Old Grounds, New Story

Kritvik Bhatt

I was sitting silently in front of my wooden table in the front right corner of the room. On my right was the door to the drawing-room, obviously. The bright white light of my room was turned on and the woodwork of the glossy door shone bright, for some reason. The glossy brown fan at the top of the room stood still.

My head was turned down as I read an open book on top of my table. My smartphone was on the right side of my right hand, which lay on top of the book as I read it.

Triiiiing! The bell of my home suddenly rang all over my room.

I turned my head rightward, looking toward the door. I pushed my chair back a couple steps and stood up, turned to the door, and started to walk toward it. I opened the door, walked into the warmly-lighted room, turned left, and walked through between the sofa set and TV set to the door.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

I turned to the door, twisted open its doorknob, and then pulled the glossy wooden door in.

Aaryan stood on the other side of the door with his arms crossed in front of his chest. His eyes were narrowed, and he seemed really angry or irritated by some stuff, maybe.

He turned his head from the group upward to me and said, “I wanna talk to ya about some important shit.”

“H-Huh?”

***

The sun had set just seconds ago, and there was just some scattered blueness in the dark sky, for some reason. No doubt—it must have been around seven. The few couple stars embedded meters away from each other were twinkling dimly and there was no moon as of yet.

There were apartments on both sides of the street where both of us were walking. I was wearing a simple dark blue sweatshirt on top of my black pair of sporty lowers. Beneath them were my usual black shoes, man. Aaryan, who walked beside me, was wearing a white shirt and a black pair of pants—just like his Black Reapers’ uniform, for some reason.

There were a couple of kids who were talking at the right edge some steps away, whereas some others were playing a game of cricket just in front of them. Maybe those at the edge were waiting for their turn to bat.

The street was filled with nothing but the sounds of these kids cheering and shouting, for some reason. Aaryan didn’t say a single word, and I too remained quiet. I was kind of uncomfortable, man, since I turned to him for a second and tried to strike up a conversation. “What’s it about, man?”

“Wait. Ya will know”

I gulped in as I turned my head frontward. I thought, “Man, something’s definitely up, no doubt.”

“The situation… seemed a little too tense, for some reason. After all, he refused to tell me anything, man.”

We both were walking through the kids, who were now silent as a green tennis ball flew to the little childish batsman, who had some difficulty raising his bat to hit the ball, but he did nonetheless. He then started to run as some other kids started to run to the ball.

“Run run run run run!”

The ball was thrown to the keeper side’s wickets, and, for some reason, the other kid was inside the crease before the ball hit the wicket.

“Yeah! I got him!” The kid who had thrown the ball shouted in excitement.

“No! He was inside before the wickets fell!”

“No, he wasn’t!”

“But—”

“I was there whe—”

The ones at the edge stood up and the fielders walked up toward the batsman. The other boys of the batting team too walked up and there was a real argument happening in seconds.

The shouts of those kids turned slower and slower with each passing step. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

“For some reason, my heartbeat was increasing too, man. I didn’t know what this important talk of his was gonna be about, and it seemed really serious and tense, no doubt.”

“Where are we going?” I asked him, for some reason.

“Just wait.”

“Man, what’s up, huh?” I asked as I turned my head to him. “You’re—”

“Ya will soon know everything, ya see.”

I continued glaring at his face for a couple of seconds and he didn’t even look at me. I then turned my head frontward. “Damn it.”

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. We continued to walk.

After a couple of steps, there appeared an empty ground in the middle of the lane of apartments on our right. It was about a dozen steps in width, and was square in shape. It had little grass patches in the middle of the brown barren soil, for some reason. No doubt, it was well-maintained. There also stood a streetlight pole at both the vertices of the park, which lit it.

Aaryan continued to walk toward it and then turned right, walking inside the empty ground. I too turned rightward.

I then had a complete look at the ground, man. The edge at the other end was really dark, man, since there was no source of illumination there, for some reason.

I stopped after walking a couple of steps in. I stared at Aaryan’s back walking inward and inward, his hands inside his pockets and his back straight.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. His footsteps echoed in the silent environment.

He then stopped for a second. He turned his head backward, looking at me with his irritated narrowed eyes. “Come on in.”

“… No.” I was frowning suspiciously as I glared at him with fright.

“Yeah.”

“Why did you bring me here, huh?”

“Come in, first.”

“What do you wanna talk about, man?”

“Come in, asshole.”

“No.”

“Don’t make me—”

“I’ll run away.”

I stepped my right foot backward.

He turned his head down at my right foot and glared at it for a second, for some reason. He then turned his head to me again. “If ya dare walk away, I’ll…” He started to walk toward me. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. His right hand clenched on my collar hard and pulled it frontward. “I’ll literally fuck your ass right here and right now, asshole,” He said. He breathed out rage, for some reason, and his eyes were damn cold.

“O-O-Okay.”

“Good.” He nodded, turned back, and then started to walk inward again. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp,

I looked at his back walking inside, and then, I too started to walk toward him. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Just as he was just in front of the backside of the apartment at the other edge of the ground, his footsteps stopped. I stopped too, standing a few steps away from him. The backside of the apartment, for some reason, was filled with an uneven and imperfect layer of dried light gray cement on it.

