Aarohi Vyas

Revenge was what I lived for most of my life, from my early teens until recently. My mind and body are shaped for vengeance, and I have only one purpose. I was a dedicated one. Then imagine how I must’ve felt when I found out that what I believed my whole life was a lie, I had merely been used to serve someone else’s purpose.

I felt humiliated, helpless, and angry. Anger and hatred were in every fibre of my being, but take away the reason that cultivated that anger, and you are left with unresolved anger. Where do you get all that anger out? Many of us would take it on ourselves, as I tried, but now I’m slowly starting to realise who actually deserves all the fire of wrath they filled me with. 

“How come you suddenly vanished for two days and weren’t able to report?” She’s been eating my head out since I contacted her again.

“Shaili, I lost my phone!” 

“How? Where did you go? And you left your car on an empty road. Were we going insane looking for you everywhere? Care to explain? Or your entitled ass doesn’t allow you to?” What is up with all these people calling me entitled? “Don’t call me that!” 

“What? Ass?” She looks confused. “No, entitled.” I retorted. “Then don’t act like one.” She slams her hands on the table, making others in the cafe stare at us. “Calm down. Let me breathe for a sec.” I gently push her back to her seat with her shoulders.

 “Out with it already.” She grows impatient.

I take a deep breath in, “I found something out recently.” She grows serious hearing it. “Is it something to do with your past?” My silence speaks for me. “Anyways, where were you all this time?” She interlaces her fingers on the table.

“What? Did you not hear me?” She doesn’t care. If she only cared for us once, or herself even, we wouldn’t have been living like that.

“Because I already know it’s dangerous. And we’re not supposed to dig into that matter, remember?” That again, I scoff, “You didn’t even ask what I found out.” 

“Okay, I’ll listen to you. But not here.” She gets off her seat. “Let’s get going.”

“I’m here with some people, I can’t leave unannounced,” I inform her.

 “What people?”  

“It’s a long story, you go. I need some time on my own.” She picks up her bag, and I follow her to her car. She hands me a new phone. “Here, don’t go off contact again.” She hugs me, “and come back home,” she caresses the back of my head, and I hug her back reluctantly. Pulling away, she warns, “Don’t tell anyone else about whatever you’ve found out.” I give her a nod to assure her. Getting into her car, she pulls away. I’m left behind, directionless. 

Shaili knows things better than me, that much I'm aware of, and she likes to keep it to herself, but she’s the only one I have some faith in. Even if she’s just four years older than me, she has basically raised me. Reminds me of everytime I used to create scenes, she would protect me from getting beaten up by her own father by shielding me from him, and challenging him on his face to dare touching me. I don’t know what she had against him that gave her this much confidence as his daughter to keep him in the line, except for once he was shit faced drunk, and wiped both of us with a stick. He’s no more, not much changed in our lives after his death. Selfishly I was relieved  when I found out he got into an accident and died on the spot. 

Inside the same cafe, Ritu waited for me patiently. “That was my sister. I didn’t inform anyone back at home about my solo trip.” I tell her with an apologetic smile. 

“She came all the way up here to know about your whereabouts?” she frowns.

“No, she has to be here often, she owns a business.” I provide. “Wow, she must be rich.” 

“No, it's in loss, mostly.” 

That makes her chortle, I couldn’t control my own, and we ended up cracking together. Being here with Ritu and family, I discovered that she works as a HR manager, Ankit is an Mechanical Engineer, and her brother- Kabir is a lawyer. 

“It’s a nice place isn’t it? It’s warm and cozy here. I really don’t wanna go back.” She whines, “True. it’s minus one degree outside.” I look outside the glass wall, it’s usual for the locals, they continue with their everyday lives despite the freezing temperatures. “Alright, let’s not be the last ones to arrive.” 

Our next destination from here is Friendship Peak, which happens to stand at the height of five thousand meters. I don’t have any experiences with trekking, but how hard could it be? People around me are excited, they talk about how the view is so insane from up there. 

We were instructed to stay with the group, and follow all the safety guidance, and to not hesitate seeking for help. Even though this isn’t the most dangerous climbing spot, people can still find ways to invite problems. 

“Why is it called friendship peak?” Someone asks the instructor. “Good question. I don’t know exactly why, but I’m guessing it is because people create strong and lifelong friendships once they make it to the top. At Least that’s what I’ve heard.” 

“That’s great! I’m loving this place even more.” Ritu is the most excited of all. She takes my hand in her, “Let’s be friends forever.” And drags me with her. Her hand is surprisingly warmer against my cold ones. I really don’t believe we can last as friends if you ask me honestly, this is a temporary situation I’m in, these people are temporary too. The friendship peak was setting impossible expectations. (lol)

“What about me?” Ankit asks her, struggling to reach us from behind. “But we’re already tied to each other for seven lives, did you forget?” She winks at me. “Don’t exhaust yourself before we reach the top” The instructor slows his pace down by holding him back. He gives up with a huff. Poor guy. 

I look ahead and find Kabir ahead of all, as if he’s in a competition with someone. Nothing slows him down, not the cold, not the thin air burning his lungs, not even the steep slants of the mountain that gets harder to climb as we move up towards the top.

The fallen leaves creak beneath multiple steps, a few of them have started using their sticks to help themselves ahead, slow and cold air sweep here and there.  

The enthusiasm the group started to climb is lost in all of them, many of them now rest for a few minutes to catch breaths, to hydrate themselves. Ritu suggests sitting on the nearest bench we find on our way, meanwhile Ankit catches up to us, and plops his butt down the bench too. “This is so tiring, God.” She drops her head on his shoulders. I’m not as tired as them, I can still keep going if I want to, but I decide otherwise. The chirping of birds is prominent as everyone has stopped talking as much. 

“What happened noobs, already gave up?” Kabir shouts back at as. Ritu flocks him with a middle finger. Which I don’t think he looks back enough to catch.

“I’m going ahead guys.” saying that, I myself start to move ahead with long strides. I feel like I need to humble this dude, he hasn’t met someone competent to challenge until now, I bet.