Boyfriend

3

𝐈'𝐝 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫
𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞,
𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞
𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬

✻ ✻ ✻

February 23rd, 2012

“I don't want to go to school today”, Sahil whined while taking a seat at the breakfast table.

“Why not? If you're going to say that you're not feeling well... save it”

“Maa, maybe he's actually not feeling well”, I tried to defend him.

“Anika, you know how he is”, she sat down frustrated and Sahil sighed.

“Just this time?”

“No! He'll be going to school and that's it”, she yelled and our father made a scared face.

When we left the house, Sahil didn't say a word. He kept quit the whole way to school until I decided to ask him what's up.

“You know what's happening”, he snapped.

I looked at him guiltily and put my arm around his shoulder while walking into the school building.

“I'll protect you”, I tried to make him feel better but he chuckled coldly.

“Just like you've been protecting me since childhood?”

“I've been trying my best, Lu”

“But it's not enough, Nick”, he pulled away and I knew, he meant it.

“You don't know what it feels like to be me”

“Lu, you're hurting me now”, I whispered while looking at him. He shot me a weak smile and walked away.

The rest of the time passed by me thinking about my little brother and everything he had to endure. No wonder his kindness has started fading.

“Anika, what are you thinking about?”, Gauri, my friend asked me confused.

“Nothing”

“Do you want to come over today?”, she asked me with such hope in her eyes that for a moment I couldn't deny.

“I'd love to but Sahil..”

“He's old enough to handle himself”

After a lot of convincing, I gave in and we decided to go to her place after school. But somewhere between all those thoughts and confusion, I forgot to inform Lu.

When we were finally done with classes, Gauri decided to turn on her car, while I had to make a quick trip to the library. Our library was at the top floor and had a tiny terrace as well.

I grabbed all the stuff I needed and was about to rush down the stairs, when my ears heard someone wincing. The voice sounded familiar, as if it would belong to my... to my brother?

I turned back on my heels and walked there, standing at the entrance of the terrace, I found four boys hovering over my tiny brother, torturing the hell out of him.

My body froze there and I started shivering. My little brother was getting beaten. I had to stop it. I opened the door and walked up to those jerks.

They stopped beating him and looked at me. A smirk formed on their disgusting faces. While a volcano burst in me.

“What the fuck do you think you're doing?”, I screamed at the top of my lungs and kneed down to help Lu.

“Look, mommy came to help”, one of them made a remark.

Once Lu was up, I took steps closer to them, standing in front of him. My eyes piercing a hole into his face.

“Touch him one more time and I'll show hell on earth”, my teeth gritted against each other.

“I'd rather touch you than...”, before he could've finished the sentence, my palm said hi to his cheek.

The boys around him stepped closer, while Lu took a stand by me. They all started glaring at us. But before they could've done something, Gauri and some other people entered the terrace.

She looked at us and then to the boys. It took her a minute, but when she finally got the situation, her eyes widened. And that too for various reasons.

“Shayan?”, she whispered and took a step back in shock.

“I-i can ex-explain”, the other guy who was beating up my brother said.

“You disgust me”, she screamed and ran outside.

We were about to leave too, but Shayan got in the way. He stood there with fury clearly visible in his eyes.

“Thanks to you, my sister thinks I'm a monster”

“She thinks right”

“You're going to regret this”

“We'll see, now fuck off”

When we left the school, I realized that Lu could barely walk. His nose was bleeding while his leg had a huge scratch on it.

“I'm sorry”, I apologized and I truly was. I loved Lu more than anyone else. My baby brother was so innocent and he didn't deserve to be bullied by jackasses who have no life.

“It's okay. You tried your best”, he looked at me and what was supposed to be a taunt was actually a compliment.

“We'll change school, okay?”, I suggested and he laughed while nodding.

As soon as we got back home, I cleaned up his wounds before mom was going to be back home from grocery shopping. After that we decided to watch a movie. We were almost finished with it when the landline phone rang.

“It's dad, he wants me to deliver him some documents”

“I'll do it”, I offered and he smiled.

“You know that I can walk, they don't hurt as much as you think”

“Whatever”

He left right after that and I started preparations for dinner. It only occurred to me after making the meal that it had been two hours since he had left.

Maa entered through the door and the phone rang again. It was Dad, asking about Lu and my head snapped up. Maa looked at me confused.

I told her what had happened today and tears welled up in her eyes out of worry. We both left to search for him. After having searched for him in half of the town, I decided to look at school.

That's when my eyes landed on the terrace. The school gate was weirdly enough open. I ran up the stairs and when I entered the terrace, my heart stopped beating for a moment.

Lu's lifeless body was lying there. Blood covering the floor. The documents tore apart. I ran up to him with tears flowing down my eyes. He wasn't moving, his eyes were closed.

I shook him, kept shaking him but Lu didn't move an inch. I checked his heartbeat, it was so slow. I took out my phone and called the ambulance, after that my parents. We tried our best to save him.

...but it wasn't good enough.
_______________________________________

Sometimes people leave us unexpected and sometimes they leave tiny warnings before they ultimately do.

Amna xx