Little Things | Hardik Pandya

The one with all the sleepless nights.

Hardik's POV

It had been an entire week since I've had heard from Reva.

The last time I saw her was when she got into Manish's car to go see her uncle in Pune.

Manish came to the reception and I asked him how she was, to which he answered that she was pretty shaken but since she was the only one who had to keep the family strong and together, she was managing.
He stayed back for the funeral apparently.
It wasn't like I was okay with it, but I learned to live with the fact that Reva and Manish were really good friends and it wasn't possible to keep them away from each other as we're on the same team.
And no matter what, we were really good friends too

Krunal's wedding was beautiful.
It was everything he ever wanted.
It was everything all of us in the family ever wanted.

3 days, I tried to get Reva off my mind and focus on the function.
I failed, all three days, but a lot of alcohol kept me sane.

I was there. In the moment, for my brother and his wife.

I had to leave for South Africa a couple of days later.
Virat told me that Reva won't be here for another two weeks.

It was killing me.
Not seeing her, not talking to her.

I had to see her, I had to talk to her, about everything, about us.

It was hard for me.
I was doing terrible.

I knew I had to keep my professional and my private life at their own places, and not let the problems in one effect the another.
But I couldn't do it.
It was Reva's job to get me through it and she wasn't here.
Neither as my girlfriend, nor as my psychologist.

Not being with her was frustrating for me and it was showing on my game.

I couldn't concentrate.
I dropped easy catches and missed easy shots.
I bowled balls in all wrong lengths and I couldn't fucking sleep.

The new year's party pretty much sucked.

There was nothing to look forward to really.

Everyone was enjoying it with the people they loved.

Reva wasn't here.
Our first new year's as a couple and we weren't together.

Anushka had come with Virat on the tour, so had Ayesha bhabi and Zoravar.

Everyone else was on the phone with their loved ones and I sat there at the end of the bar, drinking my fourth glass of whiskey neat.

It was my favourite drink now.

At midnight,  Kl dragged me from the bar and took to me where everyone was.

The clock struck 12 and everybody cheered and wished and hugged each other.

Almost immediately after that, I excused myself and went to my room, locked it for the first time and watched How I met your mother reruns on my laptop until it was time to go meet the team for breakfast.

Two days later, I was sitting at the pool at 3 in the morning.

Tomorrow was the first test match.

" You should be sleeping" Shardul said as he sat beside me

" So should you" I said and he gave me a smile.

" Well yeah, but I'm not in the playing eleven tomorrow. So " he trailed off.

" I couldn't sleep. And my room was getting depressing every second. So I got out of there. What are you doing up?" I asked him and he shrugged.