BROKEN THINGS

44

Rahul was almost always the last to shower and the last to leave the dressing room. Sitting in the emptied out room, carefully packing his things away calmed him down, helped him put his priorities into perspective. Which was what he was doing that day after a match against England. They had lost. Greg would no doubt call a meeting, and he was no doubt going to lose his temper again. It was routine at this point. One that Rahul was really tired of. He understood, he really did, the frustration Greg must feel. But god he wished the man could keep his voice and hands under control instead of flying off the handle each time. Sometimes, in the privacy of his mind, he even wished that Greg would go away. For good.

But that was just Rahul being ungrateful and unkind wasn't it? Greg was his only friend at this point apart from Laxman. Laxman though wasn't involved in any of the mess that was happening and even he was disapproving of what Rahul had done, though he didn't try to show it. Greg though? Greg understood what was really happening. And moreover Greg was helping him though he had no reason to. Their latest lead on the stalker was thanks to Greg who had managed to hold onto the jacket of the stalker before he had pulled away and escaped.

Meanwhile Rahul kept recieving envelopes with photographs inside. Him in his hotel rooms (No matter how many times Rahul scoured all the rooms, and found nothing, there woud always be atleast one photo from each room he stayed at), Rahul had very quickly stopped changing his clothes in his room, opting to instead change in the bathroom with a towel around him at all times. He used to keep his door unlocked for his younger teammates but he had had to stop leaving it open all night after recieving a photo of him sleeping. This was obviously someone who had complete access to him. Someone from the BCCI was his suspicion so far. Someone hell-bent on keeping him on a leash. A behave or else...

And ofcourse, there were all the photos from when he had been with Sachin. Thankfully, they had been private enough that apart from that one kiss, the rest were fairly ambiguous. But they were all from their secret-dates. Their spots that they had never shared with others. 

The jacket that Greg had ripped off was their only lead, it hadn't resulted in anything so far but it was atleast a lead. For that he was very greatful. Greg was a better man than he deserved. So what if he had issues keeping his temper in check. It just showed that Greg cared about the team a lot. Enough for it to affect him.

Still Rahul wished that at the very least, he atleast controlled his strength. His back was still hurting from the last time when he had blindly been shoved or rather thrown, harshly into the wall. He was pretty sure that it was bruised but it wasn't like he could do anything about it. He sighed and picked his kit up, walking through the door. If only they had won this match, he wouldn't be here worrying over all this. 

He was walking down the corridoor towards the exit when he heard it. Raised voices. His hair pricked up. Greg's raised voice... and was that Mahi? He speed walked towards the source, heart beating rapidly. It was coming from the restroom.

"You cannot talk to him like that!" Mahi's raised voice began to become legible just as he laid his hand on the door knob.

Rahul flung the door open. In the corner, with his back to the wall was little Raina, with tears in his eyes trying very hard not to cry. Mahi was standing infront of his friend, shoulders squared angrily facing off against their coach. The first thing Rahul saw as soon as he opened the door was a very familiar expression on Greg's face. The next second, before Rahul could even move, Greg had grabbed his young teammate and shoved him heftily to the side. Rahul had played football with Dhoni. He knew, he knew very well that the Ranchi boy could not be tackled easily. So it spoke a lot about how hard he had been shoved that Mahi actually stumbled three steps to the side before catching himself.