Bonding

Kritvik Bhatt

‘Campfire’ was written in black English text beside a circular square logo with a black background and a little graphic of fire burning in between. It had an orange outline and yellow flames inside. Beneath it were two buttons—install and more info.

I was sitting on my desk in my room, my book lying open on the table for some reason. My right hand was just on the edge of the book, scrolling on the phone as I accessed the app.

“So, this is a social media app, huh?” I thought as I scrolled up and down, reading about it.

The sun was about to set and it was evening. Birds flew upon the half-dark half-blue sky as the sun was setting behind the apartments on both the sides of the street.

“Maybe I should try it once,” I thought as my thumb tapped on the download button. Just as I tapped on it, both the buttons disappeared and a straight horizontal line came up, showing the progress of how much of the app had been downloaded. I then kept the phone downward and looked toward my history book.

“I should study until it downloads,” I thought as I read the text on the first page of the chapter on Napoleon.

A second passed by as I successfully kept my vision on the book. Then another second passed. Then another. Then another.

Then, I couldn’t wait any longer, man—obviously. Out of curiosity, I turned my head to my phone, and took it up.

Now, there were two options on the screen—open and more info. Obviously, I clicked on the open button. The app opened and a black screen popped up. There then came the logo and name of the app on top, and two options beneath it—login or signup. My thumb hit the signup option. Some form-like screen opened which was asking for my name, email address, and other stuff like that. I moved the phone from the edge of my book to the center of my open book, held it with both my hands, and started to type with both my thumbs.

“That’s just how curious I was. I was just unable to focus on my studies that day, man. Maybe because I was new to all this social media stuff. I knew in my mind that my mom will scold me for this, maybe, that I have a lot to cover in a couple of days, and this social media is gonna get me addicted for the first few days. But obviously, anything new gets you addicted for the first few days, after all. It happens to everyone who starts using social media for the first time. But, I felt like it was kinda important for me… so that I can remain in contact with Sana, maybe.”

The shorter of the two black needles on the pure white clock in front of the cream-colored wall tilted only a few millimeters from the digit five, whereas the longer one walked from six to nine. Fifteen minutes were gone.

On the screen of my phone, there was a circle in the center where some kind of loading was taking place against the black background. Suddenly, the white circle turned into a green tick, and my eyes saw a social media user interface for the first time, maybe. It had a photo of a famous male actor eating some green vegan food at the front. Suddenly, a message appeared—‘Campfire would like to access your contacts.’ I, for some reason, clicked on ‘Accept’ without even thinking about it once. Another pop-up then appeared, which said—‘Swipe from right to left to access Direct Messages’. So, I followed the command, and another screen appeared in the front. It said ‘Oops! You currently have no DMs! Message people for them to appear here.’

I nodded. I then swiped from left to right and appeared on the same tab. I started to scroll downward, looking at posts from famous celebrities posting their new photos after make-up, while eating, while sleeping alone in bed, and other stuff. I uninterestedly swiped them all by.

“Man, it’s not as interesting as it sounded, for some reason,” I thought.

Suddenly, a horizontal section appeared between two posts, for some reason. It had a heading of ‘recommendations’ and beneath it were some accounts of some random people. I started to scroll rightward, looking at the accounts which appeared on the little window.

Just as I glared at the screen curiously, I frowned at one of the accounts. It had the name ‘Jiya Kapoor’.

“Jiya?” I thought in my head.

I clicked on the account and focused on the profile photo. On her bio, beneath her name, was written—‘funky nerd’. I looked at the photo, which had the face of a smiling girl with red pimples on her white face as she stood in some place with dim and aesthetic lights.

“Damn, it’s really Jiya!” I thought as I pressed the ‘follow’ button beneath her account. Just as I pressed on it, it turned to ‘request sent’.

For some reason, suddenly, it turned to ‘unfollow’.

“Damn! She’s online, huh?” I then clicked on the ‘message’ button and opened her DM. I clicked on the tab down on the screen and a keyboard appeared. With both of my thumbs, I quickly typed out ‘Hi! Remember me?’ I then thought about it for some seconds as I glared at the text, and then pressed the backspace, deleting the whole text. I then just typed out ‘Hello, Jiya!’ I frowned at it, thinking about it a little, and then settled for only ‘Hello!’ I then pressed the ‘send’ button.

‘Hey, Kritvik! Remember me?’ Her reply came back in an instant.

‘Yeah, man! How can I even forget you!’

‘Yeah, I’m just that special, huh?’

‘Haha!’ I texted back. I then also sent two laughing emojis.

She sent back a Moai emoji with its deadpan expression, along with a message, ‘Don’t laugh at it, bitch.’

‘Yeah, man. Sure.’

‘So, what are you up to today? Got new friends in the big city?’ She then asked.

‘Not really, obviously. But there are some people I can call ‘friends’, even though that’s not what I’d call a friendship.’

