Caught In The Mess

Kritvik Bhatt

“I’m sorry!” Sana replied. “Like, we were in a wedding tonight, and you know when they end, so…”

“Yeah, but you could have told me, man.”

“I could have, but we never guessed we’d be coming that late, K,” Sana’s voice said from the other side of the phone.

I was sitting on my studying desk at the corner of my room. The door of the room on my right was closed. The bed was behind my back. “Today went boring, man.”

“Sorry…”

“Nah, not your fault,” I replied with a little smile. “For some reason, I have nothing to talk about, because nothing really happened.”

“Yeah yeah, poverty gets the better of u—”

“Is this even fitting here?!”

“Yeah! You’re poor because you have no friends!”

“What?!”

“Anyway, Kavya called again today.”

She suddenly changed the topic. I decided to go with the flow and frowned. “Why?”

“She apologized,” She replied in a low and serious tone. “She really has some anger issues, you see.”

“Even girls have anger issues…” I commented, and then chuckled. “Ahaha. Man, good thing she apologized. Just accept her apology.”

“So… when did I say I didn’t?” She chuckled. “Hehe.”

“Yeah, obviously you did,” I said with a smile, and then turned my head down on the open notebook in the middle of the wooden desk. “When will Kavya come back to school? I wanna meet her.”

“Why?” She questioned.

“Just curious. I haven’t even seen her, man.”

“Well, you’ve met her.”

I waved my right hand on top of the notebook. “Huh? Really?”

“Yeah. She was the one who asked you about where you come from and other stuff on your first day.”

“… I… don’t remember.”

“Haha, that’s sad. Anyway, she might not come back for a week. She had caught COVID, so she’s in quarantine for now.”

“Damn…”

“Don’t worry, she’s not serious. In fact, no one in her family is in a serious condition. They are all fine.”

“Great. That’s good to hear.”

“So, what were you doing, by the way?”

“Studying,” I grinned.

“Whatever. Well, I gotta go. Talk to you later.”

“Bye.” I moved the phone away from my right ear, still smiling at my notebook.

Slap! Creeeek!

I turned to my right. My mother was looking at me as she stood on the door-frame, her left hand on the doorknob. “With whom were you talking for so long?”

“Just a friend, mom,” I replied with a smile, which was fading away and hiding my fear.

“Seems really close.”

“Not really.”

“Focus on your studies, Kritvik.”

“Y-Yeah, mom,” I turned my head downward to my notebook again.

“Whoever he is, he might be a good friend, but make sure you don’t talk to them when you’re supposed to be studying. Got it?”

“Yeah, mom,” I replied apologetically.

Creeeek! Click!

The door closed again. I turned to my right and looked at the door. “Good she didn’t ask me her name.” I then turned to my notebook again. “And good thing that she came just after I had kept the phone, or else, it’d be embarrassing.”

***

Aaryan Khanna

“So that’s what that fucker is on,” Vikram said. He was walking beside me.

“Yeah, Vikram,” I said. “And that asshole wanna throw ya out, ya see.”

The two of us were walking through the middle of a narrow street. He had his hands behind his back, and his eyes straight to the front. I had my head tilted to him. The sky was in the shade of blue, but filled with blackness. It seemed that in just about fifteen minutes, it’d be pitch black in the night sky.

“That motherfucker is never gonna be able to do that, Aaryan,” Vikram replied.

“Ya sure?”

“Yeah, Aaryan. I know Akshay. He’s all talk. He’s never gonna be able to land a kick on me.”

“Hope what ya say is true,” I turned my head to the front. “But what about Rohit?”

“Tell him to stay at home as long as possible. Tell him he should only come out with his parents or to school. All the deals will be made through phone calls, and I’ll send four to five guys directly to his home to pick the packages up.”

“But, he won’t be able to give the packages if he’s at home, ya see,” I replied, still walking.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp…

The footsteps of Vikram suddenly stopped. I noticed it, stopped, and turned back at Vikram. I looked at his streamlined eyes turned up and lost in the sky. His neck was muscular. He remained silent, and I too just looked at him and said nothing for some time, glaring at him thinking about some shit. After a couple of seconds, he turned his head to the front at me. “The business won’t take place for some time, then.”

“What?!”

