Serendipity [Temporarily Discontinued]

Chapter 10

The adrenaline rush he felt when he ran while dribbling the ball in between his foot with his team mates tagging along gave a different type of boast to his game. Rudra loved the wisp of air on his face. He could feel the crisp autumn air travel down his nostrils. It was mid afternoon now yet he felt like the sun hadn’t shown enough. The weather was great with the autumn leaves shading the picturesque image around the field.

A wave from across the field caught his peripheral vision. Aarav was waving his hand for a pass from the other side. He was nearly near the goal and judging by the distance and Aarav’s accuracy Rudra kicked the ball high and fly towards Aarav. Rudra didn’t have his doubts about Aarav’s precision and as expected he shot right into the goal, right in Bhavik’s face. The new player was a rookie even if he boasted he could play well.

Coach blew his whistle and signalled for the boys to take a timeout. Rudra watched the new physio intern run towards Bhavik. He caught on his team mates while they got their refreshments. Rudra had noticed that the intern was good. A couple of days ago he had been tackled and had gotten abrasions all over his knee. He had known the injuries were minor but then the dedication with which the intern had treated was worth watching at. She didn’t speak much. Only the necessary question, a few guidelines and probably a little help while walking; that’s all she did and then she was gone.

“Stop staring at her. You’ll burn holes.” Aarav hit his head with a water bottle and only then did Rudra realize he had been staring. He picked a bottle himself and poured it over his face wiping it with the towel handed by Aarav. “Why I think you are fascinated by her?”

“Then probably you don’t know me that well, huh?” Rudra stated while throwing the towel on Aarav’s face. He plopped down on the grass beside rest of his team mates. Everyone was exhausted. They had been practicing since early morning what will the first game of the season in less than a month’s time.

Aarav plopped down next to him on the grass. Rudra felt him keep an arm over his shoulder and gulp down water from the bottle. They both watched as the intern treated to Bhavik’s face. He was bleeding from his nose and one of his eyes was shut close with a probable black eye forming. “You didn’t have to hit him that hard.” Rudra looked at Aarav. He got a smirk in return. “Don’t tell me you made him pay for this morning’s argument. He apologized, didn’t he?” The shrug of Aarav’s shoulder was enough for Rudra to get an answer to which he could only roll his eyes.

That morning Bhavik and Aarav had a war with words. Bhavik had been showing off his dribbling skills and Aarav had jabbed a comment or two about him being a goalkeeper and no need of those skills. Apparently Aarav thought goalkeeper’s only needed skills to catch the ball and nothing else. Even Rudra knew that was a low blow for Bhavik and very wrong on Aarav’s part. If Rudra hadn’t know Aarav so well he might had hit him in the face at that moment, but he knew his friend who got carried away now and then and his ego was an ever inflating ball with no limits. So instead of hitting him in the face like Bhavik wanted to do, Rudra pulled Aarav to the side and tried knocking some sense into his friend. Rookie Bhavik and probable racist too, called out to Aarav and said, “Come here you Paki!” That is when all hell broke loose. Not only did Aarav run to break Bhavik’s face but so did Rudra. If it weren’t for their team mates the two best friends must have buried Bhavik’s racist ass right there. Rudra could handle the pesky comments on his friend but anything related to his ethnicity was like a blow to him. Rudra had lost the little respect he had for Bhavik right then and there.

But his humanity caved in always.

“Hey,” Rudra started and got Aarav’s attention. “Sorry about what he said this morning.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Aarav hit the back of Rudra’s head and stood up from his place. “I told you it doesn’t matter what others say. Just it hurts at the spur of the moment but then fuck them.” Rudra screwed up his face at the cuss word which didn’t go unnoticed by Aarav. “Oh come on, don’t act like you don’t cuss.” He tossed the empty bottle on Rudra’s lap while walking away. “And Rudra... thanks for taking my side.”