Unfazed

48. Burning Rome (Deven)

(Image: Young Harsh Bhalla)

I cleared my throat, waiting for Harsh to come back after talking to Deeksha. I struggled to hold back my laughter at the memory of her screaming when Harsh blurted out the essence of our plan. She had practically run away from the table and Harsh had followed her to try and reason with her slightly hysterical self – and I didn't entirely blame the poor girl for such a response.

Since there wasn't much for me to do, sitting alone at the table, my mind wandered back to the "patch up" between Harsh and myself after Rohini Aunty locked us out of the house.

_________________(Earlier that evening)________________

Harsh huffed and walked off the porch and onto the driveway. I couldn't help myself as the words, "Look at what you've done now, dude!!" slipped out of my mouth.

"Shut Up, Dev! Just Shut Up!!" growled Harsh and I knew I was very close to pushing him to the brink of another explosion. I realized that it couldn't do the chap any good – regardless of whether he deserved my anger or not.

"Listen – that hurt back there, okay?" I said, changing the topic. Cursing at me in Hindi, he turned around to face me and said, "I hope it did. You've had it coming for NINE years now."

"Hey – that's not fair. You haven't even let me explain, once – about what happened and," I said, but I was cut off by a Harsh walking up to me and grabbing me by the almost-collar of my round neck t-shirt saying, "You have had NINE years, Dev. Nine Years. If it had been One mistake, I would have forgiven you, but you had to ruin everything."

I pushed his hand away from the death-grip he had on me and snapped, losing my usually well harnessed temper, "Once again, jumping to conclusions, Harsh Bhalla. If you had listened to me the first time, Deeksha wouldn't have been involved or even hurt, for that matter."

"YOU DON'T GET TO TALK ABOUT DEEKSHA!!! IF IT WERENT FOR YOU, SHE WOULDN'T HAVE STOPPED DOING THEATRE AFTER THE ACCIDENT!!" he screamed at me and suddenly, I felt myself freeze.

I was sure my face and body language did nothing to conceal the shock I was in – as I watched Harsh's expression soften, even if marginally.

I moved to sit down on the top step of the steps leading up to the porch and though it would have been five minutes at most, it felt like a lifetime had passed when I spoke again. "Harsh – please.. tell me, that is not true?"

I could hear the strain in my own voice and something in it, must have melted Harsh too, because though our fight was far from over, he came and crouched on the same step as I was seated and said, "You really didn't know." It wasn't a question – and the situation was too unforeseen for my mind to formulate a proper apology.

"That makes a lot of sense", said Harsh, barely a whisper in the otherwise still dusk of a beautiful day. Night was not far away and maybe, the darkness of this night, would shine a light on a row from a decade ago.

"And... the fact that you didn't know this, changes a lot of things..." he said after a minute. "Dev – I'd like to listen to your end of the story, please?"

So, I did. And he gave me inputs of everything that he knew or what it was made to look like, from the lack of communication. When we finished, there was an impenetrable silence for a while. It could have been an hour, it could have been a quarter of one. The thing unmasking the silence was the chirping of cicadas and taking a deep breath, I decided to apologize for my end of the mess.

Just as I turned and said "Harsh", he too, said "Dev!". Used to such overlapping dialogues from when we were old enough to remember, I let out a chuckle and said, "You first." He too, chortled and said, "No... After you."

"Harsh!"

"Dev!"

"Harsh!"

"Dev!"

Exasperated, I knew where Deeksha's competitive nature came from. Albeit much less evident, Harsh had that streak too. "I'm sorry. For the fight, for getting into trouble, for not telling you, for not being able to communicate, for getting Deeksha hurt. I'm so sorry, Harsh!" I said – and though I really didn't want to make eye-contact with him when I said this, I knew of no other way to make him believe me.

Harsh looked stupefied, to say the least. "You're wh..wh..at?" he stuttered, and before I knew it, a grin had broken across his face. In that grin, I saw the boy I've seen growing up – pelting stones at mango trees for raw mangoes, partnering up to play the latest video games, the one who would tutor me in Math while I helped him in language – My Best Friend Harsh.

"Okay – now you're pushing your luck", I said, with a grin of my own, calling him a name I wouldn't call anyone in proper company. He looked at his feet before turning to me, saying, "Dev... I.. I'm really sorry too. More sorry than you know. I should have called you. Or asked for you. Or at least, reached out to you... But I thought you, of all people, betrayed me – and Dee was also in a mess.. so I was completely lost. It doesn't explain my idiocy – but I'm so sorry – I didn't know about you either!"

I nodded at him with a smile but couldn't pass up the chance to pull his leg. "Oh my – quite the Shakespeare at apologies, aren't you? How many girls have you had to do this to, these past nine years, Bhalla?" I asked.

"I know right?!" he said with a grin, and that got us laughing – for real. And just like that, Dev Sanghvi and Harsh Bhalla were back.

After a few minutes of just laughing at each other, I knew I had to breach to him one more topic – which wasn't either of our favourites, but had to be dealt with.

"Bhalla..?" I began and he took one look at me before saying, "You're dying to ask me something. Shoot."

"Man.. I know we've just gotten back to normal and like, umm.. Okay.. what are you going to do about the Alana situation?" I asked, finally mustering courage to ask him.

"We're gonna burn Rome, what else?" he asked, quoting our old code for when we wanted to get something done, in highschool. Only difference I saw after all these years, was the almost manic gleam in his eyes when he said this.

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