Hard Earned

Eight years later:

“….no…. please…don’t go…no…I’m sorry...Aksh!” Aditi woke up in the middle of the night with a start, presumably from a nightmare. She clutched her heart, gasping for breath. Her best friend leaving her in anger? Definitely a ghastly nightmare. She turned to the bedside table, parched, only to find the jug empty. Sighing, she got up from her bed, slowly trudging towards the door, with the jug in her hands when she heard some noise near her window. Alert, she gripped the glass jug tighter, ready to attack whoever it was. She tiptoed towards her window, making sure she wasn’t visible by crouching low, and then right when she was in front of the window, she opened it in a flash, in order to catch the intruder. Right when she pushed the window open, she heard someone groan. And a familiar voice, at that.

“Oomph! What in the-----?!” Lakshya groaned, having hit his head against the window. He was so engrossed in rubbing his forehead that he didn’t realize he had already let go of the window sill, and he would have fallen back from the ladder he had used to get up, if it hadn’t been for Aditi grabbing his arm in reflex. She stared at him, wide eyed, while he simply offered her a sheepish grin in turn.

Aditi glared at her best friend, her sleep long gone. “I should be saying that, you monkey. What were you thinking jumping in from there?” Lakshya laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. “I just wanted to show you something, Diti. But nothing happened, right? Don’t worry so much.”

“Aksh….” She glared again, tilting her head a little in an admonishing manner. She huffed, trying to pull him up. “Get in already.” Lakshya complied, jumping over the sill and landing on the floor with a thud, hitting his elbow in the process. He rubbed the area, making sure not to meet his best friend’s eyes lest he got scolded again.

Right when he took a seat on the chair next to her study table, after dropping his backpack next to it, there was a knock on her door. Harish called out from the other side, concern etched in his voice. “Diti, bachha, is everything alright? I thought I heard some noise in here.”

The two panicked, afraid they’d get scolded. Aditi grabbed his arm, pulling him up from the chair and pushing him into the closet. She then stuffed his backpack beneath her bed, before opening her door. She smiled at her father, “Baba, I was thirsty, but the jug was empty. So I decided to go fill it up.” Harish shook his head at his youngest one’s habit of forgetting to fill her jug up before hitting the bed, then took the jug from her. He smiled, “ Alright, kiddo, I’ll fill it up now. Wait for me here, okay?” Aditi nodded obediently, waiting on the door for her father to return, for the longer it took Harish to be back, the longer would Lakshya have to stay inside her closet.

Soon, her father jogged up to her door, forwarding the now filled glass jug to her. He ruffled her hair before leaving for his room. Aditi waited patiently to see her father go down the corridor, to his room and close the door behind him, before she hurriedly pushed her door shut, worried about her now “stuck inside the closet” best friend. She whisper-shouted, “Aksh! Come out now! Baba has left”, only to hear a muffled voice resembling that of Lakshya’s in reply.

She huffed, pulling open the closet door, only to see her friend sitting on top of the largest shelf, his feet folded up to his chest, barely fitting in. She stared at him for a couple of seconds, before laughter bubbled out of her. Lakshya stared at her with a bored expression while she clutched her stomach, doubling over from laughing so hard.

Sighing (and sending a silent prayer to God for keeping him sane), the seventeen year-old jumped down from the shelf, stretching his arms. He sighed inwardly, knowing fully well how his troublemaker of a best friend would keep bringing this incident up randomly for at least an year and laugh at the memory.

“I swear I’m going to get bald before my 30s and my lifespan will be halved because of you, you little chimpanzee!” He glared at Aditi, who laughed even more in response.

“Who told you to come here at this hour? If you could have been patient enough to wait till tomorrow morning, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place” Aditi reasoned. She really didn’t understand her beat friend’s weird thought process at times.

Lakshya grabbed his backpack before plopping down on the chair. Opening it, he pulled out a packet, and then handed it over to a confused Aditi.

“What’s inside? You’re not into….illegal stuff, right? Haww! Don’t tell me you’re selling drugs!” Aditi blabbered while inspecting the bag from outside.

Bored with her theatrics, Lakshya simply shrugged. “Just open it.”

Aditi hurriedly opened the packet, only to find something hard and rectangular wrapped in brown paper. She looked up at her best friend questioningly, who shrugged again in response, making her huff in annoyance. Carefully opening the wrapping paper, she stared in shock at what landed on her lap, her mouth ajar. She looked up at Lakshya, absolutely speechless.

Lakshya had been intently watching his best friend, and he couldn’t help but chuckle when she looked up at him and simply blinked.

“YOU GOT ME THE ENTIRE HARRY POTTER SERIES?! That too hardcover??” Aditi screeched after a long pause, seemingly out of the shock, excited beyond limit. She hugged the set close, cradling it like a baby, while still grinning like a Cheshire cat. She kept the set aside on her bed, then jumped on her best friend, hugging him, while the latter only laughed, patting her head.

“But, Aksh, this must have cost a lot. Where did you get the money? I mean, none of our elders give us that huge of an allowance since we don’t have travelling and lunch expenses. Did you save up or what?” Aditi spoke after calming down.

“I…uh…started tutoring a few juniors recently. I know you wanted to read the books but couldn’t tell anyone because no one’s as huge a bookworm as you here. I brought this for you with my first paycheck.” Lakshya smiled, proud of himself for being a hard-working person.

“But…that means you had to cut down on your game time, doesn’t it? Is that why Di said you hadn’t been playing basketball anymore?” Concern, and emotion washed over the young teen’s expressions.

Lakshya nodded. “Within my means, I just want to get my little idiot everything she wants. You’re lucky to have the nicest human on earth as your bestie, got it?”

Aditi made a face, but then grinned happily. She indeed considered herself fortunate.

Later that night, when Lakshya jumped inside his room after struggling to get up using the pipe next to his window, he looked at all the scratches he got on his palms. Some of them definitely stung. But then he remembered his Diti’s reaction when she saw the book set.

The young adolescent smiled to himself.

It was all worth it.