In the Darkest Hour

A dangerous threat

Much to the team's amusement, Yograj could not face the humiliation of complaining about what they had done to the authorities at all (not that they'd find any proof) and that saved them a lot of complications.

The BCCI approved of his resignation and he would not be joining them after the ODI series ended, making his the shortest ever career of a national coach.

Yograj Singh spent the next day staying out of their sight.

At night, the entire group met on the terrace again, this time with Rohit, to plan a suitable revenge for Rayudu.

Life's biggest successes, however, often come unplanned.

Hardik had gone into another of his shiny-eyed enthusiastic stream of bloodthirsty suggestions like wringing Rayudu's neck, pushing him into the swimming pool and holding him under the water so that he drowns, bringing a butcher's knife from the kitchen and...

No matter how ridiculous they were, they couldn't help laughing at this every time, and there was no exception this time either.

"You're totally mad, Hardik," Rohit was saying, shoving Hardik, who shoved him back immediately, when suddenly the terrace door banged open and Rayudu barged in.

He took in the scene of ten people lounging around carelessly, Hardik and Rohit grappling with each other and the overall laughter-filled atmosphere.

"I knew it," he said venomously. "You've all been deluded by Rohit's sweet words, and instead of taking out your grudge on him, you did it on Yograj sir. You're fucking weak, you know that, Virat?"

The senior members of the team exchanged a glance and decided to still act like Rohit hadn't been forgiven, at least till they formulated a plan to punish Rayudu.

"We haven't forgiven Rohit," said Shikhar smoothly.

"And what do you mean, we took out our grudge on Yograj sir?" asked Jaddu innocently.

"I regret that he resigned so quickly. Such a great coach--such a great man, too," said Virat, with such convincing regret that half of the team went blue in the face trying not to laugh.

And while speaking, they had all casually moved away from Rohit, who realized that they must act...again.

"And why did Yograj sir resign?" spat Rayudu, but his tone betrayed that he didn't know the reason himself.

"We don't know-- he must have done something, that's what we were asking him," said Virat, indicating towards Rohit in a disgusted manner.

It's not real. It's not real, Rohit began to say in his head fiercely, and he tried to ignore the sinking feeling that had returned again.

"It's a disgrace having him travel with us at all," said Jaddu, because they had to convince Rayudu.

Rohit felt a lump rising in his throat.

What the hell was wrong with him? he thought, furious with himself. When did he get so weak? He knew they were just pretending, so why...?

"What did you do to make him resign?" asked Shikhar, turning to Rohit, a distasteful expression on his face.

"Created a new WhatsApp group?" said Jinks, in a shaky voice, because he hated doing this to Rohit so much.

IT'S NOT REAL!

But what if it was? What if Rayudu's words manage to sway them again?

A line of horrifying thoughts started whirling in his head, and suddenly Rohit's eyes burned and he clamped his lips together hard to stop himself from crying. He wouldn't...he couldn't...

Virat took one look at Rohit's crumpled face and knew with certainty that this was not acting.

Rohit was feeling it all for real.

And suddenly he saw a flash in his head.

"You know what," said Virat, unexpectedly loudly. "I'm done pretending for the sake of these godforsaken bastards." He strode over to Rohit and put a fierce arm around him.

Rohit was extremely taken aback at the gesture, of course, as were all of them, and for a moment he considered pulling away. But Virat's arm was so comforting and--and--so real, that in his present state of mind, he just leaned into his best friend.

"We're not enemies anymore," Virat told Rayudu coolly. "We never were." He felt Rohit shivering against him and he tightened his arm protectively.

He wouldn't let these pathetic creatures hurt Rohit ever again, not directly, not even indirectly. Rohit clearly still hadn't got over it, and what kind of friends would they be if they went on with that pretending crap?

Virat's words seemed to have a strange effect on their group. They all drew close to each other automatically, till they were standing shoulder to shoulder--like a team. Like a family.

"The only enemy here is the one who tried to break us, Ambati Rayudu," said Bhuvi, his eyes glinting.

Amidst that giddy feeling of togetherness, Virat and Jinks started at the exact same time, "You touch one of us--" and they both turned to Rohit, who hesitated only a moment before completing their sentence quietly.

"--you touch all of us."

Rayudu surveyed them all for a while.

Then he grabbed his phone from his pocket and brandished it. "I have proof of Rohit's mutiny. I have all these WhatsApp messages. Suppose...just suppose I leak them online? Do you think people are going to listen to your 'you touch all of us' nonsense?"

A hush fell over the terrace.

"You were always too emotional for your own good, Virat," said Rayudu, shaking his head with a pitying smile. "And now I'm going to destroy Rohit's life with a single tweet. Can you stop me?"