What They Couldn't Do (A Rohit-Virat Friendship Fanfiction)

Part 1

  SET IN FEBRUARY 2016
<From Jaddu's point of view>

It has been two weeks since Virat broke up with his girlfriend of two years, and no one has seen him smile since. He walks about the field and hotel with a face of thundercloud, and his interaction with us has remained a bare minimum.

In spite of him being a total jerk most of the time, he's pretty much the life and soul of the team (like me), so we all missed the old Virat. Everyone tried in their own way to bring him back to normal.

We sent Bhuvi first, but Virat, for the first and last time of his life, yelled at him so fiercely that Bhuvi retreated, looking terrified.

MS and Ash tried next. Virat refused to listen to them. Because (I think) they are both happily married and have kids and all. They can't relate to him, he believes.

Raina tried, but Virat snubbed him too, and he gave up.

Everyone thinks I don't have enough tact for that sort of thing, so I tried to cheer Virat up with a few jokes. Virat didn't even crack a smile.

Personally I thought Jinks was the best person for the job, but he and Rohit were the only ones who hadn't joined our camp yet.

___________

Rohit came back, for once not looking as though he would drop off to sleep any moment. Been spending quality time with Ritika, no doubt- they married a month ago.

After he greeted us all, he noticed the absence of an important person.

"Where's Virat?" he asked.

No one replied.

"Don't any of you know where he is?" he asked impatiently. "Shikhar?" He turned to Dhawan as usual.

"Well, you see... He broke up with Anushka few days back..." began Shikhar.

"And he's not in a mood for company," I finished.

Rohit frowned and crossed his arms. "When did this happen?"

"Two weeks ago," I said.

"So he's been making himself scarce ever since?"

We nodded.

"Well, we need to talk to him! Where is he?"

"Actually we all tried, Rohit," said Ash.

"Nonsense, you all couldn't have tried hard enough. For the last time, where is Virat?"

"I saw him going into the gym two hours back," said Shikhar.

Rohit turned and stalked off to the gym.