A Happy Ending

Sana Kohli

“The next day, K didn’t come to school.”

That day was just like a normal sunny day, you see. During the bright morning, everyone stood all around the classroom, chatting and laughing. Outside the windows, the sunrays shone brightly across the sparkling blue sky. It was so silent and peaceful.

In the corridor, just beside our classroom, I stood among a couple more girls and boys, chatting and laughing as we all talked.

“Before, I had just two friends. Now I had many. But… it still felt kinda… I don’t really know, you see. It felt like something was still missing, that… Like, something should have been here, but isn’t. And, maybe it was Kritvik.”

“And, you remember the time when that guy just started cussing Arnav?” One of the girls said.

“What? Really?” I said.

That girl turned to me and started to narrate, “Yeah, Arnav and that guy had a serious verbal argument, filled with slurs and cusses.”

My eyes widened a little.

“Well, maybe I have to live like that for the rest of my life, you see. Or maybe, I’d soon learn to cope with it.”

“I can never imagine such a calm guy shouting cusses like that, you see,” I commented.

Arnav then commented, “Yeah, right?! He’s just that annoying!”

“Ahahahhaa,” Some people laughed.

“I don’t even know why he annoys me this much, to be honest.”

***

Kritvik Bhatt

It was about five or six in the evening, man, and the sky had turned really dark. The clouds had covered the sky, and it, for some reason, had started raining again.

I was in front of the wooden table in my room, with the door to the balcony behind me on my left shut. But, the curtains of the window behind the door were opened and revealed the dark sky. The room, obviously, was lit up with LED tube-lights, which kinda seemed off, for some reason. My room was filled with the faded pattering sounds of raindrops.

I was studying the book open on my lap, with my back bent backward in a relaxed position.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Triiing.

A few seconds passed like that as I continued to study. Tick. Tick. Tick.

Suddenly, my door opened and I turned rightward to the door.

My mom, who had just opened the door and had her hand on the doorknob, said, “A friend has come to meet you.”

I frowned as I closed the book and kept it on the table, stood up, and walked out. My mom walked away to the kitchen to do her stuff as I turned to the entrance across the drawing room from the doorframe of my room. I noticed that Aakash stood there, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“Aakash?”

“Mate, Aaryan wanna talk to you.”

“Huh? Why?”

He simply shrugged. “He said it’s something important.”

I thought, “Maybe he’s cooled down, huh?”

***

The raindrops pattered on the puddles of water on the ground around our shoes. But, we had a yellow umbrella on our heads, which saved us from the rain.

We were walking through a silent and dark street with lit windows of the bungalows around us. The sun, too, had started to settle down, and the twilight was fading away.

“What is it about, huh?” I asked Aakash.

“Mate, he just told me to meet because he wanna talk about some important shit, and dropped me your address so that I could pick you up. So, I don’t have a clue. But maybe he wanna apologize to us?”

I nodded as I moved my hands inside the pockets of my pants. “I feel that too. After all, what else would he even talk to us about?”

“Yeah.”

“But, for some reason, Aaryan doesn’t really seem like the type of guys who get emotional over such stuff and apologize.”

Aakash smiled. “Pfft. For real, mate. But what if he’s willing to change?”

“Yeah, let’s hope for the best.”

“Let’s hope for the best, yes.”

Both of us turned left and entered the dark park. It had no lights on that day, for some reason, and it seemed really dark and creepy. And obviously, the whole ground was muddy.

Aakash turned his head left and then right as we walked, and then he turned rightward. I noticed him and quickly turned to his direction.

I noticed that on a metallic bench under a tree, three guys were sitting in the shadows, whispering about some stuff.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.

We then stopped walking as we reached them. The three of them, obviously, turned to the two of us.

“Kritvik’s here too now, Aaryan.”

Aaryan turned to me and stood up.

I turned my head a little up to look at him as he stepped once to me and revealed the left half of his face to the moonlight. “Do ya wanna tell me something?” He asked me, his eyes clearly still angry with me.

“A-Aaryan, I-I… Man, I’m sorr—”

My face sank inside Aaryan’s neck as he suddenly hugged me.

“A-Aaryan?”

“Ya see, I kinda went too hard on ya.”

“No doubt, man.”

“But ya fucking chose that bitch over me.”

My cheeks turned a little pink. Embarrassedly, I said, “I-I-I didn’t, man. I felt like you all would still enjoy a lot even if I weren’t there. Obviously, I didn’t imagine everyone else too would… Or else, I’d definitely be there with Aakash and you.”

“Stop giving excuses, asshole,” He said as he moved back. “And, welcome back home, pal.”

Aakash smiled as he glared at us while crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Yeah, mate. Welcome back home.”

“Huh?” I turned to him, frowning doubtfully. “Did you not…”

“We settled this shit with Rohit and Sagar yesterday, mate, so it was just ya who was left.”

“Damn, man. You still acted as if you didn't know a thing, huh?” I smiled at him. I then turned to him again. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know who I should choose. After all, you both are really important to me.”

“Oh-hooo!”

I suddenly turned to Rohit, one of the two guys who were sitting on the bench. He was smiling at me. “This motherfucker ain’t single no more?”

“Uh, I still am, man.”

