Kritvik Bhatt

“Then… why did you start to vape? Why did you get into this stuff?”

Aaryan opened his eyes after he had calmed himself and glared straight into my eyes. His face stood just some centimeters away from my eyes. Vikram was looking at Aaryan’s back with his head tilted up. He then moved his back backward and leaned it on the backrest.

“Ya wanna know why we got into this shit, right?”

“Y-Yeah.” I was a little scared by his glaring furious eyes. No doubt, they were scary, and it seemed like he would kill me. His eyes were red too. He then turned his head downward, and then stepped his right foot back, turning toward Vikram. He looked into his streamlined eyes glaring back at him, and then turned his head to the moon. “It… began in class eighth.”

“Then his lips kept moving, and words kept on flowing out of his mouth. He told me everything—how he met Rohit, how he got into fighting, and how he smoked a vape for the first time.”

“… And as the taunts increased, I kept on vaping.”

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. He walked back to his seat, turned to me again, and then sat down.

“Sometimes, it was because one of my best friends in school had said some shit and I was hurt. Sometimes, it was because of the teachers or the toppers. Sometimes, it was because I started to feel shit between my shitty friends just because they started looking at me as a fucking loser, and that I don’t deserve to be with those assholes anymore. Sometimes, it was because my parents had fought real hard and my house had become a complete mess. And sometimes… it was because I had fucked up somewhere, ya see.”

Vikram had his head tilted down.

Aaryan stuffed his right hand in the pocket of his pants, and took out something. He pointed it at me. “I was not vaping for like a fucking week. I had promised myself to not get in this shit ever again. But today, I finally broke that shitty promise I made to myself.” He then moved the black vape to his mouth and kept it between his lips for a couple of seconds.

I continued to look at his back as he stood there with the vape in his mouth.

Vikram had his head tilted down.

Aaryan then moved it out and blew out a puff. It slowly faded away in the air. He then said, “Because this time, I fucking fucked up again, asshole.”

I gulped in and turned my head down in guilt. “I… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, man,” Vikram said as he turned his head up. He moved his right arm up the backrest. “Y’are new to all this shit after all, motherfucker.”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Ya are just a fucking kid.”

“Right.”

I turned to Aaryan again, who was still glaring to the moon and had his back turned toward me. “And… I also wanna know… what happened… that you all are stressing over like this.”

“I got caught with vapes. That’s it, asshole.”

“By your parents?”

“At school.” Aaryan then turned his head up, glaring toward the moon.

“That’s just the story he was about to tell all of us,” Someone on my right side said.

“Yeah, if we’re done with all of this shit, then tell us what happened and how ya got caught, motherfucker,” Vikram turned his head to Aaryan on his left. “The boys are waiting.”

Aaryan kept his head tilted up toward the moon, for some reason. He stood still, just like that, for a couple of seconds. Then, he turned to the bench where Vikram was sitting and started to walk toward it.

Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp. His footsteps echoed, for some reason.

He then turned to me, looked me into my eyes with his frowning irritated eyes, and started to move his butt to the bench. He seated himself on the left side of Vikram, just where he was sitting before, man.

He had his eyes a little downward, staring aimlessly into the infinity, lost in his thoughts, as he said, “About a week back, both Sooraj and I had decided that… that we would leave this shit… this addiction of vaping.”

Vikram had his eyes on Aaryan. I too was glaring at him as he narrated it.

“But, ya see, just yesterday…”