Beginning of The End

VI

It was only three weeks later.

Yuzi had his arm slung around Kul's shoulder as he explained the plot of a horror movie he had recently watched. Rahul and Mayank were discussing plans for the evening while Dev was talking with Manish.

"Bhaiya." Rohit turned around to see Jassi jogging up to him, carrying his phone with him. He had an exhausted expression on his face, undoubtedly tired after the strenuous practice session they had carried out. "How did you not hear me? Here, your phone was ringing."

Rohit sheepishly grinned and took the phone from him, ruffling his hair to annoy him. "Thanks, kid." Jassi pouted at the nickname, making him laugh at him.

"Can I come over today? I won't bring any chocolates, I promise." Jassi pleaded as they moved towards the changing rooms. He had an annoying habit of giving Sam chocolates which sent her on a sugar rush.

Rohit looked at him skeptically, not trusting the shine in his eyes that told him that Jassi would sneak candies once again. But he just nodded his head, making the younger boy grin excitedly.

The next second he saw Jinx walking back to the ground and was quick to stop him. "Are you free tonight? Maybe we can have dinner together." Rohit tried his level best not to let his disappointment show when Jinx shook his head.

"Sorry Rohit, my in-laws are coming over tonight. Maybe next time, yeah?" He smiled apologetically before rushing away from there.

Last time it was his friends from college.

Before that, Arya had caught the flu.

Radhika's brother's in-laws.

Then his own sister's in-laws.

Rohit shook his head and went to check his phone instead. He had three missed calls from their coach, Ravi Shastri, and one from the chairperson of BCCI.

He frowned at his phone, wondering why they called him all of a sudden, and was about to call them back when he remembered what day it was. They had probably called to discuss the team selection for the upcoming series, Rohit realized and shook his head.

They had a little over a week before they left for London and, they were calling him just now for the team selection. He felt scornful of their behavior which had been going on for a few weeks now.

Being the captain for a limited series was far different from captaining the team in all three formats. His experience with IPL captaincy rarely helped him here. Especially in test matches.

Rohit sometimes wondered why Jinx had not been the captain for their test team. But when he asked him, Jinx had done every possible thing to avoid the topic and, Rohit knew that he was not going to get an answer from him.

And almost a year and a half later, he had slowly begun to get the hang of things.

The first few test matches had been a disaster. Twice they managed to get all out before even reaching a hundred. Their rankings had slipped drastically and, Rohit desperately wanted to ask Jinx to take over. But each time he wanted to, something kept him from doing so.

He did manage to get the team back on track eventually. Though not at the top like they once used to be, they had a decent ranking now. And no matter what anyone said, Rohit liked to think of this as an achievement on his part.

It had been possible mainly because of the tremendous support from his team. They never let him feel like he was lacking anywhere and backed him whenever things went south.

Rohit smiled at Jassi, watching the kid as he rambled on about some new dollhouse he had seen in the mall and how it would be perfect for Sam. He knew words would never be enough to thank him for standing by him, so he wrapped his arm around his shoulder in a chokehold and dragged him inside the changing room.