Little Things | Hardik Pandya

The one with his Nine Days.

Nine Days.

Nine days went by without speaking to Reva. I didn't think it was possible for me to go a single day without speaking to her, let alone nine fucking days. It felt like one thousand honestly, and each second hurt more than the prior.

When she left the hotel room, I waited and waited for her footsteps to rush through the door and I waited for her voice to start screaming at me. It didn't come. I sat on the floor, waiting and waiting. It never came, she never came.

I locked the door, finished the beer in the fridge and smashed the evidence against the wall. The next morning when I woke up and she was still gone, I packed my shit and went to Krunal's room. I couldn't stay here in my room, our room, not without her.
If she was going to come back, it would've been that night. I wanted to forget it happened and get the fuck out of here.

The team leaves for our next match day after tomorrow, if Reva calls me before I get on the flight, I will turn around, if not then well too bad, I kept thinking. She has had her chance to come back to me, she did the last time too, why is it different this time? It's not like I did anything really, I lied to her, yes, but it was a small ass lie and she overreacted.

If anyone should be pissed off, it's me. She always has good things to say about Manish. Fucking Manish. He ruined everything. On top of that, he comes barging in like the fucking Hulk and slams me into the wall? What the actual fuck? What was he doing in Indore anyway.

The whole situation is utterly fucked up and it's not my fault. Maybe it is, but this time she can come crawling back to me and not the other way around. I love her, but I'm not making the first move.

The first day was spent mostly explaining Krunal what I did and why I did it. He was pissed, he didn't talk to me the whole day, even at practice he made sure we weren't on the same team or didn't train together at all. My own brother was against me now. Fucking incredible.
When we came back to the hotel, I made it a point not to interact with anyone and rushed to Krunal's room. I skipped dinner. If Reva was here, she would've never allowed me to skip a meal, specially before a match. But she wasn't here and I didn't fucking care.

The second day was exhausting as shit. It was match day. Half of my afternoon was spent practicing. I didn't talk much and everyone knew better than asking me questions. Day two was when we won the match against Punjab to stay alive in the tournament. I did my bit, atleast I tried. Being on the ground was a good distraction for me, it got my mind off Reva for a while. On Day two when we got back to the hotel, Krunal went to bed without uttering a single word. to me. I skipped dinner. On Day two, I couldn't and didn't sleep.

Day three was when it started. Small thoughts of Reva kept sneaking in at the most random times. While looking at the pretty  airplane attendant with the same eyes as Reva, asking me if I wanted a drink, I thought of me looking into Reva's eyes and telling her how much I loved her. I declined somewhat politely, my kindness towards her coming out only because of the colour of her eyes. The longer I stared at them the more I realized that they aren't the same as Reva's. They are dull and hold no life behind them. Reva's eyes are the most intriguing shade of grey that appears to be blue when you first look at them. They're beautiful as far as eyes go. Why the fuck was I sitting in an airplane thinking about eyeballs? Fuck. Day three was when we landed in Mumbai and I dumped my luggage in Krunal's car and drove straight to a bar in mine. Day three was when I saw disappointment in my mum's eyes when I stumbled through the door of my apartment after two in the morning and I did my best to ignore it, mumbling a shit apology before forcing my way to my room.

" Hardik? You need to talk to us." She said before I reached my room.

" I'm fine Ma." I lied as I tried making the doorknob work.