Cracks (Part I)

Kritvik Bhatt

“Yeah, so my mom scolded me for that,” I told her.

Both of us were sitting in the middle of the chattering classroom, eating food. I sat on the front seat of Sana’s, with my legs on the right of the chair and my head tilted at her. My lunchbox too was on her table, just in front of Sana’s. I had my head tilted down on my lunchbox, my cheeks a little pink.

“Well, don’t take her seriously, K. That’s the problem with Indian parents—they’re outdated. They’re cringe.”

“Still, man, they’re my parents, and I gotta listen to them,” I said in an irritated voice as I moved a bite up my right hand and took it in.

“Yeah yeah, but you have to tell them that the times have changed. And, you see, they might not even understand you.”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Whatever, I won’t call you at that time. I can just call you sometime else when you’re not studying, you see.”

“That’d be great.”

Sana turned her head at me and asked, “So, when do I call you?” She then took a bite in her mouth, her eyes still glaring at me, waiting for a reply.

“Uh…” I kept glaring at the lunchbox, thinking of something as I chewed the food in my mouth. I then gulped it in. “Maybe… at quarter-past seven?”

She frowned a little as she moved her right hand to her mouth. “Why so specifically quarter-past seven?”

I was about to take another bite in as I stopped my right hand in front of my mouth. “Huh? I return home around seven after playing with my friends, so I thought quarter-past would be fine. I’ll be at home.”

She turned to her food. “Whatever.” She took another bite in and started to chew.

A second passed silently, and then another, and then another, as we both continued to sit silently in front of each other and chew. I was a little shy and hesitant, for some reason.

“I sat there silently, man. I… was a little shy, for some reason. I can’t be normal when I’m around her with her not wearing her mask, after all.”

I turned my head up at her, looked at her beautiful face, imagined the pink aura fuming out of her cheeks, her little nose turning red, and her chin turning dark pink. Then, after a second, I reflexively asked, “Why do you still roam around with your mask on?”

She smiled as she chewed her food as she turned her head from her food to me. I looked at her smiling face and I, too, started to smile, for some reason. “Why did you need to ask that question? Like, so many people still wear a mask.”

“But I’m curious, man. What’s your excuse?”

“W-Well, I still can’t really get over COVID, you see. I’ve formed a habit of wearing this mask.”

I nodded. “But, you look better without a mask.”

She turned her head down on the lunchbox. “Are you flirting? Because that’s cringe.”

“Wha—”

“I’m kidding.”

I sighed out as I continued to look at her.

She took in another bite and chewed it as she turned to me again, looked at me smiling awkwardly at what she’d just said, and then smiled too. “I said I was kidding!”

“Y-Yeah, man. I got it,” I said as I compressed my smile. “But… you think so low of me?”

“‘So low’?”

“That I’d l flirt with you.”

She narrowed her eyes and I started to laugh.

“Ahahahahahaa.”

“That’s not really funny, you see.”

“Because jokes are funny, and what I said was a fact, man. Ahahaha…” I said in between my laughter.

“Stop it!”

“Poverty sure gets the better o—”

“That’s my line!” She shouted as I continued to laugh. She then took another bite in as she smiled and continued to look at me for a second. “When are you gonna stop laughing?”

My laughter turned lower and faded away after a second. I calmly turned to her, took a deep breath, glared into her eyes as I exhaled it out, and said, “Never.”

She looked at me with her narrowed eyes with a little compressed smile on her lips.

I smiled and chuckled.

She then smiled too, and took another bite in. “You’re so… dumb,” She said with food in her mouth. She then gulped in and added, “Like, only dumb people like you can crack such jokes and then laugh at them.”

“You did that too,” I said with a smile as I glared at her and took a bite in. For a second, our eyes met for a couple of seconds, and then she turned her head down to take up another bite. I too turned my head downward.

“I’m afraid now,” She suddenly commented. I turned up at her. “Kavya is missing. I’m sure I must have done something, and that’s why she’s not eating lunch with me today.”

“She must have gone with some other friends of hers, maybe.”

“Well, she doesn’t have other friends, except me.”

I frowned. “But why?”

She turned her head up at me. “She joined last year, and, well, because of her background, no one befriended her. It was also the year when the COVID struck, so everything was online, you see. She even got cyber-bullied by some classmates. So…”

I nodded. “No doubt she won’t even trust anyone.”

“Yeah yeah.” She then turned to the right front corner of the room. “So I’m really sure I must have done something, you see.”

