New Year's Eve

Kritvik Bhatt

“It was… New Year’s eve, and that day… was a little different, for some reason.”

I was stretching my arms on my bed as I woke up. The dim sunlight was seeping inside the dark room through the curtains on my left, which dimly lit the room. The bed, the blanket, my hair—all of them were messed up as I stretched my arms.

“It felt… a little depressing, for some reason. Dunno why.”

The clouds covered the sky. The atmosphere was dark blue and the clouds were dazzling white as they shone. It felt like evening, but it was just a dark afternoon.

“Good morning, dear,” My mom’s voice appeared from the other side of the open door.

“Good morning, mom,” I replied, half-asleep.

“I woke up, and had this feeling in my chest… that I can’t define.”

I turned my head leftward, looking at the curtains.

“It… It just felt like… a depressing day, for some reason.”

I moved my right hand up and scratched the back of my head. “I had a bad dream, maybe,” I commented.

“I got up, had lunch, laughed with my mom, watched stuff on television, studied a little bit, and did all that stuff I usually do on a normal Sunday like that. But… everything felt off, for some reason.”

***

The white clock in front of the cream-colored wall hit five in the evening. The seconds’ needle continued to rotate.

I had a notebook open in front of my body as I sat on my wooden desk at home and scribbled something on it, for some reason. There was a thick open book beside my right arm, but my focus was on my notebook.

The page was filled with mathematical sums and stuff on it, and the book too had mathematical formulae and numbers.

I suddenly turned to the book, flipped the pages, and looked beneath the ‘Answers’ section. After tallying the answer, I moved my back backward and shifted my weight on the back of the black plastic office chair. I turned my head leftward, looking at the closed wooden window for some reason. On the other side of the glass, I could see the brown apartments on the other side of the lane, along with the white and blue sky of the evening.

“I felt a liquid flowing in my chest. I felt a little restless… a little anxious about something. No doubt, there was something wrong with me at the time. But, what?”

I continued to glare at the blue sky with my expressionless eyes which had a little dark outline on all the sides.

Tring!

The doorbell rang. I reflexively turned my head rightward at the door. “Maybe it’s Aaryan,” I thought as I stood up, walked to the door, pushed open the door, and walked out.

I walked through the sofa and television set on my left and right in the dimly lit drawing room, which was only filled with darkness and a little bit of blue light coming in from the curtains. I turned to the entrance on the right far corner, twisted open the doorknob, and then pulled the door.

On the other side of the laminated wooden door, beneath the single bulb that lighted the square corridor, stood Aaryan, Sooraj, and another white-skinned guy with a huge grin.

Aaryan said, “We got Aakash today, pal. Come quickly.”

“Yeah. Lemme get my socks.”

***

“So, you’re Aakash, right?” I asked the new fair-skinned guy walking on my right.

“Yeah, mate,” He replied with a smile. “Don’t ask me that shit over and over again.”

“Yeah, this guy’s a real asshole, Kritvik. So, stay away from him,” Aaryan said with a smile as he walked on my left, with Sooraj further left.

I smiled. “Yeah, man.”

“Hey! The hell, mate?! For real?” Aakash said.

“Shut the fuck up, dickhead,” Sooraj said in a serious tone.

He then turned to me again. “See, Kritvik, these guys are absolute liars. They are jealous of me because they can’t get bitches like me.”

“Hey? Who the fuck said that?” Aaryan turned to him with a frown.

Both Aaryan and Aakash looked at each other as I walked in between the two of them awkwardly.

“For real! That’s the truth, mate! See!”

I turned to my left, looking at Aaryan.

Aaryan turned his frowning eyes to me.

I then turned to Aakash again. “Maybe it’s his face that scares girls away, man.”

“Pfft!” Aakash turned frontward and started laughing. “AHAHAHAA.”

“Damn, man. It was not even offendi…” My eyes widened as I realized and turned my head backward, looking at the frowning eyes of Aaryan.

“You… asshole…”

“I-I-I didn’t mean it that way, man. B-But, for some reason…”

“You guys talk a lot, man,” Sooraj commented in his coarse neutral voice.

Rohit, who had his hands inside his pockets and walked on the left of Sooraj, commented, “Yeah, to be honest, these motherfuckers talk a lot of shit.”

“Shut the fuck up, ya asshole,” Aaryan commented as he glared at Aakash.

“Come on, man,” I said to Aaryan. “Don’t get heated over little stuff.”

“This asshole irritated me a shit lot!” He raged.

Aakash opened his eyes and mouth, as if sarcastically asking, ‘Really?’ “For real, mate? It’s you who fuck around, and then I save your ass, mate.”

