Quicksand Friendships

...

Maybe he was the problem. And everyone else got on together well. Niha and Marium got along. Goher and Soha got along well too, having him as a mutual link. He had seen them once or twice standing together, laughing and exchanging jokes. And he had turned away before they could see him. He thought that perhaps Marium saw him, but even if she did she never asked why he didn’t come to join them. “When you don’t know what to do, try empathy” his English teacher’s voice rang in his mind like an alarm.

He kicked a stone again in a flash of anger. And then, Arsal exploded in volleys of anger.

“Why should he look at other points of view all the time? Why? When I care for all four of my friends, don’t I already do that? So when I’m low, where are all these imbeciles?! Where is my point of view for them? Don’t they look at it from my point of view?

Coming to me once or twice won’t solve the problem. Saying that you’re sorry for whatever happened and you’re with me effectively did work, Marium but you need to show it? This is the time I need you, and this is the time where you chose to fall back, only for me to support you again.

And Goher? Acting as if nothing happened, then suddenly saying lets go out to party. What is going on? What happened to you and me being blood brothers man? If it’s my fault why won’t you tell me? Why hide? Why? Damn it WHY!” kicks the sand and watches dust rise in the sky a few feet above the ground.

“Nihaaaa. And Soha. You two sometime connect to me even when you’re silent, telepathically, or somehow, I just feel a connection knowing that this is what you might say right now…that I should take things easy, not go so crazy. Because Niha as you’d say, shit happens. Get over with it and deal with it.” He sighed and stopped to take a few breaths from his monologue.

His phone buzzed.

It was from Goher: “Football semifinal Hai ajar. I miss you man!”

He mimicked him as he read the text sarcastically. No regard for him.

And then, as he was about to kick another new stone he’d found, he stopped in mid-air. He realized his role. He was the main man. He was the junction between those two and the other two. He corrected himself, Niha Goher and Soha Marium.

He had thought enough. He had given it a lot of time. His decision would not be rash. He knew what to do.

And so he did. The next day, when school started, he went with a mind full of ideas to set things right. Sunlight was shining on him. He felt positive. He hoped he would not be shattered again. He had tried to talk desperately, dropping hints of what he felt; significant hints, but it had negligible response.

Arsal took all the four of them to a place in school where they had shared one great memory, where they had all once sang songs and had a lot of fun and had a lot of good things to eat. Laughing as if there was no tomorrow, they had all shared an hour or more of great times that they would later cherish.

And then Arsal spoke. He didn’t speak about himself first. He did what his teacher told him to do.

He spoke about Goher’s point of view. How cool Goher had been, when Arsal knew he wasn’t. Then about Niha, who knew something was wrong but did not want to tread dangerous waters. He moved on to Marium, who tried yet went halfhearted. He reached for Soha, who had tried.

He said all this to all of them, so that a small one liner would sink into their heads. He wanted to let of all the steam, but something held him back. He spoke slowly, yet deliberately, “this is it. All five of us stood here as good friends. When we sang songs. And went crazy. And this seems like a movie, that I said everything to make you understand what I wanted to say, where it suddenly has a happy ending. But, see. I want one. Don’t you want one? Does it seem immature? Stupid? Cute? Foolish? If any of them, weren’t we always crazy man? …he paused. And then came to his real point, after building the tempo. Do you want to permanently broken into halves? Look at you sitting together. There’s an obvious gap between Goher Niha and Soha Marium. Not literally, but seriously. Why can’t we be like adults and try to figure it out? I know we’ve tried this with each other, one to one. Two to one (he looked at Soha and Marium) but…… let’s look at it together….”

And so they did. They looked at each other’s faults and after one and a half hour of arguing and taking time to open up to being true, they somewhat realized what should be done.

Soha decided to hang around with Niha more. And Goher, with Arsal and Marium. They decided they would rotate hanging around for a while before hanging together as a group. Get to know each other closely, so that they could eliminate any differences there and then.

Arsal heaved a sigh, relaxed. By the time he reached home, it was almost sunset.

Yet the sunlight was falling on his face. He looked towards the sun and smiled. The friendship had avoided the quicksand pit

Arsal bounced back after an emotional upheaval with time. The clock does keep ticking, yet it brings out the best of situations in worse times.