KKR lost the last group stage match to MI, thus ending their 2019 IPL before the playoffs. I know I should have felt sad, because I'm supposed to support KKR, but the only thing I felt was undiluted glee because Shubman would now be able to come to Baroda.

Shubman seemed sad that day, as we sat in my favourite park half an hour away from my home. I still had not told my parents about Shubman. I had no idea how they would react on hearing that I was actually dating a celebrity. Though Shubman did not seem like a celebrity to me anymore, I knew him so well, my parents would no doubt see him as one. My father watched every match of India; maybe he had seen Shubman on TV too. Thankfully he did not like IPL [he thought it was against the spirit of national unity], so I had not had any risk of being spotted by him on TV.

"Hey," I told Shubman after five minutes of silence, during which he had just stared at the horizon wordlessly. "Hey..."

"Hm?" he said.

"Why the long face, Shubi? You didn't qualify one year, it's ok, you'll qualify next year!"

"We came so close," muttered Shubman. "Before the first leg with MI there was no hope at all...but then we won back to back matches...we defeated MI, we freaking defeated MI after 4 years...and we defeated KXIP...and then as usual MI were the ones to kick us out..."

I did not know that defeating MI was such a big deal.

"But still," I said. "You're overthinking..."

"I'm not overthinking, Allie!" Shubman said, his voice rising. "We needed just one victory to get into the playoffs!"

"Is that so important?" I asked hesitantly. I hated seeing him so upset.

He stared at me like I was mad, and said, "You're crazy. Of course it is that important! KKR's my own team. KKR's fate matters to me!"

"It matters to a lot others too but I spoke to Kuldeep yesterday and he didn't even seem that upset," I said, hoping this would finally convince him. "It's just IPL, Shubman."

Shubman stood up, looking unexpectedly angry. "Oh, really? You think it's just IPL? Please don't pretend you care about Indian cricket, Allie. You would not have been sad even if India got eliminated from the World Cup in the group stage."

There was a silence after his outburst. I stared at the ground, not wanting to meet his eyes.

What he had said was perfectly true. I had not said 'it's just IPL' because I thought Indian cricket was far more important, the way Neeti or any cricket-lover might have said. I had just said it because I thought it was the right thing to say.

Once again, my inadequacies hit me hard. I did not love cricket; hence I could never understand my boyfriend fully.

Finally, I said, "Are you ok?"

There was no answer, and I looked up and saw that he had walked to the other end of the park. I stood up and went after him, my legs feeling a little wobbly. We had never fought like this before.

"Shubman..."

"You don't understand the first thing about teams," was how Shubman greeted me. "I don't know why I even hoped."

"I...I'm trying..." I said.

"Well, don't," said Shubman shortly.

That statement made me boil over.

"All right!" I said coolly. "I won't."

I turned and stalked out of the park straight back towards my home without looking around. Shubman did not call me back either.

*****

When we had planned him visiting Baroda today, we had decided that we would catch the evening local.

Now it's 6 in the evening, and he still hasn't called me, so I assumed he had taken an earlier train and gone.

The thought left a sinking feeling inside my stomach. He had been upset, and I should have made allowances for him; instead I had just chosen to walk away.

My phone rang. I rushed to take it up, hoping against hope that it would be him.

But it was not Shubman.

It was Dhruv.

"My mom has made fried rice and methi chicken! Come over now!" he said, with all his old childishness.

I couldn't help smiling. During our school days, aunty's cooking had been the reason we always met at Dhruv's house; me, Neeti, Abhi and Dhruv. All our houses were within walking distances of each other.

"Sure, give me ten minutes. Have you told the others?"

"Yeah..they're all free."

"Even if they weren't free, they'd have gone over. No one is silly enough to miss aunty's methi chicken after a semester in college, you duffer."

"Don't call me a duffer, you moron."

"Vampire."

"Werewolf."

He was so unoriginal.

"Shut up," I told him. "Lemme get ready fast."

*******

When I reached their house and rang the bell, Abhi opened the door. His expression closed up on seeing me. 

Maybe he had hoped  it would be Neeti. From what I've gathered from Neeti's texts, Abhi seemed to be replacing me in his life my Neeti. 

Not romantically, of course. They'd always been perfectly platonic.

Replacing me as a best friend, I mean.

"Hello," I said awkwardly.

"Hi," he said, moving away to let me enter. "Neeti said you'd be busy today?"

"Um, yeah...yeah, I got free early."

Dhruv's mom came and hugged me. "Haven't you been eating at all in hostel, beta? You look kind of malnourished now!"

"Hostel food, aunty. Inedible!" I said. 

She laughed and led me to the kitchen. I was her primary taster. Dhruv was a bad judge of food; he said everything was 'smashing'. He had still not come out of that Enid Blyton phase.

Neeti came soon after, and the methi chicken was really smashing today.

We sat squashed in Dhruv's small room, as we always did. Abhi and I sat in opposite corners. But except that we didn't talk as much as we used to earlier, it was just like old times. Dhruv and Neeti's cheerfulness kept the mood light and happy.

Somewhere during the evening, I remembered with a pang that I was still at odds with Shubman, but being with my best friends mostly kept me distracted from dwelling on that too much.

A/N: Hi, guys! I'm updating after almost a whole year, because I was out of ideas and had a bad writer's block.I promise I'll update frequently now.

Hope you forgive me and  vote and comment on my chapter afetr all...