Cracks (Part III)

Kritvik Bhatt

I walked behind her as we passed through that crowded corridor with the windows on our right, classrooms on our left, with my eyes worriedly fixed on her back as she walked. The corridor was filled with the indistinct chatter of people all around—everyone laughing and chatting.

After a second, I was following her on the crowded stairway painted green on both sides. It was a little darker than usual there, maybe because there were no windows to directly supply sunlight inside. I was still looking at her back, her head tilted down, and her hands on the straps of the bag. There were a couple of kids who were walking silently between the two of us.

The next moment, I was walking behind her on the street, with the school on our left. I was still looking at her worriedly as we walked. The yellowish white school building was on our left. As she walked, she suddenly sighed. “Phew…”

“Hey, Sana.”

“Yeah?” She replied, without looking back toward me.

“What’s up with you and Kavya?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Obviously, you know.”

She narrowed her eyes. “No, I don’t.”

“Tell me why are you so depressed then?” I asked, a little irritably.

“I’m not.”

“Obviously, you are.”

“Obviously, I’m not.”

I ran a few steps toward her and started to walk on her left. I turned my head to my right at her and enquired, “Come on, man. You not accepting it won’t change anything, will it?”

“What accepti—”

“Just say it straight if you don’t wanna tell me about it.”

Sana was still walking with her eyes straight to her front. She was refraining to look into my eyes. So I walked to her front and stopped, looking directly into her eyes. As I blocked her way, she stopped too. “What?” She asked.

“Just accept it.”

“What?”

I just moved my eyebrows up, which were asking her ‘Really?’

She closed her eyes and sighed. “Phew. Whatever.” She then turned her eyes and looked at me. “Well, nothing much really happened. Kavya thinks that I’m trying to get away from her. You see, everyone in the class shuns her for no reason at all, so she’s just kinda… kinda…” She turned her head down. “She’s just like this. Whatever I do, she always interprets my actions in some wrong way and then gets mad at me. I just can’t believe how she manages to do that every single time.” She started to walk and I turned and started to walk on her right.

“So, why don’t you just… leave her?”

“She’s just like me. No one in the class used to talk to me either.”

“Maybe no one talks to each other,” I commented and turned my head to the front.

“You see, there must be more like us in our class.”

“Yeah.” I turned my head to the sky. “Maybe, we gotta do something to get her back on track.” I then turned to her. “Why don’t you just tell all of it to her?”

“I did, today,” She turned her head downward. I could see from her eyes that she was really sad. “There’s… just so much going on right now. I just can’t believe that I have to tackle so many problems at once.”

“What… more… do you…” I asked her hesitantly as I looked at her worriedly. I was kinda hesitant, maybe because I felt like I was going too personal.

“Well, my mom and dad just argue a lot, and I don’t like it.” She then turned to me and looked in my eyes. “Exams are coming soon too!”

“Yeah. Math teacher told us that they’d be next month, and the date-sheet would be out in a few days.”

She turned to the front again, her eyes a little widened. “I just can’t believe that I’ve not even started studying right now, and… board exams are just after half a year.”

“I wanted to say to her that it’d be better that we talk about Kavya a little more… or maybe about her parents. But, I thought that it’d be better that I’d make the mood light and help her cheer her up a little, so I just carried on with her.”

“Yeah. But I’ve heard you can get a lot more marks in board exams than in normal school ones.”

“Yeah yeah, I’ve heard that too. But, like, it’d be still better if we study. What if those rumors were not true?”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“And then, Kavya…”

“She herself came back to the topic.”

“Leave her, man. She’s just a little stubborn and childish, maybe. She’d be back on track in a few days.”

“Yeah yeah, I know, but… it still makes me sad.”

I nodded as I looked at the street ahead. The school’s building was now behind us and we were walking slowly in the middle of a wide street with wide bungalows on both sides. The street was peaceful and filled with the yellowness of the afternoon sunlight. The houses too were silent. Just a few students a few steps away from us were walking. The cars were parking silently, some were facing us, some not, and some were parked horizontally.

“Damn, man. Don’t be sad over silly things.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Listen to me.” I turned to her. “Let’s… Maybe this would sound dumb, but all we can do is spend time with her and make her feel wanted. Then, when every one of us would be cool, we’d talk this out, okay?”

