[ROMANCE] End of the World, or Ask Her Out? PART 1

It is often said that young boys are dangerous. And the simple reason that old people usually give for this saying is something along the lines of “they indulge in destructive activities that border on the criminal.” Some of these older people are very reasonable, and some of these older people make you want to either smash their windows, or smash your own head. Usually a combination of the two is very tempting to young boys.

The unreasonable ones think it’s because young boys have a criminal tendency deep inside their minds, which needs to be gotten rid of by being angry and strict with them.

They are wrong.

The reasonable ones think it’s simply because young boys don’t have fear. They will do anything and always have this delusional belief that they will be fine. They are right.

But in a way, they are still wrong.

Because young boys do have fear.

Just tell a young boy to go and ask out the girl that he has a crush on, and then notice how fear, paralysis and the terror of hell itself descends into his eyes.

Vikas and his friends were done with their usual coaching classes, and were now sitting in a park, wasting time until they had to go home. It was then that one of them decided to discuss something of great importance.

‘No but really,’ Rohan said, ‘really think about it. There’s rubble everywhere. All the buildings have collapsed. You’ve never seen your own city like this. You’re seeing fires everywhere. And there’s crazy winds. Because the climate also went bad.’

‘Wait,’ Shivam interrupted him, ‘why would the climate go bad if there’s a zombie outbreak?’

‘It just happens like that,’ Rohan said, waving his arms around, ‘It’s the apocalypse like, you really think you can just pick and choose? Everything has gone to shit! Anyways,’ he pressed on, because it looked like Shivam had another counter point, ‘you’ve never seen anything like this. Your family is gone. Uncle, aunty, Jimmy, all gone. And the zombies are fast. You thought they’re slow, but no, they’re kind of fast. And before anyone gets a dumbass idea; no, you’re not a super skilled sniper. You’re as normal as you are now.’

‘I think I could take on zombies the way I am now,’ Ajay said.

There was a collective, synchronised groaning from the rest of the group.

‘What!’ Ajay protested. ‘I could take a zombie on! Easy!’

‘Alright but a huge horde? You have to be delusional,’ Rohan said. ‘And they’re kind of smart too. Because they pay attention to the things they hear. And their sense of smell is also heightened. And — ’

‘Ok alright we get it, it’s bad,’ Shivam interrupted him.

‘Exactly,’ Rohan said with a satisfied smile. ‘So then?’

There was silence in the group of four.

‘So then what?’ Ajay asked.

‘Then what will you do? Like would you rather be in that situation, or would you rather ask your crush out?’ Rohan asked.

There was a silence again. And this time no one broke it.

‘I can’t believe you guys are still thinking this. Isn’t the answer obvious?’ Rohan asked.

‘I mean…’ Shivam said, ‘If I’ve survived this long, then maybe I’m good. Maybe I can survive the whole thing.’

‘You’ve survived this long through sheer luck,’ Rohan said, ‘You have no skills to speak of. You are exactly the way you are right now. Like c’mon man.’

‘Well I could always learn — ’ Ajay started.

‘There’s no internet and all the books have been destroyed,’ Rohan added.

‘I could train and learn things by myself and — ’

‘You’ve also lost one leg and a couple of fingers,’ Rohan added.

The rest of them groaned. ‘Why even bother asking us if it’s a no-win scenario? You’re just… you just want one answer,’ Vikas said, throwing his hands up.

Rohan opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.

‘It’s cause he wants to ask Shruti out but is too chicken,’ Shivam answered.

‘I’m not — I just think — fuck you who’re you calling chicken you’re the — ’ Rohan started saying.

‘Oh c’mon,’ Vikas interrupted him, ‘You know that’s what you want so why not just do it.’

‘Because I’d really rather end up in a horrifying and hopeless zombie apocalypse than ask her out?’ Rohan responded as if Vikas was too stupid to not understand. ‘You’re telling me you would do it? That easily?’

Vikas opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. ‘I mean… ok I’m not saying… but c’mon it can’t be that difficult can it?’

The three of them laughed hard enough for nearby people to look at them.

‘Oh little boy,’ Rohan said, putting a hand on Vikas’ shoulder, ‘one day you will grow up and realize how tough the grown up world actually is.’

Vikas shook his hand off. He was going to say something but Shivam’s phone rang.

‘Oh shit it’s mom,’ he said, ‘This stupid question of yours took too long. I have to go. Like right now.’

All three of them agreed that real, actual doom would befall them if they didn’t leave, and went their separate ways.

As Vikas was leaving, he still thought it wasn’t as big a deal as the three of them were making it out to be. It was like… pretty doable, wasn’t it?

He didn’t know his opinion would be put to the test very soon.

It happened when he arrived to his coaching class the next afternoon. It was like any other day — normal and boring and something that he didn’t really want to attend.

And then it suddenly stopped being like any other day.

Vikas saw her the moment she entered the classroom. He kept looking at her as she was walking and talking to her friend. He was still looking at her when she glanced around to find an empty seat. His eyes refused to look away even when she had found the empty seat and sat down with her friend.

