A Little Death

He could not continue with the façade anymore and had to stop lying to himself, The time had finally come to face his demons and take charge.

"Its nothing but just another one of your tantrums", said his mom who was oblivious to what her son was going through. "No it isn't", he replied as calmly as he could. but then in disgust shouted at her saying, "how would you know? You aren't even home half the time, for all I know you might be drinking 24/7".

Ishaan slammed the door and burst out of the house in the middle of the night, put on some music and began running around like a maniac.Hoping to find some peace, anything that would make him forget about his pain and misery, instead it just worsened things. As he ran through the lonely streets, events of the past one year started playing through his mind.

The death of his father in an motorway accident, the impact that it had on his mother how she took to alcohol to cope up with the grief which led to their relationship becoming toxic. He had no one to talk to about his emotions and instead locked them deep inside his heart, hoping they would go away. Before he knew, he was in a place that he felt had no exit. He didn't feel like going to school due to which his grades faltered, his friends thought this was an poor attempt at wanting attention and they made fun of his misery and left him. Seeing this he distanced himself from everyone, felt insecure as he knew no one could understand his pain.

All of a sudden he snaps back to reality as he stumbles and falls down on the street. Just as he looks up, he realized, it was the exact spot where his father had met with an accident and had left him all alone.

Tears began rolling down his cheeks and he knew it was a complete breakdown, he had had enough and couldn't take it anymore, he had nothing to live for, and felt so worthless.The only thing that kept him from taking his own life was the thought of his mother.He had hit rock bottom, felt lost and was clueless as to how to crossover to life All his friends had abandoned him, or so he thought.

When suddenly he remembered Nitin, his football buddy who over the past one year had kept checking on him each and every time he missed a football match.He had cut all means of communication with Nitin but reconsidered his decision as he felt the only person, he could trust would be Nitin.

Ishaan rushed to his house. Nitin let him in and could sense that something was very wrong and so he finally asked him, "is every thing alright with you?" Ishaan tries to control his tears but something deep inside had exploded, with immense courage explains to him about the hardships he's been facing, and how he once used to be a happy go lucky kid but losing his father had changed his life forever, shattered him to the very core. Nitin tries his best to console him by listening to what he had to say without any judgment. He tried his best to reach out to Ishaan and hugged him, that one hug made such a difference in that moment in Ishaan's' life. For the first time in months he felt care and acceptance and realized that Nitin was his true friend.

As time passes, they both became great friends and he was able to open up and share his thoughts with Nitin and one fine day he spoke about his mother being an alcoholic, that was a huge step forward for Ishaan.As he shared more and more with Nitin, the burden decreased and finally he felt as if he had control over his life and developed the strength to reach out to his mother and slowly break the barriers which his mother had created around her.

He would always remember the exact moment when he hit rock bottom and his desire and decision to start his ascent back to the life that he loved and had lived, all by just reaching out to that outstretched hand of his friend.