ICT ONE-SHOTS (FRIENDSHIP)

Come back--and never leave ('Us')

"Rohit," whispered Virat. "What--what did you say?"

For a while, Rohit was silent, fighting tears. He had barely controlled himself, barely managed to keep a neutral expression in the online selection meet. But the way his friends were reacting was the exact way he'd wanted to react.

Maybe because he'd been forced to bottle such a powerful wave inside, he'd gone emotionally dead.

"Jinks," he said in a dull sort of voice. "Our Jinks--"

And he could not go on.

Virat burst into noisy tears.

***

"LOOK AT YOU, TRYING TO SLEEP!"

Jinks groaned and pushed the pillow upon his ear harder. Jaddu sprang from the couch onto the bed, landing precariously close to the edge.

"Heavens, Jad," said Jinks, forced to sit up in concern. "You'll injure yourself--"

Jaddu, suddenly drained out with all the jumping, fell to his knees on the bed beside Jinks.

"Who are you talking to on my phone?" asked Jinks with sudden suspicion.

"All of them," said Jaddu.

Jinks smiled. "Put it on speaker--"

Jaddu simply handed over the phone. His head had started to feel all funny. Dizzy, of sorts. What was wrong with him?

Jinks put the call on speaker. Virat and Rohit's bone-chilling sobs made him freeze.

"Ro, Vi--what happened?" Jinks shouted into the phone.

The pair was howling so loud, however, that he wasn't heard. He looked up at Jaddu, alarmed. 

"Jaddu, what--?"

And then Jinks saw the most stunning sight of his life.

There were tears in Jaddu's eyes. Actual, shivering tears, a moment away from falling down his cheeks.

Recalling his jumping and dancing, Jinks suddenly felt scared. Had Jaddu received such bad news that it had rendered him momentarily crazy?

Wait, that couldn't be, since he was already crazy.

Jinks reached for Jaddu's hands and gripped them firmly.

In the phone, Ash and Bhuvi were speaking in unison, practically shouting to get themselves heard.

"It's all right, Virat, Rohit..." Bhuvi sounded strange. "Calm down and let it sink in."

"Where the hell is Jinks, Jaddu?" Ash asked. "Wake him and give him the phone, he's the only one who can calm these two wastrels--"

"I'm here," said Jinks quickly. "I'm awake."

"Jinks!" "Jinks bhai!" "Ajju bhaiya!"

A dozen voices deafened him. And then all the voices--including the one beside him--fought to get out a sentence before the others, so all Jinks heard was an indistinct jumble of words.

"You--"

"Rohit won over the selectors--"

"Test Championship--"

"THE WTC FINAL."

"WE LOVE YOU, JINKS BHAIYA." The last was, of course, from Jassi.

In Jinks' defence, he'd just woken up, and he had actually been quite tired to begin with, and he did not deserve so many voices yelling at him, and he was not expected to make sense out of it.