“Remember this place?” He asked me, without turning toward me, for some reason.

“N-No, for some reason,” I frightfully replied.

“Ya remember the time I was beating two kids here—with Rohit and Sooraj too, perhaps. We had threatened them to take their clothes off or some shit, and they were crying fucking hard.”

“HEY YOU, PLEASE HELP US! THOSE GUYS ARE TAKING OFF OUR CLOTHES AND FILMING US! PLEASE, PAL! PLEASE!”

“Ya saw nothing, okay? Nothing was going on here. And if ya remember what ya saw, remember that I’ve got my networks all around this part of the city. Ya remember it, right?”

“I’M SOWRRY! I’M A LOSER, A COMPLETE FUCKING LOSER!”

“That brought a lot of memories back, man.”

“… I-I do,” I told him.

He turned his head leftward. I noticed that his hairs’ shadows covered his eyes, for some reason. “What did I tell ya that day? Do ya remember?”

“N-No, maybe.”

“Perhaps, I told ya that I’ve got my fucking networks all around this part of the city, remember?”

“Y-Y-Yeah, I remember that,” I nodded a little in fright.

He then turned backward. “Then, asshole, why did you…”

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

He moved his right hand out of his pocket, clenched it damn hard into a fist, and then stroked it at my left cheek. Thump!

I moved a few steps backward due to the impact and was just about to fall down. But, I maintained my balance. I covered my left cheek with my left hand, my head and my back tilted a little downward. I then tilted my widened eyeballs at him.

“Then, asshole, why the fuck did ya try to cheat me?”

“H-H-Huh?”

“Tomorrow…” He started to move his fist back and regained his straight posture. “Tomorrow, ya fucking skipped my birthday party, made some fucking excuses, and then went away to some anime convention with a fucking bitch, right?”

“I-I-I-I…” My eyes widened more with fright, man. I straightened my back slowly. “I-I’m sorry, man. I can explain. Just hear me ou—”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, ASSHOLE!”

I stayed silent.

“Ya see, after so many fucking days… I was so happy. I was so fucking happy after all those dark days, alright?”

I gulped in as I was hearing him out, with my back straight and my left hand on my cheek, obviously.

“I… I was fucking seen as a drug addict, as some sort of criminal, pal. I… was fighting so fucking hard… with drugs… with this addiction… and this society… and everyone else in my school and neighborhood who looked at me as a fucking drug dealer and an addict. My classmates stopped talking to me, my parents were ashamed to take me anywhere with them, my neighbors are fucking talking shit about me every fucking time they fucking see me. I… wanted just one day where I can be truly happy, and forget about all the shit happening in my life. But… Sooraj had a match, Rohit had to go out somewhere with his family, Aakash didn’t want to come alone, and you… you had to fucking go to some anime convention shit with some fucking bitch.”

“I-I am… really sorry, man. I… I thought that we… are not really good friends, so my presence won’t really make a difference. A-After all, we… are not that close as you are with Sooraj and Rohit.”

He nodded. “Alright.”

“I-I was about to tell you, man. Really. I-I just didn’t know what to do because both of them were on the same day, a-and I kinda got scared, and-and I just went along with her, for some reason. I-I’m sorry.”

He gulped in. His eyes were still tilted down a little, with the shadows of his hair covering his eyes, man. His hands both were clenched into fists, for some reason. “Ya see, ya should fucking leave now.”

“H-Huh?”

“Just go away before I fucking kill ya right here and right now.”

“B-But I—”

“JUST FUCKING LEAVE ME ALONE, ASSHOLE!”

I stepped backward in fear. I gulped in as I looked at his frightening face. He was damn mad at me.

I stepped backward once, and then another foot, and then I turned backward and started to hurriedly walk away. I turned my head back once for a second. Then, after a couple more seconds, I turned my head backward again. I then turned my head frontward, hurriedly turned left, and left the ground.

My foot then slowed down again. I then stopped, for some reason. I turned my head backward, worriedly looking at the park. I stood there silently for a few seconds, for some reason, waiting for his arrival.

After a few seconds, I looked at his figure—his hands inside the pockets of his pants and his back tilted a little frontward—turned right from the park and walked away from me.

I glared worriedly at his back walking away. I gulped in, turned frontward again, and started to walk away from him.

The street was still filled with shouts and noise of kids playing there.

“Hey! It’s my batting!”

“No, it’s my turn!”

“Don’t fight, you two! It’s my bat, I’ll decide!”

“But I’m the captain of the team! It should be my turn to bat!”

I continued to walk from between the street where wickets lay at the center and everyone was in a circle at my right edge, fighting for their turn, maybe.

I moved my hands inside the pockets of my sweatpants as I turned my head downward.

“I don’t know why, but… things just always have to turn out this way, for some reason. I was… so happy, man. But, what happened today… had an impact on me, obviously. I didn’t know that something like this would happen, man. Or else, I’d have never… No. Maybe, even if I knew about it, I’d still choose Sana over him, man. I have to accept that. Maybe Aaryan and I are the same. After all, both of our lives are fucked up in our own ways, for some reason. Both of us are happy, and then in the next moment, something happens, and we’re left with this despair. But… why? Why can’t we remain happy? Why… is it that… something just has to happen, huh?”