“That’s the only thing we can do at the moment, Aaryan.”

“B-But, pal, if there’s no business, won’t we lose customers?”

“Not really. If some fucking schoolboys won’t smoke for a week, it won’t really affect anyone.”

“From four schools!”

“Yeah.” Vikram then started to walk toward me. He silently stepped beside me as I looked at his muscular figure.

“But…” I said as I continued to walk beside him.

“You tell me something better, and Imma do that,” He said, his dominant eyes still glaring at the front.

“I…” I tried to think of some shit. I turned my head to the front, thinking for a second or two as we both walked.

“See, it’s not that easy, motherfucker.” He then turned to his left at me. “I’ll take your words into consideration and try to think about something, but until then, Imma keep the business shut. Say that Rohit has fever, and won’t be with us for some time. With the supplier gone on a medical leave, no one will suspect us.” He then turned his head to the front. “This would give us two to three days to cope with this matter. After two-three days, it’d be obvious that it’s not fever, but something else is cooking up inside our clan, and I don’t want it to leak out.” He then turned to me again. “Until then, I want you to get a guy, probably an outsider, who can go to Rohit’s house and get us the packages. I’d say that the motherfucker you find should be a nerd-like guy. No one ain’t doubting a fucking nerd for this shit. The business too will keep on running that way.”

“But he won’t supply from his house…”

He turned his streamlined at me again, and looked at me with rage. “Tell him to do something about it, then, motherfucker.”

***

Kritvik was walking on the empty and silent street, with apartments and houses on both the sides. He had a white polythene bag filled with vegetables in his right hand. The sky was fucking black, with only the street lights to illuminate the street. Behind his back, some steps away, was the market filled with the indistinct talks of people who were walking here and there in colorful clothes. His left hand was inside his pocket, his eyes to his left at one of the houses at the corner of the street. “Damn… such a huge house!” He commented as he looked at the house with a little lawn at the front, three stories with glasses beneath the railing, brown colored woodwork done beautifully, and the shining lamination on the balcony.

“Where the fuck am I supposed to get a nerd now?!” I thought, frustrated. I had my eyes bent a little down as I was thinking about it. “Can I get some asshole from my school?” I then turned my head to the front, looking at the guy in loose denim jeans and white t-shirt, with the white polythene in his right hand, and his left hand inside his pocket, slowly walking toward me from the market. The right end of my lips rose up in a devilish smile. “This asshole will do.”

Kritvik then turned his head to the front, and noticed my smiling face. His eyes opened wide, horrified by my figure. We were just about two-three fucking dozen steps away from each other when he stopped, and I continued to walk to him. “Yo, pal!” I shouted at him with a huge devilish grin.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. My eyes stood right in front of his eyes.

“A-A-A-Aaryan?” He stuttered. He was horrified and shit-scared.

“Nice to meet ya, pal!” I turned back, threw my right arm around his neck, and started to walk inside the street. “I gotta talk to ya about some shit, pal.”

“B-B-But why me?”

“Who knows?” I said as I dominantly kept on walking, with his scared face on my shoulder.

***

“So, you mean that all I gotta do is get inside that house, get the bag that he gives me, spend about half an hour with him acting like we’re studying, and then come out and give the bag to you?” He asked innocently.

“Yeah, asshole,” I replied irritably in my hoarse voice. My arms were crossed in front of my chest. “And make sure you don’t get caught by anyone else on your way to our base.”

“But… why me?” That asshole asked me. “No doubt, anyone could have done this for you.”

“Stop with your fucking questions, and do what I tell you.”

“O-Okay,” Kritvik replied, a little scared inside.

I then moved my right arm to the front at him. He shook my hand. “Once it’s confirmed by Rohit, we’ll begin this procedure.”

“Y-Yeah.”

“And don’t ya dare run away, asshole, or else, ya know what the Black Reapers can do to ya, got it?”

“Y-Yeah, Aaryan,” He replied. “Obviously, I won’t turn back.”

I smiled dominantly. “Good.”

“Finally, I had someone on board, and after discussing it with Rohit the next day, I was able to make sure that the business kept on running. At last, when ya are in a fucked-up business like selling cigarettes and vapes to school kids, ya gotta be prepared for all this shit.”