Introduction

Kritvik Bhatt

“Well, what’s the status with Aaryan?”

“Man…”

The sky that day too was filled with clouds. Though there were not that many clouds that day, there were still some—even though it was only a small thin layer of them. The sun was nowhere to be seen, obviously, and the whole place was in the shades of gray and dark blue. It seemed to be another gloomy day, man.

I was sitting behind her desk at school. As usual, she had her chair tilted backward toward me and her lunchbox on my table as we ate our food, obviously. Both of us were in the middle of the classroom, with other guys and girls scattered here and there in groups and laughing and eating.

“What?” She frowned.

“Man, it’s tough for me, for some reason.”

“Why?” She asked, taking a bite in as she worriedly glared at me.

“Uhm…” I turned my head downward toward my lunchbox, took a bite in my fingers, and then kept it still for some reason. “I don’t know where he lives, man. I don’t have his phone number or other stuff. I didn’t even find him on Campfire.”

“K, if you’re friends with someone, you should have taken his phone number and other information, you see.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t feel the need to, for some reason. He always used to come to my house to pick me up, man. So…” I moved my left hand back and scratched the back of my head guiltily. I then turned my eyes toward her and asked, “What do I do now?”

“Like, I don’t really think you can do anything, you see,” She said as she took a bite in and started to chew.

I took a bite in too and turned my head downward at my lunchbox. We both chewed for a couple of seconds silently until I gulped in and said, “Man, I really wanna make things alright. He’s… He’s a good friend of mine, and I broke his trust, after all. So I gotta make things alright.”

“Hmm, K.” She gulped in too as she turned toward me and I looked into her serious gaze. “You see, it’s not really in your hands now. You don’t even know how to contact him, emo. So, like… let’s just wait, you see. What else can we do anyway?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s all I can do now,” I nodded as I turned to my lunchbox again and stared downward aimlessly, for some reason. “I don’t really have a choice. After all, I don’t know of any way to contact him. Maybe, one day, we’d bump into each other and I can make things better between us. I hope that at least I can make him not hate me.” I then took another bite from my fingers and moved it inside my mouth.

She nodded as she chewed. “Hmm!” She then gulped in and pointed her index finger at me. “Just let it go. Wait for some time. It’d help him cool down too anyway.”

“Hmm,” I nodded back as I looked into her eyes while chewing.

“And, anyway, don’t take stress over these little things, you see. He was just a friend. Friends leave all the time. It’s nothing new.”

I turned my head downward again and gulped in. “I don’t want my friends to keep on leaving me, man. I’m really tired of this stuff.”

She smiled. “Don’t worry, emo. It’s not that usual.”

I nodded as I glared aimlessly toward my lunchbox. I tried not to look toward her and act normal, man, but for some reason, she caught me. “K,” She softly called me as she moved her right hand toward me and touched my cheek. “Say it.”

I opened my mouth as I wanted to say something, but, for some reason, I stopped. I closed my mouth again, and then again opened it as I turned my eyes to her and looked into her calm worried eyes. “I… I always fuck up in my friendships, man. I…” I stopped and held my forehead, for some reason. “I… I did the same thing with Jiya, man. It was me that fucked up our friendship. Twice.”

“Who’s Jiya?” She frowned doubtfully, but her frown was filled with calmness and softness, for some reason.

“She used to be a really good friend of mine, man.” I turned my head downward again, for some reason. “When I used to live in Faridabad until some months back, she was a really close friend. I… I just wanted her to be with me by my side. But… first, I had to shift here, for some reason. An-And secondly, when she proposed, I… rejected her.” I gulped in. “If… If I had said yes to her that day, maybe we must have been a great couple, man. Maybe she would have been still by my side, even though there was such a long distance between us. Maybe we would have still been together.”

She moved her hand back as she listened to me carefully.

“I… kinda regret that now, no doubt.”

“You see, maybe it wasn’t your fault,” She told me as I turned my head frontward at her. “Like, she was the one who proposed in the first place, right? It’s… common sense that if you propose to your friend and they reject, your friendship… well, it’s over too, you see. She still took the bet, and… and well, lost.”

I nodded. “But… But it was in my hands to decide, not hers, right?”

She nodded. “Well, you decided what you felt best at that time. I don’t really see your fault anyway.”

I nodded.

“And, as for Aaryan, you know he’s being childish. You see, when he’d cool down, I bet that he’ll come back to you himself and say sorry. I bet he will.”

I nodded as I turned my head downward.

“Anyway, let’s talk about something else to cheer you up, you see,” she smiled.

I smiled too as I looked at her smile. “Alright, man. I’m in.”

“But, well, do you have something to talk about?”

“Uh… No.”

“Knew it,” She said as she turned to her lunchbox and took a bite in.

I too turned to my lunchbox, took the last bite of my food, and as I kept the bite in my mouth, I took up the lid of my green lunchbox from beneath it and closed it off. I then gulped in as I turned to my left at my bag on the ground beside my chair, opened its zip, stuffed my lunchbox in, and closed it off. “Yeah, why didn’t you answer my calls yesterday?”

