Illusion (Part II)

Kritvik Bhatt

“Obviously, man. Even in my dreams, I did nothing of that sort… of that sort… with her. I couldn’t really imagine her like that. After all, she’s better than that.”

I turned my head frontward and continued to scribble in my notebook. My eyes were wide in shock and my hand was shaking a little as it wrote some math stuff on the white paper. “D-D-Damn, man. W-What am I even imagining now?!”

I was sitting in front of my wooden table, scribbling on a notebook with some other opened thick books scattered here and there around that notebook. The door to the balcony behind my back was open, and the warm afternoon sunlight lit my room in.

“I was out of my mind, but I can still control myself, for some reason.”

I closed my eyes, took in a deep breath, and then exhaled out. I then straightened my back on the backrest of my chair, and then turned backward again.

In front of the balcony, that arm of hers was not there anymore, obviously.

“No doubt, it’s wrong. I should not imagine stuff like that,” I thought. “After all, she’s just a friend of mine… and nothing more.”

I then turned my head frontward and continued to write in my notebook again.

***

The shorter needle of the clock on top of our black LED TV set walked from two to six in a few minutes.

The sun had gone beneath the horizon, and the sky was half-black, obviously. The lights of the houses on the streets were lit up, though some were still waiting, and the streetlights too were turned on. There was a bunch of about a dozen kids now playing badminton in the middle of the street, for some reason, and their giggles and chatters filled the peaceful street.

In my room, for some reason, the faint giggles reached for a few seconds before going down to absolute silence again. I was, obviously, sitting in front of my table, scribbling math formulas.

I then threw the pen down from my fingers and bent my back backward on the backrest. I moved my arms up and fixed them below my head. I thought, “Damn, man. I should take a break now, maybe. I’ll do the rest after dinner.”

I turned my head rightward to my smartphone on the wooden table beside my books. I took it up, stood up from my chair, turned backward, and then threw my body on the bed, with my belly downward. I opened my phone’s lock-screen, and then twisted my body to move my back down and my belly up. I then moved my body upward again, and half of my shins were now on top of the bed, with the rest hanging.

Suddenly, her illusion appeared again. Now, it was on my right side again, lying on the bed beside me, with her hair spread around her and me.

“Well, K, you study too much.”

I smiled. “That’s why I score good marks.”

“Well, I score just a couple marks less than you by studying about half the time you study, you see. So it’s kinda useless.”

I opened my mouth, still scrolling on my phone. “Uh…”

“Ahahahhaa!” She laughed. “That means I’m better than you, you see, but I just don’t study.”

“M-Maybe,” I replied with a smile. I then twisted my body leftward and lay sideway, for some reason. In front of me, away from my smartphone, was that half-dark evening sky, with peaceful apartments with lit windows.

“Anyway, what are you doing on your smartphone?” She asked me.

“Just scrolling Campfire, obviously,” I said with a smile.

“I didn’t really know you liked social media.”

“Huh? Why?” I frowned a little.

“Well, you don’t seem like that type of a guy.”

I chuckled a little. “Maybe, man. But I do scroll social media sometimes. Not always, obviously.”

“Well, how many followers do you have on Campfire?”

“Uh…” I suddenly clicked on a little pic at the right lower end of the screen and it opened my profile with my name and username on it. Beside them and my profile pic—which was nothing but a black logo of a man—were sections of followers and following. I had one hundred and forty-seven in following and forty-two as followers.

“Like, even I have more than you, K. Be ashamed!”

“Huh? Really? You got more than me?”

“Yeah.”

“How much do you have?”

“Open my account.”

“Uh, alright,” I said as I started to click here and there on my screen and twisted my body toward her again, with my back down.

Her profile opened. She, too, had no profile pic—it showed the same black logo of a man as me—and her followers were one hundred nineteen.

“Damn, man. One hundred nineteen, huh?”

She smirked. “I’m more famous than you, even though my profile is just as cringe as yours.”

“Great, man. You sure know a lot of people, huh?”

“No, but guys are head over heels for me, you see.”

I frowned and turned my head rightward at her. She too turned her eyes to me. I glared at her sparkling eyes with those frowning eyes of mine. I opened my mouth, about to say something, but then, for some reason, I said nothing—just closed my lips again, for some reason. I just thought, “S-She’s really good, obviously.”

“W-What?” She asked as she smiled.

“Have you ever tried looking in the mirror?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Cringe.”

I chuckled. “Ahaha. No, it wasn’t.”

“Your sense of humor is cringe, you see.” She turned her head skyward and shook her head in disbelief—still smiling, for some reason. “Why was I even hanging out with someone with as cringe humor as you? Like, I wasn’t that desperate for a friend.”

I chuckled again as I turned my head skyward too, moving my phone down on my belly. “I wanna eat something now, for some reason.”

“You’re already hungry?”

“I’m not really hungry, man. I just… want to eat something.”

“Is it one of your cringe jokes?”

“Huh? Obviously not!”

“Ahahahaha. I can’t understand, like, why would you want to eat something if you’re not hungry?”

“Ahahaha. I don’t really know, man. But, no doubt, I wanna eat something. Something sweet, maybe.” I then moved my back up and sat up on the bed. I pushed my body toward the edge and then stood up on the ground.

Sana too moved her back up as she turned to me and said with a smile, “You’re really… Well, I don’t even have the right words to say.”

