First Encounter

Kritvik Bhatt

I was walking outside in the cold. The blueness of the sky was fading away and the darkness was taking over, with only a pinch of light blue shades on top of the sky. There were some clouds floating over. Under such a sky, my figure, wearing a black hoodie—which had some calligraphy done on it in yellow—and a black pair of pants walked in the middle of the high-rise apartments on both sides of the silent street. My hands were inside the pockets of my pants. My steps were quite fast for someone just walking. My head was tilted down a little for some reason—toward two-four steps away on the smooth road, maybe. As I looked at the road, I thought, “The roads in Faridabad were not really this smooth. It was rough and full of potholes and stuff, for some reason. No doubt Noida is more developed than Faridabad.”

Just as I was thinking about all of that, I remembered my mother’s back as she stood in her kitchen—making food, maybe—with a bun on the back of her head and untidy hair as she ordered me, “Go out and make some friends, Kritvik!”

“Huff…” I opened my mouth and exhaled out. I then thought, “That’s now how it works, man! Mom… She really thinks as if we’re still in the twentieth century, for some reason.”

“Yeah, maybe it was in her time that kids could just go out and make friends. That doesn’t happen nowadays, for some reason. I’ve noticed that people generally need a ‘thread of connection’ of some stuff, like a common school, tuition, or something like that. At last, how can someone just befriend a complete stranger, man?!”

I then turned my head a little up, noticed a four-lane division some steps away, and then tilted my head down again. “I guess it’s left…” I was already walking on the left side of the street, and I just took the turn and continued walking in the middle of the line of apartments and the empty street. I then turned my head up again. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. My shoes patted on the pavement. I noticed a park on the left, about a dozen steps away from me. My heart started to tap my chest. Thump. Thump. Thump. “Sh-Should I walk back?” I thought, my face completely normal as I glared at the gate of the park, slowly walking toward it. “No, what will I tell my mom, then? Oh yeah, I can tell her that there was no one.”

“Wait, no. She sent me here for my own good, man. No doubt I should try as she said. And I don’t wanna lie to her for such a petty thing.”

“But… what am I even so scared of?”

I took a deep breath, my face completely normal as I walked toward the gate hurriedly. I walked past the apartment on my left and stepped beside the boundary of the park. I turned my head to my left, opening my dark eyes wide—which, for some reason, looked a little odd, maybe because they had been narrow for some time. It was fenced green with shrubs and other small bushes on the other side of the fence. There were some trees on the back edge too. I saw some kids around my age standing in the middle. One of them wore dark blue capris with a loose red t-shirt. His back was visible to me as he dribbled a black-and-white football in his legs. His body seemed stuffed with nutrition since he had a little chubby skin but a fit body. Another guy stood beside him in a light blue t-shirt, a black pair of joggers and sport-shoes. He seemed to be speaking something as he looked at the ball being dribbled. He too had a good body, but not like the one being filled by nutrition, but rather by exercise. He had darker skin than a typical Indian, for some reason, and really seemed the child version of a school coach dedicated to sports. Another third guy sat on the left of the first one, on a public chair made of some thick stones and stuff, with his right leg on top of his left knee. He wore a gray t-shirt and a black pair of pants. And he seemed normal. MY skinny figure continued to glare at the inside of the park. “I know the basics of football, so I might try them out…”

I went through the open gate filled with rust, noticed the line of trees in front of the back of another apartment at the back edge of the small square-shaped park, and then turned to my left to look at the three guys. They all were chatting and smiling. They were just chilling around, maybe. The capris one had stopped with his dribbles and now the foot lay beneath his right leg, his hands on his waist.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

My chest was being beaten vigorously by my heart at that point. To calm myself, I closed my eyes, opened my mouth, took a breath in, and then exhaled out. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. What can possibly go wrong, man? No doubt I’m gonna go back home alive without a scratch, so what’s wrong?”

“It took me such guts, man! I never thought I’d be able to walk up to some random strangers and try to befriend them, while making a complete fool of myself, maybe. But, I was gonna do it, because I had to live there for the rest of my life, and I’m not the type who can just be at home all day long. I knew that I was gonna see this as an act of bravery some time in the future, but I never thought that… that I’d ever regret it so much.”

“Hey, guys!”

The one with joggers turned to his right, looking at me smiling awkwardly at him, with my right hand beside my face, waving at them. For some reason, I sucked at smiling, especially when it was supposed to be a fake one like that one.