“Won’t be for too long, perhaps,” Aaryan commented as he turned back to him with a smile.

On the center of the bench, for some reason, was Vikram, who was smiling a little as he had his head tilted a little down. He seemed happy, but… but yet a little depressed.

Aakash suddenly slapped my back. “But always remember one thing, mate.”

I turned rightward to him. “What?”

“That bros are the best bitches.”

I turned frontward at Aaryan, who had just said it. He continued, “Ya see, bitches come and go, but pals are for life, pal. Ya get depressed when bitches leave, but ya smile when the boys leave, because ya know that… ya just spent some of your best days with some of the best fucking people you will ever meet.”

“That’s why I always say that bros are the best bitches,” Aakash said.

I nodded. “Bros are the best bitches, huh?”

“Yeah, man. Maybe I didn’t really need somebody who I could care for, who I could share anything with, for some reason. Maybe… Maybe all I needed was to have a good time with good people, after all, and forget all my worries when I’m with them. And that’s what that life phase has taught me, man. That you don’t really feel lonely when you have no one to love you, no one to care for you, and no one you can share your thoughts and feelings with, but you feel lonely when… you got no one to spend some good times with.”

“By the way, ya guys are taking much more time than I’d imagined.”

We both turned to Vikram, who just commented that. “We’re done here, mate,” Aakash commented.

“Yeah, that’s fucking enough, to be honest,” Rohit said as he turned to us.

“Now let’s get to the latter half of the evening, shall we?” Vikram said as he turned to me. “Kritvik, I wanna talk to ya and Aakash about some shit.”

“O-Okay, what’s it?” I asked.

“Behind yer backs, a lot of stuff has been going on over at the Black Reapers, motherfuckers. The feud between the Sons of Satan and us is nearing its finale.”

“O-Okay.”

Vikram lowered his head down. “But, those motherfuckers have already beaten us.”

“Huh?” I frowned questioningly.

“To be honest, our gang is gonna dissolve pretty soon,” Rohit commented as he turned his head down.

“Yeah. That motherfucker… really did beat us.”

“That fucking asshole…” Aaryan angrily commented.

“B-But why? And how? W-What…? I don’t…”

Aaryan turned to me and said, “Ya see, board exams are coming up next month, and everybody’s leaving to prepare for the exams.”

“And no one’s gonna fucking come back,” Vikram commented.

“Yeah,” Aaryan said. “Ya see, Sooraj and I have already left the gang. They’re already low on numbers. But also, Rohit… is gonna leave the gang.”

“B-But why?” I turned to Rohit.

“To be honest, my family is shifting to London after my boards, so I gotta leave this country.”

“D-D-Damn…”

“Without him, we got no one to supply us the vapes that we could sell. And I know for sure that I’m gon’ fucking fail, since I have not even started studying,” Vikram said. “I failed the pre-boards, and I’m gon’ fucking fail the board exams too, and so, I gotta focus on my studies.”

“And half of these motherfuckers would be taking up non-medical next year, and the studies are gonna be a lot tougher, so… half of the motherfuckers have already decided that they won’t come back in March-April,” Rohit told us.

“And so, collectively, we all have decided to end this shit,” Vikram said. He then turned his head to me and glared directly into our eyes. “And so, this is gonna be our last fight.”

“Yeah,” Rohit said as he turned to us too.

“See, Kritvik,” Vikram said as he turned to me, “I don’t see ya as a part of my fucking gang, but I… surely see ya as those guys who are gonna help my gang dire situations… when shit turns south, ya know. And unfortunately, this… is that fucking dire situation. So, will ya fight for us?”

Aaryan turned to me and patted on my left shoulder. I turned to him as he said, “Ya see, it’s gonna be fucking fun. It ain’t gonna be scary at all, and we all are gonna be there to protect ya. So, come on board.”

Aakash turned to Aaryan too, and then turned to Vikram to the front. Maybe he was still apprehensive about that idea, for some reason.

“It’s gonna be our most important fight, ya see. And this gang needs all of us.”

“It’s really gon’ be our most important fight,” Vikram said as he stood up and looked at me. “It won’t fucking change anything, Kritvik. It won’t decide if we continue or not, or any other shit like that. Fuck, it won’t mean a shit. But… But it’s something really close to my heart, and… and to all of our hearts, man. I’ll fondly remember the time and the days that I spent as the leader of the Black Reapers every single fucking moment of my life when it’s gone. And, it’s something all of us are gonna keep in our hearts throughout our lives. So, man, help me… help me script a happy ending to the story of Black Reapers.”

I nodded.

“Mate, I’m in,” Aakash suddenly said.

Vikram turned rightward to him and smiled. “Great decision, man.”

He then turned to me again. I looked directly into his eyes, for some reason, with my expressionless face. “I… I don’t know how to fight.”

Aaryan nudged on my shoulder again. “Asshole, I told ya that we’ll be together there, and I’ll make sure no one hurts ya. In fact, ya are gonna learn a fucking lot about fighting by actually fighting, ya see.”

“Damn, man. If you all think that I can be of any help, then I won’t really say…” I smiled.

Aaryan and Aakash both patted on both my shoulders and moved their arms around my neck.

Aaryan shouted, “This asshole, pal!”

“For real, mate, he’s…!”