7 Years & Waiting

Chapter - 7

The cricket match was everything I expected it to be, loud and noisy, thousands of people hooting and shouting their favorite player's name, some dressed so weirdly and some not dressed at all, just to capture the attention of the cameras. The minute we entered the stadium, I wanted to run away. This all felt so wrong without the person I wanted to do this with.

The cherries on the cake were Devesh's over-excitement and Aditi's too obvious flirty looks towards Sarthak. Sarthak, however took me by surprise by not being carried away by this madness and was very caring and protective towards the youngest member of our group.

Tanay was apparently mute since birth. I don't know how I missed the fact that he didn't say even a word, the last time we met. I felt a pang of sympathy for the little boy but Sarthak didn't seem bothered by his silence. He bought candies and chips for the boy and kept a protective arm around him throughout the match. Whenever any big hit was made, he grabbed Tanay's hand and jumped in the air to cheer that made the little boy laugh out loud. Although I was still angry with his forcing me into this madness, I found myself warming to his obvious affection towards the kid.

It's not like I didn't try to enjoy myself...I did! I laughed when Aditi got some player's name wrong or shouted 'SIX' when it was clearly a FOUR. I rolled my eyes at Sarthak's silly comments on the outfit mishap of players and I also sympathized for Devesh when his favorite player got out and he was clearly heart-broken. However, all this involvement couldn't remove the nagging feeling from the back of my mind that this was all wrong. I cannot sit here and attempt to enjoy myself when Vivaan is...

Barring Sarthak, no one got bothered by my silent sulking, in fact they outright ignored me for which I was grateful. However, the former didn't seem to take the cue and denied to leave me alone. He irritated the hell out of me by whispering his prophecy of the next ball in my ears, dragging me along with him to jump on big shots and stuffing packets of chips and candies my way. In short, he could not leave me alone.

So I felt myself taking a huge breath of relief as soon as the last ball was thrown and to everyone's joy, our hometown team won. People scattered and started moving outside the stadium. Guys started pushing and creating chaos and I felt myself swaying on my feet, trying really hard to stand still. Bloody hell! Why can't people walk out in a civilized manner!

I felt myself losing my balance and falling face first when a strong hand enclosed my palm. I looked down to see Sarthak's strong big hands holding my small, fragile ones tightly. My heart skipped a beat, not in a good way, and I looked up to his face with an angry expression to find that he wasn't looking at me at all. His gaze was strained on the crowd in-front of us trying hard to get us to the other end safely, oblivious to the fact that he had reflexively held my hand.

I realized that there was nothing malicious about his intentions and I found my anger subsiding. It was also for the fact that now that he was holding me, it was unlikely of me to fall and make a fool of myself.

Our group somehow made out of the cluster of people safely and it was then I noticed Aditi glaring at me with a hateful expression. I noticed her gaze flickering towards my still conjoined hand with Sarthak's and I instantly got the root cause of all the glaring. I flinched my hand struggling to get it free but his hold was still too tight. My hand didn't budge but it made my oblivious friend's attention finally turn to what he had done. I jerked my hand once more and this time he let me go. I saw his face etching with a frown but it dissolved soon when Tanay nudged him and his attention diverted to the kid.

"Hey guys! Let's go to the nearby McD. I think this little guy here is hungry enough to start eating my hand" Sarthak chuckled ruffling Tanay's hair who smiled at him. He is really sweet to this little one.