“Hey, pal, what do ya want?” The one with capris asked with a smile.

“I-I’m actually new here,” I shyly replied. “S-So, I… I was just walking by, an-and just… I was just chilling, so I just wanted to ask… Are you all gonna play football?”

“Nah, not really, pal,” He replied.

“That’s what I was worried about when I made this plan!”

“A-Ah, okay. I’m sorry to disturb you all.”

“Awkward. It was a moment of pure cringe and awkwardness for me. No doubt, I was gonna cringe damn hard on this moment later in the night when I’d be thinking about it, completely awake in the middle of the lonely darkness. And, I was gonna regret it for days, man! Damn it!”

I was just turning back with that awkward smile of mine which conveyed that I knew I’d made a fool of myself, but just as my right foot was halfway through, the one with the joggers said, “Hey, wait.”

“Man!” I thought beneath that awkward smile as I turned my head to my left at him—half of my body in the position of running away.

“We can be friends, though,” He said as he raised his right hand. “I’m Aaryan Khanna, new guy.”

“Uhm, sure!” I turned my back at him, raised my right hand, and shook his hand. “I’m Kritvik Bhatt.”

“Kritvik?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, Kritvik.” He pointed to his front with his left hand at the sport-coach guy. “He’s Sooraj, and that guy sitting,” he pointed his finger back, “is Rohit.”

“Hi,” I said once as I looked at them one-by-one. I then turned to Aaryan. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, if you need anything, just come to us. We’re friends now.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Anything you want—weed, cigarettes, vapes—we have all of them.”

“Ahaha, sure,” I laughed awkwardly and formally.

***

“D-Damn, man…”

The sky had turned completely dark. It was around seven or eight in the evening. Rohit was still sitting in the same position, with Sooraj, Aaryan, and me surrounding him. The park was completely empty, and for some reason, it was low on lights. Except the lights of the houses around and the streetlights on the edge of the pavement, there were no other sources of light in the area. So, it was filled with darkness and shadows all around, giving that creepy vibe of something mysterious.

In the middle of that darkness, on top of the bench on the right of Rohit, were lying some blue cylindrical pen-like structures made of plastic.

No doubt, they were vapes.

As Aaryan stood beside me, looking at the stuff, he turned his eyeballs to his right at me, looking at my wide open eyes. “Wanna try some?”

I was thinking, “S-So he was not kidding…?”

“Hey!”

“Huh?” I turned my head to my left at him, completely shocked by the revelation.

“Wanna try some, pal?” He asked.

“I-I-I…” I stuttered.

“Ya don’t need to worry about it, pal.” He moved his right shoulder up and wrapped my neck around with it. “I know ya are someone who studies a lot, is new, and is filled with stress. So, try one. Ya will feel so fucking good, pal.”

Sooraj, who stood on my right, said, “Ya should not have included him in, Aaryan.”

“He’s gonna be a new customer, asshole,” Aaryan told him. He then moved his head toward me, slowly got his lips to my ears, and whispered, “Ya can get one today for free as a trial, but from tomorrow on, be sure to have some money inside your pocket if ya wanna have more.” He then moved his head back, announcing, “It’s yours, pal. Choose any flavor ya want. Vanilla, mango, blueberry, grape, coffee, mint–we got every single fucking one there is.”

My eyes were wide open as I was glaring at the packets on the chair. I stood there, my body completely frozen. I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to… just not respond, maybe.

Aaryan looked at me with his frowning eyes and noticed my shock. He shook my neck and shoulders with his right arm which was on top of my shoulders. “Hey, pal!” He shook them again. “Kritvik?”

Somehow, stuff had started to become a little blurry. Dark circles suddenly rose up in my vision, right in front of the packets. The colors were merging in on their boundaries, just like some black hole. I closed my eyes hard. I gulped in. I moved my right arm up and rubbed my forehead.

“Seems like he’s already high seeing so many drugs,” Aaryan commented.

My body left loose. My mind lost consciousness. My back then turned to my left, hitting his chest for a second, before slipping and hitting the ground.

“See, man, he’s a fucking dickhead. Ya shouldn’t have had him involved in this.”

“Shit!”

My body laid on the ground in the middle of the three figures, unconscious.

“And this… was literally just the beginning of many more of the surprises by these guys which awaited me.”