Crossroads

Kritvik Bhatt

The dark clouds had taken over the city. Everywhere was raining damn hard, for some reason.

In one of such streets that had turned dark and gloomy because of the clouds, I was running, vigorously moving my arms up and down. I had my head turned down and my eyes covered by my hair, for some reason. My shirt was coming out of my trouser and my blazer was flying on my back with my bag, which jerked up and down continuously. The lower ends of my trousers had splashes of water all over as I ran, and my shoes were completely drenched in rain.

The street had large houses like that on both the sides, obviously. Cars stood silently as I ran by them, pattering my shoes on the ground and splashing rainwater as I ran.

I ran and ran and ran… until I suddenly started to slow down in between the street. I stopped my legs and bent down, panting heavily. “Huff, huff! Huff, huff! Huff, huff!” My lips were covered with my saliva, my whole face drenched with rain.

“If she cares for me even a little, she’d be running right behind me,” I thought. I straightened my back and legs and turned my head back, looking at the street that bends leftward about a dozen steps away. “I’ve just run straight, after all.” I glared at the street with my desperate eyes for a couple of more seconds, huffing and panting continuously as I stood under the rain like that.

I moved my left foot backward and turned my head down, my hair again covering my eyes. “No doubt, man. She… She was just being nice to me, after all. She doesn’t fucking care about me. After all, why the fuck would she, huh?”

I gulped in.

“Nothing… Nothing good has ever happened to me since I’ve come to this city, for some reason.”

I moved my right hand up, moved my hair back, and turned my head skyward, looking at the rain falling on me with my red eyes. “Why, God? Why the fuck did you bring me here? Why the fuck are you making me experience all this stuff?” I opened my mouth and took a breath in as my chest trembled, for some reason. “WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE, HUH?! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MAKE MY LIFE A LIVING HELL?!”

“My life used to be so much simpler… so much more fulfilling. But now, it’s turned into a fucking mess, for some reason.”

I turned my head to the front again and glared at the street. “Maybe she won’t show up, man.”

***

Sana Kohli

I continued to glare at the road where Kritvik had just run away to. I stood frozen under the rain. I gulped in as I turned my head downward.

“Well, I… I should give him some time to think about all of this stuff,” I thought. Then, suddenly, someone patted my left shoulder and I turned back reflexively.

“See, you will catch a cold,” Daksh said as he moved his umbrella to me. I turned my eyes at the umbrella, and then turned to his comforting eyes and smiled again with that worried look of mine. He frowned. “What happened, Sana? Is everything alright?”

“Uhm, well…” I turned my head to the front at the street again. I thought, “Like, I can’t drag him in this stuff…”

“Sana?”

“No, nothing. Really.”

“Um, alright, but then why are you glaring at the street like that, pal?”

I shook my head as I turned back toward him. “Nothing.”

“You can tell me, pal, okay?”

I gulped in, you see. So, I lied to him. “Well, Kritvik just ran that way, and I don’t know why.”

“He must be hurrying about going home, I guess.”

“It’s the complete opposite direction. He lives near my house, you see.”

He nodded. “So, what do we do now?”

I turned to his eyes. “I gotta leave.”

He frowned. “It’s raining, pal. You’ll catch a cold.”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. I gotta go, you see.”

“No, you’re not going anywhere,” He commanded. “You can just talk it out with him on the phone when you get back home, okay? So, you don’t need to go anywhere.”

“But you don’t—”

“Stop it, Sana. What if it’s nothing serious? You’ll just get yourself drenched in rain for no reason, okay? If it’s really serious, you can just talk it out after you get back home. He doesn’t live far from your house, just like you said.”

I gulped in as I turned backward. “But, K…”

“He’ll be alright.”

“I still remember that… my heart was aching at that moment, you see. Like, I felt really restless and uneasy about something. I just had to make it clear to him that… that it’s not like I don’t need him in life at all, you see. He’s… He’s been a great part of my life, and I can’t let him go like that. I… I want us to be as we were.”

