The partnership

3

The door of the flat closed with a thud as Meera entered Prithvi's "cave", a total mess, she went to his room and saw a suitcase with clothes lying here and there, while prithvi dug into his cuoboard looking for something.

"Done with the packing?" She asked

"Almost ya, but I'm super nervous"

"chill ya pritz, you've practiced so much, it's okay, dont be tensed, just go and play, don't worry about the results" said Meera as Prithvi sat anxiously thinking about the upcoming much awaited series against Pakistan.

"Can you chill out?  Dahi cheeni khilayoon kya?"

"Shut up ya" replied prithvi with a grin. 

"Should I come to drop you?"

"No, the others are picking me up"

"Acha listen, remember how I took a few pictures of your captain, they came out pretty good so I got them printed, here give these to your captain, say that they carry best wishes from a fan, ek fan ki dua hain in mein"  Meera said while handing over the envelope to Prithvi 

"You're sometimes so impractical for a practical woman" Prithvi replied with a laugh

"So I probably wont be back when you leave but Best of luck" meera said while embracing Prithvi

"Take care and don't stress out to much, okay?"

In the following matches, India had a terrible performance against pakistan and lost 4 out of 5 matches with terrible performances from Prithvi except an average boost in one of the matches.

 The public was outraged leading to protests being staged in front of the houses of the players, in some cases burning of the posters containing images of the player and stone pelting. 

Prithvi had returned 4 days back but didn't wanna talk about it. Seeing this on the TV, Meera immediately went to check on Prithvi. 

She used the spare key to get into his house and immediately screamed, "prithvi, are you alright?" 

However she was met with a strange response, a stranger who she instantly recognized to be the indian skipper. 

"Arjun Sahni.....err captain" She said in disbelief. 

"yeah" He replied awkwardly. 

"I didn't know you were here, do you have any idea if prithvi is safe, I haven't heard from him"

"Yeah he is absolutely safe, Miss I don't think you should be here, it isn't safe"

Meera could suddenly hear public protests and the sound of stones heating walls, suddenly she heard the stone hit the glass, she turned to the glass and  freaked out.

"Miss, I think you should leave"

"Captain, you aren't safe here, you should come with me, my house is just next door" suddenly the pelting got more rapid, and Meera began checking all the door and window and pulled all the curtains of Prithvi's house. 

"Shitt, they have reached here too!" exclaimed Arjun. Meera began getting the sofas towards the balconys and windows to avoid break in, Arjun suddenly realized what she was trying to do and immediately began helping her. The pelting got harder and so did the 'haye haye' chanting, suddenly a stone hit the window so hard that it flew in and hit Arjun's hand.

"Oh shitt" Meera screamed. She handed him her house keys and asked him to quickly get in while she came out with necessary items. 

Arjun used the key and got into meera's apartment. 

A few minutes later Meera entered with a key and a box, blood dripping around her back. Arjun was shocked to see this and immediately sat Meera down but Meera kept saying to him "check the locks, check the locks" although he didn't understand as she was panting but as soon as he did, he rushed to check the locks, put on the curtains and pushed the single couch that Meera had towards the balcony with a little bit of Meera's help. 

And then both of them fell on the couch with a sigh of relief, both of them still bleeding, Meera walked to the table and got the first aid box, opened it and placed it on the couch. Arjun immediately began cleaning his wound only to see Meera struggling to reach her back. 

"wait, let me help" Arjun said as he signaled to her. He quickly came to Meera's help, used the dettol and cotton to clean her wound as she hissed in pain.

"how did it happen" he asked as he cleaned it

"A part of the glass broke and few pieces flung out and yeah" She said panting awkwardly

"It's okay relax, thanks for all the help tho, I'm sorry I didn't get your name"

"I'm uh Meera Gupta, Arjun's neighbour"

 "um captain" she continued  "why cant you talk to the police or security for this, dont you have body guards! like this is pathetic man!"

"I was actually  being chased by a mob and I knew prithvi stayed somewhere here so I ran into this place and he told me the key was under the mat while my team diverted the mob" he paused  "or so i thought" the captain said while putting on some cotton and gauze.

"What about the police, like you could've been injured! and the other players?! this is outrageous! so pathetic"

"Thats how it works Meera" said the captain with a smile which was broken when the phone rang

"yeah, no I am at someone's house" the captain replied while looking around, "yeah it looks safe, what? what do you mean no chance, then call your head officer! ugh, fine let me see"

"so" the captain looked at meera and said awkwardly, "is it okay if i stay for the night, the mob downstairs isn't leaving anytime soon", Meera responded with a shocked expression.