‘Yeah. Deep bonding takes time, bro, don’t worry.’

‘Yeah.’

‘So, how about the new school? Is it nice?’

‘Building is fine. But, the history teacher, man! She makes it so boring to hear!’

‘Damn, bro! History used to be your favorite subject!’

‘Yeah! And now, I sleep in her classes!’

‘Damn!’

‘And nothing pretty interesting is going on here, for some reason.’

‘You’re new, obviously.’

‘Yeah. So tell me, is everyone fine there?’

‘Yeah, bro. But, everyone…’

‘… What?’

‘You know that students generally focus more on their studies and rarely ever get time to go out and play.’

‘Damn!’

‘Yeah. We meet once or twice a month. I guess Aditya is always out on roads because he recently learned to drive a car, but others are more focused on their studies, tuitions, and stuff.’

‘I get the idea.’

‘Yeah. So, it’s not like it used to be, bro.’

‘That’s… sad.’

‘FR, bro.’

Then, a couple of seconds of silence stuck on the chat. It was my chance to type something, man, but I didn’t have any comments to make, for some reason. I gulped in, thinking about what topic we should chat about after that. But soon, another message popped up from her side. ‘BTW, did you make a girlfriend or some stuff?’

‘What do you mean by ‘or some stuff’?!’

‘Ehehhehee.’

I smiled. ‘No, man. I can’t even make friends here, so, no doubt I didn’t.’

‘Yeah, bro. I can feel it.’

‘AK got anyone new?’ I asked.

‘Dunno, bro. You know him. He must have had hundreds more since you left.’

‘Yeah. No doubt, man.’

‘Hey, if you don’t mind, I gotta be somewhere. I must leave, bro. FR.’

‘Yeah, man. Why will I mind?’

‘Thanks, bro! Baie baieeeew!’

I smiled at her stylization of ‘bye bye’. It was great, so I wrote the same back to her. ‘Baie baieeew!’ I then pressed the back button a couple of times in a single second, and the app quickly closed and the home screen appeared. I kept my phone beside the book, and glared at it, my eyes wide open.

“I, for some reason, forgot completely about my exams!” I thought as I quickly turned to my book and started to read it.

“… It was fun, though.”

“She had not changed even a little. Her vocabulary, and her speech… It was the same, even though we were texting. It gave me a feeling of… of nostalgia, maybe, or some stuff like that. I smiled damned hard after chatting with her, for some reason. No doubt, it made me feel that I’ve… I’ve got back something which I had lost so long ago… something which I had been striving for so long. And, more than that, it made me feel like… just distance coming up between the two of us didn’t mean that we were not friends anymore. We were still friends. And, the last thing I realized is that… they too are humans. They are continuing with their own lives. They had to, obviously. And, they are doing it quite fine. They are coping up with it, or maybe… they have… already coped up with it.”

My smile faded into a serious look.

“Yeah, they were good now. And, I gotta focus on my own life too. I gotta settle here, make friends, and… have fun.”

Riiiing!

The doorbell of the house rang. I turned my head to my right, heard the footsteps of someone’s slippers approaching the door, and then I heard the creaking of the door opening.

“Kritvik! It’s your friends!” My mom shouted at me.

I smiled.

“Yeah, I too had started to settle here, after all. I was a little late, no doubt, but… at least I started.”

“Coming, mom! Lemme find my socks!” I shouted back as I thumped closed my history book, got up from my seat, turned to my wardrobe on my left, walked to it, and pulled it open. I took up a white pair of socks, sat on the bed just behind the chair, pulled my right leg up, and started to open the tied pair. I then took one of the pair of socks, and stuffed it upon my right foot.

“Kritvik! Quick, pal!” Aaryan shouted from the entrance.

“Yeah, man!” I replied back as I kept my right foot down and moved my left foot up, stuffing the sock upon it just like I did with the former one. I then stood on my feet, walked to the door, pulled it open, and walked out.

I stepped inside the dimly lit drawing room with just some faint yellow-colored bulbs lighting the place, turned my head to my left, and looked at the figure of Aaryan with his hands crossed in front of his chest, standing on the door across the sofa. I smiled and walked to them.

“Hey, man!”

“Wear your shoes quickly, pal,” He said as I walked to him.

“Yeah.” I said as I walked beside him out of our apartment and turned to the shoe-rack on the right outside the house, opened it, took out a pair of black shoes with my right hand, threw it down on the ground, crouched downward, and quickly started to wear them. Aaryan went to the elevator and pushed the button to call it up. He then turned backward to me.

“Sooraj is here today, pal. Don’t keep him waiting,” He said.

“Yeah, man. Just a second,” I replied back. I then tied the laces, stood up, and turned back at him just as the door of the elevator slid open. I ran toward it as Aaryan walked in it.

The door was closing as I asked him, “What about Rohit?”

“Yeah, we gotta visit him next. But, I don’t know if that asshole will come today or not.”

Click.