“You see, I won’t catch any cold. I just wanna talk it out with him once. He… He was crying. I can’t leave him like that.”

“So, I guess I should come with you too.”

“No, you won’t.” I turned to him again. “It’s between us.”

“O-Okay.”

I then turned back and started to walk away in the rain, my clothes slowly filling up with drops of water, you see.

“Tell me everything at the party, okay?”

“Well, I’ll see,” I told him as I walked away.

“Well, I couldn’t find him…”

***

Kritvik Bhatt

The door of the elevator opened. I walked to the little cubical hallway, dimly lit by the single bulb on top, and turned left. I then turned right after a few steps toward the entrance of my own house and pressed the button on the left wall.

Triiing! The doorbell’s faint voice reached out to me. But, for some reason, there was no apparent movement inside the house. I frowned as I rang the doorbell again.

“Damn, man. Someone open the fucking door. I’m fucked up already.”

I pressed the button again and the doorbell rang. I then moved the hair on my head back as I turned backward and noticed that a pair of shoes was lying outside the house.

I frowned. “That’s odd, man.”

With my left foot, I tilted it down, and a keychain with a bunch of keys came out. I bent down to get it, turned to my door, and put the key into the key-hole. “Mom must have gone out, for some reason.”

“You see, K, I… I love Daksh,” I suddenly remembered Sana’s words as I twisted the key. I then pushed open the door, turned back toward the pair of shoes, took it up, and then turned to the door again. I walked in and closed it behind my back.

On my right was the wall, obviously, and a shoe-rack in front of it. And, on my left was the dark drawing room. That place was also filled with the noise of faded patter of raindrops, for some reason.

I turned to the shoe-rack, opened it, stuffed both the pairs of shoes in, and then turned to the drawing room and started to walk in. I walked through the couch and the television set, turned right to the two doors, opened the left one—which was the door to my room—and walked in.

I closed the door of my room behind my back and walked straight to the balcony. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

I then opened the door of the balcony, which lit my room up a little, and then walked out to the rain, for some reason. I crossed both my forearms on the railing and bent down toward it as raindrops fell on my head and shoulders.

The raindrops filled up the silent atmosphere of my room—lit completely by the open door, where I stood on the balcony.

For some reason, I remembered when she had said, “I feel that I’m always laughing when I’m around him. I feel that I kinda like how he looks and acts too, you see. I… I feel that I blush when I look at him smile, my heart races when I see him coming toward me. And, I can tell him anything I want to.”

“Great, man. Damn,” I thought.

“He’s always here to listen to me. I feel that I can cling on him whenever I need help, and he… he won’t ever turn his back on me. I… I really love him, you see.”

“I… I love you, man,” I thought. “I will be here too when you’d need me. After all, I’ve always been there for you, man.”

“… Well, that’s just how things are when you love someone, you see,” She had said.

“Maybe that’s just how things really are when you love someone, huh?”

The rain continues to fall.

“I… I regret every fucking thing I did with her now. I regret every fucking second that I spent with her.”

I turned my head down.

“If I had not loved her, I’d have never decided to visit JenCon instead of Aaryan’s birthday party. I’d have never lost him. If I’d not loved her, I’d have never lied to my parents that it was ‘Sam’ that I was talking to. If I’d not loved her, I’d have never heard those things that I did from my mom.”

“Don’t make her your girlfriend or something, Kritvik,” I remembered what my mom had once said, “It’s not the right age to get into this kind of stuff. Keep on talking to her. Girls are a great help in studies. But, make sure you both don’t cross your lines just yet. And focus on your studies, not on girls.”

“Dear, girls nowadays just try to use boys. I’ve seen some girls using innocent guys for things around here.”

I turned my head down and covered my eyes with both my palms. “If I’d not loved her, I’d… have never rejected Jiya, and I’d still be in touch with my friends, man.” I took a deep breath in, and then exhaled it out. “Why the fuck did it never occur to me before this?! I… I bet too much on this one fucking girl, damn it! And… And she… And she…”

“And she fucking left for another bastard, huh?”