"Get your ass up." The words of his friend struck him as he was spacing out in class, his mind drifting between Kashmir and the cold finality of Eva's warnings.
Emerald looked around, dragging his attention towards the voice. Goutham was standing over him, who then gave him a tight hug followed by a playful knock on his forehead.
"Are you even alive, bro? What's gotten all over you?" Goutham asked as he got up to head for lunch.
"Must be the new girl," Albi said, already halfway out the door.
His friends left quickly. Ananthu waited for him to finish packing his books. Emerald got up and started walking beside Ananthu toward the water cooler.
"Hydrated as ever," Emerald commented, taking a long drink.
"Got to keep up the health, unlike you, who got a buff by God," Ananthu replied to Emerald's criticism of his water intake.
"I heard you dropped the gym, why?" Ananthu asked.
"Particularly nothing. It's just... ain't got anything to build anymore. Just take a look, what do you expect me to build up over this?" Emerald replied, hitting the 'I'm him' pose, flexing his improbably perfect bicep.
"There's always room for something. It's never perfect until you're dead."
"That's my line. Anyway, how's your cricket going?"
"The politics. It's a joke, brother. If you think I'm good, then you're out of your mind."
"Oh, come on, you can do better."
"Better, hmm? I'm a guy who trains twice a week. Sometimes I even miss that. So what do you expect to happen if there are people who are consistently working every single day and get nowhere?"
"Luck, brother, you need luck."
"Oh hell nah, I'm shit when it comes down to that."
"You're alive, you can breathe and walk, you get to have three meals a day, you got a loving family. What more do you need? Be grateful for what you have, always be thankful but never be obliged by it. If you do, you'll never get where you wanted."
"Which movie is it from?"
"Life, man, life."
"Yeah, your life," Ananthu ended it with a sarcastic thumbs-up. They both cracked down in laughter after it.
They went out to the college canteen to grab lunch, digging into their food quickly while chitchatting over academic daily life. On the way back, they stopped for tea, hoping its caffeine kick would save them from the post-lunch slump. The tea worked for Ananthu, but Emerald was out like a sloth in the class, hanging between dreams and stress-strain formulas.
He didn't even realize the class had ended until Nihal gave a loud, impactful bang on his wide back. Emerald got up as if nothing happened, calmly packing his books. Their iconic 'for what' group were amazed by his endurance.
But as any river or stream, some fishes were swimming against the flow. Ananthu just stared at him with an unreal anger, his eyes burning with resentment. They went on their own ways, once the path appeared in front of them, their lives started to move along it. It didn't give out any farewells. The once family-like friends who used to be there for you at your best and worst started to vanish, running against time, trying to find a way to hold onto that thread of being a valued person in this rat-racing world.
(2 months later)
Time passed. Things started to change pretty fast. The finals finished, and everyone completed their degree. They started moving on—for further studies or jobs as it suited them. Some took the gamble and started crazy start-ups. A group established over the mutual interest and mindset that got along over the years, and a name iconic enough that it could never be changed. The group 'for what' started and ended with seven people. Being the creator, Shanie added Ananthu to the group, and later as time went by, Goutham, Albi, Nihal, Aryan, and Emerald joined.
One day Ananthu dropped a message in the group chat, saying he got selected for the division cricket team. Nobody responded to it. He and everyone else realized that was the moment where everything ended; that was the last text in the group chat.
By coincidence, Emerald met with Ananthu a few days after that final message. They took a walk on the 'big temple beach.' The wind carried the salt and despair of those who wanted to be free from the land. The pine trees mumbled about their lives as the sea level rose, and in the middle, two souls walked with burdens and dreams.
"What have you been up to?" Emerald asked Ananthu.
"Me, hmm, I don't know," he replied vaguely.
"You don't know?"
"Most likely focusing over the cricket career."
"That's more like it."
"Have you seen anybody else?"
"Nah, even seeing you was a magical moment."
"I met Nihal a few weeks ago."
"What's he doing?"
"Looking after his dad's business."
"Pretty much what we thought."
"Yah." They both smirked as Emerald said it.
"What about you, Emerald?" Ananthu asked.
"Doing good," Emerald replied.
"No hard movements, I guess."
"Actually, I'm moving abroad. It's a postgraduate course. Haven't told anybody about it, though."
"That's so like you. So when are you gonna disappear?"
"What do you mean, taking off, right?"
"Nah, just as I said, when are you going to disappear?"
Ananthu stopped walking and stood there. Emerald walked a few steps ahead and turned around, confusion etched on his face.
"What is it that you want to know, Ananthu?"
"I want to know how long you'll live."
"How long?"
"Yah, like 500, a thousand? Ohh no, maybe a 10? To be honest, how long?"
"Are you sick? 500? What are you talking about?"
"Don't joke it, Emerald, you think I'm dumb?"
"Dumb?…"
"Seriously, no human can do what you did. Getting all those muscles in a week or two, the hair, and all those perfection you attained. You're the complete thing that I have ever graced by these eyes of mine." Emerald just kept his composure flat. "You're the one who told me about the dream that you had all along your lifetime, and it happened. You got what you wanted, guess you're happy."
"At what ground are you making all these accusations? Where's the proof? Do I look like what you think I am?"
"You cannot be killed."
"You and your delusions."
"I once cut you using a rusted knife, on the back of your neck while you were asleep."
Emerald just kept gazing at him after Ananthu said that, total silence. Ananthu continued, his voice cracking with emotion. "And it healed, within an instance. And I tried once again, but the blade shattered. How long…"
"I'm sorry."
"How long..?"
"A year."
"So what are you?"
"I don't know."
"You dreamed about all this, right?" Emerald just nodded. "So what's the tale?"
"It's better left untold."
"Always like that. Everything changed since you died."
"I died, right?"
"Yah, you used to be the funny guy with us. You were the one that kept the group alive, being the bridge, being the center of all the mockery. But after that Christmas, you changed, and the bridge disappeared. One by one, everything fell apart."
"Time, my friend, it changes everything. This me, too."
(To be continued)