Bring It Back

As they all finished eating, Harshal — as always — somehow managed to clear his entire

plate in what felt like one sitting. He leaned back for barely a second, wiping his mouth with the

back of his hand, before his eyes drifted toward what was left in the pot.

"More."

Everyone except Kabir turned toward him in disbelief.

Himani Ma'am sighed, but scooped another helping onto his plate anyway.

"Someone said they weren't hungry," she said.

"Which idiot said that?" Harshal replied immediately, already digging back in.

A few of them snorted.

Before Harshal could take another bite, Kabir quietly pushed his own plate forward. "Can I

get some more?"

Himani Ma'am smiled and reached over — then, without any warning at all, took a spoonful

straight from Harshal's plate instead.

Harshal's jaw dropped. He yanked the plate toward his chest like she'd tried to rob him.

"Don't you know you don't pick food from someone else's plate?"

Himani Ma'am raised an eyebrow. "Don't you know that when you're once denied, you

shouldn't ask for more?"

Harshal stared at her, betrayed on a personal level, then hugged the plate against his chest

and kept eating, muttering under his breath the whole time. "Unbelievable."

Himani Ma'am just smiled and went back to her own food like nothing had happened.

Once the plates were mostly empty, Harshal counted them out, stacking them in his hands,

then glanced at Dhruv. "Twelve?"

"Twelve," Dhruv confirmed.

Harshal set the stack down on the counter and spotted a bottle of soda sitting nearby. He

twisted the cap and drank the whole thing in one long pull, the fizz stinging the back of his

throat on the way down. He lowered the empty bottle. Then came a burp loud enough that

Dhruv actually flinched.

"Such an imbecile," Dhruv muttered. "Unmannered bastard."

Harshal didn't react. He just pulled out his wallet, dropped two dollars on the counter out of

habit more than sense, and carried the plates off toward the sink.

Everyone else eventually set their own plates down too. Harshal pushed his chair back,

stood, and stretched his arms overhead until something in his shoulder popped.

"I'm going for a walk. Anyone wanna join?"

A few heads turned.

"Really?" Aditi Ma'am said. "People are missing, and you want to take a walk?"

Kabir's hand shot up before anyone else could speak. "I wanna join."

Harshal shrugged. "If they were going to make us disappear too, we'd already be gone.

There aren't even walls keeping us in here." He turned and held a hand out to Kabir. "Come on."

Kabir took it, let himself be pulled up, and the two of them headed out.

Behind them, Pranav Sir looked at Dhruv and Sahil. "You two. Clean up."

Both of them groaned in unison.

Outside, the afternoon light was bright and strange — too clean, too ordinary-looking for

everything that had happened under it. Sunlight spilled across the empty road, catching the

windows and pale walls of the buildings on either side. The air was warm and still. Without

traffic or voices to swallow it, even their own footsteps sounded too loud, echoing off shutters

that should have had someone standing behind them.

Harshal walked with his hands shoved in his pockets, eyes drifting over the deserted street.

"So, Kabir," he said, casual. "How are you liking the tuition?"

Kabir shrugged. "Fine. Everything's good here."

"Liked any girl in particular?"

Kabir hesitated a beat too long.

"Yeah," he said. "I did."

Harshal's eyes went wide. "Who? Come on, tell me, tell me, tell me."

Kabir looked away. "Priya."

Harshal's expression went still.

"Oh," he said. "Really?"

For a second the name landed harder than he expected it to, a small weight dropping

somewhere behind his ribs.

Don't. Harshal, stop yourself. You've moved on. She's no one to you.

His face settled back into something normal. He gave Kabir a small nod. "Good for you,

man. Just keep in mind—" he paused, "—she talks too much."

Kabir gave him a confused look. Harshal just kept walking, hands still in his pockets, like

he hadn't said anything worth a second thought.

Kabir glanced through the window of a parked car. "Hey, look. Keys are still in it."

Harshal turned to check. "Yeah. They are." He looked farther down the road. "That one

too."

"Should we take one?"

Harshal shook his head. "Nah. It's not ours." He glanced back toward the tuition building

behind them. "And what if this is a prank? We'd be the idiots who stole a car for nothing."