I gulped in, turned to my lunchbox, and then turned at her and asked, “Is your lunch finished?”

She turned to her box. “Well, yeah.”

“Let’s go find her, then.” I stood up, closed my empty lunchbox, and then turned to my left and started to walk toward the blackboard—to my seat. I turned to my bag, crouched down, opened its zip, stuffed my lunchbox in, and then stood up, turned to Sana, who was still on her seat, and then started to walk at her. She too had kept her box inside, and as I stopped in front of her, she closed the zip of her bag and stood up.

“Let’s go, then.”

I turned aside to let her go, and then started to walk beside her as we both went to the door, crossed the aisles of wooden desks on both of our sides. “Do you know where she must have gone, or where she always goes when she’s angry at you or stuff like that?”

“You see, she just… disappears,” She replied as we turned rightward toward the door. “So, not really.”

“Huh? Then how are we gonna find her? The school is too big. No doubt, she must have gone anywhere.”

“Yeah, but we gotta try—”

Sana stopped in front of the door. I stopped and turned my head to the front. Then I got to know why she suddenly stopped and froze right in front of the door. A female figure was trying to enter—who had frozen at the door too after looking at Sana. Obviously, she was Kavya, the dark-skinned girl with strands of her hair standing up here and there all around her head, and the rest of her hair tied to her back.

“Where were you, Kavya?” Sana worriedly asked. “Why didn’t you come have lunch with me today?”

“Ya… Ya seemed busy with some shit, girl.”

She frowned. “With what?”

“With a guy,” She said it straight. “So I didn’t wanna disturb ya two.”

“Well, you too could have had lunch with us, you see.”

Kavya continued to stare at her neutrally for a second. “I-I guess… But I chose not to.”

“Well, you can. Now you know,” She said. “Kritvik is a good friend. I know he’ll befriend you, and that he’d mean no harm.”

“Y-Yeah,” I added.

Both of them turned to me, and then to each other.

“Y-Yeah, sure,” She smiled. She then turned to me. “Sorry, I didn’t see ya standing there.” She then turned back and started to walk away. “I’ll just come back from the washroom in a second.”

I walked a step to the front, stood beside Sana on her left, and turned my head at her. “S-Sana?” She was shocked, and frozen, for some reason. “S-Sana, what happened?”

“Well, she doesn’t like that the two of us are together, K.”

“D-Damn, man. Why?”

She turned at me, her eyes still shocked. “I don’t know. But, you see, I can’t leave her like that. W-We gotta do something.”

“Y-Yeah.”

***

Aaryan Khanna

“Huh? Why did you increase your motherfucking rates?” The boy who stood in front of the two of us asked.

Sooraj and I sat on a metallic bench under the shadows of a tree.

The sun was shining brightly like always, ya see, and that bright sunlight seeped in from the gaps of the leaves of the tree on top of our heads. The silhouettes of the leaves were standing still, and beneath their shadow was the bench where Sooraj and I were sitting.

“Some hard times are going on inside the gang, pal,” I replied. “Ya got the price. Take the vape or leave it.”

“I… I’ll take it, motherfucker.” His right hand reached out to us with a bunch of notes on it. I took it with my left hand and extended my right hand with the black pen-like structure of a vape. He took that shit and quickly kept it inside the pocket of his trousers as he turned to his right and started to walk away. I looked at his back walking away toward the open ground with the crimson colored wall on the other side, some fifty-seventy steps away, perhaps. Many students were either standing or sitting in groups all around the ground, under the sun.

“Only this asshole school does this shit of getting all of its kids down to the ground to eat.”

“Leave it, man. These dickheads won’t understand anyway,” Sooraj said as he closed the lunchbox in his lap.

“Yeah, pal. This school sure is fucked up,” I commented, my eyes still glaring at the bunch of students in white shirts and navy blue trousers scattered all around the ground. “I feel bad for us.”

“Ya should, man. It’s legit,” Sooraj said as he turned to me. “D’ya have one saved up?”

I turned to my right at him. “Why?”

“I got an important match tomorrow, man. Semi-finals of the tournament. Gotta relieve stress.”

“Yeah, I got three left today, asshole. We’ll sell the one, and then share one with each other while walking back home.”

“Yeah,” Sooraj said as he stood up. With his lunchbox in his right hand, he extended both of his arms open and stretched them. “Man, cricket is legit hard.”

“Especially when ya are the captain, right?”

“Yeah, man.”