Kashti

Crash Meet

Aayansh was currently out of the office for an important meeting. Although it was not supposed to be long, the meeting somehow stretched to two hours.

As the meeting wrapped up, he reached for his phone, noticing the screen lit up with notifications. His brow furrowed when he saw there were eight missed calls from Hridhaan.

He had left the house early in the morning whlle Hridhaan was still asleep. It was no surprise that his baby brother was upset to not find him at home, especially after Aayansh had been away for the past fifteen days.

Before he could call back, Hridhaan's call flashed on his screen. "Hello," Aayansh said answering the call. However, the very next second, he had to pull the phone away from his ear to protect his ability to hear.

"Babaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Hridhaan yelled from the other end of the line.

Aayansh winced and then brought the phone back to his ear, "Hridhaan, calm down. What's wrong?"

"You said you'd be home but you are not here! You were gone for fifteen days, and now you're out again. This is not fair Baba!" Hridhaan's voice was a mix of sadness and frustration.

Aayansh sighed. "I know, Hridz. The meeting ran longer than expected. You have your lunch, okay? I'll be home soon."

"No! No! No! I won't eat anything until you get back." Hridhaan protested. His brother had been tied up with work all these days. He needed a break, and Hridhaan knew how to make him take one.

"Hridhaan," Aayansh scolded in a firm tone.

"Ab aap daat rahe ho. You're such a meanie, Baba. I won't talk to you. Bye!" Hridhaan said before hanging up the call.

Aayansh sighed. His little brother was as stubborn as a mule, but he had a point this time. It had been too long since he'd spent time with Hridhaan. Work could wait; He did not have the heart to keep his baby brother waiting. He picked up his car keys and headed home.

Aarnik's steps echoed lightly against the concrete floor of the basement as he walked across the rows of vehicles, whistling his way to his bike.

Aarnik loved his bike and he loved driving even more. It didn't matter if it was happiness, sadness or anger - a long drive was his go-to fix.

However, the boy often drove recklessly to wrestle with his emotions. As usual, he hopped onto his bike, put his AirPods on to listen to some music and sped his way off on his ride.

As much as he knew that it wasn't safe to drive so recklessly for the sake of a two-minute thrill, he just didn't care. The thrill helped him escape the distress and relish the good feelings.

He crossed the flyover and was now driving on the main road, overtaking other vehicles dangerously as he accelerated to full speed. He almost crashed with a car when he decided to overtake it from the left side. The driver of the car, however, swerved just in time, narrowly avoiding the accident with his quick instincts.

The person driving the car seemed to be highly annoyed with Aarnik and kept honking at him, possibly asking him to pull over. Aarnik, on the other hand, was as clueless as ever, overtaking while singing and rhyming to the tunes. Seeing Aarnik make no attempts to slow down, the car safely overtook Aarnik and stopped at a safe distance ahead, effectively blocking Aarnik's path.

Determined to give this kid a piece of his mind, the person jumped out of his car, fuming, and marched towards Aarnik, who had just managed to stop his bike without tipping over.

Aarnik, after finding his balance, pulled the AirPods out of his ears and looked up at the angry young man coming in his direction. He looked around to find someone the rage-filled guy was coming for. When he found no one, his eyes widened in realisation. He was doomed; the guy was coming for no one else but him. He tried to ride away but it was too late as the guy was now standing in front of him with his arms crossed.