1 My Misereble life

Few of them are almost unrecognizable, most of the look the same as they did five years ago, but all of them look like they are doing excellent. Geez, time flies so quickly. Just yesterday we were making promises of how we'll all be there in our five-year reunion and today there was that promised reunion. Of course, not everyone made it. among the thirty of our classmates, five weren't there as promised. One's now a police officer and was called to work due to some emergency at the last second. Two of them live abroad and had their first son together the very day, so the class congratulated them via video call. One, unfortunately, came down with food poising just this evening and couldn't attend, but the bastard was on the video call the entire time from the hospital bed making witty remarks. But I wouldn't know what jokes he made, I wasn't there. I wasn't abroad, I wasn't called to work at the last moment. I wasn't hospitalized, nor was I in the middle of something life-changing. I... I just couldn't show them what I had become. What I had failed to become. The reunion happened just fifteen Minutes ride from here, and I've been scrolling up and down the photos for the last fifteen minutes. I could've been there and non of them would give a second thought and just welcome me, I know. But, I just couldn't reply to the invitations. When we made that promise five years ago, I had imagined I would have my own business, a college degree, the girl I had dreamed of all my school life, and a boatload of money by this day. I've got nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had nothing then, I've got nothing today. And tomorrow, I will still have nothing. Luck was never on my side. I had so much hope after graduation, but I didn't have the most important thing, an idea of what I actually wanted to do. I knew what I wanted my life to be like, but I didn't know what carrier I wanted to choose. So, I decided to take a gap year after graduating. It wasn't that big of a deal. Many of my batch mates did the same. But unlike me, they knew exactly what they wanted to do, and were taking a year off to enjoy their teen before rigorously dedicating their next few years towards making their dream come true. A couple of months after my graduation Dad handed his one-month notice. He wanted to run his own restaurant instead of working in someone else's. We bought a small restaurant far from our then neighborhood and mom and I worked full time there. Now I had a proper reason to take a gap year. "I'll help out until everything is all set here, then I'll focus on my studies." I ended up helping out for two years. It never got 'set', running a restaurant on our own was very difficult, just too demanding. One day, I took a day off cus I was too stressed out. I didn't feel like going the next day, so I took that day off too. And I took one more day off. I didn't go for another whole month. Dad was a bit furious at me for leaving so abruptly but Mom understood. And with some time, Dad did too. After a whole month of just staying home. I decided I had too much and went and enrolled myself in the first major that I could. It was the bachelor of business studies. Government college so it cost me just around Rs 8000 to complete the paperwork. I went there for two days after enrollment. Once to just see how the classes are, and that day I filled out the form for the library card. and Once to borrow some books. Books I'd never never read again. It wasn't my type of course, or my type of classroom. Around that time, I was getting into stock and market. I had saved up to Rs 100000 from my work at the restaurant so I invested Rs 85000 into some stocks that were rising like bread. Eighty-five thousand turned into ninety-five thousand within four days, and after that, it continuously fell down till it was as low as thirty thousand. I didn't sell. I should've, but I hope for it to rise up someday. during that time I found a part-time job, my first one after our restaurant. It was at a food delivery company, Eatsdeals, as a customer service representative. Three years after graduating high school I enrolled in another undergraduate program. BSW, Social Works, because I had nothing else to do, and I wasn't very good at maths and science stuff. To enroll I sold my shares that I had invested Rs 85000 for Rs 40000, And funnily enough the very next day the stock market started to rise. Had I not sold those holding, it would have risen to 85000 from 40000 in just a month, and within a year it would be 200000. Definately one of the top 5 worst decisions I made in the last five years. I dropped out of Bsw just after my first year, then went to work full-time at Eatsdeals. I just wasn't satisfied with life. Now I get up at 11 am, struggle my way out of bed, get fresh, make myself something to eat, go to work at 2 pm stay at the office till 10:30 get home at 11:30 after late-night tea and cigarette with my coworkers and get to sleep at around 3 am. And it's 3 now. I go to the bathroom one last time before bed. I come back and I check my phone again. I again scroll down the group pictures that I would have so much loved to be a part of. Read the comments talking about everyone's antics one more time. As I'm about to put the phone away I see three dots dancing near the comment section. I recognize the name beside it. It's Bhumi. God, I was in love with this girl back in high school, but could never ask her out. She had a boyfriend, also she was way out of my league. I wait for what felt like an entire hour for her to hit send, and she does. "After making everyone promise about it, don't you think you should have been at the reunion with all of us Robin?" I... I definitely should have. Should I say something? Or should I just... she doesn't know I'm online, and she can't possibly know that I've seen her comment. I'll just wait it out and- I subconsciously touch the comment icon. Shit! I make it go away but she's definitely seen the comment bubble. But maybe not. "Robin? You there?" Bhumi writes. SHITT!! "IT's ALIVE! IT's ALIVE!!!" Jimmy writes, probably from the hospital bed. "Guys Robin is alive." "Dude! Robin, Wtf where've you been??" Sky writes with three angry emojis. "You don't text, leave them unseen, nobody knows your contact details. we were wondering if you're even alive man." "I'M GONNA BEAT YOU ASS FOR GHOSTING EVERYBODY ROBIN YOU HEAR ME!!!" "Shut up! David. Just be glad he's alright." "SHUT UP YOU! Of course, I'm glad he's alright... wait... Rob, Budd, You alright right?? RIGHT??" My breathing's getting heavier. Eyes are getting moist. I should have gone. I should have stayed in touch. Maybe, had I stayed in touch My life would've gone a different way. I would've been happy. Maybe then, I would have had a goal. Maybe then I would be committed to something. Comments of concern and relief flood. looks like a few of them are still up this late. I press the comment box. Silence. As if they are all waiting for me to write something. 