Cricketing hearts

Chapter 5

When Ishan woke up it was already 11:30 pm. He winced slightly while trying to open his eyes.

"You are up?" Shubman asked as he was sitting beside him on the bed.

Aditi was already gone by the time and other members also came in Ishan's room thinking of spending the night there only with him.

Mostly there were the team members of Mumbai Indians only including Mayank, Arjun and Jordan who was guilty as because of him Ishan got the injury.

Hardik and Shami also came after a while and just like that whole room was packed up with cricketers quietly munching on the snacks they all brought but by the time Ishan woke up it was all finished except the chocolate brownie Mayank brought for him.

Surya, Mayank and Ishan always ate that chocolate brownie whenever they won a match but today this cheat meal was allowed. But only for today and from tomorrow onwards they promised they will continue to eat chocolate brownie and ice cream only when they will win any match. 

"Ugh my head is pounding so bad" Ishan grunted and everyone else surrounded Ishan on the bed.

"It's okay don't get up so fast and continue laying down for a while or it will hurt more" Hardik spoke pulling his head down on his lap. He patted his hair while Ishan hummed softly.

"How is your eye?" Rohit asked while sitting at the edge of bed.

"It hurts a bit but I am fine." Ishan hummed.

"The swelling has gone a bit but you got a very ugly brown mark on your eye" Mayank spoke.

"Thank you monkey for your kind words" Ishan grunted and everyone chuckled a bit.

"I am sorry Ishan, I didn't knew you were right behind me" Jordan said after a few minutes of silence.

"It's okay bhai, it was not your fault. I also didn't noticed you otherwise I would have stepped back" Ishan said slightly opening his eyes to look at Jordan but he could only see Hardik who was petting his hair smoothly. It felt nice.

"By the way, Aditi was there with you since the whole afternoon but she had to go somewhere urgently in the evening." Shubman said and Ishan hummed.

"She went away alone?" He asked.

"No, I dropped her off at the airport in the evening as she left after an hour when the match ended" Surya bhai replied.

"Oh yeah, who won the match? " Ishan asked getting up and slightly sitting on Hardik's lap.

"Ofcourse we won" Shubman smirked and Ishan scoffed at him.

"Congratulations bhai for getting into the finals though" Ishan said and hugged Hardik now fully sitting onto his lap. Hardik patted his back and they pulled away.

"Wait why is my room filled with wrappers and leftovers?" Ishan asked assessing his whole room now.

"Oh we all thought of spending the whole night in your room and brought snacks for you." Surya replied clasping his hands at Ishan's shoulder.

"You all brought wrappers of empty snacks for me?" Ishan deadpanned and all of them snorted.

"See how much we love you" Shami chuckled.

"Don't worry babe we brought something else too" Mayank said and took out  a box filled with brownies from the nightstand. Ishan's eyes widened in delight and he took the box immediately from Mayank's hand.

"You guys are not so bad" He said and took a bite of brownie.

"Okay guys he tasted the brownie now we all can eat the rest of the box" Arjun,  [I hope you all know Arjun tendulkar] said and everyone jumped to the bed to grab the box from Ishan's hand who tried his best to not let them take it away.

And just like that the whole night was spent with laughter and silly jokes before they all dozed off one by one into a deep slumber.

---

Shubman grunted while tossing to the left side. He furrowed his eyebrows when he couldn't feel the warm body beside him. He squinted his eyes when instead of the warmth of the familiar body he felt slightly cold bedsheet.

He looked at his right and saw Rohit bhai cuddled up with the pillow and beside him Shami bhai was also sleeping soundly. Other players were also sleeping on the couch and a few on the mattress.

Almost everyone were still sleeping, well after playing antakshari and dumb charades and a few other games while sitting on the mattress which was arranged on the floor, it was already late. But Mayank and Ishan were nowhere to be seen.

Shubman stood up from the bed and tiptoed to the balcony of the room which was slightly open and sunlight was peeking through it.

"I don't know, I am not even sure about it" Ishan whispered. His voice was sounding a bit cracked.

"Hey, Ishu don't cry. It's totally normal." Mayank said and pulled him into a hug. Ishan buried his face into Mayank's chest while sniffling lightly. Mayank patted his back trying to calm him down.

"Oh hey Shubman, good morning" Mayank said when he saw Shubman standing at side. He also rubbed Ishan's arms signalling him someone was here.

Ishan wiped off his tears quickly and looked at Shubman trying to smile and hold in his tears.

"Good morning. What happened Ishan?" Shubman asked stepping closer to the duo.

"Nothing just something got into his eyes and he rubbed it so his swelling is hurting him more." Mayank excused.

"You guys are bad at lying you know?" Shubman sighed.

"Shubi it's just I was sad about yesterday's performance." Ishan spoke.

"Really?" Shubman raised his eyebrows  and both Ishan and Mayank nodded their head in unison.

"Then why did you lied before?" Shubman asked while folding his hands on his chest.

"I didn't wanted to look stupid in front of you crying over this small thing." Ishan said biting his lower lip.

He always bites his lower lip when he is nervous or trying to lie.

"You can tell me anything Ishu and I will never judge you" Shubman said and Ishan came and held his arm.

" I know Shubi, I know you will never judge me. You are my best friend" Ishan and Shubman sighed while pulling him into a hug.

'If you know then why can you not tell me the truth? And why can you tell it to Mayank but still feel uncomfortable when it comes to telling me that?' Shubman thought but he never voiced out his thoughts.

If Ishan wanted to tell him then he would have told him.

But they are bestfriends and Shubman always shared all his secrets to Ishan, then why can't Ishan trust him enough to share what's in his mind too?