I looked at her with a smile and said, “Yeah, maybe.” I then turned to the door on my right, pushed it open, and turned the buttons of the lights off as I walked out of the room.

Outside, the dining room was lit with only some warm lights on the false ceiling, for some reason, and most of it was dark, obviously. I walked from my room to the kitchen through the edge of the drawing-room, with the sofa some steps away on my left. I walked inside the kitchen, turned the lights on with the switchboard on the left of the entrance, and looked around. Beside the switchboard, inside, was the black-colored refrigerator, and on all three sides was the white glossy worktop. On the left, the worktop was cut so as to fit the refrigerator parallel to the worktop. Beside the refrigerator was the microwave, in front of me was the gas-stove, and on the right was the kitchen sink, filled with metal plates. I turned to the refrigerator, and extended my hand inside to take out the blue thin plastic packet of white bread. With my other hand then I took out a bottle of red mixed fruit jam, and then walked to the gas-stove at the front. In front of the stove, I kept both of my ingredients, opened one of the shelves below the worktop, took out a spoon, and then closed it again.

“Mom! I’m making jam-bread! You want one?!” I shouted.

“No!” She shouted back from the other room. “I’m washing clothes right now!”

“Okay!”

“Jam-bread?” Sana appeared on my right as she glared at the ingredients.

“Yeah.”

“Cringe,” She said as she narrowed her eyes. She then turned to me. “Well, it’d be too sweet, K.”

I smiled. “Maybe.”

“I guess you should try out the American way.”

“The American way?”

“Yeah. Spread peanut butter on one slice, jam on the other, and then stick them together.”

“We don’t have peanut butter, man. We don’t really like it.”

“Well, you can use something like mayonnaise, then. Do you have that?” She asked.

“Uh, we got the burger mayonnaise.”

“Well, it should do the trick, you see. Let’s try it out.”

“Uh, alright,” I said as I turned back, walked a step toward the refrigerator, opened it, took a bottle with a thick dark orangish spread, closed the refrigerator, and then walked to the worktop again. I kept it beside the jam bottle.

“Try it out now.”

I nodded. “If it doesn’t work, you’ll face the consequences.”

“Well, what consequences those can be anyway?”

I chuckled. “We’ll see.”

“We’ll see,” She said with a smile as she turned to the ingredients.

I opened the top of the packet of bread and stuffed my right hand in. I took out two slices of white bread, and then kept it on top of the packet itself. I then turned to the bottle, twisted its lid open, and then stuffed the spoon in.

As I was working, Sana said, “Anyway, when is your birthday?”

“December eleventh.”

She nodded. “And, you shifted here in December too, right?”

“Yeah. December twelfth, to be exact.”

“… Really?”

I smiled. “Cool, right?”

“Really cool. Like, it must have been a memorable birthday, right?”

“Really. But all of us were crying because we knew I was never gonna meet them again. That was the last day we talked.”

“T-That’s really sad.”

I smiled. “I don’t really wanna talk about it, man.”

“I understand,” I said as I stuck the jam and the mayonnaise of the two slices together.

“Well, try it out.” A little smile appeared on her lips.

“A-Alright,” I said as I took a bite in. I then moved it away from my lips and started to chew. After a couple of seconds, I turned rightward. “It’s… really good, man.” I gulped in. “It’s not super-sweet like just jam-bread, and it’s better in taste too!”

“Yeah, right? I know!” She said with a smile.

I turned my head backward and walked to the drawing room. I turned right to the drawing-room toward the sofa set in front of the TV set. I sat on the sofa, took up the remote, and turned on the TV.

“Maybe I should call Sana,” I suddenly thought. I then took another bite of the dish in my left hand as I took out my smartphone from my right pocket. I turned to my phone, unlocked it, and started to tap here and there on its screen as I chewed. I then took another bite in as I moved the phone beside my right ear.

Triiing triiing. Triiing triiing. Triiing Triiing.

“The person you’re calling is speaking to someone else. Please try again sometime later. The person you’re calli—” I cut the call.

I frowned as I thought, “Who would she be talking with, man?” I then shrugged. “Whatever.” I took another bite in as I started to click here and there on the screen. After that, I fixed the half-eaten slices of bread inside my mouth as I started to type from both of my thumbs.

‘Hey, I just called you! Call me back when you’re free!’ I typed and clicked on the ‘send’ button on the right. I then held the slices of bread again and took a bite in.

***

The sun had set and the sky on the other side of my window was completely dark. The bright white lights of my room were turned on as I sat in front of my table, still solving questions. I then straightened my back and raised my arms up, stretching a little. “Finally, I got the four chapters! I’ll do three tomorrow, and then the last one the next day with a few sample papers, and I'll be ready to go!”

I moved my arms down and stood up from my chair. The lock-screen of my phone—kept on the corner of the table, obviously—showed the time of one-eighteen in the night as I took it up in my hands. I walked to the door, switched off the lights from the switchboard beside it, and then turned to the bed. I walked to the other edge of the bed, which was right in front of the windows of the balcony, and then lay there. I pushed up the open blanket and covered my body up until my neck as I kept the phone on the bed on my right.

Buzz!

I suddenly tossed my body rightward and took up my phone again—to check the message, obviously.

It was from Sana. ‘Sorry! Well, I was playing Jenshin with Daksh, you see. Just got free from it and looked at your message!’

THUMP! THUMP! THUM—!