Aaryan sighed and turned to the front. “Imma see ya at the game of badminton, asshole, and then Imma make ya see how good I play.”

***

“HOW THE FUCK IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?! HOW THE FUCK DID THIS GUY BEAT ME?!”

“Mate, I've been playing badminton for the past three years, while you guys have just started playing. Why the hell did you think you could win?”

On one side stood Aaryan, his badminton hanging from his right hand, his head turned downward on his right, and his eyes wide open in shock.

On the other side of the badminton court stood Aakash, confident, with his badminton on his right shoulder, as he looked at Aaryan with a grin.

Sooraj was walking toward Aaryan with a smile. “The fuck, man! That was a legit slaughter!”

“For real,” Aakash said with a smile.

Aaryan handed the badminton to him, and looked at him with his narrowed eyes as he said, “Fuck this asshole. For me, pal.”

Sooraj nodded and took the badminton. Aaryan then started to walk out of the court as Sooraj started to wave the badminton in midair, practicing and warming up, maybe. He also jumped on his toes for a couple of seconds, his eyes straight on Aakash.

Aakash, on the other side, was smiling as he looked at him. “You’re a sportsperson, right?”

“Legit I am, man.”

“What sports do you play?”

“Cricket.” Sooraj stopped jumping as he said that.

“For real? Mate, that’s a good choice.”

“I’m the captain of my academy’s under-seventeen team, too,” Sooraj replied as he looked into his eyes competitively.

Aakash then walked to the right corner of his half, and stood there, ready to serve.

Sooraj walked to his right one, waiting for the serve, as he looked into Aakash’s eyes seriously.

Aaryan walked right from the front of me and sat on the left of Rohit. Rohit sat at the center of the two of us as the plastic shuttlecock flew in the air for the first time of that match.

Aaryan turned to Rohit and said, “I never thought he’d beat me this badly, pal.”

“Well, that motherfucker truly knows this shit, man,” Rohit replied.

I turned to them and added, “Yeah, his serving technique is just great! It doesn’t go too high up in the air, and comes directly at the waist. I observed that you lost most of your points on serves. No doubt, his serves are great.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too, pal,” Aaryan said. “It comes right at your chest or waist, and that shit is difficult to play.”

The game in front of us was on. Sooraj jumped up and slammed the shuttlecock, which went straight toward Aakash, who quickly stepped leftward and played it with ease.

“They both seem to be of equal level, huh?” I commented.

“Ya see, Sooraj is a sportsman too.”

“Yeah, obviously, his body is fit, so he is good at every sport.”

“Yeah, motherfucker,” Rohit said. He then turned to Aaryan and said, “Well, motherfucker, I gotta go in some time, so I’ll play next after him.”

“No, asshole. I want my revenge first.”

“Y’are not even in his fucking league, motherfucker. We all have seen it. Lemme try before going home.”

Aaryan frowned. “Wait, why ya gotta go home?”

“Tonight, the gang is gonna meet. Ya forgot?”

“Yeah, I remember that.”

“So I gotta discuss some shit with Vikram over the phone.”

He nodded. “That shit can wait, pal. First me.”

“Fuck no.”

Just as all of them were busy with their stuff, I turned my head skyward. I looked at the blue sky, filled with white clouds.

“Why am I… feeling anxious today?” I thought. “I don’t feel at home with these guys today, man. For some reason, today, I don’t enjoy being here. Why…?” I moved my back backward, shifting my weight on the backrest of the metallic bench.

“… Yeah, it’s Jiya’s birthday today. And… it was this same time of the day… this same date, this same atmosphere… two years ago, when… I had met those guys for the first time.”

***

“It was… first January, twenty-twenty. Two years before today. It was the exact day—the clouds had taken over the whole sky, the sun was nowhere to be seen, and the evening was cool, obviously. That day, I was invited to Jiya’s birthday party, since her mother and my mother were good friends and neighbors, and we kinda knew each other. And…”

I was sitting silently in one corner of the room. The room had a door on the right front corner of the room which connected to the balcony of the house. The room was only illuminated by the little evening sunlight that came in, for some reason. The room was small, and it had only a sofa at the three edges, and a table in the middle. On the left wall was a television set.

Suddenly, a girl in a white gown-like dress appeared from the door on my back right. I turned to my right, looking at her standing as she pushed in the chain of her white gloves. She was trying to forcibly push it up, but it was of no help, for some reason. It was stuck, maybe. She suddenly turned to me and hastily said, “I’m sorry, bro. I myself got late, and all my friends are late too. Only you’re on time.”

I gave an awkward smile to her. I then turned to the front again.

“My friends say they will take some more time to arrive here.”

“Do they live far away?”

