ICT ONE-SHOTS (FRIENDSHIP)

A recurring nightmare (MayHul)

When Mayank arrived at the hotel Team India was staying in during WC 2019, Rahul met him at the door and dragged him off to the garden; they hadn't seen each other for a pretty long time.

They proceeded to chat heedless of time, and at some point the topic of Rahul's ban earlier that year—which he had studiously avoided all IPL—came up.

Mayank was kind of glad to hear him refer to it casually, so he could finally say what he had been meaning to ever since he saw that show.

"You need to choose your companions to talk shows carefully, K."

Owing to the fact that he had made up with Hardik a couple of days ago after ingoring him for five months straightaway made Rahul defensive.

"No, I don't," he said shortly. "Hardik's my friend, and he's a good person."

"If you say so," said Mayank doubtfully, since he did not know Hardik well personally and only knew Rahul's version, and Rahul had said some pretty unflattering things about him in the past few months.

"You don't know him," said Rahul, wondering why he felt so defensive.

"That's right, I don't," said Mayank. "Maybe he's a good person, but he's a terrible one to go with on a talk show—that too a talk show of that nature."

"You are no one to judge Hardik," said Rahul, scowling. "God knows why everyone in this country thinks they have the right to judge Hardik."

"Don't be stupid," said Mayank, smarting at being compared to the Indian media and public.

"I'm not," said Rahul. He caught sight of Hardik far away near the gates and said, "Now excuse me for a while, Hardik and I were supposed to go out for lunch."

"You knew I was coming today," cried Mayank, who was not big on the hiding emotions thing. "You could've planned it for yesterday or tomorrow!"

"Maybe I've decided I want to hang around with my friend instead of back bitching about him," said Rahul.

"That was not what I meant!" shouted Mayank furiously.

"I know exactly what you meant!"

Rahul stalked off to join Hardik. Mayank resisted the urge to pull him back and shake him hard and went instead to say a sullen hello to the rest of the team.

They spent the day keeping out of each other's way—Rahul because he was angry and later, slightly guilty, and Mayank because he was in the foulest mood possible (and Mayank never was in a foul mood.)

**************

11 years back...

"Rahul," whispered Mayank, sneaking into Rahul's room in the dead of night. "You awake?"

Now, Rahul had just been barely awake, and under normal circumstances, he would've shooed Mayank away. But they had had a truly terribly fight a couple of days back, and only made up that day in the evening, and Rahul wasn't inclined to be rude at the moment.

"Yes," he said, sitting up sleepily. "What d'you want?"

"To take you for a ride," said Mayank in the too-innocent tone that always made Rahul wary.

"Um, how?"

"Jack sir left the key of his car at the table, I snagged it," said Mayank with ill-disguised glee.

"Car?" asked Rahul in disbelief. "We're—well, underage!"

"You're underage," said Mayank dismissively. "I'll be 18 in less than a year, and I'm the one who's going to drive."