In This Together

Making up the broken bridges

Virat lay in his bed with his eyes wide open for hours, but this time he wasn't having depressing thoughts. He just wanted to make it up to Jinks before anything else.

Realising that he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, he went to Jinks' room at 2:30 in the night and shook him.

Jinks woke up with an awful shock and saw Virat looking down at him tragically.

What happened? he asked anxiously.

I don't deserve you, Jinks, said Virat sadly.

Of course, now that their connection was back, they couldn't stop using it.

Oh no, said Jinks, sitting up and pulling Virat down beside him.

I'm serious, said Virat. I'll do anything for you. Just name it and I'll do it.

God, Vi, I don't want you to do anything for me, said Jinks, his eyes twinkling.

Virat threw a strangling arm around Jinks' shoulders and continued wailing, I'll do anything--I just need an idea...give me an idea, Jinks... And Jinks continued saying, You're an idiot, Virat, till Virat jumped up, his eyes shining.

I've got a wonderful idea, said Virat

You can shout if you want you, said Jinks, rolling his eyes, because Virat was clearly dying to yell, but still didn't want to break the telepathy.

"I've got a wonderful idea, Jinks!" shouted Virat.

"So I heard," said Jinks. "Let's hear it."

"Give me some chits of paper immediately," ordered Virat.

Jinks looked at him skeptically and obliged.

"Look, these are 'Stop Virat from doing something stupid' tickets," explained Virat.

"Ok," said Jinks, extremely seriously.

"You can give me one of these every time you want to stop me from doing something," said Virat.

Jinks laughed. "How many are you going to give me? I'll need around 50 to cover this year."

"No," protested Virat. "I'll give you 20, so use them carefully."

Jinks reclined on his bed and watched Virat labelling the tickets.

When Virat finally handed them over, Jinks said solemnly, Thanks a lot.

Virat and Jinks were grinning at each other, just like that, thinking about how, after saying, 'Firstly, Jinks, I want you to know that neither you nor Rohit have the right to control my life' yesterday, Virat was literally giving Jinks the power to control his life today, and Virat didn't even mind.

I've realised that my life would've been a lot better if I did let you control it, admitted Virat.

I'm glad you realise that, said Jinks.

_____________

The next day, Team India held their first normal practice session in a very long time.

Virat thought of how he had ignored Bhuvi yesterday and wondered if Bhuvi was still hurt about it.

Sometime during the practice, Virat went up to Bhuvi and asked tentatively, "Would you bowl to me for a while, Bhuvi?"

Bhuvi smiled in his usual warm manner and said, "Sure!"

Relieved, Virat started to bat out Bhuvi's swingers and a comfortable silence descended between them.