Walking Away

Sana Kohli

The clouds had some little gaps in them from where the sunrays seeped in. The white school building with the garden at the entrance and the ground at the back was lit up in gray, with a little bit of sunlight seeping in, you see. And they were filled. People were playing cricket at the nets at the edge of the playground, and football too was going on at the green field.

Inside, the corridors were filled with students walking here and there and standing on the edge, talking and eating food from their lunchboxes. The corridor was filled with indistinct chatter and sounds of footsteps.

The same was for inside the class, where, like, groups of students sat and stood everywhere around me in patches, you see. Well, I was at the center of the classroom, quietly eating my lunch. I had my eyes on my lunchbox on the desk and my both hands were in it as I moved a bite and took it in. I then gulped down and took another bite in.

A group suddenly burst into a huge laughter. I turned my eyes to my left, looked at the group of girls laughing hard, and then turned to my food again. “Whatever.” I moved my right hand up and took a bite into my mouth. “Well, if Kritvik and Kavya are not coming tomorrow, I should remain home too. There’s not really any point in coming to school like this. Like, what am I even supposed to do all day?” I gulped in and took another bite into my mouth. As I chewed the food in my mouth, I took the lid of my lunchbox, closed the lunchbox, and then gulped in as I turned to my left toward my bag. I opened its zip, stuffed the lunchbox in, and then closed its zip. Then, I stood up. Well, I turned my head to my left, and then to my right, thinking what I should do now, and then walked some steps outside the desk. I turned my head to my left again, looking at the horizontal line of window panes.

The clouds were still there and everything was gray, but the sunlight was seeping in. Like, it was really gloomy, you see, but not too much.

I turned my head to the front, turned right by the front of the desks, and walked toward the outside of the classroom, which was still filled with people and their chatter.

Well, I then stepped out and turned right, toward the other classrooms deep into the corridor. As I walked through the corridor, I was curiously moving my eyes here and there, up and down, like I was finding someone. You see, I didn’t really mean to.

“I was just hoping that I could find someone… some old friend, maybe, so that I could talk to them. I just wanted to talk. Like, I’d not opened my mouth since I’d gone to school that morning, and I really wanted to spend time with someone. I was really bored by myself. And, I was feeling really lonely. All of this reminded me of my past, and I didn’t want to live in my past. You see, it was not really something I’d like to experience again and again. So, my eyes were curiously searching for someone to talk to or something to think about rather than just sitting there and feeling like that.”

There was a little soft-board in front of each classroom, which was filled with some decorations and drawings along with the class name and section. I firstly turned my head to my right at tenth-C, whose soft-board had some drawings of fires and dragons on it. The students there had different faces, but they all too stood here and there, talking and laughing, like others. I looked inside for a second as I continued to walk.

I moved my hands behind my hips as I turned my head to the front and looked at the board of tenth-B approaching. It had a group of boys standing at the door-frame, covering the whole entrance.

Well, I turned my head upward, looking at the bulbs turned on even during the day. You see, it was all gray that day, so the bulbs had to be turned on, but they seemed a little awkward.

Anyway, as I approached the group of boys, I turned my head to the front, and quietly walked past them.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

I moved my right hand from my hips to my mouth to correct my black mask, and then moved it backward again as I looked at the front, walking silently.

“Hey, Sana!” Well, a masculine voice called me from behind.

I turned my head backward.

***

Kritvik Bhatt

“This day… is so different, man!”

I was in front of our television system, sitting on the soft mustard sofa. An anime movie or some stuff was running on the television, which showed some use of bright colors on screen.

My eyes narrowed and they were fixed on the screen. My mouth suddenly opened and I yawned. No doubt, I was feeling bored.

The bulbs in the drawing room were turned on where I sat, and the window on my left was open too. I turned my eyes to my left, looking outside the window. It was all gray, with some sunlight seeping in through the clouds.

“Thank God. Today, they were showing in the news that it might rain in a day or two here,” My mom said as she walked to me from the kitchen and sat beside me. I was in the center, and now she was on my right. She looked at the television running as I turned my head to the front again.

“A-Anata wa totemo bakada, A-Arima-san…” That anime girl on screen talked with her eyes filled. Subtitles read, ‘Y-You’re so dumb, A-Arima.’

Another anime school student appeared on screen as he painfully smiled and said, “Shitte iru, Hori-san.” His voice was damn mature, for some reason, and damn painful too. Subtitles read, ‘I know, Hori.’

Some more Japanese talks continued as both I and my mom continued to watch the television. After a couple of seconds, my mother turned to me, looked at my bored eyes, and commented, “Dear, you’re not even enjoying this show. Give me the remote.”

“I won’t enjoy your daily soaps either, mom.”

“But at least I’ll enjoy them.”