'Hey guys, how have you b-' No!... 'So sorry, I've been busy all th-' No!... 'I've been out of tow-' No!...'Shit! I forgot about the reoun-' NO! NO! NO! "I'm sorry, I just couldn't." I switch my phone off, leave it on the other side of the room, turn off the lights, and get in bed. My eyes are closed but I'm no way close to falling asleep. My mind keeps wondering why the hell did things turn out like this? Why didn't I just go? I'm not down bad. Many people would feel Lucky to have the life I've had. Is it just my ego? Am I that disappointed in myself? Five Years, I just wasted them, didn't I? I had so many options. I started so many things. Just couldn't see a single one through. 'Luck was never on your side?' you fuckin' moran, YOU were the one never on your side. YOU did this. YOU did nothing. YOU are the one who watched while everyone worked to achieve their dreams. Shut up! Shut Up! Shut the FUCK up! I open my eyes. My thoughts are too loud. It's four in the morning and I'm still no way close to falling asleep. If I don't fall asleep soon, I won't be able to wake up on time for work tomorrow. I get up and go to the bathroom once again. After which I swallow a few pills, they aren't sleeping pills but I've learned almost any pill can work as one pill if you consume enough. Probably should've bought some beer on my way home tonight. I go back to bed one more time. close my eyes. Focus on nothing. I NEED to go to sleep. I'm on incharge duty tomorrow. Can't show up all drowsy. "FUCK!!!" the vibrating phone wakes me up just as I'm about to fall asleep. I jump out of bed to see who calling this late but halfway from my bed to where I had left my phone I remember I absolutely, positively switched my phone off. I even double-checked after I turned it off. But It's definitely my phone that's vibrating. it's faced down. I pick it up. The screen's dark. Pressing the volume button should've stopped the vibration. It didn't. I try again. Nothing. I try the power button. Nothing. I hold down the power button. Try and turn it on. The screen lights up. All white. I don't see the company logo. The vibration stops. The screen's still white. "I need a new phone now." just as I'm about to throw the phone down, three dots appear on the bottom left side of the screen. Text bubble? wtf! "Time is up." "This is as far as you can go." "Brace yourself." What? "3" The phone says out loud. I panic and drop it. "2" Is it gonna explode? Shit! Shit! shit! The window- I sprint towards it, but before of could open it lock- "1" I get ready to break through the glass. A bright light envelops the room. I am Soo Dead... I throw my body into the glass. I feel no resistance. FUCK!! I'm 4 stories high right now. I hit the ground a lot faster than I expected. Did I survive? I try to calm my breathing, wipe the sweat from my forehead and that's when I realize, I can move my body. A fall from that height but I don't think anything's broken. But my apartment- I open my eyes for the first time after the fall to check the damage but nothing. there's no fire. I'm not on the streets below. I sit up. There's no pain. I look around. It's a room. Bedroom. A very familiar one. It's MY old bedroom. I stand up. Is this what I think my heaven is? I look around. My old laptop. bookshelf, filled mostly with books I never read past the first chapter. Walls decorated with old film posters Jimmy gave. There's my old phone on the study table and I reach it instinctively. The moment I pick it up the screen lights up with some text. "You have successfully received your onboarding gift. Welcome to the Constitution!" An earth-shattering pain hits my head. I crouch down in agony. I remember. I came back from school, and all of us were there at the same time for probably the last time ever, we made a promise. I came home. Everything was normal. I was scrolling through the feeds. The phone started to vibrate. Weird texts. "The Constitution would like to hire you, Mr. Crest." "Whether you choose to accept it or not, we assure you, you will not regret your decisions." "Should you choose not to, hold the power button for three seconds. but should you choose to accept it, please scan your right thumb on the screen." My thought was that somebody from class hacked into my phone and was now playing a silly prank. But not someone very close to me, as they would have known the scanner was below the rear camera on my phone and not the screen. So just to play along, I scanned my thumb. "Excellent!" "We are thrilled to welcome you. Please scan right your retina on the front camera to assess your constitution." Still expecting it to be some kind of prank I brought my phone closer to my face, aligning the front camera to my right eye, but the moment I looked straight into the camera, a green light flashed in my eyes. It didn't come from the screen, I was from the camera. My phone didn't have that function, or at least not that I knew of. "Thank you! Scan complete." "Analyzing" "Congratulations! You have acquired a rare constitution. 'The Constitution Of Commitment.' You now have the Commitment System" The text said. It was getting kinda dumb. I was about to put my phone away when a new text appeared. Sounded interesting. "Choose among these to acquire your Onboarding Gift." There were eight gift box icons to choose from. I thought that was the climax of the prank. So I just chose one at random. Now that I had played along this long I was gonna get hit with the punch line of this dumb joke. But no. What followed were more texts. I had chosen the bottom left icon and it flipped to reveal words in green box while all the others turned around but were red. From the top right to left it read. "4X physical strength. Lifetime use. A grade." "levitation. 6 hours. B grade." "Invisibility. 15 minutes. D grade." "X-ray Vision. 5 minutes. F grade." "5000 Value Points." "3X learning speed. lifetime use. S grade." "Voice amplifier. lifetime. B grade." they were all in red. After reading all of them it was beginning to feel like a video game or something. But the Green one I ended up choosing was different than the rest. I was not a power, not some points. It said, "Five years of my Future. One-time use. SSS Grade." I pressed it. And the count down begun. "3" "2" "1"

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