Beginning of The End

XV

Mahi bhai sat down on the balcony, listening carefully to Rohit as he described the activities of the past few days to him.

They had a four days break before their next match with South Africa and Virat had once again returned to being his aloof self, ever since their talk at the terrace.

Rohit had tried, he'd tried to apologize to Virat. But what was he supposed to apologize for? He had thought and caught his tongue.

How was he supposed to fix something when he didn't even know how he'd broken it?

He had sat beside Virat on the terrace, trying to find the right words until a phone call made Virat hurry away from there. A phone call from someone named Maya.

So the next day Rohit called Mahi bhai urgently and now here they were, where Rohit could finally pour his heart out to someone without feeling judged for it.

Because no matter what he did, how rude he had been, how unthinking he had been- Mahi bhai would always be there for him.

"At first I thought maybe he's miffed about our reactions to the paternity break. But I don't understand why he would take such extreme measures for that." Mahi bhai sounded tired, Rohit thought as he took in the low pitch of his voice and shook his head.

"I don't even know where to start bhai. I had never heard of Virat passing out in my life before this and suddenly he's fainted twice in one week. I don't even know where Anushka is, and I can't even ask him about anything now." Rohit let out a loud sigh as he recited all the odd activities happening since he had returned.

"And he's speaking to all of them, Manish, Jinks, Siraj, and that kid, Dev," Rohit spoke through gritted teeth, trying not to sound resentful of them. Jinks had started speaking to him again but there was a stiffness in their conversations that only time could heal it felt. There was an unspoken agreement regarding a territory they wouldn't step into.

"I don't want to be that person Mahi bhai." Rohit felt his throat closing as the memories played in his head and clenched his eyes shut furiously. "But we were closer than that. Weren't we?" He said in a broken voice.

His mind felt like a maze of memories, memories with nothing but Virat in them.

The way Virat had fought with the selectors to include him in the test squad and later acted like he'd done nothing. How Virat had stepped up and rubbished the rumors of a rift between them every single time. How he had always shouted at Rohit for getting hurt on the field. And how he would always gang up with the juniors to tease Rohit about his sleep.

"Is just one incident enough to forget all of that?" Rohit hated how bitter and jealous he sounded and he couldn't watch Mahi bhai in the eyes when he realized that his attempts at sounding strong had gone right through the drain.

"Maybe we were wrong Rohit." Mahi bhai sighed loudly and passed a sad smile to him. "Maybe one disagreement was enough to forget everything for him." His heart broke within as he said that and he swallowed thickly.

Mahi had never imagined that a day would come where he would have to say that his cheeku was not with him anymore.

"But I don't think he ever cut off contact completely with these boys, especially Jinks and Dev." He said thoughtfully, recalling everything he had seen and heard until now, and Rohit nodded his head.

"That's obvious bhai, you remember when aunty passed away? Even that day Jinks knew something more than we did but I didn't think much of it." That was the first time Rohit had seen Jinks looking so charged, on the phone call when he had kicked the wall.

"And later when we went to his house? Dev was the one who took him to the airport from there and now he was the one to bring Anushka here. It can't be that they haven't been in touch" He said with a strained smile and looked down at his fingers.