“Hmm, good question,” She said as she gulped in and started to close her lunchbox as she turned to me with a smile. “Well, I was talking with Daksh, you see.”

I frowned. “Who’s Daksh?”

“Well, he’s a friend. We used to be good friends in sixth grade, you see. Some days back, he met me again, and we’ve been talking with each other for some time.”

THUMP! My heart punched my chest, for some reason.

I smiled. “Great, man.” The fingers of my right hand, for some reason, were rubbing the center of my palm.

“Anyway, why did you call?”

“I wanted to call you to play badminton, man.”

“Sorry,” She replied with a plain smile. “You see, exams are coming soon, and I’m really late on my syllabus, so I don’t really think that I’d be able to come.”

“Damn, don’t be sorry, man. It’s alright. I understand.”

She turned to her left and started to stuff her lunchbox inside her bag.

“Maybe I gotta start studying too, man.”

“Nah, you’ll be fine, you see.”

I smiled as she straightened her back. “Maybe.”

“Let’s have a walk, emo. You really need some fresh air.”

“Damn, man. Don’t make me feel like some cancer patient or stuff,” I replied with a smile.

She chuckled as she started to get up from her chair. I turned my head up at her as she stood up, turned to the front, and started to twist the chair frontward toward the blackboard again.

I then stood up from my seat too and walked out of my desk. I stepped beside her as she turned to me. “Well, let’s go to the water-cooler.”

“Yeah,” I said as I kept staring frontward and both of us started to walk.

“Anyway, you won’t believe what happened at Jenshin yesterday,” She excitedly turned to me.

“Damn, you seem excited.”

“I’m really excited, you see.” Both of us turned to the right as we reached the blackboard and started to walk toward the exit of the class. “I was playing Jenshin with Daksh, and I finally unlocked the redhead character that I wanted to unlock for such a long time!”

THUMP!

“Damn, really?” I said with a smile as I turned to her. “Which character?”

“His name is Ren, you see. He’s also got this really cool backstory that you’d like to hear.” Both of us stepped inside the corridor and turned left. The corridor, obviously, was filled with students all walking and chatting with each other, with most of them having their lunchboxes in their hands.

“Is it tragic? It must be tragic, right?” I frowned as I turned toward her.

She nodded.

“I know your type, obviously.”

“Yeah yeah. Anyway, when he was really small, like, five or seven, he—”

“Hey, Sana!”

Sana turned her head frontward and smiled. “Hey!”

I looked at the guy who had called her walking toward me. He had medium-length hair—not too long, not too short, for some reason—and wore a nicely pressed and washed uniform. He also had a black wristwatch in his left hand. He was smiling as he walked toward us. “Sana, what’s up, pal?” He said as he extended his right hand for a handshake.

“Just walking around, you see,” She replied with a smile as she shook his hand.

I turned my eyes a little down and looked at their handshake.

THUMP!

“Hey, pal,” He then said as he turned his head to me. I too shook his hand and smiled.

“Hi, man.”

“What’s your good name, pal?”

“I’m Kritvik. And you?”

“Daksh. Daksh Kalra,” He said with a smile as he moved his hand away and turned to her again. “So, I was just coming to you, pal.”

My smile faded a little and turned fake as I moved my hands inside the pockets of my pants for some reason.

“Well, that’s so good of you. Anyway, you suddenly cut the call yesterday. What happened?” Sana asked him with a smile.

“Uh, my phone’s battery died. And then mine too, I guess. So I went to sleep.”

“Who sleeps at nine?!”

“Who the hell doesn’t?!”

“Well, no one does it, you see. I…”

Their chatter soon turned indistinct as I stood there, frozen, thinking about something. I turned my head downward, gulped in, and then suddenly turned to Sana.

“Yeah, you can ask anyone out!”

“See, I don’t believe you, okay? My whole family sleeps at nine. My whole neighborhood sleeps at nine. All my life, I’ve seen people sleep by—”

“I can’t believe people sleep at nine in your neighborhood, you see. Some may, but most don’t.”

He frowned. “I live there, okay?”

“… Damn, man,” I thought.

Sana then suddenly turned to me and seriously asked, “Hey, K!”

I turned to her. “Yeah, man?”

“When do you sleep?” She asked me, staring straight into my eyes.

“Uh, I sleep by… by eleven.”

Sana then turned to Daksh. “Well, he scores much higher than you. And, now you know the reason.”

He shook his head in disbelief with a smile. “You…”

She smiled as she folded her arms in front of her chest. “Like, you now know the reason!”

Daksh then turned his head leftward and said, “See, I never should have come to talk to you.”

I turned my head to him with a little fake smile, obviously, as Sana chuckled at his cringe joke, for some reason.

“Now, I kinda feel for Kavya, man.”