Our Last Meeting

I looked at the scoreboard as a tear slipped. I controlled them, controlled a lot. I was mature enough not to cry. Vansh, one of our immediate coaches, was standing outside the field. I looked at him and my heart sank even more. Amid everything and everyone, I was searching for that familiar pair of eyes. Ved! I sighed. I was missing him terribly. But he was nowhere to be seen. I went up to Vansh and looked at his face. He did a hand gesture to comfort me. Seeing him, my words choked. I couldn’t form a single sentence. We had lost the match. The realization was more bitter than anything else. And I was the reason. I couldn't look at him anymore. All I said was 'sorry' in a broken voice.

Each one of us had worked really hard for this match. Day and night, 24/7, sacrificing every damn thing. Yet here I was, standing with empty hands. They had expected me to perform and I hadn’t lived up to their expectations. F*cked up in life, f*cked up in emotions! I had simply f*cked up the match. And today, because of me, the entire team was suffering. 

 ~~~

I trudged up to the dressing room. All the whispers and glances almost killed me. I knew nobody would blame me. They loved me. They knew I was to be blamed for the loss today. Yet they would not utter a single word against me. As I entered the dressing room, I felt like all pairs of eyes focused on me. Some held sadness, and some pity. They were all sitting together and waiting for Ved to arrive who was still missing from the field. I knew what he must be feeling. If I lost, he lost. And today I made him lose. 

I knew where he was. I also knew why he wasn't on the field. Somehow he knew I was going to f*ck up. And that's what I did.

My relationship with him was deteriorating day by day. But the question was who was to be blamed for it? “It was the biggest mistake of my entire career,” he had shouted. I could never forget his words. They vibrated like poison in my veins, making everything burn inside me. Have you ever had a near-death experience? I know what it feels like to die while being alive. I was nothing but a mistake for him. The realization took away everything from me.

I was still choking inside, so without a single word, I went towards the washroom. I undressed and rotated the shower knob. Chilled water pierced my warm skin. For a moment, I twitched but then everything became numb. I closed my eyes and saw the emphatic ‘NO’ he had said to me on my face. I had looked at him like a love lost puppy. Tears had streamed down my eyes. I couldn’t form a single word. I stood there gaping at him, speechless. He held my gaze for a few seconds and said, "Do you understand?" Honestly, I didn’t understand a single word. His ‘NO’ echoed repeatedly inside my heart and squeezed the life out of it.

"It was nice meeting you Mr..." were my parting words.

Beta Read by: LizzieBennett