Aaryan Khanna

Both of us had the pen-like black-colored structures in our mouths, ya see. Our eyes were downward. Sooraj had his back straight, with his arms on the backrest behind the two of us, whereas I had my back bent forward and my arms balanced on my thighs. Both of us took those fucking vapes out of our mouths together and blew out a puff at once.

The crescent moon was on top of our heads, surrounded by clouds. There were some stars too, and their faint light made the outline for the dark clouds looming in the sky over the apartments. The entrance of the park was on our left, with the pathway just behind our bench, and a thin boundary of bushes and herbs just between the bench and the boundary. All of it was in the shitty shades of black, since there were no lights around us anywhere.

“Remember why we first joined this gang, pal?” I suddenly said as I moved the vape in my mouth again.

Sooraj turned his head skyward, revealing the veins on his muscular neck, and replied, “Yeah.”

“It was around this time some years back.”

“Yeah…”

With my eyes lost in my thoughts, I said, “I… It was the first time we…”

“I know, man. Ya don’t need to repeat it.”

“Ya see, I want to. I wanna see when we started to get used to failing like this.”

Sooraj turned his head to his left, looking aimlessly that way. My head was still tilted down as I waited for the reply. He remained silent for some time, just staring at that way.

“… Yeah, let’s take a legit trip down the memory lane today.”

“So, from where should we start this shit?” I asked Sooraj.

“From where it began. Before even COVID. Half yearly results, class eighth.”

Sooraj was sitting on my left, his back straight and his face tilted skyward. My back was bent frontward, with my elbows on my thighs. I had my head tilted down and my eyes guiltily narrowed. “Yeah, then.”

“There used to be a time when we were kids too. Both of us… were completely unaware of this shit… these drugs, without which today we can’t fucking live.”