I smiled. “Yeah.” I threw the remote, which was on top of my legs in my hand, toward her.

My mom took the remote from her left, clicked a button, and the Japanese voices stopped.

She started to hover around on the television, with the room filled with the voice of the television’s clicks.

I stretched both my arms up and closed my eyes. “Mom, I’m bored now!” I said.

“Take rest for today, dear. You have caught a high fever.”

“I’m not that sick, mom. For some reason, I feel just fine.”

“I can see that, but you know how people treat even a little fever because of COVID, so it’s better to stay at home.”

“Yeah, mom. But I’ll go to school tomorrow, no doubt.”

“We’ll decide that later,” She said, her eyes still on the television.

My arms came down and my eyes opened. I turned my head to my right at her and asked. “When would you make lunch?”

“You just ate breakfast!”

“Yeah, I know. Just asking.”

“Around two,” She replied. Suddenly, some opening song of an Indian daily soap filled the room. The volume was too loud, so she put the volume down.

I turned my head to my left, and then to my right, and then stood up, looking at the little table in front of the television set. I then turned my head to my right at the dinner table beside the sofa set. “Where’s my phone, mom?”

“Whose phone is it?” She asked me back.

I smiled a little as I walked from the front of her and turned to the right toward the two open doors. I turned to the left door, entering my own little bedroom with a bed on the center of my left edge and a study table on the right edge. I took up the black smartphone on the desk and walked back to the living room, walked through the television and my mom’s vision again, and sat again where I was already sitting.

Obviously, I opened the Campfire app, the social media site. The first thing I saw in front of the black background was a photo of a dark and edgy anime figure, standing on top of some building at night during a rain.

I scrolled down, and the second post that I saw was a pic of Jiya and AK. Jiya had her right arm around his neck, and AK had his left arm around her neck too. They seemed to be in a relationship, maybe.

“What…?” I thought as I looked at that photo.

I scrolled a little down to read the caption beneath the photo. It was AK’s posts that read, ‘Long-time friends!’

Bzzzzzz.

My eyes darkened a little, for some reason. “Damn, man…” I thought. “They… Maybe they are together, huh?”

I clicked on the ‘Comments’ button beneath the post, and another page full of comments opened up. They all had heart emojis and fire emojis. For some reason, someone had commented, ‘You two look so cute together!’

“Obviously, they are,” I thought as I smiled a little. I clicked back a few times and quickly closed the app, for some reason. “Maybe I should read a book or some stuff, man,” I thought to myself.

The gray clouds still covered all of the sky.

“I’m happy for her, man. I should be, at last.”

***

Sana Kohli

The whole corridor was filled with the indistinct chatter of people, all minding their own business. There was that horizontal line of window panels on my left, which showed the gray sky filled with clouds.

Anyway, a boy with glasses on and a little smile stood in front of me. He had the charming face of a topper. And, he was not cool, but he still looked good with that fair face of his.

I had my head tilted backward to my right at him.

“So, uh, Sana, do you remember me?” He asked me.

“Well…” I thought about it for some time as I turned my eyes downward. I then turned my eyes to him. “N-Not really, sorry.”

“See, I’m Daksh.”

“Daksh…” I pondered upon his name for a while. “You see, I do remember the name, but…”

“Sixth grade. Dumb charades.”

I frowned a little. “Like, I do remember playing dumb charades in sixth gra…” My eyes suddenly opened wide and I turned to his eyes. “Daksh Kalra?”

He smiled. “See, I knew you’d remember me.”

“That’s kinda sad that I didn’t. But, didn’t you leave the school after eighth?”

He frowned as he turned his eyes to his left, “The hell?” He maintained his smile.

I smiled too. “That’s sad. I thought you left the school.”

“There was that COVID lockdown. So, I stayed at home the whole year.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Bad one.”

He chuckled. “Ahahaha. You’re still the same, pal.”

I smiled back. “You see, I’m just the same.”

He glared at my eyes with his smile. “So, pal, what are you doing nowadays?”

“I don’t really do anything interesting, you see. Anyway, what about you? You were really into writing blogs, right?”

“Yeah, see, I didn’t get enough views, so I got demotivated, and soon I shut my blog down.”

“Well, that’s sad. Like, why would anyone not read those blogs? They were kinda interesting.”

“Yeah, but apparently, it’s not interesting for adults to read a child going on bla bla bla about random stuff.”

I nodded. “Like, I can understand.”

“So, are you on social media these days?”

“Well, I use Campfire. You could find me really easily, you see.”

“So, see, I gotta leave now, but I’ll message you today, okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said with a smile.

He turned backward and started to walk away as he waved, “Bye bye!”

“Bye bye!” I replied as I turned back and started to walk away. I walked through the indistinct chatter of those students and thought, “Well, he was a cool guy.”