He did not realise his mouth was open like a patient who had just gotten general anaesthesia. And that his eyes were as wide as a one year old baby looking at the world around.

And then she looked straight at him, and he immediately realised all of this.

Vikas turned around so sharply that his neck made a small crick sound. He spent the rest of the two hours of class massaging his neck and stealing glances at her whenever he could.

‘Alright I’m glad you’ve found a crush,’ Ajay said to him at the end of the class, ‘really, I am, but I swear man you have to stop acting like a creep.’

‘What?!’ Vikas said. ‘I wasn’t acting like a creep… was I?’

Ajay looked at him the same way a mother looks at her dumb child.

‘Ok so… I think you know the answer to that,’ he said, and then felt bad seeing the look on his friend’s face, so he immediately added, ’I mean I’m not saying you looked like a creep all the time. I mean at least I hope so, because she was also checking you out.’

Crick.

For the second time in the day Vikas turned his head around so sharply that his neck suffered due to the movement.

‘Arrhh damn!’ he said out loud, but quickly ignored it. ‘She was? You sure about that?’

Ajay smiled and nodded. ‘Wow look at the change in your expression. Makes my heart melt. Makes me want to make you even happier.’

Vikas looked at him, confused.

‘Want to know her name?’ Ajay asked, winking at him.

Vikas couldn’t say anything immediately. ‘How would you even know that?’

‘Because unlike you,’ Ajay continued, ‘I actually do have a social life. I talk to people. Today during the 10 minute break, I was talking to Raman, and as always we talked about the new people who joined the batch.’

’You mean the new girls who joined the batch,’ Vikas interrupted.

‘Do you want to know her name or not?’

‘Yes,’ Vikas said immediately.

‘Her name is Aishwarya.’

He went on to say something else but Vikas wasn’t listening anymore. His mind was only thinking about the most beautiful name he had ever heard in his life.

Even as he reached home, he wasn’t paying attention to anything. The world was an unimportant thing, and his mind was too busy focusing on the actual, only important thing in it — replaying the entire scene of Aishwarya entering the class and going to her seat, over and over again.

It was only after dinner that the haze lifted from Vikas’ mind and it actually started working again. And the first thing it thought of was simple — talk to her. Somehow. Anyhow.

And Vikas was immediately reminded of Rohan’s question. He slapped his face, realising what an idiot the two-day-old-past-version of him actually was.

Shivam and Ajay were right. Suddenly, not just surviving, but even thriving in a zombie apocalypse seemed like the easiest thing in the world. He suddenly felt really stupid.

Everyone hates feeling stupid. But that’s not always a bad thing. In fact, it can be a blessing in disguise. It powers up the Ego.

And while the Ego is definitely a lameass most of the time, there are other times when it is a superpower. Because in those times, Ego does what it is truly meant to do. In those times, Ego leads people to do things they would usually neither have the strength, nor the courage to do.

It was that very kind of strength and courage that made Vikas sit up straight in his bed. He pulled his laptop close to himself and opened up a website. He then realised something. For this to work, he needed a better picture of himself.

He quickly rushed out, grabbed his mother’s phone and opened her album. A smile of intense relief spread on his face as he found a good, clear picture of himself. He promised never to feel annoyed at his parents or his relatives for forcefully taking good pictures of him on family trips, and then he sent it to himself.

Back in his room, he downloaded his photo and then went back to the website.

Instagram, the digital blessing of a modern world. He could not feel the courage to talk to her directly yet, but he could do the second best thing.

He quickly changed his profile picture and then typed her name in the search bar.

There seemed to be some mutual friends already, when her name — and her face — popped up as the third search result.

With a hand that refused to stop shaking, Vikas sent her the follow request.

Minutes ticked by, and turned into hours. Never before in his life had Vikas spent so much time on Instagram as he did that day. Never before in his life had he sweated as much as he did that day.

And then his brain started to give up. He was feeling sleepy, and it was already late. He had to wake up early tomorrow. With a sinking feeling in his chest, he decided to put his phone away and just go to sleep. To try and forget about this disaster and maybe start thinking of changing coaching classes… or maybe just move to another city.

And then he heard the notification sound. And he jumped at his phone. His hands felt like they had forgotten how to grip something, but he still managed to use them. He opened his notification bar.

“Aishwarya Verma accepted your follow request.”

And beneath it, another one.

“Aishwarya Verma has requested to follow you.”

It took Vikas some time to realise this had actually happened. It took him some more time to stop himself from running around the room and punching his bed like it owed him money.

It was a testament to Vikas and Ajay’s friendship that he was the first person Vikas thought of after calming down. And it was a testament to their friendship that the first thing Ajay did after listening to the whole thing was to point out his glaring mistake.

‘Hahaha oh yeah let’s go!’ Ajay said. ‘Now tell me you have her number right?’

Vikas realised he couldn’t tell him that. He slapped his face again.

***