Kabir stared at him for a second, then shrugged. "Fair enough."

They kept walking, past shutters that stayed shut and a street that offered nothing back.

* * *

Back at the tuition, Diya and Riya sat together near the window, watching the same empty

road from the other side of the glass.

Diya's eyes stayed fixed on it. "What's happened to our world?"

Riya swallowed and glanced around, like the answer might be sitting somewhere in the

room with them. "Yeah. What even is this? Where are we?"

Diya's expression shifted, something suspicious creeping in. "What if this is some plan by

the boys — to manipulate us into getting with them?"

Saanvi, close enough to hear, turned immediately. "Nobody's trying to get with you, so don't

worry."

Diya rounded on her. "Like any boy would want a manly girl like you."

Saanvi's eyebrows shot up.

Before either of them could go further, Riya sighed and pressed her fingers to her forehead.

"Okay. Both of you, shut up. Relax."

Near the doorway, Pranav Sir, Himani Ma'am, and Aditi Ma'am stood together, voices low.

"What are we going to do?" Aditi Ma'am asked, looking between the two of them. "We

don't even know what we're stuck in. We can't do anything. Nobody's picking up."

Pranav Sir glanced down at his phone, thumb hovering over another number before he tried

it anyway. Nothing. He lowered it slowly.

"Even the service numbers are dead."

"This can't be a prank," he added, quieter.

Himani Ma'am folded her arms. "So what, then? A real apocalypse?"

Pranav Sir looked past her, out at the empty street. "Maybe." A pause. "We don't know."

Aditi Ma'am's expression tightened. "We'd never know unless we went out there ourselves.

But is it even okay — sending children out to fetch things while we stand here talking?"

A voice answered from the doorway before either of them could.

"Well, someone has to."

Himani Ma'am turned. "Harshal, go out—"

He ignored her entirely, dropping down to sit against the wall instead. "If we send everyone

out into danger, nothing good comes of it." He looked toward the street. "And it's not an

apocalypse."

The three of them stared at him.

"We checked the cars," Harshal went on, easy, like he was reporting on the weather. "Keys

still in the ignition. Tanks full, engines fine. So whatever this is, it hasn't stopped everything."

He leaned his head back against the wall. "And I don't think these little punks are going to

survive without you three."

He looked at Pranav Sir. "We need someone smart." Then at Himani Ma'am. "Not you,

Himani Ma'am."

She frowned instantly. "Excuse me?"

Pranav Sir almost smiled before catching himself.

"But Harshal," he said, "it's not okay for you to be the one going out there."

Aditi Ma'am looked down at her phone again, quieter now. "There isn't much hope left in us

either." She glanced toward the street. "This might be our end."

Something in Harshal's face softened.

"Ah." He pushed himself up off the floor. "I think you three need the hope more than they

do." He looked between them. "We have to get supplies — nobody else has the strength to carry

the heavy stuff anyway." He crossed to Aditi Ma'am and gave her shoulder a gentle pat.

"Ma'am. I can promise you — as long as I'm here, every day is going to feel like your first

day back here." A small smile. "So if you want to lose hope, fine. I'll bring it back for you." His

voice dropped, more serious. "Just don't show them you've lost it."

Aditi Ma'am wiped quickly at her nose and gave him a small, tired smile. "Thanks, kiddo."

Harshal's grin came back instantly. "Hehe. See, Himani Ma'am? Better lines than you could

ever give."

Himani Ma'am's expression went completely flat. She bent down, slow and deliberate, and

picked up her flip-flop.

Harshal's smile vanished. "Ma'am." He took a careful step back. "Please put that down."

She threw it.

"Hey!" He ducked and bolted through the doorway, laughing as it smacked into the wall

behind him.

For a moment the room settled back into quiet. Then the door creaked open again, just

enough for Harshal to poke his head back through, grinning sheepishly

"Please." He looked at all three of them. "We need you. All of you." His eyes cut toward

Himani Ma'am. "Even you, Himani Ma'am."

She just stared at him. He vanished behind the door again before she could find her

flip-flop's twin.