The pressure cooker whistled sharply in the kitchen—normally a comforting signal that dinner was on the way.Today, it only made Vicky think of his own head popping like a boiled potato.
His computer class mid-term was in two days.Two.Days.
And he was sitting in the cyber café, staring at the same practice sheet he had been stuck on for three straight hours. Data types… loops… functions… all of it blurred into one big, hostile paragraph.
He rubbed his face.
"Why is this so hard?" he muttered to the monitor. "This is literally the easiest stuff. Babies code this. Baby robots code this."
His code refused to run.Again.
The guy at the next computer shifted uncomfortably and slid a little further away from him.
Vicky forced himself to breathe. This wasn't a glitchy alternate dimension. This was just… studying. It was supposed to be boring. Hard. Normal.
But normal was harder than any power he had ever used.
By the time he packed up and cycled home, the sun was setting and the wind was cool against his face. Normally that helped him reset. Not today.
The moment he stepped indoors, he felt it—A heaviness.Not dramatic. Not tragic. Just… heavy.
His father was on a call.
"Yes sir… I understand, sir… the school fees… haa next month… yes, I promise."
He hung up slowly, rubbing his forehead. He didn't look defeated—just tired. The kind of tired that sinks into your bones after years of "next month."
In the kitchen, his mother and Reena were bent over a notebook, whispering.
"…if you get the internship, beta, hostel deposit toh—"
"I know, Maa, I'm just checking the travel costs. If I carpool with Riya—"
They stopped mid-sentence when they saw him and straightened as if caught doing something illegal.
"Aagaye, beta?" his mother asked with a too-bright smile. "Class kaisa tha?"
"Fine," Vicky lied, slipping past them to his room.
He closed the door behind him and leaned against it, the voices outside muffled but still filled with tension.
This wasn't cosmic.This wasn't dramatic.It was just life.And life was proving harder than any boss fight.
The temptation rose again—not whispering, not playful—just there.
One diamond, Vicky.One.And everything changes.
He sat down on his bed, staring at his hands.Every logical part of his brain screamed NO!Every emotional part yelled JUST DO IT!
He didn't move.He didn't choose.
He just… froze.
A minute passed.Then two.Then five.
Finally, he pulled out his phone—not to open a game, but to breathe.He scrolled through his contacts with shaky fingers.
Rahul's name was right there.One call away.But what would he even say? "Bro I'm falling apart because my imaginary mid-term might defeat me."
Yeah, no.
He kept scrolling.Akash?Absolutely not.
Then his thumb landed on a name he hadn't seen in months.
Priya.
Old friend.One of the few who used to genuinely listen.She had moved cities for college.Studying psychology now.
For a moment, he hesitated.Was this weird?Stupid?
Maybe.
But loneliness makes courage out of desperation.
He typed slowly, choosing each word as if it were glass.
Vicky:Hey. Sorry for the sudden message.Just… going through a tough time.Family stuff. Money stuff.Feeling like I'm failing everyone.Didn't really know who else to talk to.Hope you don't mind.
He stared at the message for a full minute.
Then… before he chickened out—SEND.
The message flew into the void.
He placed the phone beside him, lay back on the bed, and covered his face with both hands.A long, slow breath left him.
He wasn't falling apart.Not yet.He just needed someone—anyone—to tell him he wasn't carrying the weight alone.
And for the first time in weeks, instead of reaching for a digital miracle…
He reached for a human one.