She took a breath and exhaled out. She turned her head a little down, thinking upon this idea. “Well, yeah…”

“Okay then. It’s solved. Now, don’t take any more stress, man.” I turned to my front. “For some reason, you’re taking too much stress over some silly things.”

“I’m not taking so much stress, okay? Like, it’s just a little.” She turned to me.

I turned to her, and looked into her open eyes which were not that depressed that they were some time ago. “Yeah, you seem fine now.”

“Whatever. Anyway, what about the half-yearly? How much have you really studied?”

“I’ve… studied each chapter once.”

“Like, learnt it all?”

“Yeah, man.” I nodded. “Obviously.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s sad, but I… just did two.”

“Two of all subjects is sti—”

“One of math and the other of social science.”

My eyes widened too. “What?!”

She nodded.

I turned my head to the front, my eyes still widened. “No doubt—we’re never doing eleventh together. You… are gonna fail.”

“Don’t say that!” She too turned to the front. “Like, I can still catch up!”

“Then do it!” I turned to her.

She smiled beneath her black mask as she turned to me again.

“And man, why do you still wear a mask, huh?”

“Well, just got addicted to it. I told you just today, remember?”

“Yeah… But still, take that off.” I moved my right hand at her and tried to take it off, but she held my right hand with both her hands.

“No, ahaha.” She chuckled. “That’s not cool. I’m better with a mask.”

I smiled and moved my left hand up at her, and she held that too. “Don’t, Kritvik.” She was firm and serious this time.

“Okay, man.” I moved my hands back and stuffed them inside my pockets as I said, “I don’t wanna look like some bad guy.”

“Yeah yeah.” She smiled.

***

Aaryan Khanna

“Pal, what do ya think about the semi-finals tomorrow, then?” I asked Sooraj. We both had our bags hung behind our white shirt and gray pants uniform as we walked down the crowded markets on both sides of the narrow streets. The roads were uneven and dusty. The cars were moving slowly one behind the other, and people were walking. The street was bustling. Dark-skinned people in both good well-managed clothes and muddy tattered clothes walked all around us as we walked between the crowd. We both had our shirts outside our pants.

“Man, it’s gonna be a tough one,” He said, looking to the front. His eyes were narrowed a little due to the direct exposure to that shitty sunlight. My eyes were the same.

“Any chances of winning?”

“Not really.”

I turned to my right at him. “Why, asshole? Ya gotta win tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I gotta win tomorrow. But, it’s not just in my hands. Even if I bat good, and our bowlers still fuck up, then we’re goners. And our bowlers are all dickheads.”

“If ya are chasing, maybe, ya can win, right?”

“Yeah, that’d be possible, but if bowlers had already fucked up too much by then, we’d be fucked. There’s a limit to which I alone can make runs, right?”

“Right.” I turned my head to the front.

The street was filled with sounds of horns of cars and patter of footsteps all around. Some people were talking too. That shit of a street sure was a complete mess.

***

Sana Kohli

Kavya was sitting inside the bus beside the window on her left. She had her left arm on the window frame, which moved up after her elbow to her left hand. Her left fist was on her cheek. Her eyes were narrowed, as if they were sleepy, as she looked outside the window. The sunlight was coming in directly, touching her skin.

Everyone around her was talking and shouting and laughing. The bus was filled with kids of all shapes and sizes in the same all-white uniform—all chatting and cracking jokes with each other. The two girls in front of her seat were discussing about their studies and were serious, and the guy on her right was not really a chatty one, so he too stayed quiet like her. She glared at the front, with his bag on his thighs, just like her. The bus was running slowly through the bustling thoroughfare filled with gray shining cars of different shapes on all the sides. Some were black too. She looked sad and sleepy. “That bitch… really did betray me.”

The road was a little uneven, so the bus’ frame was shaking a little.

“How can she… even like a loser like him?” She thought in her head, her eyes still sleepy. She closed her eyes, and imagined the face of Kritvik the first day she had met him—shy and hesitant as he looked at her with his worried eyes.

“He’s a fucking loser.”