“Nah, bro. They live just a couple of streets away,” She smiled. Zap! Suddenly, she was able to pull it up.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. She walked in her heels and sat on the sofa adjacent to mine on the right. She turned her head down as she sat beside me. She was feeling a little guilty, maybe.

“A cold-drink or something, bro?”

“No, man. Let’s wait for others.”

She turned her head up to me and said, “For real, bro, these guys are gonna take a lot of time. It’s better to start without them.”

I kept smiling awkwardly as I turned to her, looked into her eyes, and said, “Nah, man.”

“Where’s that silly baka birthday girl, man?!” The faint voice of a guy shouting arrived.

“They’re here,” Jiya whispered happily as she stood up and walked out from the door behind me.

I turned my head down, smiling awkwardly. “Man, it’s so awkward to be here! I should have never come here!”

“Apparently, I’ve known her only for a couple of months, since we used to hang out for some time when our moms would hang out. But… this… was too much for me at that time.”

I continued to take in breaths nervously as I heard the indistinct chatter of those guys and girls coming from the other room.

I started to pat my right foot vigorously. I wore a red sweatshirt and black pair of pants. My hands stuffed between my thighs. My head was tilted downward.

“Damn, man. I’ve truly fucked up!”

Suddenly, I heard some footsteps approaching, along with the rising voices.

“Ahahaha!”

“For real?”

“Yeah, this silly guy, he…”

“See, AK, you should—”

“Shut up!”

“Ahahhaha!”

“Man! And then…”

“Ahahahhaa!” Jiya’s laughing face entered first as I turned my head up to my right at her. Behind her walked in a fat nerdy guy with glasses, and a lot of layers of clothes in shades of green and black. He was Madhav. Beside him walked another guy who wore just a checked dark-red shirt and a waist-coat over it, along with a pair of dark blue capris and sneakers. He also had a pair of sunglasses on, which were obviously meant to look cool. He was AK. And, at last, was a girl in pink top and black jeans. She too was chubby and fat. And, she had all the gifts in her hands. Jiya walked and sat on the sofa facing me, and all the other guys sat on the one adjacent to me on the right.

AK suddenly turned to Madhav and commented, “Aunty’s nice, right?”

“Yeah,” He simply replied as he turned to his right. AK sat in the middle.

“And…”

“And…?!” Jiya interrupted.

“N-Nothing,” He smiled as he turned to her.

“At least, don’t say these things about other’s moms,” Madhav said.

“What things?! I just said she’s nice!”

“We all know,” Aishwarya said. She then turned to Jiya. “By the way, Jiya, you look so pretty in this gown.”

AK turned to her too. “She’s just lying, man.”

“No!” Aishwarya turned to him angrily. “Don’t you dare say anything like that about me!”

“But, isn’t it the truth? Girls always lie about this stuff, man.”

I smiled. “Man, these guys are…” I thought as I turned up to him.

AK then suddenly turned to me and said, “Right, man?”

“Right, man. I feel that too.”

“You too, Kritvik?!” Jiya’s eyes turned wide open in dramatized shock as she turned to me.

I smiled at her silently.

“He’s gonna be a successful guy, man!” AK shouted.

I chuckled beneath my smile.

“By the way, who are you?”

“And that’s how it all began. That’s how our friendship had begun… that evening. And, after that day, for some reason, all of us used to get together and play with each other. We played badminton, football, and a lot of stuff like that together. Some days, we also played ludo, cards, and other stuff at each other’s homes. I… No doubt, I have a lot of good and bad memories with them. It… It has truly been a rollercoaster of a journey. And… this year…”

I remembered my back standing silently on the balcony of our new apartment.

“This year too has been a rollercoaster of a journey. Shifting homes, and all the anxiety and insecurity it bought… It was too much for me to handle at first. But… I fought it all.”

I then remembered hanging out with Sana that night, on the lighted market.

“I lost a lot of people this year. And, I found a lot of people this year.”

I took in a deep breath as I closed my eyes.

“Hey, I’m going in first, motherfucker!” Rohit’s shouting voice hit my ears.

“No, asshole, I’m first!” Aaryan replied.

“And, I don’t know if I’m happy, or if I’m sad.”

I remembered the last texts from Jiya on my phone.

“And, I don’t even know if I made the right decisions this year or not. But… this year had a lot of ups and downs. And… I don’t want another year like this.”

I remembered Aaryan, Rohit, and Sooraj kicking those guys that day.

I remembered Aaryan’s menacing face when he was persuading me to go away from that place.

I remembered how badly I was crying that night in front of him as I angrily looked at him.

“But, maybe this will continue this year too. All of this drama, this happiness, this depression, this insecurity—all of this will continue. At last, this is life.”