year-old girls who were regulars to the clubbing scene, and who I had just met.

For the record, I don’t drink and as a result, seldom go out to nightclubs. My idea of a night out with friends is typically a house party with some chatter, a few drinks for the others, some good food and maybe some Poker.

Well, but here we were going out to explore one of the fancy places in the city.

Fast forward to a few drinks and a couple of hours later, I had learned that V had recently had a breakup she wasn’t taking too well. O was more of a “happy by myself” sort of person and wasn’t too close with V — more classmates than friends.

O, however, had invited her own friends to the club so I was left in the company of V.

V decided to get quite drunk quite soon and was all wild and emotional at the same time, hurling the choicest of abuses about her ex while she danced away in a crowded club.

I, at the time, was dating someone who lived in another city. So, I wanted to maintain respectful distance even while I watched out for her — a drunk girl on her own in a nightclub is always prey to unwanted men (at least in India, and surely that night).

V was in a mood for vengeance — because of a guy, her ex, who wasn’t even there and probably blissfully happy in his ignorance.

She would oblige any cute guy who would like to dance with her. No harm in a bit of dancing. But, as a natural sense of duty, before anything would get too out of control I would steal her from her random dancing partners.

This was until a white guy showed up. He was all by himself, probably a tourist to India. He had her eyes set on V and V probably found him cute so in her very drunken state decided to get comfortable in his company.

As it got a bit late into the night, O decided to go home — she was a local so her parents were picking her up. She offered to drop V and I home and I was more than happy to take up the offer and asked V to come along.

V however was too drunk to take a smart call. The white guy, probably a tourist, was staying at the same hotel which the nightclub was a part of. He had made his move — inviting V over to his room.

V wanted to go. I knew that was her alcohol and recent break up doing all the decision-making.

Since O and V were friends or had known each other longer, I thought I would ask the relatively sober O to convince V and convince her to leave. O, however, told me V was old enough to make her own decisions and she wasn’t keen on creating a scene.

Imagine the scene for a second— 5-star hotel lobby — O on one side almost at the exit with her parents’ car waiting, random white guy on the other side waiting near the hotel elevators keen to spend the night with V, and V and I in the center. V convincing me that she knows what she is doing, and I, trying to tell her I don’t feel right leaving her with a random stranger in a hotel room.

Finally, after much convincing and hearing the “you have no right to make my choices” type of allegations in her inebriated slurry tone, I managed to get V into the car with O and her parents.

On the way home, V said the most offensive yet funniest of things to O’s 50-something-year-old dad who was driving.

One of them being:

“Drive carefully woman, you were almost gonna kill that fly on the road.”

Yes, she called O’s dad a woman and she was worried about a fly she imagined on the road — alcohol does strange things to the human mind.

Now, next problem.

We didn’t have V’s address and she was in no condition to navigate us to her place. I pleaded with O to take her home with her but she said a firm no.

I had a girlfriend who was expecting a Skype call from me later, and I wasn’t taking her home to my apartment which I shared with a friend, and our landlord had a “no girls or sneaky business” policy — yes that happens in India.

Nevertheless, I asked O to drop V and me at my apartment complex.

I knew K’s place (remember the common friend who introduced me to V), but I also knew K had driven off to her nearby hometown for the night. I knew she lived with roommates who I didn’t know.

Yet, at about midnight, I showed up at their door with a drunk V — her arm over my shoulders as I dragged her along and requested if she could stay the night in K’s room.

K’s roommates were nice enough to agree.

The aftermath was weird and awkward — and it was all at work because that is where we all met the next day.

K was upset about V’s behavior and that she didn’t have the courtesy to explain and apologize to her later.

V was embarrassed for her behavior but thankful to me for bringing her home, and not letting her go to the hotel room of a stranger. She didn’t want to discuss the events of the night and I respected that.

K and V didn’t speak for many days but V and I got closer as friends, while K continued to be somewhat of a friend.

V and I would be the best of friends over the next 2 years and I would hear endless stories of her dates, work, ups n downs, accompany her to “ladies night” at a nearby club every Wednesday where she would enjoy her free drinks and we would talk about work and life. I would bring her drunk ass safely home an uncountable number of times.

I would also in the process get a lifelong friend who would trust me more than anything, proudly introduce me to her mom when she visited as her best friend, even when she kept her boyfriends under wraps from her mom.

About 9 years later, today, we still barely ever speak about that incident that brought us together as friends.

We live in different countries now that I am in Hong Kong, yet whenever I am in India and in her city, I am always welcome to her place and to spend some good time with one of the best friends I’ve had. Her parents still love me and know that we share a special bond.

I often reflect upon that day.

Did I exert myself more than I should have on her “right of choice” as an adult, or did I violate some kind of code by dropping her to K’s place without informing her first? I may have dropped her a text though but I can’t recall the details.

What if, V had gone over with the white guy? What if I had taken her over to my home instead?

There are a lot of what-ifs, but I do still feel happy with the way things panned out — maybe not ideal, but I would probably do the same thing if I could go back and do it all over again.

Just one of those nights I vividly recall to this day. What would you have done?