BROKEN THINGS

22

As if Rahul wasn't enough on his own, now Sachin too seemed to be hiding something from Sourav. And it was driving him crazy. There were pointed looks going from Sachin to Rahul, abrupt silences whenever somebody entered the room with only two of them there. But when Sourav inquired, no answer would come. He had taken to chewing off Anil's ears about it , who in turn had tried to coax an answer out of Rahul. Out of the four of them, Anil was the one with the least messy equation with Rahul but that wasn't helping him get any answer.

The only thing, that was calming down Sourav anymore; was that they were going home very soon. In two days time, they would be in Kolkata, they would be with their parents and their entire family. Sourav was the youngest in the house, barring Rahul and for once he was grateful for that. His elders would know what to do, Sourav was a bit tired of being in charge. And Rahul just wasn't cooperating, it was hard enough to not remember their pre existing problems without him increasing his headache by his non answers. Once they would be home and he could leave the grilling and the mother henning to his parents. His mother had the best chance of understanding and drawing out answers from him and his father was the only one who could baby Rahul and get away with it. Clearly both were things Rahul needed and Sourav was a bit drained to provide that at the moment.

Just two more days.

Rahul clearly didn't share his enthusiasm, looking more on the edge each time it was brought up. He had yet to manage to talk to either of their parents, Sourav was running out of excuses to make on his behalf. It had lead to another huge fight and Rahul had again escaped to the bathroom, coming out half an hour later, looking terribly pale. To his credit, he had tried after that to talk with them. To answer. But beyond a terribly inaudible "Hi", he hadn't been able to say a single word more. Eventually, Sourav had taken pity and made another excuse, though he suspected that neither of them believed it.

Even this answering problem, Sourav firmly believed would be solved, the second his brother would be in their parents' presence. Rahul had never been weaker than him infront of them, never able to hold up a lie, never able to hold off their affections.

They just needed to be in the same room and all problems would be solved. Which was why as Sourav lay down beside his already asleep brother that night, there was a lot of peace in his heart. He pulled Rahul towards himself in a loose embrace, a habit he had picked up at an alarming rate in these eight days, gently stroking his hair. Everything was going to be fine soon.