Climb Every Mountain, With You (Shubman Gill x Ishan Kishan)

The awkwardest lunch ever

Shubman had never seen Ishan freaking out so badly.

"You didn't tell her I haven't already left, have you?" he asked anxiously. "Good, you can go home and tell her I did already leave before she called."

"Bad idea," said Shahneel. "It's your duty, Ish, go in there and win over them."

"Win over...w-win over...."

Shubman felt faint with nervousness himself but he figured he couldn't possibly have it as bad as Ishan.

"Ishu, I know it's terrifying, but I don't think it'll help us if you don't come," he said. "Just, uh, just try not to...."

"Make a fool of myself?" asked Ishan, thumping his head.

"Yes," said Shubman.

"That's really mean," scolded Shahneel. "You should've said, Just try to act normal. I don't know how you put up with him, Ish."

"Even I don't know sometimes," said Ishan.

"And that's not mean at all," said Shubman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shahneel led the way when the maid opened the door, since both Shubman and Ishan were too scared to. They tried carefully not to brush elbows or anything when they walked in. They had debated putting Shahneel di in between them, but that would have been too obvious and stupid.

Shubman's parents stood up when they entered. They were clearly looking at Ishan in a completely different manner from how they'd seen him for all these years. They would be forming all sorts of new judgements now.

Oh, God. 

Shubman found it very difficult to breathe normally. He could swear he could see Ishan's knees trembling. He hoped it was only he who saw it.

"Hello, Mom! Hello, Dad!" was how Shahneel decided to break the awkward silence.

Ishan followed her lead. "Um, hello, uncle, aunty."

He sounded like he was about to face the final ball of a World Cup final when 6 runs was needed.

No.

He sounded even more nervous.

Shubman failed to hold back a nervous snigger. Unfortunately, everyone looked at him, which made him almost as nervous as Ishan.

"What exactly is funny, Shubman?" his father asked.

"Um, um-"

"You know he laughs when he gets nervous, Dad," said Shahneel loudly. "And if you both stare at the poor boys so obviously, obviously they would get nervous. Lunch?"

That shook their mother into remembering they were basically here for a pretext of lunch, and she led them to the dining room.

Shubman tried to catch Ishan's eyes, but Ishan had now gone paper-white and did not look at anything but the floor in front of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It would be an understatement to call that lunch awkward. 

Shubman couldn't rank the moments in the 'Awkwardest' list.   

One was when his father asked, pretty lightly, "You went out before telling us how the meeting with the selection committee went."

"It was...it was okay, Dad," Shubman muttered.

"No trouble? Got the team you wanted?"

"I-I, yeah, I mean-"

Shubman could tell his face was as red as Ishan's across the table.