Aaryan Khanna

I was a couple years younger when I was walking down the same intersection filled with three to four story apartments on both the sides. I walked straight through it and crossed it peacefully. There was a smile on my little face. I wore a black thick sweatshirt with denim capris beneath, with black shoes and long thick brown socks.

It was evening, around five or six, and there was no sun. The weather was cool. The street was peaceful, with only cars, streetlights, and such shit. I had a green tennis ball in my right hand as I walked. It was literally fucked, ya see—it had dark spots and tattered to its skin at some places.

After walking a couple of meters, I turned to my left and stood in front of a house. I pressed the switch of the doorbell, and turned my smiling face upward. From the first floor emerged the little Sooraj.

“Yeah?”

“Come, pal. Let’s play cricket!”

Sooraj smiled. “Call others! I’m coming!”

***

“You were smiling that day, pal.”

“Perhaps the last time, right?”

“Mm.”

***

“What? We won’t play cricket?” The little Sooraj innocently asked my little self as the two of us walked down the street together.

I shook my head. “I befriended some cool guys today.”

“Who?”

“Rohit Sharma, Vikram Seth, and their gang which the two of them run together.”

“What?! A gang?!” Sooraj was astonished. His eyes widened.

“Mm-hmm!” I nodded with excitement. I then turned to my left at him. “They fight other gangs, pal! How cool it will be if we become a part of them! We’ll be respected by the whole school!”

Sooraj narrowed his eyes. “Man, I don’t think that it’s that cool.”

“It is, pal!” I said.

Sooraj turned his eyes to the front. “I wanna meet them too, but it’s not that cool.”

“Okay, man. Just befriend them like me. Then, we’ll have fun together!”

Sooraj smiled again. “Yeah.”

***

“Nah, we came a little bit too early on this one,” Sooraj said. “Gotta give the background first, man.”

“Yeah.”