What after That?

Ch 24.

Shubman lay on his bed, tossing a small cricket ball into the air and catching it absentmindedly as it hit the ceiling.

The repetitive motion of the ball bouncing and returning to his hand was almost comforting, yet his mind was far from at ease.

He let out a hollow chuckle. "So, it ended... finally."

As the words left his lips, they carried more weight than he expected.

The chuckle died, and an unfamiliar moisture built up in his eyes. His chest tightened with a pang of hurt. Blinking quickly, he brushed away the tears before they could fall. He wasn't going to cry over this. Not now.

Days passed , each hour passing without a word from Abhi. It felt strange, surreal even.

Normally, they would have been laughing, teasing, or just sitting in comfortable silence. But now, an invisible wall stood between them, thicker than pride, and neither was willing to break it.

Their mutual group tried, at first, to mend the rift. Rahul had pulled Abhi aside during lunch, while Tanmay had cornered Shubman after school, but neither attempt yielded any success.

It was as if both Shubman and Abhi were determined to stay locked in their silent standoff, refusing to be the first to give in.

In group settings, the tension was palpable. Conversations became awkward, as their friends tried to navigate around the rift that had formed in the group's once-tight bond.

But even when they were all together, Shubman and Abhi avoided each other completely. No glances exchanged, no jokes shared. They were present, yet absent from each other's lives.

For Shubman, the quiet was deafening.

On the other side, Simran sat by the window in her room, staring out blankly at the world beyond, but her thoughts were far from peaceful.

She had been blaming herself for the fallout between Abhi and Shubman, feeling the weight of guilt pressing down on her chest.

"If only I hadn't confessed... if I'd just kept quiet," she whispered to herself, her fingers curling into the fabric of her pillow.

She felt as though she had shattered something precious—something she never intended to break.

Her thoughts drifted to Abhi, and her heart sank even deeper. He had always been kind to her, and she could tell how much her rejection had hurt him.

She never meant to come between him and Shubman, and yet, here they were—two best friends torn apart because of her confession.

She could still remember Abhi's texts, the way he had seemed so eager, only for her to crush his hopes unknowingly.

Simran clenched her jaw, the sadness twisting into anger. Shubman. How could he act so indifferent, so unaffected? He didn't even care to reject her properly, leaving her with the assumption that she was just a joke to him.

The thought of Shubman made her blood boil, and yet... there was something about him she couldn't shake, a mixture of confusion and hurt.

She wanted to hate him. She wanted to forget about him. But no matter how hard she tried, the image of Shubman's face—his carefree smile, his nonchalance—kept replaying in her mind. It wasn't fair.

Simran sighed, feeling the weight of her emotions crashing over her. She was caught between feeling sad for Abhi and furious at Shubman, but more than anything, she was lost in her own tangled feelings.

Everyone seemed to know the drama, the change in Shubman, but one noticed beyond that... Ishan.

While the others were busy with their usual antics, trying to get Shubman and Abhi to talk again, Ishan noticed the subtle shifts in Shubman's behavior.