Beginning of The End

XVII

"So when are you planning to go back?" Virat turned to AB at the question and shrugged. "Probably next week. I need to talk to the doctors once, make sure things are stable enough before leaving."

"We'll see each other at the IPL then?" Virat grinned at the question and nodded his head. "Don't want to take any risks this time." He said with a grimace, and AB rested his hand on his shoulder, giving it the gentlest of squeezes.

"Everything will be fine, biscuit." Virat let out a deep breath and nodded his head, repeating the words. He might have repeated these words a million times before, but it had been ages since he's truly meant them.

For the first time, Virat felt that he could believe in them as well.

"Don't you think you should talk to them once before leaving?" AB suggested in a small voice, taking a sip of his drink as his eyes moved towards the group of Indian players sitting together at the table a little away from them.

Virat shrugged and discreetly followed his gaze and looked over his shoulder to see Yuzi being squished by Rohit while the others howled with laughter.

He turned back with an unfathomable expression on his face and drowned his drink in one go. "They didn't need me back then." Virat said with his lips curled into a bitter smirk and shook his head, "And they're better off without me now."

AB frowned at the statement, not knowing how to convince his best friend otherwise. "You know that's not true." He started, but Virat threw him a challenging look, ready to convince him otherwise. "And you've got the test series lined up right after."

Virat looked to think for a second before shaking his head. "You-"

Before he could say anything more, he felt a body crashing against his side and a strong arm slung around his shoulder. "Captain." Virat turned to his side with a bemusing look at the slurred voice, just to see a thirty-year-old child clinging to him.

"Are you drunk?" Virat said suspiciously, leaning towards him to take a whiff and instantly moved his head away at the pungent smell. But the boy just gave him a wide grin and shrugged, leaning entirely against him now.

"Ittu sa? Maybe." Hardik said in a confused voice, raising his hand together and joining his thumb and index finger to show that he had not been drinking. But the questioning look on his and his slurred voice face made AB burst out laughing.

"How much have you had to drink, Hardik?" Virat asked him, knowing already that he was not in his correct senses. He made him sit on the stool next to him so that he wouldn't fall, but Hardik just frowned and pushed his seat closer to Virat's, tightening his arm around his shoulders.

"Kya hai Hardik-Hardik?" He snapped at him in a loud voice, his eyebrows furrowed together in annoyance all of a sudden. "Mein toh rockstar hu na aapka?" His expression did a complete flip from annoyance to adoration, and he flashed a goofy smile at Virat.

AB didn't understand what Hardik had said, but he could see the way Virat's eyes melted at the words. His shoulders had relaxed and, he smiled knowingly because no matter what Virat said, AB knew that these boys meant everything to his biscotti.

"Okay, rockstar, now tell me why you're roaming around drunk and alone?" Virat asked lightly, his lips forming a small smile that brightened his entire face.

But the question made Hardik's expression turn sour, and he scowled at Virat. "I asked Rahul to set me up with a girl, but he said no and left me. He betrayed me, you know? No respect for the bro-code at all. Traitor." He huffed loudly.